A Cardiac Mistake

Chapter 1

"Thump, thump, thump," I wave of panic swept through me, and immediately I woke up. I flung my comforters off my chest and clutched tightly onto my heart. There was a buzz in my ears, a wave of fear creeping into my mind – until my head started hurting and I realized my heart wasn't thumping because of pain. It was because of the adrenaline from the drinks we had last night.

The morning crept into my eyes and I squinted into the room, glancing at the other side of the bed. I tried to hide away from it. Instead of escaping it's glaring warmth, I felt the morning glow burning my back slowly.

I would have gone back to sleep, I really didn't feel like waking up. I felt so drowsy and my head was especially roaring in pain. I was going back to sleep, until I sat up and doubled over, digging my head in my hands.

"Definitely a hangover," I muttered, swinging my feet on the cold wooden floor. I started walking to get some water on the vanity table, but had stopped midway when I saw Max sitting up, crossed arms, and leaning against my wardrobe.

His head was bent frontwards at an awkward angle and I scooted over to his side, making sure I wasn't waking anyone up.

"Hey sleepy head," I whispered so only he could hear. He gave a grunt in reply. "You know, today's my last day here in Southampton. Are you really sleeping the hours away? Besides, mother is coming to pick me up." I pinched his cheeks and he swatted my hand away.

"Don't touch me," He murmured, half asleep.

I sat up straight, tilting my head to the side. I really was leaving in a few hours, and I wasn't leaving while Max was asleep. If I did, he'd totally be angry with me and I'd have one less friend to count on a list that wasn't even considered as long.

That, and they probably wouldn't help poor Ben clean up after us, with all these booze and crackers lying all over my room.

I gripped the top of his knees gently at first, then tightly the next second. His head flung backwards quickly, surprised, until his head hit the pane of the cabinet. Max sat up immediately, holding his hand to the back of his head. "What the hell?" He gurgled in a half angry and half sleepy tone.

"I'm sorry," I smiled sweetly at him and ruffled his blonde hair. "I didn't mean that."

"As if you didn't mean that - ow." He furrowed his head in his hands. "Definitely a hangover," He repeated and I laughed. "What? Did I say something funny?"

"No," I replied, slowing my laughter as I grabbed a cup of water off the vanity table. "You just repeated what I said. Thought it was funny, is all."

He hung his head to the side, thinking of my words, then smiled languidly at me. "We're saying the same stuff now? I say, we must have been one person in the past."

I nodded, with all seriousness, and giggled. "We probably did, but right now we're two different people with one of them moving away in a few hours. Can you wake the others up? I think my mom's coming over soon," I murmured, pulling the blankets off the floor. "And you know how she is; she's always on the dot."

"Has she never?" Max nudged the others awake by using his toes and pulling their noses. "I think your mom's one of the few people I know who's always prompt and proper. Can you get my phone?"

"I haven't seen mine either," I murmur to myself, stretching over a ton of sheets before reaching his iPhone on the windowsill.

The screen lit up, a notification hovering on the home screen, and that's when I saw the wallpaper: it was a picture of him and me in the beach, arms stretched across our shoulders and our grins reaching from ear to ear. So many memories, and I even had the same image on my own phone, if only I knew where I put it.

Handing it over to him, I said, "Here you go, hun."

Max pulled his phone into his hands, grinning. "Thanks, dear."

He pulled my hands so I was standing in front of him, our eyes staring into one another. We stood in place quietly, never pulling away. Whatever we had, above all else, he was a very special person to me. We weren't dating, he wasn't my boyfriend. But Max was probably the only other person I've ever believed to be my closest friend here in Southampton.

Now, as I stared at him with only a few inches separating our chests, I realized how much I would miss this guy. We were keeping each other's gazes, until he coughed inwardly and smiled. Max tapped my elbow once before pulling away, moving towards the others who were still fast asleep.

As he moved away, I began recalling a fundamental amount of years' worth of memories with Max. I knew him even before mother broke up with dad, and even before he had won an award in baseball during third grade.

We were always with one another, I recalled, always laughing and playing games in all seasons, and we were so used to one another that the mere fact we called each other names meant nothing.

Today, after all those years, we were finally pulling away. I could feel the tears welling up, and said, "I'm gonna miss everyone in Southampton."

Max wasn't even looking at me when he replied, "Who wouldn't miss you, Sam?"

"I don't know, Max, I really wish I could stay." I murmured.

He was positioned sideways when he threw his phone at me and I caught it perfectly in my hands. "We always know how to reach one another, catch one another. You're only going to Philadelphia, is all."

"But it's so far off."

Max shrugged. "It's only an hour away, it's not like you're moving across the state."

Whatever he was saying, it felt like a slap on my face. Was I the only one who thought he was so important, and moving away felt like leaving my second soul behind? My best friend behind? I looked down on the ground as I felt my bum hit the comforters of the bed. "Won't you miss me?"

Max stopped whatever he was doing, looked at me, and said with a tinge of hurt in his voice, "What part of this is easy for me, Sam? I've known you since forever. We literally grew up in this street, in this town, together. You think it's easy for me to see you leaving?"

"But you're making it look easy," I grumbled under my breath.

My best friend sighed heavily, sitting beside me on the bed while I crossed my legs. "Sam," He said with sincerity in his voice. "Look at me."

I didn't. I stared at the ground, refusing to let the tears slide down my cheeks. It wasn't until he pulled my chin that I was looking at him again. It wasn't until he forced me to look at him that I saw the features of my bestie's handsome face.

He wasn't masculine, but he wasn't chubby either. Max was handsome in a simple way, with his semi army cut dirty blonde hair framing his sky blue eyes. He had an upturn nose, and had dimples when he smiled. He was boyish, but mature at the same time.

That handsome friend of mine brushed the falling tears off my cheeks moments later.

"When your dad died, I immediately looked for ways to travel to Southampton," He admitted. "I checked my bank account to see how much I had. I started looking for part time jobs for Christ's sake," Max chuckled. "I'm doing all this so I can see you sometimes."

He covered my hand with his. "So don't tell me I won't miss you, Sam, because other than Ben, I think I'm the second person in the world who's going to miss you so much."

Max leaned his forehead against mine, a half smile forming on his lips. "You'll come visit me sometimes, though, right?" My best friend laughed. "I mean, just 'cause I'm the guy, doesn't necessarily mean I'll be the one doing all the effort, yeah?"

I nodded, forehead still resting on his. "Sure, I'll even look for a part time job if mother will let me." The thought was impossible, and I knew Max was thinking the same, so I added, "Something close to school so she won't disagree all the time."

"Or maybe something like library work?" He offered. "Something that doesn't tire you out so much? I mean, I do want you to work for money to come visit us again, but there wouldn't be any point in it if you got physically drained, Sam."

I could feel my eyes rolling away from him. "I'm not that weak."

"You say that, but you can't even carry heavy things without breaking down," He laughed, cupping my face. "I'll really miss you, Sam. I feel really torn you're leaving, but I'm positive we'll see one another again."

I held out my pinky, smiling. "Pinky promise?"

"Pinky promise," Max chuckled, wrapping his large pinky over mine. "Now go take a bath and I'll handle these guys."

"You don't wanna join in?" I laughed, pulling my towel off the rack.

He started picking up the cups of booze off the floor. "I'd join you, dear, but I gotta wake everyone up."

Ten minutes later, I got out of the bathroom, pulling my dark skinny jeans across the length of my long legs. I pulled a grey long-sleeved tee on top and, after a few seconds, realized it wasn't mine – not that it mattered who it belonged to.

Glancing at the mirror, I applied a little bit of eye shadows and blush on, just to make my skin glow because I had a hard time removing that drunken look on my face even after the bath. My lower eyelids were puffed and pinkish, and my lips were swollen in a pale red. My emerald green eyes were lazy yet so full of life at the same time.

As soon as I got out of the bathroom, my place was tidy except for the sheets that were sprawled on top of the bed. No one was sleeping or lazing about anymore, and I could even hear the faint laughter that bellowed from the kitchen below.

"Sam!" Ben called as I moved across the room and stopped in front of the cabinet. I placed a gentle finger on its wooden pane and slid it across the pictures that were taped, pinned and glued there.

I had saved pictures of me and dad when we were young; images of Ben, dad and I; a polaroid of my mom in a bikini from years prior; and several other pictures of me and my friends.

I was reminiscing each picture when Max tapped my shoulder gently.

"There are a lot of pictures, huh?" He said, looking at the cabinet panel too. "You aren't bringing them?"

I shook my head and replied, "I already have a lot of films in my bag. I just printed these out, so it's okay not to bring them along. Besides, you or Ben could come inside the room and check them out sometimes."

Max nodded appreciatively. After a few minutes of remembering more past memories, he said, "Oh yeah, Ben's calling you to eat breakfast. We made some eggs and bread." He grinned from ear to ear. "I'll be proud to say, I actually made the omelets this time."

"And I bet they're burnt to crisp," I rolled my eyes, a laugh escaping my lips.

My best friend rolled his afterwards, crossing his legs. "I really bet you'll love them."

I hugged him tightly on the side, smiling, "I'll love anything you make, hun."

"Good, now let's go eat."

He pulled me down the stairs quickly, shouting my name and drumming his fingers across the counter at my arrival. Everyone else was chanting my name too, like a parade was ongoing. When I sat on my seat at the table, I looked down on the plate and felt tears sprinkle at the edges of my eyes.

"Aww, you guys shouldn't have," I sniffed, smiling and taking the plate closer to my face.

On the plate was indeed Max's poorly fried omelet, but what made me feel so warm inside were the letters and notes they taped to a polaroid. It was pinned on one side of the toothpick. The other was sticking out of the omelet's surface.

The words "We'll miss you!" were written in bold black letters. Others were a repetitive slogan: "Stay safe, forever!". Another, which I knew came from a girl, had said, "Look for hot guys for me!".

And last but not the least, was a small passage cleverly hidden on one edge of the film: "We'll always be friends, every if we're far apart. I will never forget you, Sammy. You'll always be a dear friend to me."

"Thank you guys," I grinned, hugging each of them as they came to my side. Everyone was laughing and eating soon afterwards, and it was Max's turn to stand beside me and hug me in place.

We gave a quick hug, giggling moments later, then after a few more moments, we were eating and chatting away our breakfast.

At eleven o'clock, like mother had said, the doorbell rung once and Ben walked over to open the door. "Louisa," Ben greeted, and I could just imagine their air kisses on the cheeks. "How was the trip?"

"Lovely," Mother replied kindly. "Is Samantha awake?"

"Alive and kicking," Ben said. I could hear their feet shuffling against the wooden tiles until mother showed up at the kitchen counter. "Do you want some omelets? We made too much. Have a seat."

Max was the first to stand up amongst my friends, and give her an air kiss to the cheeks. "Hi Louisa, it's been forever since I last saw you."

Mother beamed brightly at him. "Dear Max, how you've grown! How old are you this year?"

"I've just turned nineteen recently." Max was a year older than me. I was turning eighteen in a few bit. "And you look as lovely as ever. I don't think you've aged since we last met, and I think that was eight years ago." When I was nine.

My mother laughed, shaking her head. "Always the smooth one, aren't you, dear." Ben positioned a plate over her area but she shook her head, politely refusing. "We're leaving after Samantha eats, so I'm alright. Thank you for offering."

I wished I had slowed down on my eating thirty minutes ago if I'd known she was wiling to wait for me to finish my food. I begun chewing at a much slower rate, and I swear I could see Max rolling his eyes as if he understood me, which I actually think he did.

It took fifteen minutes to finish one meal, and already Mother was asking Max and the others which universities they were planning to attend, and which classes they were taking. They were in the middle of social activities topics when I butted in by clearing my throat.

"So," I coughed out tightly. "Good to go?"

She nodded and gave me a half smile. "I guess we'll be going ahead then," She gave Max a firm shake. "If ever you're still interested in that position, I'd be glad to have you in my team in Philadelphia, Max."

"I'll give that offer some thought," My best friend smiled wide. One thing they had in common was their love for medicine. Being a doctor, mom probably had a lot of connections Max could use for extra curriculum, and cash. And an excuse to come see me in Philadelphia.

Everyone was bidding their good byes, mother had gone out the house before me as I hugged each and every one sayonara.

Max was the last one to leave. He gave me a big bear hug, lifting me off the floor and hugging tightly. "Please, please take care over there, Sam. I mean it. You're reckless. You attract trouble for all I know. Please, don't do anything reckless."

I laughed and hugged him back, burrowing my face into his neck. "I won't, Max. Relax."

"Are we seeing each other on Christmas?" My best friend asked, pulling away only slightly.

I nodded eagerly, already wishing Christmas was near. "If mother doesn't have any plans, I'd love to come back home," I replied. He gave me one last hug, spinning in place. It felt like it was going to be a while until I saw him again.

"I'll miss you," I whispered.

Max cupped my cheeks and kissed my forehead, then said, "I'll always miss you too, Sam."