Play Date

Nine

June 7th 2021

Hey. It's 12:57 in the afternoon. It's sunny as always.
I'm over this journal. Everyone treats me so differently with this tank, but I don't know why I expected them not to. This is why I haven't told people I'm dying, I don't want to be treated like I actually am.

Jack's coming to pick me up for our date soon.

Jack's mom, Kristin offered to watch Ashton while we went to lunch and I agreed since Ashton said she had fun with her last time.

I'm not sure I like the idea of leaving Ashton with strangers because I don't want them thinking I'm dumping my child on them, but Jack said she insisted if I couldn't find anyone else, and I'd rather have Jack's mother watch her instead of my own.

I hear a slight knock on the door, indicating Jack's here.

"Ready to go Ash?" I ask walking into the living room to see that she already opened the door.

"Hi Jack!" Ashton says grabbing his hand and pulling him in.

"Hi Ash, hello beautiful" He says looking at me up and down.

I'm not wearing anything fancy, just a pair of black jeans, and a light pink sweatshirt. He's in a black hoodie with his hood up, and blue jeans.

Some how, in something so simple, he still looks incredible.

"I brought you these, I figured the others would probably be dead by now" He laughs pulling out a bouquet of flowers. Yellow, my favourite colour.

"Thank you Jack" I kiss his cheek, taking the flowers and putting them in the vase in the kitchen.

Jack takes Ashton to his car while I grab my purse and I lock up the door. As I go out to Jack's car in my driveway, he shuts Ashton's door and runs over to open my door for me.

I try to pick up my pace so he isn't waiting long, pulling my oxygen tank behind me on it's little carrier.

"Whoa Baby, please slow down" Jack says noticing I picked up my pace as he stands by the passenger side door.

"We're not on a time crunch, we've got our whole lives to figure out where we want to be"

As soon as I make it to Jack, I pull him into a hug.

He's been so sweet to me since the day at the beach. He's called me multiple times everyday to see if I needed anything from the store or if I needed any help around the house.

I take a few deeps breaths against Jack's chest to catch my breath before speaking

"Thank you" I whisper and he hugs me a little tighter.

"For what baby girl?" He says pulling out of the hug, to look at me but still holding me close

"Trying to take care of me" I smile and he pulls me into a kiss.

Jack helps me into the car, making sure I'm comfortable before he shuts the door. He quickly rushes around to his side and gets in, starting to drive to his house.

We get to his house and his mom is waiting in the yard. Jack's says I can stay in the car while he helps get Ashton out.

"I love you mommy, I'll see you later!" She says excited, running out of the car to Kristin.

Kristin gives me a wave while Jack hands her Ashton's bag. Jack gives his mom a quick hug then runs back to the car.

"Ready?" He asks with a big smile

"Let's go!" I say excited as Jack pulls out of the driveway.

He quickly grabs my hand and places a kiss on the back of it. He then rests them on my lap as we continue to drive to lunch.

We pull up at a cute old school diner, a place I used to go all the time before I had Ashton.

Jack quickly gets out of the car and rushes to my side to help me out.

I pull the tank out first and Jack helps lift it to the ground, he then grabs my hand and helps me out of the car. Jack holds my hand as we walk through the parking lot, he walks with me at my speed, holding my hand a little tighter.

Jack starts to see me taking deeper breathes as we walk so he slows down, causing me to slow down. I turn back and look at him walking slower.

"Everything okay?" I ask, walking slower to match his speed.

"There's no rush baby. Take your time" He says giving me that signature perfect smile.

I nod my head and we slowly make it into the restaurant. We get seated at a little booth in the back corner. I slide in while Jack slides the tank under the table so it's out of sight. He knows I get embarrassed by it when people stare.

Jack and I order our food, as we wait, we take some cute pictures of each other and some together. He's making me laugh and this is all I could ever ask for.

As we eat our meals, Jack slowly gets more and more quiet. His behaviour completely changes.

He starts nervously looking down, playing with the rings on his fingers and the ring in his nose. It gets to the point where he stops eating and starts biting on his fork.

"Is everything okay, Jack?" I ask causing him to look up from his lap, but he avoids eye contact.

"I need to ask you something" He replies and I start to panic.

Did Corbyn tell him?
If Corbyn told Jack, I'm going to kill him.
Does he know though?
Does he know I'm dying?

Everything around me shuts out. Sounds slowly turn to muffles and my vision starts to tunnel. What's he going to say? If he knows I'm dying he's going to hate me.

"So.. what do you say?" Jack says, almost shaking. I shake out of my thoughts to realize Jack was talking the whole time and I completely zoned out.

"Sorry, I didn't quite catch that" I feel horrible seeing how much it took for Jack to say what he said and I didn't even hear any of it.

"Oh, um.. I just wanted to know.. you don't have to say yes or anything.. but if maybe you'd be my girlfriend.. that's all" Jack says looking overly defeated. My cheeks burn red and a massive smiles comes across my face. I lean over the table and grab his hand

"Of course Jack, I'd love to" His shaky nervousness quickly turns into relief. Jack grabs my hand and kisses it softly as he blinks his eyes, looking like he's holding back tears.

We finish eating our meals, I end up paying after about ten minutes of cute arguments, since Jack wanted to pay but he paid last time. We agreed to take turns paying for dates, so he'd get the next one.

We get in Jack's car and head to the beach to watch the sunset.

Jack grabs out a blanket from his car and lays it in the sand. As we sit down, Jack puts his arm around my waist and I rest my head on his shoulder.

I can't believe I'm already falling in love with him.