not as normal as you think.

Chapter 13

"What happened?" I ask the doctor with my weak voice.
"Ms. Johnson, your throat was clogged with blood. We don't know how, this hasn't happened before. Not in Illinois at least."
"Whats going to happen to me?" I ask frightened.
"Your heart is expanding, it's growing by the second. We can't do anything to stop it. Hearts have minds of its own."
"God damn it! What is going to happen to me?" I scream at the doctor with all my might.
"Jennifer, you only have little time to live. When your heart reaches a certain growth, it will stop functioning."
"How long do I have?" I ask with tears streaming down my cheeks.
"At the rate it's growing at, a week at the most."
"What am I supposed to do in the mean time?"
Yes, I should react more. But, I am ready to die. I am ready to be with my mom.
"You are going to live what you have left, do whatever you want." The doctors exclaims.
"What about my dad. I don't want him to be alone." I say.
My dad will have no one. My dad deserves someone.
"I don't know about your father, Ms." The doctor answers.
The doctor gives me my medication, and exits the room. I drift off to sleep, still thinking about my poor dad.
* The next morning *
"Jenn." I hear as I wake up. I creak my eyes open to find my dad.
"Dad." I say tearing up. "Why is this happening to me?" I ask him moments after.
"I don't know sweet heart. Bad things happen to good people."
"What's going to happen with you dad?" I ask him dreading for an answer.
"Don't worry about me, we have to make sure you have the time of your life these next few days." He says. "I am going to fill out the form to get you out of this hell." He adds on and leaves the room.
I get out of the hospital bed I have been laying in for like weeks and look for my clothes. I struggle to put on my jeans because my legs are still all flimsy from not walking.
"I just grabbed random clothes." My dad says as he walks into the room.
"Thank you." I respond.
"Let's get out of here" My dad says as he wraps his arm around my shoulder.
*A few hours later *
"Where do you want to go? I bought six plane tickets to anywhere so we can go to three places " My dad asks me as he drives.
"I have always wanted to see the Eiffel Tower."
"Paris, Italy here we come."
My dad drives home to pack and we get to the airport.
"No time to waste" My dad says.
We go through all the procedures and everything and walk towards our plane. I feel exhausted but it's probably just from walking around so much.
"You ok?" My dad asks when he notices me slowing down and breathing heavier.
"I'm fine, just a little exhausted." I respond to him.
As we reach the plane, my stomach turns and I just feel like vomiting on everyone here.
"Here we are Jenn. Plane 8." My dad tells me.
"Ok, I'm ready." I say to respond to him.
My dad is spending all this money for my last days. I owe it to him to at least try to have fun.
As were are walking through the aisle to reach our seats, I pass so many diverse people. It's actually fascinating.
I fall to the floor when I accidentally tripped over someone's foot.
"I'm sorry" The random stranger that tripped me said as he helped me up.
I look up at him and damn, he is attractive.
"Oh, it's fine." I say with a dumb chuckle.
He smiles back and me and my father start to walk again.
"Wait! I didn't get your name!" The attractive stranger yelled.
I gave myself a small smile while my back was turned and jolted my body around to find him standing on his chair.
"Jennifer, but you can call me Jenny." I say towards him.
"Ok, Jenny." He said as he gave me a smirk.
Without saying anything back, I turned around and walked towards my seat.
"Do you want the window seat Jenny?" My dad ask as we reached our seats.
"Sure." I simply responded.
We sat down and waited for the plane to take off.
"If you need anything please contact any of us, please enjoy your flight." The flight attendant said as we were about to take off.
In the meantime, I guess I'll just sleep.
* At Paris *
"Jenny, we have no time to waste, allons-y." My dad told me.
"What does allons-y mean?" I ask my father.
"It means let's go, now hurry up."
My dad was always annoyed with the fact that I didn't take French like he did. Instead I took Latin and I still can't fluently speak it. I took Latin for 3 years.
As I look around it's beautiful. All the big buildings and people just doing there every day routines is great.
"Bonjour, I was looking for the Sensation hotel. Do you have any direction toward there?" My dad asked a man that was sitting on a bench.
"Take a right at the next block and then a left. You will see it there." The random man said in his french accent.
"Mercy, Thank you." My dad said to the man and then told me to follow him.
As I walked on the streets, I passed many shops and businesses. I could hear people talking french as I passed by them and what was strange was that I saw a mime. I couldn't wait to see the Eiffel Tower.
We reached the hotel and we checked in.
"No time to waste." My dad told me for the billionth time.
"allons-y." I said to my dad and he gave me a smile.
I grabbed a map from the front desk of the hotel and we headed out.
When we got there my jaw hit the floor. My eyes turned huge and I was amazed of what I saw. It was so big. So beautiful. The Eiffel tower is astonishing.
"Woah." I said to my dad.
"Woah indeed." My dad replied.
My dad asked the nearest person to take a picture of us in front of it and handed her our phones and cameras. She snapped a picture for each electronic and we thanked her.
"Should we go up?" My dad asked.
"Of course."
We took the stairs just because the elevator was so crowded. I ran out of breath easily and could feel my legs slowing turn into noodles.
"Almost there." My dad told me.
"Ok."
When we got to the top, we saw the restraunt. Before we went to eat, I looked at the view of the top and it was beautiful. You could see like 10 miles away. When I looked down I saw the taxi's and the tiny people (which just made me laugh.)
I had the biggest smile on my face. It was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
After me and my dad ate we left the tower and went back to the hotel. We went to sleep and got mentally prepared to wake up at 4:30 A.M.
When we woke up we had the front desk manager to call a taxi for us to go the the airport. I slipped into my clothes and waited for my dad to finish getting ready.
"Taxi's here, hurry up." I told him.
"Alrighty." He said with a small yawn shortly after.
While we were passing through the streets of Paris I said a mental goodbye to all the people, the small businesses, the culture, and those cute little bakery's. I would never get to see these little things ever again. I am going to be gone for good.
It was a 15 minute drive to the airport and when we arrived the taxi driver said "$25.66 is the pay."
My dad gave the man the money and we headed out.
"Where to next?" My dad asked me.
"Home."
"Why home? You have so much to live for."
"Home has always been my favorite place, I want to do the little things I used to do that gave me joy. I want to see Jack and make one last video with him. I want to go to the horrible little park that I would sit in and just cherish my memories. I don't need huge things to make my life, when the small things just make me smile a bit more."
"This is why I love you so much." My dad responded to me and then gave me a big hug. "Now let's go home."

* Back in Chicago, Illinois *
I walked up to Jack's house and knocked on the door. His mom answered and told me to come inside and wait for him to get ready.
I patiently waited on the living room couch and had small talk with Mrs. Dail.
Jack walked down the stairs and he didn't have his smile on.
"Jack." I said.
"Jenn." He said back.
He ran up to me and we had a big hug. One of those hugs where someone like sweeps you off your feet and just secures you very tightly in their arms.
"You're alive." Jack said into my ear. I could feel his smile as he talked. "I missed you so much Jenny. I have been a mess without you."
"I've missed you too Jack. I'm going to miss you." I say with a tear stream down my cheeks and onto Jack's shoulder.
"Don't say that Jenny, you are staying here. You aren't leaving. I'll protect you, I promise."
"If only it were that easy Jack."
He sighed and I tried to lighten up the mood.
"Want to make one last video?" I asked Jack.
He gave me one of those forced half smiles and nodded his head.
"Alright, let's get going." I said.
Jack and I went upstairs and into his room. He set up the camera and tried to lighten himself up.
"It's not going to be depressing until the end." I tell Jack.
"Ok. What do you want to do for this weeks video?"
"Something fun?" I suggested. "Best friend tag, but our edition."
"Sounds good." Jack responded. "Mom, can you bring whipped cream and Nutella?!"
Shortly after Mrs. Dail arrived at the door and gave us the whipped cream and Nutella.
"Thank you mom."
"Thank you Mrs. Dail."
"No problem."
I made a tweet that said to ask us questions for the tag and we got questions in no time.
"You might want to pin your hair back." Jack said
"Same with you, hot cakes."
We did the first part of the video and our faces were a mess. We cleaned our faces and got ready to film the depressing part of the video. How do you tell 400,000 people you are going to die, and that this is your last video ever?
"Ok guys time to be serious. I am not going to be in anymore videos in this channel, or any. My heart has a disease that makes it expand and when it expands to a certain point, my whole insides will explode and not function anymore. I love you guys so much and I will miss you. Jack and Jenny forever and ever. Bye."
My face was streaming in tears and as I was about to turn off the camera, Jack grabbed my face, wiped my tears and kissed me. I kissed back and after like 30 seconds of kissing Jack he pulled away and said something to me. Something that I would have never expected.
"Jennifer Johnson, I love you. I loved you from the day we became best friends and I can't hold in my feelings for you anymore. I can't handle the fact that you won't be here. I'm going to live with you and die with you."
I was speechless. Absolutely speechless. I pulled him into a hug, pulled away, looked him straight in the eye and said "I love you too Jack Dail." and there we were again, kissing.
I left a few hours later and went to sleep. I wake up the next morning feeling exhausted. I don't know why. I go downstairs to find my dad making breakfast. What? That's rare.
"So who did you sleep with last night?" I asked my dad.
"What?" My dad answered.
See when my father sleeps with someone, the morning after he makes breakfast. I don't know why he does this but it's hilarious.
I couldn't help but laugh at his confusion. When he finally got it his face was priceless and I literally choked of laughter.
"Well missy this breakfast is for you." My dad says with a small chuckle.
I am still laughing at my joke. I am such a moron.
"Where to today?" My dad asks as he places the plate of food on the table.
"I kinda want to go on a picnic."
"What about that meadow next to the old park you always sit in." My dad said.
"That's perfect."
"If you help me we can get out of here by 3."
"Ok"
We get ready for our picnic and we put everything in this basket my mom used to use all the time. The old park had this one little swing, a bench and a pole. It was garbage to most people but to me it has potential. After school me and Jack would always go there and use that one little swing. There was this meadow next to it that was just full of flowers and green grass, it was just beautiful.
When we arrived to the lonely park and the beautiful meadow, memories flew through me like how you slip through a water slide. As I look in certain spots I can see myself in each of them doing the memory.
"What spot" My dad asked me.
I pointed to my signature spot. Right in the middle of the meadow. There was this monument thing that I built out of sticks and leaves with Jack. It was the shape of an oval but the oval represents how life goes round and round. There is a stopping point in the middle of the oval because at one point you stop life. (a.k.a dying) I am close to that stopping point.
* Back at home *
Tonight is the night I am going to die. My heart hurts. But I want to die on my own standards. I don't want to die in a hospital like old people. I want to do it myself. I am not making my father take me to the hospital. This is happening on my terms.
* Later that night *
"Are you sure you want to do this?" I ask Jack as we stand at the tip of the ledge.
"I can't live without you."
Our hands are connected.
"I love you Jack." I say.
"I love you Jenny."
"1-2-3, JUMP."
THE END