Three Little Words

The Fundraiser

Matt's POV:

Ten months passed since Erin's funeral and we were now seniors at school. Everyone was working hard inside of school and out, hoping to achieve good grades for college. Lots of them had not worked very hard over the past few years and were desperate to earn their SACE points to graduate.

Even though it wasn't that far into the year yet, it seemed that everyone was almost scared of failing year twelve. Lauren and I were different though, we weren't bothered by the fact that this was the big year. We knew that we had to study hard, but we did that in our own time.

I had to go back to the hospital again last week for some x-rays and a small appointment to see how I was going. I had been going exceedingly well over the past year and a bit and I was eager to keep it that way.

So here we were, walking through the school as seniors and feeling good about ourselves.

As Lauren and I walked hand in hand to the notice board, I caught sight of a poster that was very familiar to me. I had seen it everywhere. It followed me wherever I went. It was like a shadow, my follower. But before I could even name it in my head, Lauren rushed over to it, pulling me along.

"Hey look, Shave to Raise is back!" She sounded so excited. She looked at the poster and smiled as she read it with big eyes.

"Yeah, so?" I asked, trying not to pay attention, looking at everything else on the notice board, avoiding eye contact with the piece of paper.

Lauren turned to me "You should do it" She grinned up at me and ran her hands through my hair before wrapping her arms around the back of my neck.

"Nah, I wouldn't dare lose my beautiful hair" I joked, swishing my fringe around.

Her mouth gaped open. "Does that mean you don't care about all those poor people with leukaemia?" She sounded almost shocked. Little did she know that I cared probably more than anyone.

"Of course I care Lauren. I care more about the people with Leukaemia than anyone else" I said, holding her hips. I hadn't told her that my dad was a fighter and ended up losing to the horrible disease. But I'm sure that this conversation would force me to tell her one way or another.

"Oh really? And why are you so sensitive about leukaemia patients?" She frowned at me.

I really wanted to say 'because I am a patient.' But I just knew that would ruin everything. I think she thinks I'm joking about caring for the patients. That's when I decided that the conversation had won.

"Because my dad had leukaemia and died because of it" I said, looking away from her. She froze and tensed up in my hold. I looked around, avoiding eye contact with her, only quickly glancing at her to see her bottom lip shaking as if she was stuttering to find the right words.

"I -I'm so -so sorry Matt. I didn't know -" I placed my finger on her lips, stopping her from repeatedly apologising to me for something that didn't offend me in any way, shape or form.

"Shh, It's ok" I whispered. She was really wound up about this and I felt really bad because I think I caused her to cry.

As if it was an instinct, I pulled her into a hug and she instantly squeezed me tighter, grabbing fistfuls of my uniform shirt in her hands.

"I'm so sorry. I don't know why I was so stupid" She cried into my shirt.

I pulled her away and smiled at her. "Hey, it's ok. You didn't do anything wrong" I gave a little chuckle and wiped one of her tears away with my thumb as it slowly trickled down her cheek. "Why are you so upset?" I whispered.