Forever & Always?

Chapter Twenty-Three

I had been thinking about prom. Jennette already had a date. Travis had already planned how he was going to ask Shelby. What if something were to happen to Daniel and I? What if I could not go to my senior prom? It made me anxious. However, dances always made me anxious. In all honesty, many things were beginning to make me anxious. I was growing worried for my shortness of time. I was not ready to leave home. I could still decide to stay home, but I was not sure if I should take such an irrevocable risk. I threw the thought out of my head.

"I have less than five months," I said softly to Daniel. We lay cuddled up in his bed. The sun was bright, but we were in no mood to go outside. I snuggled into him more.

"I'm scared," I said into his chest. He took a breath, heavy and deep.

"Me too," he admitted quietly, wrapping his arms around me. I was not sure how long we stayed like that.

"Come on, let's watch a movie," Daniel said, perky. He sat up and walked over to his dresser where he kept some of his movies. He pulled out my favorite movie.

"Spiderman," he said, holding the movie case up.

"Yes!!!" I squealed.

"You want some popcorn?"

"Yeah."

"You want some hot chocolate?"

"Yeah," I said once again.

"All righty," he said, following me downstairs to his kitchen. He put a bag of popcorn in the microwave and put a container of hot chocolate in his Keirug machine. I grabbed the bowls. He poured the popcorn in our bowls and took the container of hot chocolate and poured the drink in mugs for us. We proceeded downstairs. I lay on the couch and he lay behind me, holding me tight. We lay cuddling in the dark, watching my favorite movie for the rest of the time.

"I gotta get home," I said once the movie ended.

"All right," he said, standing up. He grabbed my coat and put it on me.

"Daniel, do you love me?"

"Yes," he responded.

"How much do you love me?"

"A lot."

"How much is a lot?"

"Very, very much," he said, tilting his head and kissing my cheek.

"I love you too," I said, before walking out.

***

"Well, Mr. Canaepa. I have news," the doctor said. It had been a week since I hung out with Daniel. My father got called into the hospital unexpectedly. I decided to go with him.

"Let's hear it," Dad said.

"Your cancer," the doctor paused. An ominous feeling washed over me.

"We got the results back from your previous test. It's completely gone." I froze. My dad gasped, holding his chest.

"Oh my goodness," he said through his breaths. I remained frozen. Three and a half months. For three and a half months, I was awaiting the death of my father. And now he was healed. He was not going anywhere. I looked to him. He was already staring at me. Tears came to my eyes. I sped over to him and hugged him tight; me standing on the ground, him sitting on the hospital bed.

"You did it," I whispered in his ear.

"We did it," he said, holding me in front of him before throwing his arms over me once more. In that moment, I felt the pieces of my heart start to stick back together. With each breath, my lungs seemed to grow larger. The heavy metal that had been glued to my chest for so long began sliding down my rib cage, past my stomach, resting on my feet, and slipping to the floor. I began crying. I had not cried for such a long while. I had not been able to force any tears out of my eyes for such a long time because of the emptiness that had been consuming my entire body. My father knew that all of my tears were not only because of the news we had just received. He started squeezing me tighter, crying as well. It was all okay in that moment. Right then, there were no problems. Everything was okay. Maybe tomorrow a tornado would come around and thrust its winds through my home, obliterating its entire existence. But that was tomorrow. In that instant, we did not care about tomorrow or about yesterday. That one moment was perfect. So we hugged and we cried for the present and we ignored all the rest.

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There's a certain beauty in pain, but a particular passion in glory. I chose to write about both. I am so sad that this book will soon be coming to its conclusion. Thank you all for your indescribable amount of support on this story and stay active to hear about a special surprise created for all of my readers! Remember to continue reading these final parts, to comment, and to VOTE! I love you, guys.