100 Things To Do Before I Die

T W O

My first thought is, Oh shit. Now the nurse is going to freak out and act like I've broken all of my bones and ask me if I'm alright over and over and over until I'm reciting it in my sleep. And, I guess that was exactly what she does. But, another thing I'll be reciting in my sleep, is an Oh my God! I am so so so sosososososo sorry!!!!
When I open my eyes and look up, I see what crashed into me. I see three wheelchairs on the floor, and two other boys. Will and his friend. I'm guessing Sutter.
Sutter acts like he's just been hit by a truck, and Will has the Oh shit, I'm gonna get it look. Then I see Dr. Montez storming towards us, looking furious, smoke fuming out of his nostrils like a bull. "WILL!"
"I'm sorry," Will says to me, awaiting his doom. "Dad, I'm sorry, let me explain."
"William Benjamin John Ricardo Montez! What the hell makes you think you can run about these hospital halls like a maniac! Need I ask what the hell you were doing!"
"Um, we were," he said. This had to be good.
"Well?!"
Then Sutter speaks up. "We were wheelchair surfing, sir!" he bubbles like a nine year old.
Dr. Montez looks even more pissed. "WHEEL-CHAIR SURFING! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!"
Nurse Jackie helps me back into the wheelchair. "Um, Dr. Montez would you like me to?"
"You know what to do. Take Miss Chavez to test. If you need help and I'm still dealing with this problem, call Dr. Armstrong."
"Very well," Nurse Jackie nods, "C'mon dear."
*************************************
I'm sitting in my room watching Bring It On with Gianna when the door opens and my siblings troop in. Connor, Eli, and Becca. Oh, and Becca's fiancé, Carlos. "Hey guys!" I said, smiling.
    "Hey!" they all chant in sync.
     I scan behind them. "Where's mom and dad?"
    Becca smiles. "They had a ton of appointments today." Go figure.
    "Oh."
    Becca was 23, the perfect daughter. She was pretty, she already had a fiancé, and next year she's getting her bachelor's at Stanford. She's going to be one rich woman. She also looked nothing like our family. Instead of brown, she had ginger hair and green eyes. We all called her Ginny Weasley.
    Connor was 18, just graduated (that was the one time I got to get out of the hospital) and a ladies man. He played basketball and the cello. He was valedictorian, was offered scholarships for academics and sports, and he was on the debate team.
    Lastly, Eli was 17. He was named after Eli Manning, he plays football, and is surprisingly a big book worm. I'm closest to him. Even though I always get in trouble for covering him.
    "We brought you food," Connor announces. 
     "Mm, gimme, gimme," I beg as if I haven't eaten all day.
    "Magic word?" he asks.
    I sigh. "Give me the food or so help me?"
    "I said word not words."
    "PLEASE," I say in a demonic voice.
     Connor jumps back. "Okay! Okay! Take your damn food!"
    I smile, satisfied. "Gracias."
    "Can I see your list again, Core?" Eli asks. He always does. He's already called dibs on cliff jumping with me.
    I throw the list at him, and he acts like I've just shot him when it hits him in the face. "Damn, Manning, catch the ball, butterfingers."
    "Um, this is a piece of paper, not a football, which I doubt you could catch."
    "Try me."
    "I'd rather not," he replied. "I CALL DIBS ON GETTING KICKED OUT OF WALMART WITH CORA!"
    I turn my head to Gianna. "See. I told you getting kicked out of Walmart would be fun."
     "Whatever."
Becca looks up at me and Eli. "You guys are crazy. I highly doubt you'll do that."
"Watch me."
"Yeah, ya wet blanket," Eli comments.
Just then, Carlos finally decides to talk. "Bec, did you tell her?"
"I already know your getting married, Jesus," I groan. I hated it when Becca and Carlos' wedding came up. I hadn't exactly liked Carlos as my sister's husband choice.
"That's not it," Becca states. "Carlos and I decided to move the date up to May 6th."
"But that's less than three months away!" I exclaim.
"I know, but we couldn't wait till August! And I also have one thing to ask you," she says with a big smile.
Agggghhh. "If you ask me to be your maid of honor, I'm going to kill you."
"Will you be my maid of honor?" she shrugs.
"Oh my God, I'm gonna kill you."
"Please, Cora?"
Everyone stares at me, waiting to see if I'm going to be a jerk and say no, or if I'm gonna fangirl and say yes. "Okay, I'll do it."
Becca squeals and hugs me while Carlos claps in the back of the room. "Thank you, Cora! You're going to have so much fun helping me pick out a dress and things like that!"
"I know, I know."
   "And don't worry, I promise I won't pick an ugly bridesmaid dress," Becca says sarcastically. Eli rolls his eyes and makes fangirly faces and hands behind Becca's back, which causes me to snicker. "What?"
    At the same time, Eli and I reply, "Oh, nothing, nothing."
     When my family comes over, we usually spent our time insulting each other (mostly Becca), trying to throw goldfish in each other's mouths, playing concentration, speed, and Apples to Apples, and throwing gummy worms or whatever thing we could find at each other. But as soon as Connor and I had our third rematch on speed, the door opened and I had an unexpected visitor.
    Dr. Montez smiled and shoved Will into the room, before giving me jazz hands and leaving. Will stood there looking very uncomfortable, his hands folded in front of him and his bouncing back and forth on his feet. All of my siblings turned to look at me.
     "Hi, Courtney."
    "Hi, Will. And it's Cora, by the way."
     Connor says, "And who might this be?"
    "This is Will," I introduce, "and Will, these are my brothers Connor and Eli, my sister, Becca, and her fiancé, Carlos. And you've already met Gianna."
    "And Gianna is going to the vending machine now," she says, taking the same opportunity to avoid the awkward situation as when we first met Will. Becca and Carlos take the hint too, going downstairs to check out the cafeteria. Connor decides to go get his homework from the truck. And then there were three.
    "Cora, how are you acquainted with this, Bill?"
    "It's Will," he corrects, embarrassed.
    "Whatever."
    "Uh, he's Dr. Montez's son," I clear.
    "And why did he come to your room?"
   "Dr. Montez probably sent him."
   "Uh, huh."
    To give him the hint, I say a bit too loud, "Eli, didn't you say you were going to go check if the gift shop has anything cool?"
   "What? When did I-"
    Before he could finish the rest, I pushed him out of the room and slammed the door. "Sorry about that," I said, looking up at Will. Jesus, he was tall.
    "Um, it's cool."
    "Okay," I nod, going back to the bed. "Not to be rude, but why exactly are you in my room?"
    "Oh, right," he shrugs, closing his eyes and face palming his forehead, "I just wanted to apologize about everything, being rude earlier, arguing with my dad in front of you, and crashing into you."
    I laugh. "Seriously, though? Wheelchair surfing?"
    "It was fun at the time! And to make up for it, I got you this."
    It seemed a little odd; I just met him today, crashed into his wheelchair, and now he bought me something? I know it was to make up for it but it really wasn't a big deal and he didn't even have to say sorry.
     "Thanks," I say taking the bag from him. When I open it, I kind of had to giggle. Not that it was a bad gift, but it seemed funny to give it to someone with a heart disease that doctors have no idea what it even is. Even though the book involves cancer, not heart disease. "Really? The Fault In Our Stars?"
    He shrugs, eyes wide as if he's just made me cry. "Well, yeah."
    "Thank you," I smile. Will grins, and before it, he's on the chair, sitting next to me.
    "I do feel really bad. Sutter, on the other hand, felt not so guilty."
    "That's alright. Now, did your dad force you in here?"
     He nods. "Pretty much. But I really am sorry."
    "It's ok."
    We don't say anything for awhile. But then it gets freakishly silent, so he asked, "What do you have?"
   "I have this heart disease. The doctor's don't really know what it is, yet. After a while, the medication slowed it down and they thought it was gone but then I guess it wasn't and they put me back in here."
    "Sorry," he says.
    "Eh, it doesn't hurt that often. When it does, though, I feel like I'm going to die. I also get a lot of panic attacks."
    "That sucks."
     "Mhm."
    Suddenly I see his eyes glide over the table. At first I'm confused at what he's staring at; the only things on the table are some hair ties, an apple and a piece of glittery pink paper with stickers and glitter glue all over it. What could he possibly be looking at? Then I see it. The list!
   I know I have to get it before he does, but he's already made a reach for it, so when I reach for it, our hands push against each other. We kind of have to fight for it, and in the end, he got it. Maybe he won't read it and I'll be spared the embarrassment. I get bored in the hospital! Of course I decorated it with glitter and stickers!
   "What's this?" he wondered aloud.
   "Nothing!"
"Clearly it is something," he smirks. If he wasn't so attractive I probably would have hit him. Not saying where, but I would've. "The 99 Bucket List."
"Okay, it may seem stupid to you, but you're not the one dying here," I hissed.
His head snapped up from the list. "No."
"No, what?"
"I don't think it's stupid," he said, surprising me. A guy like him probably should have laughed at it. Instead, he ran through it in awe. "Visit East High, play Quidditch, play hide and seek in the mall. Get kicked out of Walmart? What kind of bucket list is this? What even is Quidditch?"
"Getting kicked out of Walmart would be fun! And Quidditch is a wizard sport. Harry Potter played it all the time!"
"Yeah. It's cool, but I'm just saying of all the sick people I've met, they're bucket lists would have things like, going to Disneyworld and meeting their favorite singer or actor. And why 99?"
"Okay, first of all, I do have meeting a few famous people on there and I do have Disneyland! And when I found out that my disease was only temporarily stopped with that medication, I figured I better make a bucket list. And it was supposed to be 100, but when I got to 100 while making it, I had no idea what to do," I explained.
"And, you've actually done some of these?"
I shook my head. "Not one."
"What? No way!"
"No," I went on, "they think I'm too sick to go out. And they also don't want anything to happen while I'm in another state."
"Well, maybe one day, you can. And I would love to see you accomplish these," he says with his stupid perfect smile. "And you're here all the time?"
"Um, duh."
Will takes my hand and placed the list in it. "Then don't be surprised when I'm in here again." He gets up and heads toward the door.
"Wait!" I call, "What's that supposed to mean?"
He just turns and smiles before leaving, leaving me in suspense. Which kills me.