The Girl With The Wishes [EDITING.]

[01]

C H A P T E R O N E

V I O L E T S M I T H

—

A QUESTION SPRUNG to mind as I sat, perched up against the foggy window, nestling against the pillows that were messily sprawled across the window seat.

Why is life taken for granted?

The question was one that I had always wondered about, but never really thought of an appropriate enough answer. How come...people wanted to leave behind this tragically beautiful world?

Usually, when I had called the world beautiful aloud, I was stared at as if I were from another planet. Of course, the world was full of hate, pain, sadness and anger...but....despite all that, if you looked in the right places, the wonderful beauties shone like the glistening stars above.

I shut my book with a snap, cracking a dim smile as I trailed my slender fingers over the gold string that kept the book closed, locking away my greatest desires that were etched across the pages in black ink.

The book that I held in my hands was no ordinary book. No—it was a book. My book of wishes.

Nobody knew what sort of book this was and I never told them. It was mine. For my eyes only. It wasn't a diary...more like a bucket list of some sort. Staring at it as if it held all the answers to all the questions in the world, I remembered the purpose of the book.

A year.

That was how long I had to live. I never feared what was to come. Rather, I was at the stage where I wanted to live life to the fullest, welcome everything about it with open arms and a smile so bright that it could shame the sun itself.

Therefore, I walked through the streets, the corridors and life with the brightest grin that I could muster. Death didn't scare me, I didn't even flinch. I always told myself, that to fear something inevitable was just plain, old silly.

I didn't really have any friends. I could have them if I wanted to and it wasn't as though people hadn't tried to approach me with such intentions. Really, it was because I didn't want to hurt them.

I had made a rule when I first became aware of my situation. I wasn't going to let people get close to me. I would be gone soon, so to burden them with the grief of my death was something I couldn't quite stomach.

Instead, I helped as many people as I could, trying to better their days, or even just reel a smile out of them—that gave purpose to my life. To spread sunshine on someone's gloomy day, to brighten the spark in their eyes and watch as the corner of their lips lifted into a grin. That very site fuelled my own happiness.

Wednesday morning was as bright as the rest. The sun was out and the skies were blue, not a candy floss cloud was in sight. I sauntered down the corridors with a smile on my face, a spring in my step and a joyful glint in my eyes. I passed a few people that I knew and didn't hesitate to greet them kindly.

As I turned to walk away, a shriek had escaped my lips, a worried feeling overcoming me as I was sent tumbling to the ground, my hands flapping around like a petrified pigeon hobbling across the road, in the face of a deadly vehicle.

"Watch where you're going." A gruff voice growled angrily. Deep and low, my chest thumped and I could feel my cheeks redden in embarrassment, the heat evenly spreading throughout my face.