Cancer

12. Drowning lesson

"I'm sure, it's going to be fine, Louisa." Frank says pulling the chair with me in it into the house to Lyn-z and Gerard. I groan and roll my eyes. Charlie didn't even give me a wheelchair I could control by my fingers. Nope, he gave me one others must push me in. Great.
"Hey sweetheart." Lyn-z says cheery as we enter the living room, where they are. I squeeze my fingers for a while. "Hi." I greet them. Gerard shoots Frank a look. "It's only temporary." Frank explains the wheelchair. I nod and groan again. "However, this still sucks." Lyn-z stands up and ruffles my hair. "At least, you sound like yourself again." she smiles down at me. She walks away to make coffee to Gerard. Frank lets go of the wheelchair and strange enough, I get the feeling of standing by myself. I sent the chair a death glare, for tricking me, as Frank sits down on his knees in front of me. He's smiling at me. I smile weak back. "You remember, what I promised you?" He smirks. A smile grows across my face. I nod. "What?" Gerard asks confused. "Frankie and I are going on an adventure!" I laugh. "Then go!" Lyn-z cheers from the kitchen. "Have fun!" she allows us. Gerard looks a little skeptical at us, but then nod. "Take care." He sends Frankie a serious look. Frankie nods respectful to Gerard. "I will."

"So where are we going?" I ask Frank excited as we sit in the car. He put my wheelchair in the trunk and placed me on the front passenger seat. Lucky me. He starts driving, smiling his cute, little face off. "Not telling." I groan looking back at the road, wondering when exactly I got so confident about driving since the accident. I guess it's just about who you are feeling safe around. I feel safe around these people here.

We arrive to... the beach? I look confused around us. Nobody else is here, and why would they? It's noon and cold. It's almost autumn, why the hell are we here? Well, Frank would want to swim in some cold ass water. Fine by me, actually. It would be fun to watch him. I grin for myself. I hear the trunk door slam shut, and see Frankie out fold my wheelchair. He reaches my side and opens the door, pulling me out and placing me in my chair. "Thanks." I smile and he pushes me further to a very large stone. He pushes me on top of it and stands beside me, looking over the ocean. "Ever swam in the ocean?" Frankie asks me, breathing in the sea salt smell. I smell it as well. It's a very long time since, but I still remember the feeling of the ocean. It's like a color. When I was younger in my cancer process, Charlie told me to go swim a lot, it would help with the muscles, and why not make some fun out of it. When I got older, and I got breathing issues, I stopped for a while because I was afraid to get saltwater in my lungs.
"Yeah, I used to do it a lot, when I was younger." He nods and turns around looking at me. "I don't know if it's selfish, but hum-" I interrupt him by giggling at him. "Get in the water, fishy-Frank." I nickname his nickname. He pulls off his pants and his shirt laughing at me. "You're so weird. I like it." He winks at me, only wearing his boxers. I smile at him as I ask him to push me further to the edge, so I can keep an eye on him. "Sure, thing." He replies and does as I told him to. "Dog." I tease him, smirking. "Dogfood." He smirks back. Did he just say he wants to eat me? Oh Lord, sexual references. I blush as he laughs at me. "I'm sorry." He face palm himself, as I get my devilish flirting sight on. "Then come and get me, Frank Iero." I bite my lower lip and he looks surprised at me. He makes the "elevator-sight" at me, and nods his head, as if he remembered something. "See you on the other side." He smiles wry, yet unsure at me, and goes closer to the edge. We both look down. It's like 3 meters down. "See you, Fishy-Frank." I wink at him and he jumps down.

He makes a giant splash, and I giggle for myself. He really is a grown up child. I keep watching the spot, where he splashed, but I can't see Frank anywhere. I start getting nervous. Where is he? The water starts calming down, and still I can't find Frankie. I start getting very uncomfortable. "Frankie?" I call out. My voice really IS doing better. My lungs though, is another story. No answer. I keep looking down. Suddenly a head floats up to the water surface. Then the body. Frank. He doesn't move. My body screams for him to move. He doesn't. I need to save him. I tell myself. I. Need to. Get out of this. Chair! I struggle for my body to move. For my legs to walk out of the chair. I move my arm. It's working. I'm sweating. "Come on!" I bite my teeth together, while struggling. My legs moves a bit. My legs moved! Now come on! He's going to die! I get out and half run, dangling of the unused way of walking. "Come on, Louisa!" I whisper to myself, and jump into the water. I hit the water, almost next to Frank. "Come here." I whisper to him and start kicking the water loosely. "Please." I beg my body to swim. I fight for keeping myself over the surface. My legs start working optimally. I swim under Frank, so he's on top of me, and start swimming towards land. My lungs are burning, very bad. I try to push away the water with my arms to keep going, but my sight begins to fail. Am I losing it? Is this where I die?
I feel a pair of strong arms around me. They pull me up to the water surface, and turns me around. "You can swim." Frank states. "You tricked me." I say with a shocked, yet angry voice. I know, why he did it, to help me, but it's not okay either. "I'm sorry, Louisa, but I just wanted to help you." I pull my arms around his neck and kick the water under me, smiling at myself. "I know I'm just still angry with you, Frank Anthony Iero." I look back up at him. He bites his lip shamefully. "I am so afraid to lose you." I hug him into my body, leaning my forehead against his shoulder. "You'll never lose me, Lou." I look back up at him. "Really?" I ask not believing him. "Really-really." He smirks, he leans in, looking at my lips. A million of thought rushes through my head. I am in chemo. I will lose my hair in a few days. I have cancer. I am dying. "Wait. As much as I would love to kiss you, I must be fair." He looks sad at me, still holding me. I look down at his chest. "You should find yourself a partner, who will marry you. Someone who can love you throughout their whole life. Someone you can have kids with, if that's what you want, of course. Someone who isn't dying." I finish, pulling away from him. He sighs, taking my hand and pulls me back into him. "I don't want anybody else. I want you. I'm not going to lose you. Just like you told Lyn-z and Gerard, you'll come back as a ghost. Even though, if that doesn't happen, you're still a family. WE are still a family." He says grinning. "I love you, goddamn it." He exclaims. I laugh at him. "Fuck, I love you too, Frankie." I say and push our faces together. Everything inside me, starts burning, firework exploding, bats fluttering because butterflies are too mainstream. I pull out of the kiss and smile up at him. "Take me home, Fishy-Frank." he starts laughing at me, shaking his head. "That is an amazing turn off." He grabs my hips and we swim into land together.