Chapter Six
She slowly chewed a bite of her pizza, watching him. He was also eating his own slice, taking gulps of water in between bites. She didn’t know what to think of him. She knew about people like him. She wasn’t sure if there was some kind of plot, a target-the-dying campaign going on in his head. He had every reason to have one, and she should just bolt right now, but somehow, she stayed put. There was a reason why he had suddenly approached her, and she wanted to find out, despite the fact that she could be brutally humiliated and scarred for the rest of her, though short, life.
“Do you want to know about my sickness?” she blurted out, trying to sound tough. She wanted to get to the bottom of this, yes, but he had to know what he was dealing with. She silently hoped that if he knew about her sickness, then he would pity her and back off whatever embarrassing scheme he had planned.
But all he did was look at her, confused even, and slowly put his fork down (who eats pizza with a fork?). He then proceeded to speak, “Uh, well, do you want to talk about it?”
She shrugged; making it seem like it was nothing, even though it was something, “Yeah, why not?”
He nodded, “Um, okay, go ahead. Whenever you’re ready.”
She took a deep breath, “Well, it’s pretty common. Asthma, basically. A severe case, as in, at any moment, I could strike into a coughing fit, and never stop. Then, blood will start spewing, it’s really gross, trust me, it happened once. And, if my stupid lungs can’t take it, boom, I die.” She said this in a rush, all in one breath. He blinked, and then, blinked again. This went on for a few more heartbeats, and she tried to seem uninterested, taking a bite out of her pizza, as if his reaction didn’t matter, when it really, really did.
Finally, he managed to spit out some words, “Uh, that’s…a lot to take in.”
She snorted, “A lot? Yeah, it is. You should have seen me when they told me. They were saying, ‘Hey, listen, the good news is that you still have lungs, the bad news is that they suck and you’ll die in a few.’”
When she said this, he was taking a sip of his glass of water, and inevitably, he choked on it, spewing bits of liquid at her direction.
She liked this. Cory Daniels wasn’t as smooth as he played himself to be. She liked seeing him vulnerable, so she bantered with him some more, “So you were trying to impress me? Saliva isn’t exactly classy,” she smirked, and he turned red. Ha.
“Aha…” he was trying to regain his composure, and he was stuttering. Cute.
“Um, so, did they give you…like a…a deadline?” he was nervous when he said this, and she didn’t blame him. It wasn’t everyday that you met someone who was dying and got the nerve to ask them when they were due.
She shrugged, “Eh, any time, they said. Depends how long my lungs can keep being okay.”
“Okay?”
“Yeah, like, if there’s a second that one bronchi decides to take a break, then the whole thing crumbles, then, I already explained this to you, the whole spewing blood thing, then yeah, I’m gone,” she ended her explanation with a huge sarcastic smile in his direction, “Pleasant, isn’t it?”
He still looked flabbergasted, “Isn’t there a way to cure you?”
She rolled her eyes, “Do you think I would be still dying if there was?”
For a moment, he regained his cocky attitude, smiling a little, “You forget, Lylah, we are not living, we are all dying, every day is a step closer to our very own spacewalk away from this earth.”
She paused. Where did this deep, literature side come from? Don’t think about it. So she continued to ramble, tossing his, though she hated to admit it, intelligent comment aside, “Riiight. Anyway, no, there isn’t some pill that can magically cure my crap lungs from being crap. They gave me some medicine though, which stops me from feeling pain wherever I go, now I just feel pain every now and then.”
He went silent after this, really silent. He had pursed his lips and leaned back on his seat, and he had this whole thinking face going on. She didn’t mind, at first. Then, after a few minutes had passed, she started to wonder. What was he thinking? So she asked him.
“Well,” he answered, “I’m thinking incredibly selfish thoughts.”
“How so?”
“Why don’t we go outside? We’re done, anyway,” he changed the topic, gesturing to both of their empty plates, and she nodded, standing up.
“Did you know that when you say, ‘We’re done’, it actually means, ‘We’re dead’?”
He stood up too, but he had a small smile playing on his lips, “We’re all already dead, we died the moment we believed all the lies people feed us.”
How does Cory Daniels manage to turn some snide remark to a deep John Green type of quote?
“Stop it,” she told him.
“Stop what?”
“Feeding me lies. Do you want to kill me?” She used his own metaphor against him.
“What lies?”
“The lies. The lies that you are some kind of knight in shining armor. That you aren’t just some kind of popular airhead, but that you’re actually some poet in the making, stop it with the whole good guy thing. Whatever act you’re playing, I don’t want to hear it, give some sympathy to the sickly,” she ranted on, practically begging him in the last line. They were now both standing beside their table, and she did her best to keep her voice down. But she was frustrated, and desperate.
Then he did the most unusual thing. He chuckled. Like this was funny. Did he really think that there was humor in this? If possible, she was even more pissed off. She huffed and tried to save whatever little dignity she had left, pushing past him and walking out the door. She could hear him laughing in sputtered chuckles behind her. God, she was so…so…the feeling was indescribable. It was mix between anger, humiliation, and anguished hope.
She walked out into the cold air, and took a deep breath. That was not how she imagined her Sunday to be.
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A/N: Sorry that I took soo long to update, I was literally so busy with school. But anyway, it's almost Christmas, which means Christmas break, which means more time to write so yay? And I know the story is going pretty slow...I mean, six chapters and still in the first stay? Oops. But I want to really build up the first day. ANYWAY. Don't forget to vote and comment ( if you want to , not forcing you ) but seeing that you guys are active really inspires me write more *hint*hint*. Haha. Okay, I should stop blabbering now. Have a nice day! Thank you!
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When It Happens
Teen Fiction"When you love someone, they are a part of you. It's like you're attached by this invisible thread and no matter how far away you are, you can always feel them." Meet Cory Daniels and Lylah Eaton. When one Sunday afternoon binds them together, will...
