Laura

Part IV

Two weeks later we found ourselves back in the hospital, the new round of chemotherapy destroying her down to bones and making her seem distant from those who loved her, mainly me. I was slumped against the wall, something that was happening far too often lately, but at least this time I knew that Laura was in a stable condition. I was muttering to myself when the doctor approached me, laying a rough hand on my shoulder and practically pulling me to my feet. I saw Laura's parents peering at me from behind the doctor, both with swollen eyes and puffy, red cheeks. 'The treatment has had a reaction with Laura's stoumach.' At this, Laura's mother burst in to tears again, sinking her head in to her husbands sweatered chest.  'I-is she okay?' I choked back tears, running my foot in circles around the ground and trying not to make eye contact with either of Laura's parents. 'She is...' Laura's dad Michael said, stepping in and placing a firm hand against my shoulder. 'She is deteriorating slowly. The doctors have given her two weeks.' His voice became high pitched at the end of it, slamming his strong arms around me and squeezing me tightly. Her mother was at my side now, wrapping herself around the both of us, and we stood awkwardly like this for a while. 'I want to see her,' I muttered quietly, detaching myself from her two parents as I pushed my way past the doctor. I ran towards the door that I knew she was in, my eyes burning as the memory of a happy and healthy,(apart from the terminal cancer) Laura was quickly fading from my mind. When I got to the door I nearly tore it from it's hinges, running inside and taking her entire frail body in to my arms. I only realized now how much she was crying, her whole body shaking underneath me. 'I'll miss you,' was all she could say, banging her head against my chest and started to cry quite loudly now. We were both a mess, mumbling things that the other couldn't hear and every so often shaking our heads and screaming loudly. My legs had fallen to pieces a while ago, and I was now lying on her bed, my body pressed up against hers as I caressed her face. Everything that my head had told me not to do, I had done. I was emotionally attached to this girl, and in a matter of weeks she would be taken. After that we tried to cherish every minute of each other's company, but it was becoming apparent that she wasn't the same girl I met at the boutique months before. When I went to go her her two days after her diagnosis in the hospital, she was barely awake. Her breaths were deep and far between, and she barely acknowledged me when I first walked in the room. 'Laura,' I whispered, making my way over to her and embracing her in my arms. I no longer felt the warmth between us, the love I once shared being replaced by hurt and pain, and a general sense of regret. We sat together that day, but not once did she speak to me. I knew I was losing her to the disease, and so I tried to cherish any minute of her that I had left. I loved her too much to let go. Even though Laura was still here, even though she was sitting next to me and my hand was tightly against hers, I already missed her; and I still wished that I could have her back. I left early that day. I made no attempt to see her the rest of the week. Her parents informed me with the odd phone call that she was still deteriorating, and I knew that if they had the chance to run away from her like I did, they would take it. I got a call at 5am on a Saturday telling me she had passed away. It was exactly a week after her ordeal at the hospital. Exactly three weeks after I had kissed her in the backseat of her car, the rain pouring over us for the last time. It seemed everything eventful happened on a Saturday. I made my way slowly to Rain's Children's Hospital, but as much as I thought I would be able to face her family, I couldn't. I could just imagine her parents faces, the same looks that my mother had given me the day Kate passed. No one in my life was anything but a shell. We all mimicked accurate human response but with the explosion of two of the closest people to me, we were all hollowed from the inside out. I knew that I could stare in to Laura's mother's eyes and see Laura in them. I sat outside on the park bench, feeling a chill wind rush over me and wash away the broken shards of glass that were my soul. Kate's death had broken me, but it had been the death of Laura that shattered every last bone in my body to a pulp.  But there I sat. I was next to the mural where Laura had taken me on the day of my sisters death. Already her stone was littered with flowers that I had no memory of seeing beforehand. It was like they had materialized from the shadows, and brought with them the memory of every person that Laura had injured in her explosion. I crawled towards her stone, pressing my hand against the outline of her's that was set in stone. Her memory would always be alive here, and her soul would always be cherished. 'This is my happy place,' I whispered to myself, mimicking Laura's accurate description of the beautiful memorial. 'You were my happy place.'