Elixir

Chapter 4 - Pleasant Surprise

“Um sorry… I just thought that I would stop by to give you this.” He held up a small red present in his hands. The present was wrapped perfectly with a scarlet red wrapping paper held together by a golden ribbon with a perfect bow at the top.

            As he handed me the present, I couldn’t stand waiting to see what was inside. His face looked stricken and sad, and I was surprised because I only met him this morning.

            “Um… I guess I’ll go now.” He said after placing the present in my hands and backing towards the door nervously. For the first time I realized that everyone was staring at him, causing him to feel uncomfortable.

My parents had stopped crying when Daisy and Dianna came in, and they were now looking at Alex with an astonished expression on their face. I looked over at Daisy and Dianna who were standing there whispering into each other’s ears gigging not taking their eyes off of him.

Alex began towards the door, but he didn’t quite leave before I said, “No! Wait!” And he turned around with a slight smile that I’m sure no one saw but me.

I felt like the prey of a hawk, constantly being watched until my death. “Um…” I stammered like an idiot. “You can stay; I mean you don’t have to leave.” I was glad that I was able to be able to accomplish speech, because I was too hyped up by what had happened.

For about an hour, we were all sitting in the hospital, laughing and talking like everything was fine, when in reality, it was quite the opposite. Alex sat on one side of me, with Daisy on the other, but Alex didn’t hold my hand or anything. He was very polite to my parents, who I could tell weren’t very happy about having a boy come to see me, especially one that neither of them had ever heard of before.

When Katie and Dianna were about to leave, I began to act sleepy. I didn’t want my parents interviewing me about Alex and if I went to sleep, that wouldn’t happen. I gave a sleepy “Bye.” To them, purposely yawned, closed my eyes and put my head back onto the pillow. My parents talked for a little bit and decided that my Dad would stay with me all night because my mom had to go to work in the morning. I finally really fell asleep after my mom left and didn’t wake up until noon the next day.

Alex didn’t text me or calls me for three days, until about 9:00 in the morning on the third day.

“Hey, sorry I didn’t txt u b4 I waz busy.”

“That’s ok im just bord n the hospital doing nothing.”

“Ill com over there this afternoon then.”

“Um ok, wat time?”

“About 4:00”

“Ok c u then”

“Bye”

“Bye”

“He’s coming?” I thought. “My Dads not going to be happy about this…” So I spent an hour bathing in the shower in my room in the hospital, and drying my hair, and having to avoid getting the IV wet, (Which was really annoying and I just wanted to take it out,) To try to make myself look presentable for Alex for the first time. During that time I thought about him. “I barely know him; I haven’t even known him for a week! And what has he been so busy doing that he couldn’t text me for three days! I’m going to ask him when he gets here what he’s been bust doing. Maybe, maybe he’s sad that I’m dying, well how would he know that I’m dying? Does it look obvious? I’m not just some weakling that cries in the face of death; I’m going to look death in the face in welcome it, because sometimes I think that not existing anymore would be an escape. But what if you think of all those people that lived a normal life, that didn’t do anything special, their children remember their names after they die, and maybe even their kids after that. But what happens when all the people that knew you or have heard of you die too? What will have been the point of your life when nobody even remembers your name?” I contemplated this, and decided that I would try to live my life to the fullest in the little life that I had left. Starting with the valentines dance coming up, at 4:00 exactly Alex came in and nervously looked at my father who wasn’t happy that I had invited him over. I had told him that Alex was just a friend and that if he came again if he would politely leave. He had given an annoyed sigh and agreed.