The Bucket List

Chapter Two

SCARLETS POV

I slid through the sliding hospital doors and was overwhelmed by the warm breeze. I felt so weak and defeated, the wind knocked me backward into the glass door, startling a few of the patients waiting in the lobby. They stared as they saw my tear streaked face and limp hair.

I was going to die. Not only did I have a cancer and thinner hair than any girl my age, I was going to die in six months. The realization of this is starting to set in as I try to stable myself and walk to the car.

My mother had to assist me into the large SUV, as I stared into space. I was numb to any movement around me. I felt like my entire life was just squished into half. Which, metaphorically, it was. Into less than half. My eyes began to feel that familiar sting, the tears threatening to pour out. My mother hadn't even hugged me. I would spend one night at home gathering my things and head to the part of the hospital full of old people and nurses tapping their feet waiting for the hear line to go flat.

I grasped onto everything I could as I made my way up the stairs to my house, and then up to my blue bedroom. I hadn't slept in my bed in three months. The second I get myself into an isolated and private place, I let everything come out. I slammed my face into a pillow and allowed the thousands of searing tears to come out like a waterfall. I clenched my fists and screamed as hard as I could without my parents hearing.

I replayed the moment in my head over until it became a broken record.

"You have six months Scarlet, I'm sorry."

I spend a little to long in the shower, conditioning my long red hair. I scrub every inch of my body in my own shower, my own space, for probably the last time without help because I will only become weaker from here on out. I felt knives in my heart and jolts through my veins throughout all of the past session of chemo. It was painful and constant. As I thought of all of things I would miss out on blood pumped through my veins fast and hard. I never got to graduate. I will never live a complete life.

Wrapped in my towel, I picked up my mattress and reached underneath to grasp on to an old, crisp and neatly folded piece of paper and held it in my hands. I carefully unfolded it and read the small 13 year old me handwriting at the top.

'To do before I die'

The familiar sting sent shocks to my eyes as I began to weep again. I studied the piece of paper that I had written as a young girl, full of hope and youth. The world only gave me reasons to smile and I was sure I would live the happiest and most spontaneous life I could possibly give myself. My dreams only consisted of falling in love, and having lots of babies. I wanted all of these things, that my body had forbidden me to have.

1. Go skinny dipping.

I smiled through my tears remembering the day I had written this one, I saw the Jaws movie and completely disregarded the fact that the girl got eaten and only let myself remember the adventure of her swimming nude in the ocean.

I let my eyes wander farther down the list.

21. Watch the ball drop in New York City.

The tears continued as my mind spun back to the weekend my mother and father ran off to New York City for New Years after they had promised one holiday at home as a family. I ended up staying home alone and watched it on TV and stuffing my face with cheese puffs and too much soda.

27. Throw a drink in someone's face.

Not sure why I wanted to do this, pretty sure it just seemed so revenge like in a Mary-Kate and Ashley movie.

My fingers found their way up and tore straight through the middle. I proceeded to tear through the other halves until I was sure you couldn't read what was written. Tears fell onto the paper that wound up in the trash. I would never do these things. My body won't allow it. The girl who wrote that bucket list no longer existed. That girl's body wasn't deteriorating.

It was time to say goodbye.

WILLS POV

"Hi darling." Taylor whispered through the screen of my IPhone.

"Miss you already."

She sighs and giggles a bit, "Saved any lives yet?"

"Not quite." I laugh. I don't tell about her about the girl in the office, She doesn't deserve to have her life used as small talk.

After I say my goodbyes to my girlfriend, I head off to shower and to bed when my phone begins to ring. It's my father. I let it go to voicemail with his last words to me when I told him I wasn't interning for him in New York ringing in my ears.

"Son I hoped you wouldnt be as unsucsessful as your mother, but I assumed you had a little sense from your father in there. And I was damn wrong now wasn't I?"

I hopped into the shower and went over my day in my head. I hadn't gotten into any rooms yet, but they don't know how good I am at what I do yet. That's one thing I will be okay with getting from my father. He's the best surgeon in the states, the only good thing about the man. My mother has stuck with him all these years, probably just because she would be broke with no place to live without him. My mother has too big of a heart for her own good, she'll never leave my father because she promises me he used to be so great. I guess once upon a time my dad knew what love was. I love Taylor, you have to love someone you've been with for that long right?

Authors Note:

So this chapter was kind of an intro to the plot of the story. Be prepared for an emotional ride with these characters, because I have a lot in store for them.

XOXO

ourbittersweetlove