10 More Days With You (REWRITING)

Chapter 1: Leah Thatcher

"How are you feeling?" Leah could hear her mother ask as she regained consciousness. She had been asked that question so many times, the response had become muscle memory.

      "Fine," she lied. She never felt fine. She never felt anything.

      Leah tried sitting up but was overwhelmed by a wave of nausea. She lay back down, letting the room come into focus. She was surrounded by whitewashed walls and a white linoleum floor. Fluorescent lights lined the ceiling. She lay in a small, uncomfortable bed with - take a guess - white cotton sheets. A blue sign above a double-doorway read RECOVERY. This was a scene Leah knew all too well. Why was she in a hospital you might ask? Because she had just come out of surgery. Why had she come out of surgery? Because something had taken over her body. Something called cancer.

      To be exact, it was leukemia. It started with some kind of screw-up in the white blood cells in her bone marrow. The cells multiplied and grew, leaking into her bloodstream. The cells continued growing and spreading, leaving destruction in their path. Which is why it was such a big deal if Leah ever had stomach pains. At least this kind of leukemia did not require chemotherapy, because Leah's favourite part of herself was her luscious hair. She had even gotten purple streaks in it, which to her was always a way of saying that she knew she was being worn down, but she would get through it, and even if it took her down, she wasn't going without a fight.

      "Can we go home?" Leah croaked, surprised at the rasp in her voice.

      "Soon, baby," her mother replied, stroking her hair. "Just another hour and you'll be free to go."

      Leah closed her eyes again, not trying to sleep, just dying to get out of this place for a little while. She pictured herself and Noah Mason, captain of the football team, sitting on the bleachers surrounding the field. He had just finished the championship game and lost by a hair. He felt as though he had let his entire team down, and she was comforting him.

      "We've all made some mistake we wish we could go back and fix," Leah said, taking his hands in her own. "You just need to realize that people forgive, and your teammates love you. And you need to understand that being captain is a big responsibility, and you led them all to the championship game. If I were on the football team, that would be good enough for me."

      "You're just saying that because you're my girlfriend," Noah muttered, his eyes drifting down to his feet.

      Leah put her hand under his chin and turned his face toward her. "Because I'm your girlfriend it should matter the most because I love you."

      "I love you too," Noah said. Then, he cupped my face in his hand and kissed me.

      After a while, he pulled away. When he opened his mouth to say something, Leah heard her mother's voice saying, "Baby wake up, we can go home now."

      Goddammit, Leah thought. Why can't they ever be real? 

      ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

      Leah stared blankly out of the window of the bus the next morning on the way to school, the seat three rows from the back on the right-hand side, like always. She was occupying herself not with Instagram or SnapChat, but by overthinking the day, composing situations that would most likely never become reality. At her school, it was kill, be killed or kill yourself, and Leah was at the bottom of the food chain. Despite the fact that her friends were the greatest, kindest, and most accepting people in the entire world, Leah had always wanted more. But like Noah Mason, most of the things she wanted could never be hers.

      The bus came to an abrupt stop, interrupting Leah's thoughts. The students boarding the bus all stood up and started making their way toward the door. This was always a slow process, resembling nearly-frozen molasses being poured from a carton. Leah always got off last, despite the fact that her seat was not in the back. She just wasn't in as much of a rush to get off as the other students. She couldn't wait to leave this hellhole this summer. She had already been accepted to colleges, some were even outside of Canada! Now all she had to do was make it through the next two months of school.

      Leah's friends were waiting where they always were, right outside the door, grouped in a round shape that in almost no way resembled a circle. A little blob of black clothes, emo band hoodies, hair dye, and black combat boots. They expanded the circle as soon as they saw her, creating an opening just large enough for her to squeeze in to. As always, she was brought up to speed on the conversation. Today, it was an argument over who was better: Magnus Bane from the Mortal Instruments series or Alex Fierro from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard. 

      "Magnus," Dylan Armstrong said in an obvious tone. "He has body glitter. Who may I ask can compare sarcasm to body glitter."

      "Oh hell no," Ramona Vinson replied. "Alex Fierro has the best sense of humor, the cleverest sarcasm, and GREEN. FREAKIN'. HAIR."

      Jasmina Coleman, who was standing beside Leah, tapped her lightly on the shoulder. Leah turned to pay attention to her as Jasmina starting moving her hands in ASL. She had been deaf since she was three years old, and had lost the ability to speak. Tell them they're all idiots and this argument is stupid. The sign for stupid was two fingers in a sideways V slapped against the forehead.

      "What did she say?" Ramona asked.

      "She said she prefers Alex Fierro," Leah could barely contain her smile. She turned to Jasmina just to see that she was smiling too.

      "YES!" Ramona shouted at Dylan. "EAT CRAP! JASMINA HAS SPOKEN!" She turned to Jasmina and managed a nervous smile. "Sorry."

      Jasmina brushed her fingertips across her palm twice. Forgiven.

      Leah's smile faded as a dark thought invaded her consciousness. "In two months this is all going to be over. We probably aren't going to see each other again."

      Silence fell on the entire group of friends. 

      "Yeah," Brett Ryan finally spoke up from the other side of me. "I'm gonna miss you guys."

      "We're gonna miss you too," I said.

      "You're dragging me onto your negative train. Screw you, Leah," Ramona wiped away a tear. "Bring it in you guys."

      She opened put her arms around Dylan and Brett, as they were on either side of her, and the rest of us followed her example. In a crowd of colour, there was a blob of black clothing, emo band hoodies, hair dye, and black combat boots. And while the colours were separated and distant from each other, the group of black had its arms around each other in love, friendship,  and unity. 

That was the way Leah wanted it. With her closest friends.