The Fault In Our Stars *Epilogue*

Chapter 3

I start typing a bunch of messages back to him but he responds to none of them. I cry in frustration and throw my phone towards the grass. "Oh Augustus.." My sobs go on for what feel like forever. Finally I pick my phone up out of the grass and get up to leave. I get in my car and start driving home.

Once I get home I get out of the car and stumble through the front door. I just stand there. I don't move. My emotions are pulling me more and more towards insanity. My mother calls my name but I can't hear it through my screaming thoughts. She comes into the hallway and says "Hazel, Hazel baby what's wrong?" I say nothing but it start to cry again. "Oh my Hazel please talk to me." My mother pleads as she embraces me tightly. "Augustus.." I say as my sobs get louder. My mother grips me tighter as my dad runs in to see what's going on. He walks out the back and starts tearing up. It's so hard for my dad emotionally. I feel so bad but that's only one of the many emotions tearing me apart. I breath in deeply and stop my crying as much as I can before pulling away. "Mom I'll do the transplant.." I say in a whisper. She smiles between her tears and hugs me again. This time I'm the one that grips her tighter.

It's the day of the surgery and I'm nervous. My mother, father, and I are waiting for the nurse to arrive. When she does she explains that it will be quick and over in no time. Of course I didn't believe her. Nothing could be that easy. We walk into a room with a

doctors bed and she asks me to put on the white sheet thing patients usually wear in those movies were a miracle happens and the patient lives. She leaves the room and I put it on. I hop onto the doctors bed and wait for her. The nurse comes back with three pills and some water. She told me these were antibiotics to numb the pain and keep me from waking up during the procedure. I give her a simple thank you and she walks out again. I take the pills and lay down on the bed. As I'm fading out I say one thing "For my Augustus.." And one tear runs down my cheek.

*4 Hours Later*

I wake up groggy and half numb. My mother is there holding my hand and father next to her greeting me as I wake up. "Hey baby how do you feel?" My mother says. "Tired" I say honestly. They both laugh and then suddenly the nurse comes in smiling. "Hazel, your cancer free." I smile really big and look at my parents. The joy in their faces made me laugh. They both started crying tears of joys. I reach over to my mother and wipe away her tears. Finally, it finally gone. My smile fades and I go and pick up my mothers hand. She looks at me with concern. Then I say "Augustus.." My mother smiles at me "Augustus" she says. I smile and then suddenly pass out from exhaustion.

*2 Years Later*

I have been in remission for 2 years now and not a bit of my lung cancer has come back and its all because of Augustus. I go to his grave every week and read him An Imperial Affliction. Today I did something a little different. I read him his real funeral speech. The real one. I pull it out of my pocket and unfold it. "My name is Hazel. Augustus Waters was the great star-crossed love of my life. Ours was an epic love story, and I won't be able to get more than a sentence into it without disappearing into a puddle of tears. Gus knew. Gus knows. I will not tell you our love story, because- like all real love stories- it will die with us, as it should. I'd hoped that he'd be eulogizing me, because there's no one I'd rather have..." I started crying. "Okay, how not to cry. How am I- okay. Okay." I took a few breaths and went back to the page. "I can't talk about our love story, so I will talk about math. I am not a mathematician, but I know this: There are infinite numbers between 0 and 1. There's .1 and .12 and .112 and an infinite collection of others. Of course, there is a bigger infinite set of numbers between 0 and 2, or between 0 and a million. Some infinities are bigger than other infinities. A writer we used to like taught us that. There are days, many of them, when I resent the size of my unbounded set. I want more numbers than I'm likely to get, and God, I want more for Augustus Waters than he got. But, Gus, my love,I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me a forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful."

I fold it back up and wipe my tears. "Okay?" I say without really thinking. Suddenly I feel my phone buzz again. I open it up and I read..

Augustus:

Okay.