Kryptonite

Will - Part 1

It's been a year since I walked away from Stella and my lungs are still functioning just as badly as they used to, if not worse. There's not a day that I don't think about her and wonder where in the world she is now, how she's doing... if she's thinking about me too but I try not to dwell on it because the pain is still as raw and deep as it was that night. Since I left, I've been travelling around Europe and spending some time in and out of hospitals for my treatments but now that I'm 19, my mom agreed to give me more freedom so I can actually live, instead of living for my treatments... Something Stella said to me before we had to part forever.

I miss her. 

Today's another day at the hospital in Madrid, Spain, for me and I'm meant to stay in this city for another few months while I complete these new set of treatments for another trial that mom convinced me to try. I agreed to it because I had a small amount of hope that I could get better and make my way back to Stella somehow but it's been two months already and the B. Cepacia hasn't budged, it's still as stubborn as ever, but what gets me through is the fact I can leave the hospital whenever I want and enjoy life a little bit when things inside those four walls get excruciatingly tough. 

I'm feeling hungry so I leave my room and walk to the cafe downstairs where they make the best cafe con leche I've ever had - well, for a hospital anyway. I sit down by a window that overlooks a garden in the center of the hospital and wait for them to bring me my coffee, from the corner of my eye I notice someone looking at me from a distance and turn to face them curiously. A girl much shorter than me, about 5'2, with blonde hair passed her shoulders and bright hazel eyes smiles at me, I smile back to be polite and look away again. I don't have much time left here so it's no use in even becoming acquaintances with anyone.

Some time passes and the waitress from the cafe finally comes over and places the cafe con leche in front of me on the wobbly table, I thank her and she walks away but then I hear footsteps coming towards me again and I look up to tell her I don't want anything else but instead I'm faced with that same blonde girl from earlier. She's standing there, looking down at me with a coffee in her hand and a brown paper bag filled with something inside and I'm confused. 

"Hey... Mind if I sit with you?" She asks, voice so gentle and soft that it glides right out of her pale pink lips.

"Um," I want to say 'no' but after being with Stella, I learned not to be such a jerk to people, "Sure, yeah." 

She fidgets and I watch her, she's actually quite cute and seems very shy but still, she looks up at me and smiles as she extends her hand across the table and introduces herself properly, "I'm Maria Argenti, and you are?" 

"I'm Will Newman. I'm here doing a clinical trial for B. Cepacia," I tell her, "What are you here for?"

"Oh... You have CF?" I nod, surprised she knows about it, "I'm here visiting my friend actually, he also has CF." She says sadly.

"What room is he in?" 

"505," She tells me, "Is that close to yours?" 

"Yes," I chuckle, "I'm in 506, right across from his." 

"Small world, huh?" She says as she takes a sip of her coffee, "I was supposed to leave Spain a week ago but he got really sick and I couldn't just... leave him alone. He's got no family here and he needs me." 

I sigh, I know what that feels like, I've been alone before for a few months while mom had to settle some things back home and it's honestly the worst feeling, knowing that at any moment everything could just go black and I wouldn't have been able to tell the people I love that I loved them. 

"I get that," I say, "Where is his family? Where are you from?" 

She looks down, I can tell I struck a cord and I start to apologize but she stops me and assures me it's fine.

"His family passed away in an accident two years ago, he isn't close to anyone else in Spain because he just got here a few weeks ago after finally getting the courage to travel. We flew in together but then he got sick and now we're here... I'm thankful I have an aunt who's a nurse at the hospital here and she's helping cover his medical bills, otherwise I don't know what we'd do. We can't go back to New York until he gets better." 

That sounds awful, I feel really bad for the guy and I hope that he'll get better soon. I tell Maria to introduce us sometime because I'd like to talk to him and see if I can help in any way or at least be there for him when Maria can't, she agrees and flashes the brightest smile I've seen from her in all the 20 minutes we've been talking. I know I said that I don't have time to associate with other people but I hear Stella's voice telling me that this is the right thing to do and I'd be damned if I didn't listen to Stella, no matter how imaginary her voice was, I knew that the real Stella would say the same thing.