One Hell Of A Life

chapter forty seven: one hell of a life.

Em POV:

They say, before you die, your life flashes before your eyes - almost like you're in a dream.

See, when you dream, it seems to last for days or even weeks, yet you've only been asleep for a mere 9 hours. Thoughts, memories, and concepts are totally prolonged, creating instantaneous events that touch every emotion. They're odd to think about, dreams.

That's kind of like what I experienced just after I came off the phone with Dej.

I said that everything went black. Well, no it didn't. I mean - it did - but then afterwards everything sort of transformed into things that were utterly familiar. Times from childhood, times from teenage years... To just weeks prior.

I saw my brothers and my cousins in the back garden of our old house. It was a beautiful day - must've been summer. I wish I could've felt that gorgeous warmth from the bright sunshine.

We were all pretending to be power rangers, and JJ and Idris were arguing over who should be the red ranger. Ziko was trying to split them up, and I glanced at Deji sat beside me. I don't think Mel was here yet.

I was less involved on the combat action because I was ill with the leukaemia.

"JJ! You were the red one yesterday! It's my turn now!" I faintly listened to Idris' high, winey voice as he stomped on the grass with what looked like all his might.
"Yeah, but I'm older than you!" My brother pointed out.
"Don't be greedy, JJ. You can be the red one tomorrow - you promised you would take turns!" Ziko stood between the young boys, hand on her hip and slouching. "It's Idris' turn today." She stated with sass.
"Now, now, boys." The voice of my mother piped up.

Oh, God. Mum.

The kids stopped all arguments and immediately looked in the direction of my mum.
"JJ, it is Idris' turn today. No arguments now." She told them clearly.
"Fine." JJ growled as I saw Idris' cheeky grin.

Childhood was such an amazing time. Even teenagehood, too. Having two older brothers who were well known just made me feel proud, and even more confident. Mum and Dad were so, so fucking supportive of me and JJ and Deji. I couldn't have asked for better parents.

Football.

Marnie and me. The day she discovered that she was always meant to play in midfield.

Pretty much, our coach of that time religiously played with three at the back, two wingers, one holding midfielder, three attacking midfielders, and one striker. Me and Marnie and another girl called Aimee usually rotated playing as a striker. However, on that particular day, there were only two attacking midfielders present for the matchday. The others had the flu, and were all in the same friendship group at school. Most likely, they'd all given it to one another.

So, coach played Marnie in the middle of the attacking midfield line. You could completely see that it was just her preferred place of play, but she just didn't realise it until then. She absolutely shone the whole match, giving the ball to me to score faultlessly. She won girl of the match, needless to say.

Marnie and I began losing touch when she went away to Teesside University to study a sports course for three years. I'd text her often, but soon realised that the friendship was looking quite one-sided at this point. So, I took a step away to see if she was bothered about me.

I put it down to how busy she was. She's a year older than me; 21. She should be graduating this year. I planned to send her a couple of congratulations messages and post on social media about it, but I don't know if I'll be able to do that.