I Have To Protect Them - Cleofis Drisen

Chapter One: I'm Dying Part 3 (Last Part for This Chapter)

Thankfully, Greg was friends with a completely different group of friends and he didn't interact with my old friends very often. He did tell me that they had all asked about me, and that he told them the party line I had told him to say. "She's just really sick and tired of being friends with such privileged assholes. Besides, after graduation she's not planning on seeing or talking to any of ever again. I think she's wrong, but that's how she truly feels." I very rarely went out except for school or dance. I acted like everything was fine when I was out; but when I was with my family or alone, I was dying physically and emotionally. When I was out I kept my backpack with my oxygen tank close by, and I didn't use my inhaler unless I really needed to. I stopped going to parties, hangout with anyone that wasn't Greg, and I stayed at my aunt's house the rest of the time. Greg would talk me into going shopping or to a movie every once in a while when I felt up to it, but that was only about once a month or every other month. I think I was scared that I might have an attack and possibly die in public. I wanted my last moments to be in a safe and comfortable place surrounded by my family. We'd run into my old friends a few times and they'd blatantly ignore us.

Greg would take me to school and meet me by my locker at the end of the day. He always insisted on carrying my oxygen tank backpack even though I'd fought him about it, but I always lost. It was heavy, and I knew that the one time I wouldn't have it, I'd need it. I missed my friends, especially Grizz. He was always on my mind and t was getting to the point that I had a huge urge to tell everyone the truth. But I never did because I knew that the pain I was feeling wasn't even close to what they'd feel. My aunt, Greg, and my psychologist have all said that it might be good for me to tell them the truth, so that I can spend my last moments with them and they can be prepared for when I die. I think that it will just hurt them more, and I have to save them from as much pain as I can.