The Bucket List (Write Affair Finalist)

Chapter 45: Make a difference in someone's life.

~ Chapter 45: Make a difference in someone's life. ~

        Damon got out of the hospital a week and a half later. We went back to my place and it was like nothing had happened, he was still the laughing, smiling and funny Damon he had been all that time. He had marks from the needles and looked a little tired but apart from that, there was no trace of him ever having gone to a hospital. Doctor Suarez had given him more pills to make the pain go away and to make sure his brain wouldn’t snap right away or something (I wasn’t good with the med talk, I just wanted him out and I had noted the different pills he had to take and that was more than enough).

The morning after his return home, we were laying in bed and had woken up a few minutes ago when he brought back the notebook. We hadn’t opened it since the saying ‘yes’ for a whole day thing and I was a little scared it would be my turn today. But Damon turned the page and stopped on something else entirely. Make a difference in someone's life. I looked at him with a smile.

“You sure made a big difference in my life.” I said, even though I knew it wasn’t what he had in mind.

“Really? How’s that?” He smiled.

He knew exactly how, he just wanted to hear it and I didn’t mind bearing my soul to him anymore, I wasn’t shy to say out loud what I was thinking when it was to him. He was my soul mate, as cliché and cheesy as that may have sound, and I could share anything with him, especially if it made him smile like a kid on Christmas day.

“For starters, you made me stronger, even if I cry a whole lot more. You made me realize what really matters in life, and that small problems aren’t that big of a deal in reality. You made me more confident, you allowed me to love myself a whole lot more because you loved me just the way I was. I would have never cooked in my underwear to tease somebody before I learnt the effect it had on you. You taught me that friendships never really die, first of all by bringing back ours, then the one we share with Kara. I would have never been able to contact her if it hadn’t been for you. You made me realize that life is short, so damn short and we have to make the best of it. You allowed me to discover parts of myself I didn’t even know existed, like the adventurous one, or the very horny one.”

He laughed but let me go on.

“You taught me that when you want something in life, you don’t wait for it to come to you, you just make it happen. That’s how you and I happened. If you hadn’t broken up with Katie, we would have been friends but there would have been this sexual tension making things awkward and we would have both known it.”

He laughed again and I smiled. This was the best sound in the universe.

“You also made me realize that there are people more stubborn than me, like you for example.” He opened his mouth to protest but I cut him before he could. “Don’t even try to deny it, you’re the most stubborn person in the planet. Anyway, I could go on and on but your ego will be so big it will make the house explode so I should stop there. Just know that you really have made a difference in my life and I love you.”

He brought my lips to his and kissed me.

“I love you too. And you made such a big difference in my life too.”

I didn’t need to hear in what way, I just wanted to kiss him more. After our heated make-up session, Damon grabbed the notebook back from the floor.

“So, what exactly did you have in mind to make a difference in someone’s life?” I inquired.

“I had multiple ideas. I’ll first donate to associations, not only those specialized in my own disease but also the others for every type of incurable diseases in the hope that someday, people will get to live a full life and not die at twenty-one.” He paused. “Then I’ll make some sort of extreme donation to someone who can’t go on holiday, because I realized how lucky we are to have discovered so many places and I think everyone should be able to travel somewhere too, to unravel the mysteries of the world and see the places in real, not just in pictures.”

God I loved this man.

“And finally, I will give the only organs still good to work to people who need them when I’ll die, and that means that they will have to make me go under a little sooner, they will decide on a day with me and we will do it. That was planned a long time ago, I don’t know why I never told you.”

I stayed a little shocked. A part of me was so proud of him for being generous to his last minute, and I was so pro the whole giving your organs when you die thing so I was happy he had chosen to do that, but another part of me, a smaller one but a more selfish one too, was just sad to know he would have to die sooner in order to do so.

“Look on the bright side of things, that way, I’ll get to say goodbye.” Damon added when he saw my face. “That’s on my bucket list too, you know? Right on the bottom of the last page.”

He showed me. Say goodbye. He had thought of everything, hadn’t he?

“I’m… very proud of you for doing this.” I said.

“Really?” He sighted with relief. “Thank you! I really need your support with this decision and I wouldn’t have done it if it had meant hurting you in any way.”

“It’s a great thing Damon, you will get to save lives with your functional organs and that is the best and most humbling possible thing to do.”

He smiled at me, which warmed my heart.

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner though.”

“It doesn’t really change anything anyway. You will just die a few days earlier but you were supposed to die anyway and it will hurt less I guess, right?”

“Yes. They’ll inject me with something that will make me go to sleep, only this time, it will be forever.”

The finality of his words were cutting like a knife but I was not crying. I would not cry. This was a beautiful thing to do and he needed my support. He totally had it, I just didn’t support the whole dying thing but he couldn’t do anything about that.

“I’ll go downstairs and send the checks to the associations I have picked out.”

“Ok. I want to donate too.”

We filled a bunch of papers to the enormous number of associations Damon had chosen, which all had a different purpose, then he sent the money to the association that allowed kids who couldn’t go on holiday with their families in the summer to get to go this time, and when we were done, the sun had set already. We hadn’t eaten anything all day, which was probably a first coming from us, so we were starving. We ordered Japanese and ate it in front of The Big Bang Theory.