Bluebird

Dear Henry

Dear Henry,

There are many things that I would like to say to you. The first of many is that I love you. I have loved you since sophomore year.

You were the popular one; the funny guy that everyone could look to when they needed someone to brighten their day as well as someone to share a secret with when they had no one else to turn to.

I, on the other hand, was the stone-hearted rebel. I was always in a fight, be it my family or random people on the street. I was the person talking back to my teachers and playing pranks on them. The one at school that was caught for beating up a cheerleader.

Funny how it was you who understood that the said cheerleader was picking on a girl from my class. You were the only one at the time that cared for my side of the story.

After that incident, you were annoyingly at my side. Bugging me about what I was going to do that afternoon, how my tests went that day, and just anything to get to know me better. I told you to leave me alone. To let me handle my own life without having someone look over my shoulder.

I felt strangely lonely when you weren't at school The next week on Wednesday. It was a new feeling to me. I tried to shrugged it off, but the feeling kept nagging me. Even though I was confused and maybe lonely, the day you were gone was the day that I gained a new friend. The girl I saved from the cheerleader; she said her name was Megan. I was so excited that I remembered you gave me your address a few days earlier, and I walked to your place to tell you the news.

You opened up the door and smile that toothpaste commercial smile (I swear that I see a sparkle every time) an invited me in. You explained to me that you had to look after your sister because she was sick.

I smiled for the first time in a while that night.

And no, it wasn't because I liked to see you in a panic. It was because I realized that even though you acted like a perfect person, but you were, and are, human. I didn't ask where your parents were in all of this because... well, I don't know, honestly.

All that I do know is that your sister, whom you introduced as Macy, is the sweetest person that I have ever met. I'm so glad that she became a nurse. Her personality is what I wished I had at the time. Caring and kind is great at five, when most kids are learning ways to disobey their family and get in trouble.

Slowly, but surely, I changed for the better. I began to accept all of my mistakes and even made friends with the cheerleader, Jessica. Turns out that she was also being bullied, and thus she joined our group of misfits.

And speaking of your sister being a nurse, I am ready to tell you the second thing. It's about all those times that I threw up in the toilet. You may have heard me throughout the night, but you're a heavy sleeper. You did hear me, though, when we were watching out Sunday night football.

"Are you okay?" You had asked.

"Perfectly fine." I said smiling. Maybe, I thought, just maybe we will be getting a baby that we had been trying for.

I went to the hospital the next day. Megan was with me because she had the day off and we were coming back from a shopping spree. We both went to the hospital that both Macy and Jessica (she's still a doctor there, right?) worked at. We had me checked. They came back in with tears streaming down their faces. I didn't have a baby. No, it was much worse.

Bluebird, I have Stomach Cancer.

And before you ask, I wasn't ready. I was too late to hope to live. I was going to die in the next six months. I had too little time.

This is my goodbye, Henry.

Please, let me go. You need to let people in and not pretend that 'nothing's wrong' and 'everything's okay'. Find someone to help you through this depression. You are only twenty-eight. I want you to go through life with joy. But please keep two promises for me.

Don't forget that's love you and don't shut anyone out.

Goodbye, Bluebird. I will always love you.

Layla