That Boy

Hardest thing in life...

Two Weeks Later

She laid in the hospital bed, I sat next to her bed and watched her. It was time, I could tell it was almost time. She opened her eyes and barely managed a smile. "I love you so much Jonathan." She was so frail.

"Don't...please." I spoke, getting choked up. Her parents were outside the room, she'd asked them not to see her while she died. She said that she wanted them to remember her as lively as she'd been before. Her mother had protested but Dan, in tears, had grabbed her and pulled her out of the room, shutting the door on us. Then she'd tried to tell me if I wanted I could leave too but I'd refused to leave her side.

"Let me speak Jonathan," she'd grown accustom to my full name these last two weeks. "I want you to go back to college after I die. Please, if not for yourself then my only wish for you is the graduate from college. Can you promise me that?" 

"How-" But I cut off, holding back a sob, "How am I supposed to promise you that when your dying? You should be more worried about yourself."

She laughed, "What are you talking about? You look worse than I do right now Jonathan." 

I became irritated, "Stop calling me than. My name is John." She laughed again.

"Come here." She held my chin in her hand, bringing our faces close she kissed me. "You gave me the best three months of my life Jonathan. I couldn't ask for anything better." She kissed me hard and then lay back down on the bed, curling up under the blankets, "Lay with me while I die Jonathan. Please, it's just so cold in here." I lifted the covers and wrapped my arms around her, holding her close.

She fell asleep after some time and I listened to her breathing, every time it faltered I broke a little more. Until finally it stopped all together. I stood out of her bed and started crying "No no no no no! It's not fair Tessa!" I threw the chair by her bed at the wall. "You can't leave me!" I clutched her lifeless body to me sobbing harder than I ever had before. Every part of me was gone. When she'd died she'd taken a part of her with me, a part I could never get back. "Please come back Tessa, please I'll go back to college I swear, just please come back to me." I was being lifted off my knees and then arms were around me. 

It was Teresa. She held me as I sobbed into her shoulder. She started pulling me out of the room, to remove me from the situation. I saw doctors and nurses running into the room, in hopes to save her. Tess had been my one true love and just like that she's gone. Every part of me was broken, falling to pieces. I could feel my heart tearing into pieces.

I didn't go to her funeral. Instead I disappeared, ran as soon as I was out of Tess's hospital room, packed all my stuff and returned to college second semester with a new found light to my career choice. I was going to be an oncologist, and treat other people with cancer. I changed my number and went to college far from Tessa's home. Hopefully one day I'd find love again and get married but for now I was just going to try and focus on my studies. I had cried over Tessa's death day and night for weeks after she'd died but finally was finding ways to move on, slowly but surely. The hardest thing in life isn't losing your best friend, its trying to find a way to live without them. But eventually I'd learn, with practice.