A Dying Girl's List

chapter 6

(24 months left) (August)

Sometime during the night, while Lissa and Jace were chatting, he mentioned something about him wanting to see her when she was discharged from the hospital.

He was being extremely charismatic and it made Lissa feel a bit guilty for lying to him. Just a bit...

After she finished writing the List last night, he kept her up for most of the night with his lame 'dad' jokes and bizarre memes. Lissa consigned to oblivion about her brain cancer...only for a second.

Her mom sent – or had someone send extra clothes for her, as well as her toiletries so that she could get ready and not look like a complete mess by the time Jace showed up. She packed up the dirty clothes, stuffed them in the bag, sat down on the bed, and waited for Jace.

He pitched about twenty minutes after that, and the next thing she knew, they were in his car.

“Okay, so uhm I stay like just a few blocks away from here,” Lissa started.

“I wanted to take you somewhere, if you don't mind?”

“Oh. Yeah, that's cool. Where are you taking me?”

“It's a surprise, I was going to take you after the carnival, but...” he trailed off, not knowing how he should phrase the sentence without mentioning the incident.

“It's okay Jace, you can say it. I fainted, but, thanks to you, I got to a hospital and got it checked out. Just in time,” and by that she meant, it was too late for her. But that was absolutely, without a doubt, her fault.

(Too honest?)

“It's a pleasure, Lissa. I seriously couldn't leave you like that, what kind of new friend would I be?”

“You got a point there,” she answered with a chuckle.

"Whatever," he said with a smile.

They were ten minutes into the drive and Lissa was still clueless about where they were going.

“Are we getting close?” she asked, staring at the blur of trees flying past, trying to see if she could recognize the street they were in. She couldn't. Lissa barely walks to the mall, so the streets of Los Angeles, California would see her less than a blind person would. Her eyebrows furrowed. She liked knowing where she was going, and what she was going to do. Otherwise, her mind goes into over-alert and she'd start conjuring up weird scenarios.

What if he kidnaps me? What if he just wanted to get to know me, because he knew my parents are rich, and he'd be getting a generous amount of money as a ransom payout? What if he's not even human. That makes sense, he does seem otherworldly. Lissa thought, glancing at Jace, who was smiling sneakily to himself.

Only aliens smile to themselves. Well, aliens and crazy people. She gasped, softly, What if he is crazy? Omg! Omg! Omg!...

“Patience, Lissa. You know what they say about those who wait,” he spoke dragging her out of her chaotic thoughts

“Patience isn't really a word in my vocab, so how long do we have till we get there?” she asked. Her leg bounced up and down repeatedly. Her nervousness and excitement were at equilibrium. Perfectly weighed.

“About another 10 minutes?” Jace estimated.

“Let's play a game,” Lissa said abruptly, after a short silence.

“How old are you?” he asked with a chuckle.

“Old enough,” she gasped, “let's play 20 questions. So we can, you know, get to know each other better, 'cause if you think about it, I'm basically driving with a stranger,” having strange thoughts about you as well, she added in her head.