Alright about half way through I swiched POV and i'm not sure if I caught everything, so please keep an eye out for that. Thank you. And is it too cliche?
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The soft music resonated throughout the room, and I couldn’t help but react. “Lips of an Angel” always did that to me, I couldn’t help but sway by myself. Oh, where was my Prince Charming when I needed him? I glanced onto the dance floor, of course, he was dancing with Aja.
What did he see in her? She wasn’t pretty, but in popularity, well, she had that in spades. But Jason wasn’t the type to date someone because of popularity. I thought myself pretty, and in all truths I was. Jason and I would make a great couple; I was almost sure about that.
I hadn’t realized that I had closed my eyes until I felt familiar arms wrap around me. I opened my eyes and smiled at Adrian. It pained me to realize I would lose him, and everything else I held dear. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair for a fourteen-year-old girl to be diagnosed terminally ill. It wasn’t fair to me, and it defiantly wasn’t fair to my family. My friends didn’t even know.
“Hey doll face,” he said.
I grimaced, “I hate that endearment,” I teased my big brother like friend.
He tilted his head towards the ceiling and they started to sway, “how about: a stoirion?”
I smiled, “I really hate it when you use Gaelic.”
He bent his head down to meet my gaze a little easier, “no you don’t, you love it don’t you?”
I blushed slightly, but the already flush color of my cheeks hid it. School dances were always awkward, but the heat that formed in the gym because of the dancers hid my blushing. The dance was not the rocking-swaying step, though dizziness began to wash over me.
I'm just too hot, I thought. But when I felt my knees grow weak, I had to sit down.
I fled from Adrian’s arms and ran out of the gym. Running wasn’t a good idea; as soon as I was out of sight I was gripping the wall for support. What was happening? I hadn’t felt this dizzy since I went on my medication, and that’s when it hit her, Oh, my God I didn’t take my medications today!
"Ava?" Jason sounded concerned. I tried to smile, but the feat escaped me- staying vertical was hard enough at the moment. "You look like crap." I felt him guiding me somewhere, and he sat me down at what seemed to be a bench.
I moved my head- I wasn't really sure if it was a nod or a shake. I really didn't want him to worry, but it was too late for those kinds of thoughts."
“Did that Adrian kid hurt you?”
I shook my head, clearing away some of the fuzz, “Adrian would never hurt me.” I shook my head, it was impossible for Adrian to hurt me. I was sure that he loved me, but he was more like a big brother than anything. “He didn’t do anything,” I insisted.
Jason wrapped his arm around me, and I felt swallowed by him. I forgot how big he was! “What’s wrong then?”
I paused, waving my hand in front of my face, “nothing, it just got too hot in there.”
“Would you like me to walk you home?”
I wanted to go home, and in some far off fantasy I hoped that Jason would walk me home, but I never actually believed that it would happen. Grateful for some company, I nodded, “that would be great thanks.” I rose onto unsteady feet, “I’ll just grab my coat and say good-bye to Adrian.”
It was hard to keep my feet under me but somehow I did. I walked to the giant pile of coats and pulled mine out: A black and blue Parka with fake fur around the hood, jammed deep within the pockets were my house keys, my parents were out for the night and for some reason they trusted me enough to still let me go to the dance.
I spotted Adrian out near the dance floor, leaning against the wall looking down pitifully. Taking a deep breath I marched across the dance floor quickly, “Adrian!” I shouted and he looked up. I had to take a couple more breaths to make up for the one I just spent. No more skipping medicine! I scolded myself.
We started walking towards each other; we reached each other before I got very far. Stupid medications, made me go slow! “Adrian I’m sorry for running like that, it just got really hot in here and I felt like I was going to puke.” Not a total lie, I got nauseous when I got too hot, always had.
He stroked my straight brown hair, brushing it away from my sweat-plastered face, “are you okay? Would you like me to walk you home?”
I shook my head, “no, Jason found me and is going to walk me home.”
“Be careful around him, Ava, he’s… trouble.” He tucked my hair behind my ear; a gesture that he must’ve hoped said everything he wanted to say without saying it. He wanted to say that he loved her; despite how dumb of a thing it was, he was fifteen after all! But he did, he loved her, and I found all this out through the glory of blogs.
“Adrian,” I said softly, “I don’t need you to take care of me.”
“Aye,” his brogue was impossible to miss, beautifully rich and soothing, a voice he called on when he needed it, and apparently right now he needed it, oh joy. “I don’t need to take care of you, but” he lightened his tone, “I like to.”
Adrian didn’t talk like a fifteen-year old; he talked more like a vampire from one of my favorite books. I didn’t read much anymore, I had to sum up an entire life in just a few years, grab life by the horns and take it for a ride.
Feeling uncomfortable, I hugged him and turned away. I met Jason in the hall and knew I was pale, “are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m fine; I’m just a little tired.”
Jason wasn’t convinced, and as I wobbled he wrapped an arm around my waist to steady me. He was sixteen and could easily hold me up if she kept my feet beneath me. Oh God, he was cute too. Blond hair, baby blue eyes, and well… he was just freaking hot!
He kept his arm around me waist all the way to her house; he stopped outside the door, to let me unlock it. I was tempted to invite him in, for a Sodapop or something, but I thought better of it. I leaned up and kissed his cheek in a thank you.
“Thanks,” I said opening the door, “you should probably get back to the dance, Aja must be wondering where you went.” I shut the door, leaving him standing outside with a bemused expression on his face.
I immediately went into my room and fell asleep in my clothes. I didn’t know what my medicine would do if I took it at night and again in the morning, and I didn’t want to screw up my schedule.
When the alarm went off in the morning I shut it off and went into the bathroom, there was a large assortment of pills in the medicine cabinet that I was supposed to take. I was way too tired to figure out how much I was supposed to take of which, so thank God for the daily medicine arranger.
I swallowed the entire Friday set with one gulp and put the medicine back in the cabinet. After school I’d have to refill the container, homework task number one. If I didn’t have my medicine in the mornings I wasn’t as lucky as the night before. Usually I’d lose all her energy and pass out on the floor, whenever that happened though; I seemed to be near stairs...
When my cell phone rang I didn’t need to look at the name before answering, the ring-tone was the one I picked out for Adrian.
“Hey Adrian.”
“Hey, need a ride to school?”
“I’d love one thanks.”
“Great, I’ll be outside in twenty minutes.”
“More than enough time.”
We hung up simultaneously. I couldn’t help but laugh, Adrian was one weird-o boy. His Irish accent was somewhat authentic, he inherited it from his parents, but he was born and raised in the town he lived in now. His name wasn’t at all Irish either, nothing but his accent was Irish like. At least to me, but he was my best friend and he had a car, hardly any more walking to school.
When he honked the horn I scooped up my backpack and slid down the banister and out the door. The first of my classes went by quickly, but I noticed several people looking at me and either giggling, scoffing, or turning away with an infuriated look on their face.
“Ava!” Adrian ran up to me in the hall, “Ava how- how could you?”
“How could I what?”
He took her by the elbow and led her to behind a pop machine, “how could you… God, I don’t want to say it.”
“Adrian what do you think I’ve done?”
“Everyone’s saying you kissed Jason last night, open mouth, tongue, the whole cha-bang, he’s apparently bragging about it.”
Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped, “that bastard!” she couldn’t help but let the word escape her lips, “Adrian, I swear I didn’t French Jason! You I kissed him on the cheek, that’s it!”
In this small world I lived in, a kiss was the most scandalous thing you could get away with.
Adrian looked relieved, oh Adrian, he only needed to hear me say it didn’t he? If I denied it, there’s no way it could be true. “Okay, good.” He braced himself against the wall with his arm and at the same time somewhat trapped me there under his gaze.
Something formed inside of me then, something burning in my chest, and before I knew what I was doing I had stood on my tip toes and kissed him. So much for the big brother concept. The fire inside me went out with that kiss, but also so did my stamina. I dropped her books and collapsed too little oxygen.
I didn’t think that it would hit me like that, and in front of Adrian. But it was better that he knew now.
“Ava!” he shouted as he dropped his books and caught me, he wasn’t as strong as Jason was so it was harder for him to support me. Even though I remained conscious I couldn’t regain my balance.
After a long time I managed somehow to my feet, with a lot of help from Adrian. I still felt faint and knew I had to get to the office and call my doctor. “Adrian I have to call someone.”
“Ava, what’s going on?”
I swallowed, I didn’t want to tell him, but he deserved to know, “I’m…dying.”
“What?!”
“I’m terminally ill, I’ve probably got a few years with all the drugs they got me jacked up on.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” He held me in his arms as if he could stop death from reaching me, I felt comforted by his touch.
“I didn’t want you to… I didn’t want anybody at school to know, I’m already considered a freak as it is, telling people I’ve got an incurable disease would be worse than Siberia! Anyways I need to call my doctor, find out why this happened, I forgot to take my medicine yesterday, but I did today.”
“Is that why you were acting so strange last night?”
I nodded against his chest, when we started to move my knees buckled but I managed to steady them. I was so relieved that classes had started and nobody could see them, the last thing she wanted was for people to know. Even if the disease couldn’t be spread through the air, it was harder to spread than HIV.
When we reached the pay phone I pulled out the change saved for something like this and dialed my doctor’s cell number.
“Um… Doctor Brown? I have a question, its Ava.”
“Ah Ava, shouldn’t you be in class?”
“Yeah but I kinda fainted.”
“You fainted? When?”
“Just now, I was just wondering if forgetting to take my pills yesterday would affect it, would it?”
“Ava you have to remember to take your medicine!” my doctor scolded, “That’s probably why, and if you take your medicine every day you should be fine.”
“Okay, thanks Dr. Brown, and I have one more question.”
“Yes?”
“What did the test results say?”
“You’ve got about four years left, give or take six months,” there was a mournful tone to her voice, but that gave me a little happiness, I didn’t expect to survive the next year.
“Thank you Doctor Brown.” I hung up the phone, turned and kissed Adrian again. “If you want to run, I’ll understand, but you will miss out on four more years with me.”
“You’ve got four years?”
“That’s three more than I expected,” My arm went around his waist, happiness had fueled me for a bit, and I could walk. “So, will you stay and risk your heart? Or do the smart thing and bolt.”
“You sound like you want me to bolt, when honey, I’m not going anywhere.”
Three years, six months, seven days and approximately two hours later…
I sat in the hospital bed; the fluorescent lights were giving me a headache, but that probably wasn’t the only thing. I smiled when Adrian walked in.
“Hey, honey,” he said and kissed my forehead. “I gotcha something.” He handed me a small package with green wrapping paper and a golden ribbon.
“You’re sister wrapped this didn’t she?” I teased.
“I can wrap you know,” he defended himself.
“She tied the bow then, you’re fingers are too big to do something with such a small thing.”
“Just open it.”
I did as he requested I gently took the ribbon off and laid it on my lap, there was no hope for the wrapping paper. Within a minute it lay in shreds over the ribbon. I now held in my hands a book of Shakespeare’s Sonnets. I grinned.
“You brought me the bible!”
He looked confused, “I brought you Shakespeare’s Sonnets,” he said cautiously.
“Hon, a copy Shakespeare’s Sonnets is my bible.”
Bring it on death, I knew it was coming, but I didn’t care. Worry about tomorrow, tomorrow, live today like there was no tomorrow. And what did tomorrow matter? I had a love, and a copy of my Bible, with the real one tucked underneath my pillow.
End
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