Oligodendroglioma. My diagnosis, and a word I could barely sound out, much less comprehend the fact that it held my life in its hands.

There were so many side effects that came along with it: seizures, which luckily had only occurred once a couple of weeks ago, which warranted my appointment with the hospital. Headaches were the biggest problem and when I had headaches, I didn't sleep or I didn't eat. Then there was nausea, and it came on at the most random times. So when I had to pull my car off to the side of the road to puke my guts out, I wasn't very surprised.

Pulling into the tiny strip mall, I stayed seated in my car and debated on if I really wanted to get a smoothie after all, as the taste of what I had eaten earlier that morning still lingered in my mouth. Without another thought, I turned the car off and got out. I was here, so I might as well.

As I stepped inside, I scanned the small ice cream and smoothie joint as the air conditioning cooled my body temperature nicely. My eyes finally landed on a pretty dark brown haired girl behind the counter, who had a sweet smile on her face as she stared back at me. Without wasting time, I asked if there was a restroom I could use, which she pointed out and I quickly moved in that direction. Once safely in the bathroom, I did my business before washing my hands and swishing water around in my mouth a few times to clear what reminisce of puke could be left.

I cleared my throat as I made my way back out into the shop, causing the girl to turn her attention back to me and away from the digital camera she had been so engrossed with.

"What can I get for you?" She asked nicely.

"Umm-" My eyes averted down toward the case of ice cream that divided us. "Do you... Uh, what kind of smoothies do you have?"

"Well let's see," She tapped her chin thoughtfully as she spoke. "There's this banana, orange, crème soda one."

I scrunched my nose, just the thought made my stomach churn. "Ew."

"Yeah," She laughed loudly, but I found it quite cute. "It's pretty gross."

"We also have a banana and strawberry one that's good," She offered another option.

"Okay," I nodded my head. "I'll have that one."

"Great, give me one second!"

With that she turned away, the loose waves of her hair falling over her shoulders as she went to work preparing the smoothie that I probably wouldn't end up drinking. The ding of the bell above to door caused me to look up from the floor to see that a woman in her mid 50's had walked into the shop.

"Um, hi," The girl behind the counter glance my way before smiling at the woman. "How can I help you?"

"I ordered an ice cream cake," She spoke bluntly and I already didn't like her. The tone of her voice began to bring on another headache.

"Oh, right, umm..." The girl shuffled a few things around behind the counter that I couldn't see before she turned back to the lady. "I'm sorry, it's not done."

"What?" She looked down at her watch. "The man I spoke to said it would be ready at 4 o'clock today."

"I know," The girl looked stressed. "I'm really sorry, but I didn't see the order form until right now."

"Give me your manager's number, I'm calling him." She held her hand out impatiently as the girl clumsily wrote the number down on a piece of paper and handed it to the woman.

"What's your name?" The woman asked.

"Avery," The girl spoke and I made sure to take note.

"You'll be hearing from your boss."

And with that, the woman turned and left the shop. My eyebrows were raised in slight shock as I looked back toward the girl to see that her face was bright red.

"I am so sorry about that," She mumbled as she quickly finished making my drink.

My eyes search the counter top before I noticed a very familiar name that had been said not but a minute ago. I picked up the postcard sized piece of thin cardboard and began to inspect it.

"Is this you then?" I think my question caught her off guard as she finally turned to me with my smoothie in hand. "Avery Samuels."

"Why, yes it is! My art show!" She smiled proudly. "I shot for like almost a year before I had a full body of work."

"Wow," I turned the card over, looking at the picture on the back. "That's a long time."

"You should come check it out. Maybe you'll find something you like."

I knew she was only inviting me because I had picked up the card, but I couldn't. This was my last day. I should be spending it relaxing, right?

"Yeah, maybe," I spoke quietly as I took the smoothie from her outstretched hand.

She stared at me expectantly. I guessed she wanted me to try it and as much as my stomach was telling me otherwise, I put the straw between my lips. I tried to hide the grimace that crossed my face as I swallowed the liquid. I didn't want to add to her already shitty day by telling her that the smoothie wasn't very good.

"It's great," I lied.

"Really?" She beamed up at me happily and I felt a tiny smile tug at my lips. She was cute.

"That's on the house, by the way," Avery laughed nervously, running her fingers through her hair as her light brown eyes widened with her explanation. "You had to witness me getting yelled at, so it's the least I can do."

"Thanks," I mumbled before I turned and headed toward the door.

"Hey!" She called to me and I turned back to see her coming out from behind the counter. "You forgot to take a card."

"Oh, right," I took the art card from her, giving her the biggest smile I could muster before I said a quick goodbye.

Avery really was a pretty girl. Not stick skinny or tanned to sun-kissed perfection, but the type of pretty that made her extra curves go unnoticed because of the confidence she had in herself.

If it had been any other point in my life, I would have taken the time to stand around in the cool air of that ice cream shop and get to know her. But it wasn't a different time, it was now and I still didn't know what was going to happen tomorrow.

By the time I finally made it home, the sun was already setting. Leaving the untouched smoothie on the counter by my keys, I moved about my apartment in search of something do to.

With the tv turned up way too loud and a few assorted bags of chips placed around me, I sat on the floor in front of my coffee table stacking Jenga blocks absentmindedly. I didn't even know I had the game until I went rooting through my closet.

I tensed as the blocks crashed down against the glass table under them. Instead of rebuilding, I reach out for the sharpie across the table and began coloring in one of the many blocks sprawled out on the table. This was my life. Oh, how entertaining it was.

It was easy with the state of mind that I was in to lose my concentration on what I was doing, so when I finally realized that I had moved on from the blocks to coloring my big toe, I let out a loud groan. Just great. I was losing my mind.

I had showered, trying to get as much of the blue sharpie off my toe as possible, and was in bed before 7 o'clock. I tried to relax. I tried not to think about what was going to happen tomorrow morning. My eyes turned up toward the clock on my bedside table. 7:13pm. Great.

How was I supposed to sleep like this? I couldn't. I stood from my bed, exiting my room. My heart rate had increased dramatically within seconds as panic set in. I fished a few trash bags out from a drawer in the kitchen. Who knows, right? Maybe I wouldn't be here in another day.

I began shoving whatever I could get my hands on into the oversized plastic bags. Trash, mail, shoes, clothes, everything, and anything. I felt tears prick at the ends of my eyes as I moved into my room, grabbing a few prized possessions and shoving them into a bag as well before I headed back out into the living room.

This is what my life had come to. There I was, sitting on the tiled floor of my kitchen with three garbage bags full of god knows what, wallowing in my own self-pity. This wasn't me at all.

A few pieces of trash and mail spilled out of one of the bags as it toppled over and I quickly noticed the art card that Avery had made sure to give me before I left the smoothie shop. I strained my arm to reach it, looking over the tiny piece of cardboard to see that the show was still going on until 10pm tonight.

I check the time once again. 8:26pm. I shouldn't go, right? My doctor told me to relax, to prepare for what was to come tomorrow. I tried that and it was obvious from the bags around me that I had no idea how to cope with what was happening to me. But how could anyone wrap their brain around something like that?

So instead, I heaved myself up from my spot on the ground, pocketed the card and once again made my way out of my apartment.

. . . . .

A/N: New chap, yay! This book is based off movie I saw a very long time ago, so I didn't think it was going to be as hard as it is to write, but I hope you guys like it. :) Let me know what you think!

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