Ryder felt like his clothes were reeking of sickness, and when he came home he caved - took them off - and had a long steaming hot bath.

Meeting Skylar had left him speechless, that hardly ever happened. Meeting her had left some kind of lingering restlessness inside of him. He wondered how he would cope for all the months to come, if he felt like jumping out the window, every time he walked into that room!

Coming back the next day was equally as disturbing. Walking along that endless hall to Skylar's room, was like walking the steps on death row?

Walking towards death.

Suddenly his opportunity for freedom did mean something to him...at least he wasn't stuck in jail, or in a hospital room. Right there, that did count for something?

When he opened the door, he saw Skylar sitting in the same chair. She was looking out the window, like that was her way of having a tiny glimpse of life?

As she heard the door, she turned towards him, and smiled, although he didn't return the favor, the look in her eyes assured him he was the highlight of her day, which was pretty sad to him.

"Hi Ryder" she said, and waited for him to sit down next to her.

"Hey" he said.

"So what boring old book am I reading today?" He said, and he wasn't making a joke.

"Well...let's do something a bit more contemporary today. I don't want you to fall asleep!" She laughed quietly. Everything about Skylar was sort of quiet, and he wondered if she could ever let loose? She had this sense of moderate restraint about her, like strain would make her explode or something?

"Well...you did fall asleep" he said, without any regard for her feelings.

She handed him a book, but to him it looked no different, than the one he had in his hand yesterday...a book is a book, right? Full of pretentious words.

And so he read to her again

"BRIGHT STAR" By John Keats:

Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art-

Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night

And watching, with eternal lids apart,

Like nature's patient, sleepless Eremite,

The moving waters at their priestlike task

Of pure ablution round earth's human shores,

Or gazing on the new soft-fallen mask

Of snow upon the mountains and the moors-

No-yet still stedfast, still unchangeable,

Pillow'd upon my fair love's ripening breast,

To feel for ever its soft fall and swell,

Awake for ever in a sweet unrest,

Still, still to hear her tender-taken breath,

And so live ever-or else swoon to death.

"God...you really love this lovey dovey stuff huh?" He smacked the book closed, and just stared out the window - like she was doing - like that's something you are compelled to do, where ever there is a window.

"It's not just about love...it's also about accepting your faith" Skylar said.

"What's wrong with you anyway?" Ryder asked - again with no regard for her feelings, but his comment just made her chuckle. His candid question did not offend her, maybe it served as a nice break. Maybe people tended to sugarcoat their approach to her? She looked refined somehow, maybe she was like a rich kid or something? It occurred to him she had that vibe to her.

"Well I don't want to bore you with medical terms" she said.

"Are you dying or something?" He asked, again with no regard for her feelings. He said it mostly because he didn't think that had to be an option, she looked healthy, and radiant almost.

"Maybe" she said.

"The doctors refer to me as a medical curiosity. They don't know exactly what's wrong with me, and they don't exactly know how to cure it either...I wasn't supposed to live past 5...then 10...then 15. I am 19 now, and they are saying, I won't live past 20" she said, and smiled. As she looked at him, he wondered why she smiled so much? It didn't seem like there was much to smile about?

"Bummer. You don't look sick" he said, and smiled back at her for the first time ever.

"I guess, sometimes you can't tell the truth about a person by just looking at him or her, right? It's not that simple?" She said, and stared at him, like she was trying to uncover his secret, realizing she couldn't, and decided to ask him instead.

"What's the deal with you?" she said.

"What did you do to end up here with me?"

Her question made him laugh, maybe she wasn't that fragile.

"Well...I was driving, and I accidentally bumped into the front window of a store downtown, and well...I wrecked it!" He said.

"Oh. So, this is you paying your debt to society?" She said quite serious all of a sudden.

"Yeah...kind of...Dave got me off the hook, I should have gone to jail. I was drunk too" he said, wondering why he felt the need to be this honest with her? Maybe because he didn't care what she thought of him?

"That was pretty stupid" she said, making him laugh again, usually no one talked to him like that. They simply wouldn't dare, but Skylar seemed fearless to him somehow. Like she had nothing to fear. Maybe she didn't fear death? He didn't fear death...that would give them some common ground.

Both dying, but in different ways.

Both fearless about it?

"Aren't you scared of dying?" He asked genuinely wondering.

"They told me that one day, when I fall asleep, I am just not going to wake up. They call it The Sleeping Beauty syndrome...so I won't feel anything...I am not afraid of dying...I am afraid of going to sleep. Are you afraid of dying?" she asked, looking sad all of a sudden.

"No" he said, and he was being truthful.

"Well maybe you can teach me something then" she said and smiled again.

"Maybe" he answered.

And she fell asleep.

Making Ryder wonder if this would be the moment that she wouldn't wake back up?