~ Chapter 3: Getting my best friend back. Sort of. ~

Damon knocked at the door at nine sharp like promised and I went down to open. I said bye and we hopped into my car.

“So, you still won’t tell me where we’re going?” He asked.

“You’ll see just in time.”

He turned on the radio and we sang along the song that was on. Bastille’s new one.

“I see you still have good taste in music.” He said, smiling.

I grinned back and parked the car.

“Are we there?”

“Mh-mm.”

“And… Where are we exactly?”

“Just wait a minute.”

We went out of the car and he followed me. We stopped in front of a fence and I switched on my phone’s flashlight. It was completely dark like I had planned, which in that case was a good thing.

“We’re going to have to climb this fence.”

“What?”

“It’s easy, come on.”

I started climbing up and Damon followed me. I checked several times if he was ok. Once up the fence, we had to pass on the other side of it then we fell back on the ground. Damon followed me a little further and I stopped in front of a door that I managed to open.

“Is this legal?” Damon asked, smiling.

I shrugged and went in. I turned on the lights and Damon jumped with surprise.

“Oh my god! We’re in a pool!”

“Come on! We have it all to ourselves!”

“This is so awesome!”

“I know. I’ve always wanted to do that.”

“But I don’t have any bathing suit.”

“Doesn’t matter, I didn’t bring one either, so that we’d be in the same situation.”

He smiled and took off his shoes and his socks. I did the same thing and saw him taking off his shirt. Well, well, well… he hadn’t lost his abs. I stayed frozen for a second but tried to look some place else. I didn’t want him to think I was staring at his perfect body, it wasn’t cool and it wasn’t what normal friends usually do. Let’s say I was just enjoying the view. He started wetting a toe in the pool and kneeled down to also wet his hand. I took advantage of it and pushed him. He fell in the pool with a big noise that resonated. We laughed together and he got out to take me in his arms and dived with me. I still had my clothes on but whatever, no one could see us anyways. We splashed each other and swam a little. As I had hopped, it felt like we were thirteen again. As we were little, we used to go on vacations together. I would go with his family, and we would do the opposite the next year.

“Hey! Look what I found!” Damon beamed, with an air mattress in form of a crocodile in the arms.

“Awesome!”

He went on it and helped me get on it behind him. We fell a couple of times but finally managed to stay on the crocodile. Damon tried to paddle with his hands but we stayed in the same place. We laughed a lot, and I have to say it felt amazingly good to have him back as a friend. At some point, both of us were cold so we dived back into the pool and swam a little before getting out when we got tired. After taking off our wet clothes until being just in our underwear, we lay down and talked about things and others. I looked at the time on my phone and saw it was already four am. I was exhausted but I didn’t want this night to end.

“Do you want to go back home?” Damon asked.

“Not really. But I’m pretty tired.”

“Me too.”

We decided to go back home but we couldn’t go in our underwear so we had to put our soaked clothes back on.

“My car is going to be ruined” I complained playfully as I was wringing my jeans.

“We can put our coats under our butts so that it doesn’t completely wet the seats.”

“Good idea.”

We got out of the swimming pool and climbed up and down the fence to go back to our car. Luckily, no one saw us this time either. We headed back home and sang in the car while laughing. We were so tired that we were feeling a little like we were wasted or high. When we arrived in front of the house I sighed, a little disappointed that this night was over.

“This was really fun.” Damon said, smiling.

“Totally.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Sure.”

He smiled and we hugged to say goodbye before him getting out of the car to go home. I did the same thing and took a quick warm shower before putting on dry pajamas and going to bed to get some rest.

The next day, I only woke up at one pm and found Seth and Jenny talking and laughing in the kitchen. When they saw me walking in the room, they stopped and looked at each other.

“So… How was yesterday night?” Jenny asked, glancing at Seth who was smiling.

“Am I about to have the big questioning?” I asked, while sitting down.

“If you’re willing to cooperate, it’s going to go much faster than if you lie and say nothing happened.”

“I’m not doing this today, sorry guys.”

I took a slice of bread and tried to go back in my room but Jenny held me by the arm and made me sit back.

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“Guys, nothing happened, I promise. We’re just friends and it’s going to stay this way.”

“Oh. Well in that case, you and I are going out tonight to find you a guy. Yesterday you had a good excuse, but today, you have no choice. You’re coming with me. And you can come too Seth, if you want.”

“I’ll pass”, my brother said.

Jenny shrugged and smiled at me.

“We’re gonna have so much fun! I mean, you are, considering I already have Josh.”

I tried to protest but they wouldn’t hear anything so I pretended I would come and they left me alone. I turned on the TV and watched some dumb show while eating some rests that we had in the fridge. I told Jenny one of us should go buy groceries but she told me she had to meet Josh in half an hour and she wasn’t ready at all. So I got out of the couch and got dressed. I asked Seth and Jenny If they needed anything in particular, noted the things they were screaming from across their room on my phone then got going. I found out when I sat in my car that the seats weren’t dried at all. I got out of the car and changed my clothes. Then I asked Seth if I could take his car. He agreed after making me promise I’d be careful. I went out of the house and just when I was about to get in the car, Damon went out of his house.

“Hey!” He said, smiling.

“Hi!”

“What are you doing out?” He asked, coming closer.

“I was going to go run some errands.”

“Oh! Ok. I was going to come and see if you wanted to do something but I guess I came in the wrong moment.”

“I have to work a little when I come back cause I go back to college tomorrow.”

“Right. Well, maybe some other time then?”

“Actually, do you have plans tonight?”

“Nothing I can’t cancel. What other criminal activity do you have in mind?”

“Just maybe rob a bank or we could just hang out. You’d be saving me from a night with Jenny.”

“Where is she taking you?”

“In a bar meet a stranger she thinks I should have sex with!” I said, before biting my lips when I realized it was kind of weird that I had said that.

“Oh! And… How would I be saving you?” He asked, smiling.

“I really don’t want to go but she’s forcing me. So, can you save me from it or not?”

“Sure. I kind of have to now that I know what she wants you to do.” He joked.

“Cool. Thanks. And stop mocking me, I don’t want to have sex with a stranger, it doesn’t make me a weirdo.”

He laughed. Katie got out of the house and waved at me. I tried to smile and waved at her back.

“I think your girlfriend wants you to go back to bed.” I informed him.

“Well, unlike some weirdo, I won’t say no to that. I’ll see you tonight.”

I kicked him nicely and got in Seth’s car. I headed out to the supermarket, smiling during the whole ride for some unknown reason. I texted Jenny and told her she could stay at Josh’s cause I had plans tonight. She didn’t text me back right away. I bought all the things I needed and ran into Noah, a friend of mine. We talked a little but agreed we would see each other tomorrow. I really had to work a little before going back to college or I would be completely behind in classes. So I went back home and studied in my room.

At seven, Damon showed up at my house and we decided to go out for dinner. Jenny was really angry that I was cancelling “our” plans (it was more hers than ours but whatever) but since it meant she got to spend the night with Josh, she didn’t truly mind me bailing on her. We got into Damon’s car and he drove to a nice restaurant I knew. We got settled in a nice table and ordered pasta. We talked and laughed, and I was glad to see that the situation wasn’t awkward. At the pool, we had gotten our friendship back and I would have hated if it had ran away in a day.

But then, I remembered. Damon was going to die. In less than a year or so. I tried to make my brain make sense with the idea but it still didn’t make any sense to me. Maybe if he had been in a hospital bed, or weak and bold for the chemo, I would have seen how sick he was and the idea of him dying would have made more sense but seeing him like that, so sexy and seeming completely healthy and in good shape, it was just too unbelievable. I wanted so bad to ask him how he could be sick but didn’t look like it at all but I didn’t want to ruin the good mood. And maybe it was a little out of line.

We finished dinner and we went out of the restaurant. We walked around talking and sat on a bench. Then, when we were laughing, a girl stopped and said:

“Damon?”

He looked at her and exclaimed:

“Kira! Hey!”

They hugged and Damon introduced her to me.

“Leah, this is Kira, she’s a friend… from the hospital.”

“Oh! Hey!” I said, a little awkwardly.

“How have you been?” Damon asked Kira.

“Amazing. I mean, I still have to go to the hospital for check-ups but it’s nothing compared to chemo.”

“I’m so glad you beat up cancer!” He said.

“And what about you? The weird disease that you have? Is it cured?”

“Um… No, actually. It has gotten worse and um… It turns out it can’t be cured.”

“Oh my god! Damon, I’m so sorry!”

He shrugged and put his hand in his pockets.

“So… What does that mean?” She asked. “Do you have to go to the hospital a lot?”

“It’s complicated. But don’t worry about me, ok? Hey! Why don’t we go drink something in a cool place?”

“I’m in.” Kira said.

“Leah?” Damon asked, looking at me.

I looked up and realized a second later that I was crying.

“Leah, are you ok?” Damon asked.

“Yeah.” I said, wiping my tears from my cheeks. “Look, I should go back home, I’m not feeling really well.” I lied. “I’m sorry guys.”

“No it’s ok” Kira said.

“Stay here”, I said to Damon, “I’ll take a cab.”

“No no, I’ll take you home.”

I told him he didn’t have to and Kira assured she would drive him back home so he agreed, gave me his keys and asked me again if I was sure I didn’t need him. I swore I didn’t and took off. Wow… I really didn’t know what had happened back there. This whole death thing was just too much for me. I took a deep breath and went back home, trying to change my mind with the songs on the radio.

When I got home, Seth was already asleep, luckily. I wouldn’t have to go through some questioning. It really was the last thing I needed right now. I just wanted to go to sleep. Problem was, I wasn’t tired at all. So I took a shower, tried to relax while listening to music and wrote a little in my “book” on my computer. I needed to get away from my dark thoughts and I didn’t want to think about Damon dying.

I stayed up a long time writing and escaping with my character’s life but, somehow, it wasn’t enough. The idea of Damon dying soon was unbearable. The worst thing was that I couldn’t understand it. And that there wasn’t anything none of us could do. I would just get him back to loose him in just a year. Besides, I was going to spend most of my time away in college so I would loose those hours too, when I could have been with him. Instead, I would be studying for something I wasn’t even sure I liked. I mean, psychology sure is an interesting subject but maybe it wasn’t what I really wanted to do. Of course, what I really wanted was to be a writer. But only a few succeed so I couldn’t risk not having a career and waiting for an editor to finally publish one of my books. And then, people would have to buy it. No, I couldn’t risk that; I needed something to do besides writing. 

I was about to turn my computer off when I got a text from Damon asking if I was still up. I answered yes and he asked if we could talk a little. I went down discretely cause Seth was asleep and opened the door with a finger on my mouth to tell Damon not to make a noise. We went upstairs and closed my room’s door before saying a word. He sat on my bed, next to me and I stayed quiet.

“Leah, I think we should talk about my… disease. And about me dying.”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t want to talk about it. I didn’t want to loose what we had had in the pool. I didn’t want our relationship to go back to the awkward and weird part. I just wanted to be Damon’s friend like old times. When everything was alright.

“I assume you have a lot of questions you want to ask and I think it would be best if you’d ask them. Remember when we were little, we used to tell each other everything? Well, today, it’s the same thing, we have to be able to talk about everything, even if it’s weird or painful or if it will kill the ambiance. What do you say?”

I nodded.

“So… Do you want to talk now or should I let you get some sleep and we’ll talk about it some other time?” He asked.

“Now that it’s already weird, let’s do it.” I said.

“Great. Cause I really had no idea if I would bring it up another time. Come on, go ahead. Ask me whatever you want.”

“How come you look so good for a guy who’s going to die?”

“First of all, thanks.” We both smiled. “And, don’t worry, it’s going to get worse in a few weeks or months. It’s not like cancer where you loose your hair and everything. I look like a normal guy but everything inside my body is kind of being destroyed. It’s kind of weird, I’ll give you the little leaflet explaining everything.”

“Ok.”

“What else is on your mind?”

“Does it hurt?”

“Sometimes. But it’s only going to get worse.”

“Are you afraid? To die I mean.”

“Yes. But I think I don’t really realize that I am really going to die. So for now, I don’t think about it a lot so I’m not afraid.”

“This one is weird but… Did you make a list?”

“What?”

I took my notebook and showed him the bucket list I had made, explaining to him that I had wondered what it would be like to know that you were going to die in a year.

“I didn’t really make a bucket list”, he said once he was finished reading. “But I thought about the stuff I wanted to do before dying.”

“And what do you want to do?”

“Um… I think maybe I should make a list and hand it over to you. Cause it’s pretty long.”

“Do you want to get married?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do you want to have kids before you die?”

“No. I can’t let the woman I’d have kids with raise them all alone. It would be horrible for her.”

“You’re right.”

I yawned.

“I should probably go and let you sleep.” Damon said, while getting up. “At what time do you go off to college tomorrow?”

“Nine.”

“Ok.”

“Are you going back to college too?”

“No, I’m thinking about dropping out. I mean… what’s the point?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ll probably travel during the year or do something cool. I’ll choose something from my list.”

I smiled a little.

“I’ll come by tomorrow to say goodbye, ok?”

I nodded and hugged him. I showed him out of the house and went back to bed. I only managed to fall asleep an hour later.