~ Chapter 31: See whales, hitchhike and skydive. ~

"Oh my god! Look!"

I turned my head and saw a giant whale in the water swimming before disappearing in the deep ocean. It was the most fascinating thing. We'd been in Reunion Island for two days already and had decided to spend the first day in the beach. We actually saw a ray and lots of colorful beautiful fishes. We were having once again a great trip and were now observing whales. Damon was so excited, it was too cute to handle.

The boat stopped at one point and we waited for something to appear. Then I heard a shout. But it wasn't the kind we were waiting for. Damon was on the ground, holding his stomach, grimacing.

"Oh my god, Damon, are you ok?" I asked, bending down, already worried to hell.

"It... Hurts... So bad." Damon said between breaths, his jaw thight.

A lot of people were already crowding around us, whispering but I didn't care about them. I just wanted Damon to stop hurting. I took his hand and told him to tighten mine as hard as he was hurting but he shook his head, tearing up with pain. I was already almost crying too. I hated seeing him suffer. If there had been a way for me to take his pain away from him, God I would have sacrificed myself. If there's something worse than hurting like hell, it's to see someone you love do.

"Breath. Calm down. It'll be alright. I'm here, ok? Look at me, I'm here for you Damon."

It seemed to last forever until finally his jaw relaxed and he caught his breath again. I hugged him, crying. Then he got up and bent over the barrier of the boat before vomiting. I handed him a tissue that he took without looking at me directly in the eyes and I put my hand on his.

"Damon, you don't have to be ashamed with me. I love you and I can handle it. Ok? There's no shame in being sick. Alright?"

"I just... It's so..."

"It's alright. I promise."

"I'd kiss you but my breath must be awful right now."

I laughed and hugged him. Then someone shouted "There's a whale! Look!" so we did look, trying to put this behind us.

We spent the next day in the beach, tanning and relaxing in the sea. Damon's condition was getting worse and he was swallowing pill after pill to try and make it better. He had lost a lot of weight and was throwing up at least once a day, which caused him to carry his toothbrush with him at all times cause he didn't want to kiss me otherwise. I could tell he was ashamed, which was totally stupid cause it's not like he had a choice! I wanted to support him but he sometimes wouldn't let me see him when he was at his worst and would lock himself in the hotel room or in the bathroom.

Then there would be the good moments when he would be back to normal and would be able to completely enjoy what we were doing. Some other time, the pills made him tired and moody and he would just take a nap on the sand or go back to the hotel to sleep it off.

Seeing him suffer was the worst pain that could exist. I couldn't do anything besides hold him and whisper that it would pass and that he was ok, even though he clearly wasn't.

On the fifth day of our week in the Reunion Island, Damon took the notebook and looked at the list with attention, sitting on the unmade bed at the hotel. I was still getting ready and zipped my beach dress on.

"What do we got for today?" I asked, joining him.

"You're going to love this one." Damon smiled, pointing at the bottom of the page.

Skydive.

"You can't possibly be serious." I said.

"Of course I am. I checked with my doctors and they're ok with it. Nothing they can do anyway."

I didn't want to sound like Katie had when she had come by my house to tell me that it wasn't serious for Damon to do dangerous physical activities in his condition. But what if he got in serious pain while skydiving?

"I'll be fine Leah, don't worry. And I'm going to hurt either way so let it at least be in the sky."

"I don't know..."

"Come on, I promise it'll be fine."

"It's your decision."

"Indeed. Oh, and I thought we could kill two birds with one stone and Hitchhike on the way to the field."

"That could be done. But if no one picks us up in an hour we give up and do it another time ok?"

"Deal. Pack your stuff, I'll call and book us a place."

"What if we had to book earlier?"

"I'll have to use the death card."

I knew Damon didn't like to use the "death card" as he called it to be able to do stuff but when it was necessary, it could get us into lots of places. He would talk about his disease, the person on the phone would get confused and sorry and would automatically let us in.

Damon didn't have to speak more than three minutes that it was already settled. We had to be at the station in three hours. It wasn't too far away so there was a bigger chance that someone would take us in his/her car.

We took our bags and got going. We had already eaten a large breakfast and Damon had taken his pills. He wasn't grimacing in pain for now, which was a good thing. We stayed on the side of the road and put our thumbs up to signal we were hitchhiking.

It wasn't long until a car stopped in front of us. We gave the woman driving the name of the city we were heading to and she said she wasn't going in that direction after apologizing. The next car that stopped actually took us, which was after thirty minutes of standing on the sidewalk with our thumbs up. The guy told us about his family in France, how he was here on business duty, all that in a few words cause he couldn't really speak English.

Finally we arrived at our destination. We thanked Franck (the man who drove us) multiple times, he refused our money though but wished us good luck with our skydiving activity. We got out of the car and walked to the sort of airport. My stomach was filled with knots of anxiety and I looked up to watch an airplane taking off.

"You okay?" I asked Damon.

"Yup. Kind of scared but as for the pain it's not showing up right now."

"Good."

We arrived inside and gave our reservation papers to the person at the front desk, who directed us to another guy, dressed in a sort of military uniform. He looked intimidating and in his mid-forties.

"You here to skydive huh?" He asked when he had read our papers.

"Yes."

"Alright, me and Jamie right there will explain everything to you and then we'll go up and you'll jump each with one of us."

He led the way and we followed him.

"I would have preferred to jump with a hot blonde." Damon whispered as we were walking.

"Shut up!" I hit him playfully in the arm and he laughed.

We were explained all the safety measures and how it would work once we would have to jump and after a lot of talking, we finally got suited up and prepared. We followed our teachers to the plane and got inside of it. It was really loud but we didn't even really notice it because of all the nerves and excitement.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this." I screamed over the noise to Damon. "You okay?"

"Still good. God must really want me to jump off of a plane."

"Yeah right."

"I mean, I know you hate when I say it but I'm going to die anyway and it would pretty much be the perfect death."

"I know right! I've been thinking the same thing."

"Really?" Damon was surprised by my answer and I was too.

"Yeah, I mean dying while flying is kind of awesome. But it's not going to be your awesome fate because I still need you for a few months."

"I'll be here. Dying on a hospital bed with my loved-ones is not so bad either."

"Enough about dying, we're about to skydive, we should be excited!"

"I totally am. And about to shit my pants too."

"Same here." I laughed.

The plane took off and Damon held my hand tight but it wasn't because of the pain this time. We got high in the air pretty quickly, too quickly in my taste. Damon would jump with the military guy and I would jump with the other guy that had joined us to explain everything. We got attached up and verified everything was in place.

"Ok folks, almost time to jump, you ready?" My teacher asked.

"As ready as I'll ever be." Damon answered.

I just gulped. We were really high. Why had I agreed to this? The woman conducting the plane opened the sort of gate and I opened big eyes at the view of just emptiness before us. The wind was violent against our suits.

"I'm going to count to three and then we'll jump ok?" My teacher asked.

I inhaled then exhaled to try to make the knot in my stomach disappear before answering yes. I looked at Damon and he smiled.

"I love you Leah."

"I love you Damon." I replied.

"See you on the other side."

"Ok." Damon's teacher and mine started counting at the same time. "Three. Two-"

"Oh god."

"-One."

And so we jumped. Or more like he jumped and my body followed since we were both attached. I couldn't hold my scream but it didn't matter. It was too awesome. We were floating in the air, the wind slapping every part of our body, but mostly our face. So this was what it felt like to fly.

I looked to try to see Damon but he was probably too far away floating somewhere else. We fell in the sky for what seemed like seconds before my teacher handed me the grip to unleash the parachute. I pulled it and it held us by our straps, making us float again but with a direction and not falling like before. It was still as awesome.

I couldn't fathom what was happening to us. It was too amazing and unbelievable. But it had to end at some point and we hit the ground, running. The parachute fell behind us and I lay on the ground, out of breath. I spotted Damon landing just next to me and he lay down next to me, short of breath too.

"Oh my god." We both said at the same time before laughing.

"I cannot believe we just did that." Damon stated.

"Me neither. But it sure as hell was the most amazing thing I had ever done in my entire life."

"Um... Having sex with you is a close first too." Damon said.

I laughed.

"I know, I'm amazing. What else is new?"

We stayed on the ground for a few more minutes to let our hearts calm down and try to catch our breath. I looked at the sky and a few birds flying and wondered if it had really happened.

After giving back the equipment, thanking everyone and getting our stuff back, we took a cab back to our hotel, still as overwhelmed. I got the notebook out of my bag and we ticked Skydive and Hitchhike off the list.