~ Chapter 4: Make your list. ~

“Leah! Leah get up!”

I mumbled and opened my eyes. Jenny was in front of me, trying to get me out of bed.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

“We’re going to be late!!! Come on!”

Oh my god!! College! I got up and tried to dress up as fast as I could while putting on makeup and eating a cookie. Fifteen minutes later, we had to go. We went in Jenny’s car but just when she was about to start it, I stopped her.

“I didn’t say goodbye to Damon!”

“You’ll come back soon.”

“No, Jenny wait.”

I got out of the car and rang at his doorbell. As sad as this may sound, I didn’t know if the next time I’d be here he’d be there too. Katie opened the door and I saw she was crying.

“Katie? Are you ok?” I asked her, just before I realized it was a stupid question considering she was crying.

I felt something in my stomach twisting.

“Where is Damon?” I managed to ask.

“He… He had some kind of thing and had to go to the hospital…”

“No! No! Is it bad?”

“I don’t know…” She cried.

Everything felt like it was falling apart. I ran to Jenny’s car, told her I wasn’t coming and that I’ll explain later and she tried to ask more questions but I went in my car and drove Katie and I to the hospital, trying to hold my tears in my eyes. Damon couldn’t die now, right? He still had a year. He told me he still had a year!

I parked the car and Katie and I rushed in the hospital. We asked for Damon Hollins but the lady wouldn’t tell us anything. She wanted to know if we were family and since we weren’t, she refused to keep us informed. Katie and I almost yelled at her but she wouldn’t say anything and told us to go sit and wait for a doctor to come.

We waited for a long time that felt like hours, drinking bad coffee that tasted like copper and crying most of the time. I couldn’t loose him. He didn’t even have the time to make a bucket list!

Finally, a doctor asked if there was someone for Damon Hollins and Katie and I literally jumped off of our sits. He came to see us and told us Damon was ok. I mean he wasn’t cured at all but he wasn’t going to die a year early. The doctor said it was normal that Damon was having some bad times and that it would happen a whole lot more over the days so we had to be prepared. He was about to go but I held him back and asked him if it was ok if Damon wanted to travel.

“I’m not gonna answer as a doctor. Considering that Damon is dying, I’d tend to say that he should probably spend his last year doing the stuff he wants to do and that he won’t get to do later. He’s sick anyway so staying home to be careful isn’t worth it if you ask me. So, if he wants to travel, then I say maybe he should before it’s too late. He should enjoy his last moments while he can. Cause even if his condition is horrible and that dying so young is really terrible, he has the “chance” to have a time to do what he wants before he dies. A lot of people don’t get that chance.”

“You’re right. Thank you. Can we go see him?”

“If you want to. But he’ll be out in a couple of hours until they run some tests so maybe it’s better if you wait here so that they can get it over with faster and you can all go home.”

We agreed it was best even if we both wanted to see Damon. While we waited, a little relived that Damon wasn’t going to leave us sooner than planned, Katie and I took advantage of the situation to try to get to know each other better. She wanted to know more about my relation ship with Damon and I couldn’t help but sensing a little distrust from her side, even if it was silly. I tried to reassure her and told her we used to be best friends and asked how the two of them had met. She explained it to me, smiling for the first time since I had first saw her. It was the most common story actually. Damon had spilled a drink on her, invited her at his place after promising her he wasn’t a psycho and gave her a change of shirt, then one thing led to another and they started dating and you know the rest.

She was lucky to be beautiful. I knew a guy wouldn’t have stopped and offered a new shirt to a common girl. But Katie was the kind of girl to capture everybody’s attention. I mean she was practically perfect! She was tall, blonde, athletic but not too much, just enough to have a thin stomach but also have boobs. She was smart (studying to be a lawyer) and even funny. I understood Damon completely. Who wouldn’t like this girl? Even I was really beginning to like her. I mean, there was no reason why I shouldn’t have, it’s not like she was some sort of rival or anything. But she was pretty intimidating. But from what I had learned with Jenny, you didn’t judge a book by its cover. Jenny was also a really beautiful girl and really extrovert and all but she was also really sweet and you loved her right away when you got to know her a little more. Maybe Katie was like that too. On the outside, she was the perfect stereotype girl, but on the inside, a really cool caring chick. I would maybe need more time to figure it out.

Finally, a couple of hours later, Damon came back and hugged both Katie and me then reassured us and swore he was ok. Then he remembered I was supposed to be in college right now, and asked me why I wasn’t. I thought he was kidding for a second but he was seriously asking so I told him that I wasn’t going to leave when I knew he was in the hospital of course. He smiled and the three of us went home. Damon was about to go back at his place when we arrived but I asked him if I could talk to him so he followed me in my house after telling Katie he would need a minute. We sat around the table and I took my notebook.

“Make your list.” I told him.

“What?”

“Make your list.” I repeated. “You don’t have much time and the doctor agreed with me earlier. He told me you’d better enjoy your last moments and that’s what you’re going to do. So make your list. And I’ll help you making everything come true.”

“You should be in college right now.”

“I don’t care. There are more important things in life. And I don’t even like psychology that much anyway.”

“Are you… Are you telling me you’re dropping out?”

“I guess.”

“I can’t let you do that. You’d throw your life away.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll reapply in a year. For now, you have, we have to focus on the important things. And the first one is to make your bucket list. Come on.”

I handed him the pen that he took when he saw I wouldn’t let him change his mind until he’d have done what I wanted. He cogitated for a moment then started writing on the notebook. He didn’t stop until a long time later and sighed.

“Well… I guess that’s it. Do I get to add things that I didn’t think about right now?” He asked, smiling.

“Of course. It’s your list, you can do whatever you want with it.”

“Ok.”

“So… What should we start with?” I inquired.

“What do you mean?”

“I hate to break it to you but you only have a year to realize a lot so we’d better get started.”

“Now?”

“Why not?”

He shrugged and took the notebook to pick out a thing from the list.

“I guess an easy thing would be fine to start: Watch every Harry Potter movie.”

“You never did that?” I asked, a little surprised.

“Nope. I stopped at the fourth or something. I know it’s stupid but…”

“It’s not stupid.” I cut him short. “We’ll do everything that’s on that list even if it says to make a sandcastle or to play hopscotch”

He laughed and said he would think about adding this last one to his list.

“I’m so glad I’ve got you back in my life.” Damon added at some point.

“Me too. Now let’s get started, we’re on for the whole night.”

“I’ll go ask Katie if she wants to come.”

He went out and I put the first Harry Potter in the player.