Jaren's POV

The rest of the day went by smoothly, and now wee were sat at our lunch table, talking quietly between each other.

"You should totally join the cheer squad if you're good." John points out, causing me to sigh. He doesn't get it.

I don't want to be a cheerleader because I don't like attention on me. Plus, the only person I'd know on the squad would be Scotty, and it's not like we're best friends— or even friends, for that matter. I don't know, I used to do gymnastics so I know I'd do well, but I seriously don't want more attention on me.

There's enough as it is, with me dating John and all.

"So what about you? You've gotta be good at a sport." I say, leaning my head on my hand as I watch him eat his food.

"Ah... Well.. Lung cancer really seems to hinder your ability of playing sport." He replies, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. My mouth dries at this and I nod my head in understanding. "Shit, sorry Jaren. I shouldn't have brought that up." He mumbles, reaching across the table and grabbing my hand.

"No.. I'm sorry for asking a stupid question like that." I mumble, glancing away. We had talked a little more about it recently, and I've found out that he's already on stage 4. That's the last stage of lung cancer, and apparently only 4 percent of people survive it.

But I know that John will survive it— he has to.

Apparently they caught it late, and so he found out that this is his last year. Or, so the doctors say. There's a chance it could be two years, but two years at max.

If he doesn't get help.

"I don't know why you keep resisting our help, John." I grumble, looking down at my tray of uneaten food. "You may be able to survive this." I add, biting my lip.

"There is like a four percent chance, Jaren. I don't want to waste the rest of my life hooked up to machines. I wanna spend the rest of my life here, with you." He mumbles, grinning at me with his dorky ass smile.

"I want to be with you for the rest of my life, though. I don't want to lose you." I whisper, tightening my grip on his hand. He seems to ponder this for a while, his brows knitted together as if I just revealed something insane to him.

"Ok. You're right." He whispers, causing my heart to soar. "I'll do it. Take me to the cancer people or whatever they're called."

I can't help but grin widely at this, and suddenly I'm leaning over the table to kiss him. He smiles against my lips but kisses back, sighing contently as I pull away.

"Thank you." I whisper, smiling brightly at him.

"Yeah, Yeah." He grumbles, waving me off. I stare at him, determination coursing through my veins as I reach into my pocket to text Eri.

Jaren: Johns in can u schedule appointment?

Eri: already done, it's tmrw so u guys get to miss some school

Jaren: ur the best mom ever love u bye

Eri: I know. Bye

I look up at John and see him watching something over my shoulder. I look back and I see that everyone at Jonathan and Luke's table are all crowding around Jonathan who is showing them something on his phone.

"You miss them, huh?" I ask, catching John off-guard.

"Yeah, sometimes. I miss the good old days, middle school days. Video games after school, drugs not being on any of our minds and we all still thought we were straight. Besides Brian, at least." He replies, still watching them. "Plus, I didn't have cancer then either." He adds, grimacing slightly as he says it.

"Maybe you should tell them." I say, glancing over my shoulder again.

"Hell no. I don't want their pity, I don't want anyone's pity. I'm the bad boy, I'm the druggie, I'm not the guy that has terminal cancer." He growls out, his eyes narrowing at me.

"Damn right your not. It's not terminal, dickhead." I hiss back, causing his eyes to widen.

"Shit, sorry." He whispers, looking down at the table before clearing his throat.

"For someone with lung cancer, I've never seen you cough up blood once. Or wheeze, for that matter." I point out, causing him to laugh dryly.

"I cough up blood everyday, just not in front of people. And, I don't run or walk fast, so I don't wheeze when I breathe." He replies, before pulling his phone out of his pocket. "One time I coughed up blood in front of Cameron, but he's a clueless fuck." He says, showing me a picture of some blood in his hands and Cameron's grossed out face a little ways away.

I laugh at the picture, loving the way Cameron looks so disgusted.

"Thanks for showing me your blood, John. I feel like we're bonding even more." I say jokingly, causing him to shrug his shoulders.

"That was the only good thing about living with my dad. If I ever had blood on my shirt, I could say it was from my dads beatings, not from lung cancer." John says, putting his phone back into his pocket. "Now I have to be careful where I cough, otherwise people would get suspicious." He adds, taking a sip of his water.

I stand up from my seat and look down at him expectantly.

"What?" He asks, giving me a weird look.

"Give me it." I growl, causing him to force back a smile. He ends up laughing anyways.

"God, you're so oblivious. I've had it for, like, ten minutes." He laughs out, handing me my vape.

"I was about to strangle you. Lungs be damned." I hiss under my breath, causing him to laugh more as he stands up as well. We grab our trays and toss out the rest of our food before heading out down the halls to the music room.

"So why are we here, exactly?" He asks, watching me as I go ahead and sit down at the piano.

"I have many hidden talents, I've decided to show you one." I reply, patting the spot beside me. He moves over and sits down, just as I start playing the piano.

"Tokyo Ghoul? Really?" He asks as I begin to play the Intro from season one. (Unravel)

"I'm a weeb, you're a weeb. Shut up and love it." I reply, pouting slightly as I continue to play.

"Holy shit." He breathes out as he watches my fingers fly across the keyboard to play the riff part.

Out of the corner of my eyes I see him smiling widely, his eyes never leaving my fingers as he listens to me play, almost like he's in a trance. I can't help but smile as I continue to play, enjoying how impressed he is with my skills.

I may be an attention whore when it comes to John, lets be honest.

"Jaren, you never cease to amaze me." John says, his arm landing over my shoulders.

"Shut up, we've known each other for, like, two weeks, idiot." I reply, rolling my eyes as I smile at him.

"Yet we already live together." He jokes, making me laugh a little. He is right though, everything has been moving so fast between us.

Day five we got together, no wait, day six? I don't know, I can't count. He started living with me the day after.

If anyone was reading my life story, they'd be like 'woah, shit went 0 to 100 real quick' and I'd be like 'yeah, that's the shit right there. Me and my man gonna get married or some shit lmao'.

But this isn't a story, this is real life. John has cancer, he's hiding it from everyone at school and he has an abusive dad. I think it's perfectly reasonable to live with someone you trust, even if you met a week ago.

I mean, it feels like I've known him forever.

"Hey, Uh, Jaren.." John starts, turning towards me slightly. "Look, I just want to be 100% honest with you, ok? I've known you for less than two weeks and you're already the biggest person in my life. I feel like I've known you for years, and you're the only person that makes me want to beat this stupid fucking cancer inside of me." He rants, his eyes never leaving mine.

"John.." I whisper, tears forming in the corner of my eyes. The way he looks at me is just so... so comforting. I can see the love and the passion in his eyes.

"I think I really do love you. I know, I know. You've been here a week and you already know I'm insane, but I really do. I've never felt like this before, and if this isn't what true love is, then holy fuck. I just want to say thank you, thank you for helping me and thank you for believing in me. I'm not going anywhere yet, but if I do, I want you to know that I'll never forget what you've done for me." He whispers, pressing his forehead against mine.

"You're right, I've been here for a little less than two weeks and I've already found my soulmate. This isn't some 'I love you' fling for teenagers, this is as real as it could ever be. I love you, John, and you ain't going anywhere soon because we're gonna kick some cancer ass." I reply, gritting my teeth together to stop myself from crying.

"God, I want to survive this Jaren. At first I didn't, I was certain that it wouldn't matter if I died, but now I just can't. I can't leave you. I won't." He whispers, and that's when I notice that he's crying.

"John, everything will be ok." I whisper, pressing my lips against his for a little while, to soothe him.

"I just hope we're not too late." He whispers, his eyes squeezed shut at the thought.

"Better late than never, we'll catch it, John." I reply, sniffling slightly as I feel the tears leave my eyes.

"God, we're so messed up." John laughs out, wiping his eyes as he pulls out of our embrace. "A druggie with lung cancer and a sassy Canadian with a sob story, what a beautiful couple." He jokes, causing me to laugh again.

I've decided that I'm going to tell John everything about my past and what happened to me.

I finally have someone who I can trust, someone who I can love.

||.:.||

Shorter chapter lol