Homepage › Stories › Thank You El. › Chapter 18

Thank You El.

Chapter 18

“The picture of the lady with curly short hair is my aunt. She died when I was 10 from leukemia cancer. She took care of me during the summer because my mom had to work and my brother usually had summer school. I never really wanted to go hang out with her because I thought she was weird and mean. Well, eventually her cancer got bad and she had to be readmitted to the hospital but we all thought it was going to be like every other time; she’s in the hospital for 2 months at the max and out. This time was different and she slipped into a coma. I didn’t fully understand what that meant because I was only in 5th grade and the only worse thing I’ve felt is leaving my friend’s house after spending the night. Those were the three worst days of my life, so far.
Day one: She needed help breathing so they put her on one of those breathing machines.
Day two: She opened her eyes and responded to movement. The doctors told us not to bombard her though because it could overwhelm her so I didn’t get to talk to her.
Day three: The doctor gave my grandma the choice of pulling the plug on her since she wasn’t married. She decided to pull it and they waited 5 minutes for her to start breathing on her own. Of course, she couldn’t just breathe on her own. I was holding her hand when she died until my mom pulled me away.
It wasn’t until after she died that I realized how much I really loved her. I miss her every day and celebrate her death every year. She died November 10, 2006. That’s also why I got the tattoo.” As I finished telling my story, I found his hand wiping stray tears on my cheeks.
Harry POV:
When she started talking, I noticed her eyes misting up and took hold of her hand. Throughout her story, she looked as if she was in a daze. I decided not to interrupt her story with questions and just rub her hand. She started mindlessly crying and taking deep breaths so I pulled her closer and wrapped my arm around her shoulder. When she finished, I quickly moved to wipe her tears. “You don’t have to tell me about the other picture,” I gently whisper to her. She turned to look at me, “shut up Harold. I'm not done.” I nodded for her to continue. She turned back to the front, “I hung up the picture up because it’s like a literal meaning that she’s looking down at me. Now for the other picture that’s my parents. They are assholes but that picture reminds me of when they were happy together. Now, all they do is argue and be horrible parents.” She chuckles at her explanation and I smile because she’s finally smiling.
“So, do you expect me to fall in love with you?”
I turn her face so that we are looking in each other eyes. “I would love for you to fall in love with me but that’s not why I'm in this relationship. I'm in this relationship because you make me happy and I know that I can’t look at you and not touch you. If you fall in love that’s surely a bonus though.” I look around and notice that the sun was coming.
“Would you like to head back to your house?” she nodded her head and grabbed my hand.
“Also, I need to talk to you about Taylor.” She nodded her head again motioning for me to continue. “They said that I have to keep our fake relationship going on but…”