Hey everyone. My name's Ashley and after losing touch with fanfiction for a LONG time, I have decided to come back and post another story. I've posted it in a few other places as well so some of you may recognize it.
It's called Live Like You Were Dying and basically Haley has been told she has cancer and she only has six months left to live. Now, for those of you who don't like the heavy stuff, don't stop reading yet. I know the possibility of death is a big issue, but it won't become as much of one until later on and I hope by then, you'll be hooked. :)
This is a comedy of sorts and you might have to bear with me on the first few chapters because when I first wrote them, they were kind of experimental, so they're a little short and not as funny as I would have liked.
Besides the prologue, I have fourteen chapters written, so I should be able to update regularly.
Anyway, the prologue is much more serious than the rest of the story, mainly because I needed a way to introduce Haley and make you sort of understand her life and her problems. It's really short, but if you don't want to suffer through it, I'll summarize and you can skip over it entirely:
-Haley's mom left the day before her sixth birthday as a result of major marital problems.
-Haley's dad died of cancer two years later (when she was eight).
-Her boyfriend cheated on her and she has been living with her sister, whose husband is abusive.
-Now, she has cancer and has been told she has six months left to live. One of those months has passed already.
That's just kind of the cut and dry version and I've posted the last few sentences below (it's in Haley's point of view):
That's what you think about when you're told you have only six months left to live. Not that you're going to travel to remote places or do something to change the world; something memorable or incredible.
I know I certainly never thought about any of that. Not for the first month out of six I had left to live. Not until the day I met Nathan Scott.
Prologue:
People always make promises. But they don't ever keep them. My mom promised me she would never leave. She disappeared the day before I turned six. My dad promised me we'd make it through together. He died when I was eight. My older sister promised me it would be OK. She married a man who beat both of us and was never once punished for it. My best friend promised me my life would be perfect after that. I'm sixteen and I'm dying.
When I was young, my parents fought all the time. They did their best to hide it from my sister and I, but we heard them just the same. Every night, my mom would hold me and tell me that it was OK. That tomorrow, everything would be wonderful again. That we'd all be a family. I made her promise she would never leave. That she would stay with me forever. It was a promise I knew she couldn't keep.
The day before my sixth birthday, my mom and dad got into a huge fight. They were yelling and screaming and throwing things. Then, my dad slapped my mom. I remember it being cold that day. My sister and I cowered in a dark corner, shivering. Watching. Waiting. Everything was quiet for a moment. Our parents just stood there, angry. Then, my mom slammed out the door and out of our lives. We never saw her again.
My dad sat us down and had a talk with us that night. He said we'd manage, that somehow, we'd make it through. That it was OK. But it was never OK again. He died of cancer two years later.
People always lie. My boyfriend a year ago told me he loved me. He was cheating on me. And he had been since the first week we started dating. I wasted two and a half years on him. His name was Mark and I was stupid enough fall in love with him. He was perfect in every sense of the word. When he told me he loved me, I believed him. I was ecstatic. He was perfect until the day I found him with Josie Summers.
I wish none of this had ever happened to me. I wish my life was different. I wish I could bring back my mom and my dad and I wish my sister had never married that man. I wish my boyfriend never cheated on me. But most of all, I wish I didn't have cancer.
But people are always wishing for things and it never does them any good. Everyone always wants something.
I think of all the things I want; all the things I know I might never have, time being at the top of that list. And that's when I realize. Wanting never got anyone anywhere. Wanting won't change anything. It won't make you happy, it won't give anymore time than you have. It won't cure cancer. And it won't help me.
To have everything I've ever needed and still want more; well most people would call that greedy, selfish even. But I wouldn't. I know there's no hope left for me, I know I don't have much time left. But it doesn't stop me from wanting.
People always say if you're dying to live life to the fullest, no regrets. They don't understand the people who, diagnosed with a terminal illness, resent the world and spend their last months hating everyone in it. But how can anyone expect them to? They've never been confronted with what I have to face now. They've never had a doctor tell them they have cancer. They've ever been told, in no uncertain terms, that they will die within the next six months.
I have. And when someone gives you news like that, you don't think about how you're going to spend that next six months. You don't think about making time to do everything you never thought you'd do, everything you always thought was impossible. No, you don't think about that. You think about what's coming at the end of those six months. You think of how, after only six short months pass, you won't be here anymore. Your lifeless body will be lying in a wooden box in the cold earth. At first, friends, family members will visit often to throw flowers on your grave, to mourn.
Then as the years go by, they'll move on. They won't necessarily forget about you, they could never do that, but they'll learn how to remember other things instead. The visits to where you're buried will become less frequent over time until finally they just stop altogether and you're not forgotten, but you might as well be. It'll be as if you never existed.
That's what you think about when you're told you have only six months left to live. Not that you're going to travel to remote places or do something to change the world, something memorable, something incredible.
I know I certainly never thought about any of that. Not for the first month out of six I had left to live. Not until the day I met Nathan Scott.
So, I know that was really short and you're probably not dying to keep reading, but I'm posting the first chapter right after this, so please at least read that. It's a little less depressing and Nathan and Haley meet. :) Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing what you think.