Rila: Oh. My. God. - The summary of feels for Fault in Our Stars.
Disclaim: Oh, I couldn't possibly own Fault in Our Stars. Not nearly brilliant enough for that.
Word Count: 457
"Cancer," she'd told him, "is a side-effect of dying."
She'd spoken it so casually, and he'd agreed with her. Both of them knew it all too well - her more than him. Up until now, that was. Augustus wasn't naturally a nervous person, but be found himself lacing and unlacing his fingers together, good leg bouncing up and down. Her parents paced back and forth, her mother's hands a worried knot at her chest, eyes red-rimmed and cheeks tear-stained. Her father was the same, and none of them spoke.
In truth, Augustus felt a little out of place - especially since he'd given little thought to formalities once he'd heard she was in the hospital. Hospital trips, he'd discovered long ago, were a way of marking down the limited time. Either you were in and out with routine check-ups, or the clock was reaching the final moments. He swept a hand through his hair, exhaled, and looked up at the clock.
A doctor came striding down the hallway. Augustus didn't stand - he watched her parents rush towards the doctor, exchanging words in low, hushed voices thick with tears and worry. It was a familiar scene now - he'd seen it on the other side, and then from the outside last year with Caroline. He exhaled and passed his hand through his hair again.
"It's okay to give up," he mumbled to himself. Words that rarely left his mouth - but after what he'd been told recently, he found himself nearly wishing that the doctor would say that this was it - that she was leaving, going to a place that she wouldn't be coming back from. He wouldn't see those pretty eyes of hers, the twist of her lips into that awkward little smile. Her rather gentle views of her illness, her acceptance that she wouldn't get to do what others her age did. It had never been an if she would go - it'd been a when.
Augustus shook his head. When he got home, he'd have to ask his mother to make another one of her Encouragement pillows - if only to snap himself out of this sudden cloud of doubt. He watched her parents part from the Doctor and he steeled himself for what they would say - if they would say anything at all. He stared at his hands. "Don't you die," he said to his hands. "Don't you dare die on me, Hazel Grace."