Chapter One
Heartthrob Dean Winchester's Gay Scandal! The headline to the Star magazine was written yellow letters in front of a picture of the green-eyed, freckled cheeks man that looked away from the camera. Underneath, the headline continued: Fiancée Anna Milton is broken!
Castiel sighed, ever since the famous actor of Dean Winchester came out of the closet three months ago, that was all the biggest celebrity magazines talked about, even the ones that usually falsified topics like those.
"Oh, come on!" Castiel's close friend, Gadreel, complained when he reached for a People magazine. "It's been three months; don't these writers have anything else to talk about?"
"Apparently not." Castiel picked up the newest issue of Shonen Jump and paid the man for it. "Are you getting anything, Gad?"
"Yes." He finally grabbed the GQ magazine with Mila Kunis on the cover that the other magazine stands had ran out of and paid, "Thanks." He smiled and grabbed his blue oxygen tank cart. "Man, I can't tell you how much I love Mila Kunis."
"She's three years older than you."
"So?" Gadreel put his plastic tube behind his left ear when he saw it fall on his shoulder, "You're in love with Jared Leto and he's like fifteen years older than you."
Their pace started to slower down when they saw a massive crowd in front of them, covering even the largest of New York City's street, Gadreel and Castiel's easiest shortcut to Mt. Sinai Medical Center. "Are you kidding me?" Castiel tried to look past a tall man so that he could see what all the commotion was about.
"Amy Adams and Dean Winchester are shooting their new movie here, no?" Gadreel was tall so there wasn't much of a need for him to look over anyone. About two weeks ago, the two friends had heard that the gay star and actress Amy Adams would begin shooting for a film about a female cop trying to catch a young, dangerous hit man in the massive city of New York.
"We were out for thirty minutes." Castiel hissed. He couldn't believe that in less than half an hour, a movie crew managed to settle in the middle of a street. "You do know we have to take the long way now, right?"
"Goddamn it." Gadreel mumbled. "But how come the location suddenly moved here? Last week they were at Central Park."
But Castiel wasn't paying attention to Gadreel's words he was too busy staring at the people that noticed them. He knew why suddenly all those people starting moving to the side so that they could pass. They were feeling sorry. They were feeling sorry because they saw Castiel's hospital sweater and Gadreel's oxygen tank.
They knew they had cancer. Both of them.
"Wanna go to my place instead?" Castiel moved away from the crowd, volunteering his apartment. "We could watch a movie or something, I'm sure the hospital wouldn't mind."
"But I want to meet Amy Adams. I heard she's hotter up close."
"We could watch Man of Steel on Netflix! Let's just go." Castiel started walking away.
"But—" He fixed his cannula before it fell from his nostrils.
"Please?"
Gadreel sighed, "Fine. But we're not watching Man of Steel; I don't need Henry Cavill to remind me how bad my physical is. We're watching Silver Stag." Silver Stag was a 007 movie that had come out a year ago with Dean Winchester playing the villain. Gadreel and Castiel had won movie tickets in a hospital contest and ever since, it had become both of their Bond favorite. Of course, up until the part where Dean Winchester's character died. He was too good of a villain to last only one movie.
On their way to Castiel's apartment, Castiel thought about what just happened. How all those people were willing to give away their only chance to meet a celebrity for two cancer kids—well, not really kids; Cas and Gadreel were both twenty-seven— out of pity. At least, that's how Castiel would see it; Gadreel thought it was kindness.
For them to also allow Castiel to get a better look at Amy Adams and Dean Winchester it meant was becoming visible on the outside. He touched his forehead. It was hotter than it was this morning.
"Are you okay?" Gadreel asked Castiel as they crossed the street.
"Yeah. Hey do I look different to you?"
Gadreel analyzed Castiel for a few moments before responding, "You've been looking paler, and yours eyes have become baggier." He shrugged, "I don't know, man, that could be just me."
"Thanks anyways." Castiel smiled.
"Are you signing up for the Hospital's spring dance for the Cancer patients?"
"I was thinking about it." They took a turn to the right and continued walking straight until they reached a red brick building with two glass doors. "I might do it."
"Yeah, me too. Just to get my mind off all the chemo and therapy sessions I've been having lately." He opened the door for Cas.
"Thanks." He said then started up the stairs, Gadreel following him later after allowing a lady with bright red hair to go in first. "I saw the volunteer sign-up list in the morning, and I was thinking about writing my name. I should've written my name."
"I'll write it in tomorrow when I go back to the hospital, if you'd like."
"Yeah, go ahead." When they reached the hall of the fourth floor, they started to the last door at the end of the hallway. "I also need to focus on something else."
-.-.-.-.-.-
Castiel sat on the floor on his bathroom, feeling the blood run down his face from his nose to his light gray shirt. He sniffled, as if that were to slower down the flow, and wiped away the tears that had started not long ago.
He doesn't have long. He remembered the doctor telling his older brothers, Michael and Gabriel, when they came over. Even now, neither of them knew he overheard the conversation about his cancer… that he knew that it wouldn't be long before he kicked the bucket.
Who would've known, huh? Who would've thought that the once careless, free spirit of Castiel Novak only had so little to live? That at twenty-seven, he'd been preparing himself for his own funeral. Why now, though? When he had so much to give to the world, when he needed to experiment, when he needed to fall in love, to make mistakes, to tell someone he loved them.
Gadreel knocked on his door, "Hey, Cas?"
"What is it?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." He used the sink to help him stand up. He grabbed some toilet paper to wipe away the blood from his nose and chin.
"You sure?" Gadreel asked even though he already knew what was happening on the other side of that door.
"Don't worry about it." His voice lowered when he heard the phone ringing. "C-could you answer that, please?"
"I'm on it."
Castiel leaned against the door. He was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago, a little after he finished college. He remembered the moment when the symptoms first started showing up during a date with a guy named Nathan, when he pointed out a nosebleed and Castiel fainted moments later.
"Are you serious?" Cas heard Gadreel on the other side of the door. "Oh my god, w-when did this happen? How long has he been there?"
Castiel slightly opened the door, "What's going on?"
Gadreel raised his index finger to signal him to wait, "Do you know how long he's staying? How bad was his injury?" He stayed quiet for a few seconds, "Charlie, calm down. I'm also panicking but inside. I can't lose my cool." He chuckled, "I'll call you back in a bit, let me just tell Cas."
"What happened?"
"You know how earlier we saw that camera crew?"
Castiel nodded, opening the door completely, "What of it?"
"Well, Charlie told me that one of the stars got injured."
"Oh no."
"Let me finish…it's Dean Winchester!" He grinned, still unable to believe that possibly tomorrow they'd be meeting a celebrity. "Charlie said that she heard Lisa and few other nurses saying that he got an injured arm due to a stunt and that'll he'll be staying in the hospital while he recovers, which probably won't be long since it's a fractured arm."
"Do you want to meet him?"
"Not him, but he's worked with Blake Lively," Another of Gadreel's many celebrity crushes, "And I want to know what she's like."
Castiel had never met a celebrity before so he started wondering what it'd feel like to meet one. "So…" Castiel walked out of his bathroom to his room. He reached for the TV remote, "Dean Winchester movie marathon tonight?"
