Breathe through a straw for sixty seconds.
It seems ok at first, even sort of fun. But keep going.
After a few seconds your lungs begin to strain, your head aches, and your palms start to sweat.
Remember, you can stop when you've had enough.
But a person like Veronica Donovan, a person with cystic fibrosis, they can't.
Everyone in this world is breathing borrowed air. It's just that some people need a little extra help to get it. From day one we all are slowly growing closer to the end. For most they don't know how they will die, maybe in a car accident, a heart attack, or of old age, for all they know they won't find out for a long time.
The moment Matt Donovan was told his time with his daughter was limited he broke. This man just couldn't get a break. He had already lost so many and was still grieving his deceased fiance, the mother of his child. As he looks down at his daughter for the first time after knowing what was hurting his little girl, he knew right then and there, he would not take a moment of the time he had left with her for granted.
Some would think when you're told you have only so much time to live that you should live your life to the fullest, that every second counts.
Well they are right about one thing, every second does count. However, that does not mean you should go nuts are risk going sooner than you are destined too.
Veronica Donovan knows she has no future, she manages to keep herself from dreaming of one. She knows she will never have kids or fall in love, she knows she can't, she knows if she did she would only be leaving those who don't deserve it behind in pain.
When Veronica met Reagan McKinley one fateful day when she was only seven years old, she didn't open up to quickly. It took months of Reagan trying and failing to be this young girls friend before Veronica finally caved when Reagan said, "I know you may need better lungs but sorry these babies are still in use but i would happily give you one of my kidneys if you will just give me a chance."
Veronica and Reagan have been friends ever since. Reagan being the wild child always getting in trouble and Veronica being the one to get her out of trouble, since her dads the sheriff and Reagan is her only friend, he caves under his daughters puppy eyes every single time.
Though Veronica didn't have many people she considered friends that doesn't mean she wasn't nice to everyone, at least until they did something to make them not deserve it. Reagan was the one who couldn't help but be a bitch to almost everyone but still had friends. However even if she had other friends Veronica would always be her ride or die.
The were more like sisters than best friends. Spending most of their free time together, switching back and forth each week end on whose house they will sleep over at on Friday night. Veronica even has a spare oxygen tank sent up in Reagan's bedroom.
They know everything about the other. They know eachother better than they know themselves. They have no secrets, even if they did they wouldn't be able to keep them that for long.
Both girls know there is more to their world than meets the eye. Matt donovan had always been honest with his daughter about the other side of reality, and Veronica has always been open with Reagan about it too.
That honesty is what made their friendship a truly envious one.
"It was just a date Reagan, their first date. It's not like they are getting married next week." Veronica Donovan, looks at her taller friend as they walk together to the parking lot at the end of another school day.
Veronica Donovan and Reagan McKinley had been friends as long as they could remember. The two met when they were seven and eight in a hospital waiting room.
A young Veronica sat in the waiting room at the Mystic Falls hospital waiting for her father to come back who had been pulled aside by the doctor to talk. Hearing someone approach her the young Donovan looks up to see a young brunette with brown eyes who could only be a year older than herself.
"What's that thing sticking up your nose?" The stranger girl asks tilting her head.
Veronica looks at the girl with wide eyes, never had she met someone so blunt, "It helps me breathe." Veronica then asks, "What happened to your arm?"
The older girl sat down next to the younger one as she looks down at her purple cast that was covered in so many stickers you can barely tell it is purple, "I broke my arm a few weeks ago. I fell out of a tree. I finally get the cast off today, that's why I'm here. When do you get the tubes out of your nose?"
Veronica chuckles almost bitterly, shaking her head before saying, "I don't get to take them out, if I do I wouldn't be able to breathe enough. Anyways, why were you in a tree anyways?"
The brown eyed girl looks Veronica straight in the eyes as she replies bluntly, "I was chasing a squirrel." Veronica looks at the girl in surprise, that is until the older girl started laughing, "I'm kidding, my frisbee got stuck in the tree. I'm Reagan, what's your name no breath?"
The green eyed girl smiles and says, "I'm Veronica, nice to meet you squirrel chaser."
Though it was a while before the two girls relationship grew into the beautiful friendship they have know. It was in that moment Reagan knew Veronica was worth having in her life.
"Why does it seem I am the only one that loves the idea of us being sisters, well legally. Then people would stop giving me good looks when I refer to you as such." Reagan pouts and adds, "Our parents both might as well be married to their jobs, their so lonely and clearly depressed and in need of-"
Veronica makes a disgusted face as she cuts her friend of, "Don't you dare finish that sentence." She shakes her head wanting the to rid her mind of the thought of their parents sex lives. "And just so you know the only reason you get weird looks when you call me your sister is because you say it like you're from some nineties sitcom." The younger girl points out thinking about all the times the older girl had said 'my sista from another mista' in public.
Reagan rolls her eyes as she unlocks her car. Veronica gets in the passenger seat carefully with her school bag and her hand rolling oxygen tank. Sighing she looks at Reagan, "My doctor's appointment isn't for another forty five minutes..."
Reagan smiles at her friend as she starts the car knowing what her green eyed best friend was getting at, "Milkshakes?"
"Milkshakes." Veronica conferms with a grin.
Lets just say, even with the limited amount of time Veronica Donovan was given. There was never a dull moment with a girl like Reagan McKinley in her life, and there never will be.