"I am not beautiful!" she scoffs. I silently laugh because she's being ridiculous.

I seize my chance.

"Let's go watch a movie." I say, my heart thumping in my chest.

"I'm free later this week we could..." she begins

"No I mean now." I say cutting her off.

"You could be an axe murderer!" she laughs

"There's always that possibility! Come on Hazel Grace take a risk!" I laugh.

I don't know why I called her Hazel Grace, it just came out naturally and I decide to make it my official nickname for her.

I pull out my pack of cigarettes and pop one in my mouth. I look over at Hazel Grace only to see a look of disgust on her face.

"What do you think that that's cool, that is disgusting! There's always a hamartia isn't there, and you're is even though you had freaking cancer your willing to give money to a corporation for the chance to acquire even more cancer! Let me just tell you that not being able to breath sucks! It totally sucks!" she seems pissed off.

For about half the time I had no idea what she was on about, but when she mentions the breathing thing, I realise she's going on about my cigarette.

So I elaborate.

"Hazel Grace they don't hurt you unless you light them." I explain. Hazel Grace looks confused.

"I've never lit one, it's a metaphor see, you put the thing that does the killing right between your teeth, but you never give it the power to kill you. A metaphor." I say.

She smiles. A car pulls up on the curb in front of us and the woman inside, presumably Hazel Graces' mom, rolled down the window.

"Hey sweetie is it top model time?" she asks and I look over at Hazel Grace hoping and praying.

"Erm, no I've made plans with Augustus Waters." She smiles, my heart skipped a beat when she said my name.

I drive to my house, I'm a terrible driver, I don't even know how I got my licence.

Neither of us spoke for about five minutes so I broke the awkward silence.

"I failed my test a couple of times." I say.

"You don't say!" she laughs, she has a beautiful laugh.

"So the 4th time I go in for a test it was going about how this is going and by the end the instructor looks over at me and says, you're driving while unpleasant is not technically unsafe."

She laughs, "Cancer perk!"

"Totally cancer perk." I say.

"So what about you?" I ask because I want to know what has made her so sick that she needs breathing support, so I can be as careful as possible when driving.

So she tells me they found it when she was 13.

She's been suffering like this for 3 years!

And she is stage four which means the doctors can't do much to help her. Then when Hazel Grace was 14 her lungs started filling up with water so she couldn't breath but then they started her on an experimental drug called phlanxiphor. So her lungs still suck at being lungs but they should be able to keep sucking like they are for a while.

"So are you back in school?" I ask

"No my parents withdrew me 3 years ago, so now I have my GED and I'm taking classes at MCC." She says

"Wow a college girl that explains the aura of sophistication!" I say.

Then I crash into the bins outside my house.