AN: Wish You Were Here (I know where you're coming from, and I forgot to put that in my author's note for that poem. I had planned on it, but have forgotten about it until now. Where I was coming from when I wrote that poem: If I knew that I could feel so full by believing in God and suddenly that belief was taken away, I would feel empty. If I knew what I had previously had faith in and teh feelings I felt, being able to have an explanation for so many things, I would feel like I was missing something. I understand completely what you're saying and I appreciate you giving your view without actually flaming my poem) merryman (Thank you! I look forward to writing the next chapters. I can't wait to put what I have thought up for this story into words, and your reviews along with everybody else's are keeping me going!) Simone (I always thought faith was very hard to explain. You've done an awesome job of doing that. I wish I could explain it that easily. Thank you!) Mische (Thanks! I appreciate your review) Jess (Read on and you will find out! I'm glad you like that. I'm beginning to love my characters in this story, and I don't want this story to end!)

Chapter Eight

Rebecca could tell Aaron didn't know what to do to or say, but she kept looking at him and he kept looking back. After several long moments of silence, he surprised her by speaking.

"For years now, I've known you as the Rebecca who doesn't talk and is shy for no apparent reason. Now I know what that reason is. It comes as quite a shock to hear this steady stream of words come from you who hasn't said a word to me for the years since you went away," Aaron told her. "And now I understand why you were never anybody's friend, but I don't regret becoming one of those few. I'm really sorry that you have had to go through this."

And with that said, before Rebecca could reply, he'd leaned forward to embrace her. Her eyes stung with tears at his reaction; she hadn't expected to get such a response from him. Sniffing and wishing she hadn't started to cry, she said over his shoulder, "I say this without meaning offense, but I want you to know that I don't need your pity. I know I should be thankful for what I have, even though my life will probably be shorted in the end. I have been given so much, and it was God's mercy that created me in the beginning. Why should I cry about having it taken away? I should be thankful that I got to live as long as I did. If He had thought it better, He wouldn't have made me in the first place."

Aaron hugged her tighter. "You have a better outlook on this than I do, Rebecca. You should be proud of that. I would be angry at God if I were in your situation, angry that He would deal me these issues."

"That's how I was when I was younger, when it first came," she replied. "But several long talks with Sherrie and everyone in my family have brought me to my present outlook. I know God is supplying for me along my way, just by the people that are helping me get through it. And Aaron? I think you're one of them."

Guilt stabbed at him from every direction, both from inside and out. He was near tears himself, both from the things the once wordless Rebecca had just told him and from the lie he was to her. Here she was, telling him everything! And he was only there to befriend her, only there because of the Dare.

But I want to be her friend suddenly, not only because I want to make myself feel better about the Dare or solve it, but because I really would like to get to know her, Aaron told himself. And even though this was true, his conscience would not stop prickling.

Rebecca drew out of the hug and he saw tears streaming down her face. More than ever he wanted to blurt the entire thing, his position and everything, to her. He wanted to be honest just like she was being honest. "Rebecca…"

She shook her head sharply. "I don't want you to tell me that you don't think that's true. Do you think it was a small coincidence that we both like to have some time alone at the church after everybody goes home? I don't think so. God's hand is definitely in this."

He hadn't expected her answer to be like it was. She thought I was going to protest to her saying I was part of God's plan to help her through her leukemia.

She hadn't wiped her face and made no move to do so, and the tears had stopped gathering. Instead she simply sat looking at him, and for the first time in his life the moment didn't seem awkward. There was silence and nothing to do but look at each other, and he didn't feel the need to say anything.

Unable to resist it anymore, he got up to the front of the sanctuary where a back room always had a box of Kleenex. When he came back he sat down beside her again and turned her face toward his, wiping away the tearstains. She said a quiet 'Thank you" but didn't start the conversation again.

His guilt and mistake temporarily forgotten, he sat back to study her again. Her reddish-brown hair was long and layered, falling straight down her back. Her brown eyes matched it, and they were a fascinating color: a deep, dark maroon, like a darker shade of the red clay you find in and around lakes. He also knew enough about cancer to know that this beautiful hair will probably not be there in the months to come.

Aaron asked as softly as he could, "Chemotherapy?"

She only nodded and dropped her eyes, under the pretense of studying her nails. He'd heard rumors about the treatments so harsh that even fingernails were lost. Would her long, healthy nails be gone also? "I understand you don't want to be pitied, but I can't help but flinch when I remember what you're going to have to go through. Don't you sometimes ask God why He couldn't have just taken the pain of the treatments away? The humiliation of not having your hair?" He took a deep breath and wanted to curse his temper. "I believe, like you, that God definitely does have a plan for you and that this is in it, but don't you wonder why He made it so hard to do?"

Rebecca nodded again but spoke this time. "You don't know how many times I've wondered that, how many times I've prayed that. But I guess you'd call me resigned to my fate, even though Sherrie doesn't call it a fate. She says that not having faith in God is fate. That not going to heaven is fate, but I who have had the strength to get through all of this in the end will have better faith and trust in Him than most people who live normal lives."

Smiling, Aaron squeezed her hand. "God obviously knew what he was doing when He assigned you to this task. He knows I wouldn't be able to take it all so patiently."

She smiled back, a teasing smile that of course he had never seen on her face before. "You know you're not exactly going to get out of this, though. Now that you're my friend you're going to have to pray for me every day. I've told you my entire story and devoted two hours of my quiet time to talking to you, and I'm not going to let you ever live it down."

"I'll do more than pray for you, Rebecca," Aaron said seriously after a few moments of laughing. "I'm going to be ringing your phone off the hook twice a week and you're going to come with me to do something fun. Me, you, Ruth, and if you want, Sherrie, and even your parents, are you going to have the time of our lives with you before any of this stuff gets you down. And when you lose all your hair and don't want to go out in public anymore, I am going to be on your doorstep, ringing your doorbell every twenty seconds, and we are going to play board games together and I am going to buy you an X-Box."

Rebecca was surprised at the way he said all of this so bluntly. And the serious way he said it, even though he was half teasing, made her believe that what he said was true. In reply, she smiled and said, "Thanks, Aaron, for listening. And thank you in advance for all of the things you're going to do."

She could tell that for a few moments he was surprised that she hadn't protested everything he'd said, but Aaron soon recovered and said very seriously, "No, thank you, Rebecca, for trusting me enough to tell me everything."