NoV: This be the one wherein Phineas dies:(
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Quote of the day:
"The happiest day of my life is the day that I died."
-Good Charlotte
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"I don't know if you realize this, son, but your friend is…..gone," the doctor said, almost apologetically.
I couldn't say anything. I couldn't move. I just stared at him. I slowly turned to look at Finny. Indeed, his chest wasn't rising to take in a breath. He wasn't twitching like he often did when he slept. His flawless skin didn't have its healthy, tanned glow.
The one person that I truly loved, my soul mate, my best friend, the greatest athlete who ever lived…..was dead.
Dead. Wasn't that a strange word? A strange noun that I now used to replace my friend.
"I'm sorry," the doctor offered. "It was one of the most simple procedures in the world." He paused and stood beside me, following my gaze to Finny. "Right as I was removing the fragment of glass, his heart just stopped. We tried everything to revive him, but…..he was just…..gone….."
The door opened and in came a pair of orderlies, pulling a stretcher. Two stone-faced men had replaced the kind, young nurse and the intolerant, older nurse. They had come to take my Phineas away. They were going to wheel him down to the morgue, a cold place with dead bodies.
I couldn't take it.
As they prepared to lift him onto the pallet, I said, barely above a whisper, "Please no."
"Excuse me?" one orderly said.
I took Finny's lifeless hand into mine and looked pathetically at the doctor, as my eyes filled and spilled with tears.
Dr. Michaels graciously nodded at the orderlies, who left the room, but didn't take the stretcher with them. The doctor followed them, leaving me alone with Finny and the stretcher, which would take him away from me forever.
"Why, Finny?" a voice said. I realized that it was my voice, but I hadn't realized that I was saying anything. "Why did you leave me all alone?"
But, he didn't answer. He could never answer me. Not unless I got to go to heaven when I died and we met up there. But at the rate I was going, I was headed straight for hell.
I just sat there, staring at him, trying to memorize him and burn him into my memory so I would never forget what I had done.
The door opened slowly and quietly. I didn't lose Phineas from my sight.
My three comrades came to stand beside Finny. They were the only three friends I had now.
"The doctor told us," Brinker said.
I looked at them, all three bearing faces of disbelief and regret.
I kept expecting Finny to jump up and yell, "Surprise!" But he never did.
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Eventually, I left. I had to get out of there. If I saw him like that any longer, I knew that I would lose my mind.
We found his poor mother crumbled up in the waiting room. She had retreated so far inside herself that we couldn't get her to move or speak for hours. When she finally came around, we couldn't get her to stop crying.
Eventually, we got her into her van and Brinker drove us all home. The funeral was held the next day. Finny wore his pink shirt.
I was asked to be a pallbearer. I stood silently by while they lowered him into the earth.
That was when I decided that I had to live my life for the both of us. I had to go and do the things that Finny would have loved to do. I knew that he wouldn't want me to dwell and live in grief. So I didn't.
Brinker, Ollie, Leper and I held a concert at the school in Finny's memory. We charged students $5 to get in and we gave the money to Adora. It wasn't the same, playing and singing without our lead singer and drummer. I thought that it was strange that Finny had trained Leper to be our substitute drummer early on.
I guess that Finny always knew what was best.
Fin(ny)
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NoV: Oh my god, that was sad. :( But, if you like that version best, vote for it!