Chapter Three - Bonnie

Sorry it's been so long guys! It is summer after all, and I won a writing competition recently, so that's kept me pretty busy.. Anyway, please review, and I'll update ASAP!

I had been sick for almost my whole life.

When I was two, I was diagnosed with bone marrow leukaemia. Most of my childhood had been spent being carted in and out of hospitals, undergoing operations, and meeting new donors. By the time I was twelve, I had had numerous bone marrow transplants, and had had chemo a lot, too. When I was fourteen, much to the relief of my parents, I was given the all clear and sent in remission. We moved to California. My Mom and Dad wanted me to live in the sun. I missed Boston, though I grew to love California's white sandy beaches, and the constantly beating sun.

Just over a year before I was due to be announced "cured", or in other words, to come out of remission, the cancer came back.

It was even worse this time.

After a week, the doctors said that the chemo just wasn't working, that my kidneys were failing, and that I would die peacefully in my sleep.

Miraculously, I pulled through. A week later, my Mom died in a car crash.

After that, my Dad lost it. He just couldn't cope. He had lost his wife, and he just wasn't able to handle the fact that he might lose his seventeen year old daughter, too. So, my sister Maria took over my life. She was only five years older than me, but it was her who became the one to cart me in and out of hospital, to hold my hand as I puked during chemotherapy, the one who became my rock.

I was still as sick as ever, but there were highs and lows, and I did my best. I taught myself to play the guitar, and I used to walk down to the children's ward, and play music for all the children there.

It would break my heart, knowing that they were as sick as I was, some of them worse.

By the time I was nineteen, I had been sent back into remission, and was doing my best to live a normal life.

I still had to go for regular checkups, but I didn't mind. I still visited the children's cancer ward, and played music everyday.

Occasionally, a familiar face would disappear from the ward, and the children would become withdrawn and silent as they contemplated the fact that they could be next.

"I've met someone," Maria said one evening as she set the table for dinner.

I almost dropped the saucepan I was holding.

"Really? Oh, Maria! That's wonderful!"

She gave a small smile. "His name is Wayne. We're getting married, Bonnie."

My stomach dropped. "What? Maria, you just met this guy, and you're marrying him?"

When she spoke, it was very quietly. "Bonnie, I've known him for over a year."

My throat felt as dry as the Mojave desert. "Why didn't you tell me?" I whispered, my throat aching.

Marie shrugged and turned away, her cheeks flooding with colour. "I don't know, Bonnie. I'm sorry."

There was no point in giving Maria a hard time about it. She'd had a hard time, I knew that. She'd been there for me my whole life, and now it was my turn to be there for her.

"Married…" I repeated. "Wow. That's great, Maria. I'm so happy for you."

She smiled, her pale, heart-shaped face lighting up momentarily. Her face fell them, and her grey green eyes filled slightly.

"He's from Washington, and he wants to move back there."

I grinned, delighted. "Washington? DC? Oh my God, that is cool! We'll be really close to Boston! We'll get to see our old friends, and I can go and see some of the kids I met in the hospital there, and -"

"Washington State, Bonnie."

My stomach dropped. Washington State? Oh no, anywhere but there.

Mom and Dad had brought us to Seattle in and around the time of my eighth birthday, and the memories of it still haunted me.

It had rained constantly from the moment we got there, out hotel had been damp and dirty and infested with cockroaches, and we all got food poisoning. We hadn't been back since, and I had never had any intentions of returning.

"Washington? Are you serious?"

Maria nodded. "We want to move there."

"Are you actually serious, Maria? Don't you remember that trip?"

She glared at me. "Wayne doesn't want to live in Seattle."

"Where's he want to live?"

"Forks."

"Forks? Forks? Maria, I've never even heard of that place before! But I bet it means rain!"

"Well, don't come then, you selfish bitch!" Maria screamed. "Did you even hear me asking you to come?"

"Fine!" I yelled back. "I won't come. I'll stay here, in California!"

"Fine!" She replied, tears streaming down her face.

"Why do you want to move to Washington anyway?" I shouted. "You hated it as much as I did!"

"But - But I love him!" Maria said, and she sat down at the kitchen table, her head in her hands, her shoulders shaking.

I glared down at her glorious blonde head, hating her. Hating her for wanting to go to Washington. Hating her being beautiful, for having found love, for being healthy and scar free.

And yet loving her for all those reasons too.

"Maria?" I tentatively knocked on my sister's bedroom door, my stomach writing with guilt. "Maria, please let me in. I'm so sorry."

I waited, my head leaning against the door. A second later, it opened without warning and I lurched forward, losing my balance.

Maria let out a hiccupy giggle, and caught me by the arm.

"I'm sorry, Bonnie, I shouldn't have said those things to you."

I breathed in her familiar, almost motherly scent.

"Maria, you shouldn't be saying sorry. I should be. I'm the one who's a selfish bitch. And I'm jealous of you, I am. And I'm sorry."

Maria's eyes filled again and she threw her arms around my shoulders.

"Bonnie, please. I want you to come with us. I need you to come with us. I - I just can't leave you here on your own. What if you got sick again? I just couldn't."

I bit my lip. "Maria, I can't come with you. You're getting married. I'd be interfering in your new life. You really don't want me anywhere near you."

She opened her mouth to protest, but I cut across her. "It's okay, Maria, I understand! I'd be the same. I wouldn't want my kid sister in everyday of my life either."

"Bonnie!" She spoke loudly, shaking my shoulders. "I want you to come with us! Wayne wants you to come with us."

"Wayne? He's never even met me!"

"I've told him everything about you, Bon."

I didn't say anything. Of course, she would have had to tell him.

"I'm not coming with you, Maria."

"Bonnie, please! You have to!"

"No, Maria, I don't want to. Please listen to me. This is your life, and I've been interfering for long enough. What happens when you and Wayne want to have kids? You don't need to be looking after a new baby and your almost-twenty-year-old sister!"

She glared at me, and I knew she wasn't giving in.

"Look, Maria, can we talk about this in the morning? It's just going to turn into a fight."

She sighed and hugged me again. "Alright. Night, Bonnie."

As I got into bed that night, I knew that I was not going to Washington. No matter what.

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