hello guys, sorry i feel like it's been a while since my last update. i have so much going on right now but here's a fresh new chapter
as a little recap: well...Annie had a seizure and was rushed to the hospital.
With a gentle groan, Annie fluttered her hazel eyes open. It was the basic white ceiling that instantly welcomed her and for a while, she stared at it blankly, inhaling the strong antiseptic scent, feeling almost too weak to move. She felt too exhausted, every inch of her body throbbed from soreness. Letting a few minutes pass by, Annie finally collected enough determination to force herself up.
Feeling the bed shift, Jon cracked his blue eyes open. Tiredly, he tore his head off the mattress where it had been resting and looked at Annie's figure as she sat quietly on the bed, looking at him with an anxious look on her face. "Jon, I want to go home," she told him shakily. There was something about her tone that was off, it was as if she was scared and frightened. Concern replaced the underlying hint of curiosity within Jon as he got up from his seat, welcoming her with a tight embrace. "Jon please, take me home," her voice was husky from fatigue as she begged him. Before Jon could speak, the approaching footsteps from behind caused the couple to tear away from each other's grasp. "Grampa, I want to go home, please," weakly, Annie tried to get out of bed as she turned her gaze towards the elder man who stopped in front of the hospital bed. Just like Jon, Jeff looked like he spent the whole night wide awake, the bags underneath their eyes were almost identical.
"Annie, the doctor don't recommend that," calmly and soothingly, Jeff started but Annie had jumped out of bed, where she got the strength to do so despite the throbbing pain within her body was a mystery.
"Please Grampa, I need to go home, I don't want to be here," she was begging now, begging as if her life was at risk. Jon watched on, confused by her odd behaviour. "Please Grampa, you know I don't want to be here."
"Alright, if that's what you want," Jeff sighed, surrendering. Annie threw her arms around the elder man, hugging him tightly as her way of expressing her gratefulness. "Jon, do you mind if I have a word with Annie, in private?" turning to look at the blue eyed man who stood quietly behind Annie, Jeff asked. In reply, Jon made his way out of the door and sat himself down on one of the chairs outside the lobby. Annie looked at her grandfather curiously as she followed his orders and sat back down on the bed. There was something about the look on his face that told her that whatever he's going to say won't be good news. "It has reached the worse stage it possibly could, Annie," informed Jeff and his words made Annie look down at her hands resting on her lap, refusing to witness the rush of emotions that was present in Jeff's face. "It's worse than before, they numbered your days, Annie," quietly, she watched as droplets of crystal liquid dropped down her hands.
"They said before that I have a year Grampa but I lived healthy for the next seven years, I can do seven more, I'm pretty sure I can," she knew she's lying more to herself than to him as she said those words. "I can't die now Grampa, not now," she exclaimed in a silent whisper, an image of Jon's face flashing in her mind.
"You should tell him, Annie, he needs to know," as if reading her mind, Jeff informed her as Annie watched more tears fall on her hands and lap.
Jon looked up to see Jeff, looking just as deprived from proper rest as he was. The elder man sat tiredly next to him, giving his back a pat. "Go ahead, boy, she's waiting for you," Jeff informed him. Jon could only give the older man a small smile as his way of saying thanks before getting up from his seat, headed to Annie's room. She was sitting on her bed when Jon entered the room, the gentle creak of the door immediately earned her attention as she turned to look at him, showing him her puffy, red eyes. Almost immediately, it was his protective nature towards her that got Jon approaching her fast, demanding what's wrong.
"You know Jon, fate can be quite cruel to good people sometimes," she told him as he held her face between his hands, fingers trailing on her tear-stained face. Her hazel eyes seem to shine as the tears began to creep in again. He could tell something was definitely wrong and judging not only by her lonely face but also with Jeff's quite nature, it was something big.
"What's wrong, Annie, tell me what's wrong?" softly, he asked her. Jon's baby eyes searched for the answers in her eyes but all he witnessed were tears and almost instantly, he wiped them away, hating to see her cry. Seeing Annie cry not only exposed her vulnerability, it also exposed his' because she was his biggest weakness as Jon soon realised.
Reaching for his hands that rest on her cheeks, Annie held them there, wanting to keep him close, in case he leaves. "Remember how we once talked about my bucket list and I told you that life's too short and everyone should get one too?" quietly, she asked him, determined to say everything to him while looking deep into those baby blue orbs he owns. Jon nodded as his way of replying, Annie smiled. "I made that bucket list when I was twelve. When I was twelve, I spent a whole year in a hospital like this, hooked up to all sorts of machines. Every day, Mom would visit me and cry until Dad have to send her home to continue crying there. I was so sick and for a while, they don't know what's wrong with me. Then, they later on found a cancerous tumour the size of a golf ball in my liver. It was a close shave, they cut off that cancerous part of my liver in a surgery as soon as they can and I was healthy again. But after that experience, I always had that thought in the back of my mind that life's too short and I should enjoy it as much as I could, as result, I made a bucket list."
Annie paused to see his reaction but Jon remained passive and quiet, urging her to continue on. "When I was sixteen, I was brought back to the hospital where I was diagnosed with metastatic brain cancer. Some cells of the cancer from my liver a few years back had travelled all the way to my brain with the aid of my bloodstream, they settled there to form a new tumour. They said that I could get better if I undergo treatments so for 8 months, I lived a life under continuous treatments, they were painful and stressful. I had enough when I turned seventeen, apparently, the cancer cells continued to spread and they gave me an expiry date, they told me I have a year left to live, or even less without the treatments and so, I packed my bags and left to fulfil my bucket list."
"Seven years later and I'm still here, no one knows why, not even the doctors but I refuse to see them again because I'm scared that if I do, they'll do the scary things I went through for so long in my past. I think it was fate, fate wanted me to live more and fulfil something that it wants me to. But it looks like my cancer had woken up from its long slumber, Jon. Grampa told me they gave me a new expiry date, I'm sorry I have to drag you in the whirlwind I call my life, Jon. I know it's a lot to take in-…"
"A lot?" chuckled Jon without glee, letting go of Annie's cheeks in his hands. "Annie what the fuck? Why the hell did you left me in the dark for this long?" hurt and angry, he demanded her for answers, he needed them, desperately. To Jon, it felt like fate which Annie talks so much about have been playing with him and his emotions.
"I don't know Jon, I just didn't expect us to get this far," she replied quietly. Jon didn't too but they did, they made it for this long and it's meant to last, it should last forever, even if goddamn fate refuse to allow it to. "I'm sorry Jon, I'm sorry if I'm hurting you right now." Damn right she should be, he thought to himself angrily before storming out of the room.