hey guys, here's another chapter for ya'll
as a little recap of last chapter: Annie told Jon about her brain cancer
don't forget to drop some REVIEW!
Sami found Jon passed out outside his apartment, reeking of alcohol and puke. It was a strange sight to witness, especially because he thought that Jon changed his ways. He was aggressive and angry when he woke up and Sami was almost intrigued to know what happened because the last time they were together yesterday, Jon seemed happy.
Sami was still in his apartment like an eyesore much to Jon's dismay when he left the shower. He wanted to be alone, he needed to be alone, to think, to contemplate and to sulk. Lighting up a cigarette, Jon tiredly sat himself down on the couch next to his dark haired friend. There was a voice inside him that told him that it might be beneficial to use Sami to express his frustrations by telling Sami the one thing that's been bugging him but his pride won once more and Jon refused to talk.
Sensing this, Sami cleared his throat and watched Jon smoke. "So what happened?" he asked bluntly. Jon looked tired, even more tired when he used to spend a whole week drunk, even more tired when he participate in deathly, ultraviolent tournaments, Sami had never seen Jon looked so out of it, he'd never seen the strong man beneath Jon crumble to allow his loneliness to show.
"Annie has cancer," Jon's response was simple and curt. It took Sami a few seconds to register what he just said before looking at Jon in surprise, then pity and then concern.
"Jon, I'm sorry to hear that, I really am," reaching for his friend's shoulder, Sami know how much it affected Jon. In response, Jon got up from his seat and headed to the balcony to continue smoking there, Sami followed. "Will she be okay?" Sami regret throwing that question when Jon glared his way with his eyes blazing.
"No Sami, she won't. Annie's going to fucking die and leave me, just like my mother," he muttered bitterly, his face momentarily concealed by the cloud of smoke from his cigarette. "Is that what you want, you motherfucker?! Are you happy that your making my fucking life miserable!?" angrily, Jon yelled with his back to Sami, sticking his middle finger up to the sky, addressing no one in particular. Sami knew him well enough to realise it's Jon's way of cooling off and relieving himself from the frustration he felt.
"Rob and I are going to be out tonight with some of the boys," Sami started, deciding that it's best not to talk anymore about Annie, to allow the wounds to heal but Jon has other plans, surprising Sami.
"Annie knew that she has brain cancer, Sami, she fucking knew all this time," Jon began, for once, opening up to someone, this act surprised Sami but it made him glad that Jon chose to say something. "She knew she was going to die soon, she knew her days were fucking counted yet she fucking led me on. She told me she thinks that she loves me last night then told me that her days were numbered this morning. Why, Sami, why the fuck is this happening to me of all people," Jon normally isn't a whinny little bitch but today, he needed to scream the things that circulated through his mind. He's hurt and Sami could tell. Angrily, he threw his half-finished burning cigarette over his shoulder and made his way back inside his apartment, leaving Sami standing in the balcony.
"Why do you think you're hurting right now, Jon?" out loud, Sami asked from the balcony, deciding to keep his distance in case the beast unleashes within Jon if he angers him some more.
"Hurting? I'm not hurting, I don't get hurt, I'm not a fucking pussy," Sami shook his head upon hearing Jon's reply from inside. There it was again, Jonathan Good's overbearing pride.
"If you aren't hurting, then why does the idea of Annie dying affects you so much? If she's just a fling, why does it upset you that soon, she won't be around anymore?" Sami asked loudly from the balcony as he watched the cars whizzed by on the road below. "I think you love her Jon and it's time you admit it to yourself before you run out of time because you and Annie don't have much left." Sami's words stopped Jon from abusing the couch by destroying it with his violent punches. Those words hit him so hard in the head, they were the words that Jon refused to acknowledge and wanted to keep refusing to acknowledge because the things that Sami said were nothing but the truth.
Annie spent her whole entire day in tears and in her room. She only opened her tired, swollen eyes when she heard her bedroom door creak open, her grandfather's familiar figure stood by the doorway. She knew that she'd hurt him and her family when she made a clear decision not to seek any treatments, going against the advice of her doctor. She'd had enough of the pain, the drama and the traumatising experience in the hospital. "Are you feeling alright, kid?" he asked her quietly, concern was obvious in his voice and it pained Annie to hear it, he sounded more hurt right now than during that phone call her family had with him after her grandmother left him.
"Much better," she lied but she doesn't have to, he already knows.
"I'm watching the match tonight, do you want to come along?" again, he asked her as Annie closed her eyes tiredly, just to hold back the tears. She recalled Jon, his baby blue eyes and his dimpled smile, she recollected his cockiness but also his sweetness…then she remembered the anger and hurt that crossed his handsome face when she told him about her secret.
"No," simply, she replied, knowing that Jon will be in that wrestling match. She don't want to see him, she's afraid he'd yell at her again, she's afraid to see how much she'd hurt him when she see him.
"Do you want me to stay with you?" once more, Jeff asked her but Annie opened her teary eyes and sat up on the bed, shaking her head in response. Annie's shaky hand reached for her bedside table the moment Jeff had closed the door behind him, her tears pouring down like a storm that cannot be stopped. She held for a piece of torn, old paper in her hand and quietly, opened it with shaky fingers. 'Fall deeply, madly and truly in love,' the last thing on her bucket list say. Again, she reached for her bedside table in search for a pen, she used it to cross out the last unfinished task left in her bucket list. Trembling, she wrote something down under it, a new task that she hoped to complete before her time runs out.
After the show, Jeff watched the audience begin to leave the arena in their little groups, his own group of friends have left him behind after he informed them he'd be staying back for a little while. It was late and while he knew Annie is still most likely awake at home, he figured that sacrificing a few more minutes is worth it, it's for her own good after all. Tiredly, he got up from his seat as he looked around while some of the staff and a few wrestlers began the painfully long process of cleaning the arena.
"Is Annie here?" a familiar raspy voice earned the elder man's attention as he turned behind him to see the very man he'd been looking for. There stood Jon, looking even more worn out with dried blood still present on his forehead.
"She's at home, she doesn't want to come," simply, Jeff replied. "You know Jon, Annie is a sickly kid, she spent much of her time growing up in hospitals and taking all sorts of medication," he began, shoving his hands in his pocket as he watched Jon pull out a box of cigarette from his hoody's pocket. "I guess that's one of the reasons why she fears hospitals and the treatment they offer so much but I also think that it's the sense of false hopes that they planted on her head whenever they tell her she'll get better only to give her bad news after that further contributed to her phobia," he chuckled but there was no humour in the air, instead, laughing was Jeff's only way to comfort himself in hopes that everything will get better.
"How long did they tell her she got left?" Jon interrupted the older man, asking him with his raspy voice void of all emotions.
Jeff looked away from Jon's waiting blue eyes and sighed. "Annie doesn't know because she doesn't want to know but they said she has less than a couple of months left if she goes through the treatments, it will slow down her disease but without the treatments she has less than a month," Jeff replied, the sadness in his voice was no longer masked, his vulnerability was exposed in front of Jon and he felt sorry for the elder man because it's exactly what he felt too. "She's a stubborn girl, Jon. She decided to settle down and live with me because she always believed that I'm the only family member she has who won't pressure her into undergoing the treatments, it was the initial reason why she left home, after all…but I can't let her die, Jon, do you understand? She's my granddaughter, she's a blood relative and I love that kid no matter how much she reminds me of my ex-wife. So please, help me."
"If you think she won't listen to you and her family, why are you implying that I could make a difference in this? You said it yourself, Jeff, she's a stubborn girl," Jon retorted, the elder man looked at him sadly.
"Because she might listen to you, Jon. Annie loves you with all her heart and that's all the difference that there is to say," Jeff informed him. Jon felt himself flinch upon hearing that. A couple minutes of silence passed when Jeff finally decided that his attempts to seek for help had failed, Jon watched the older man turn to leave.
"I want her to live too, Jeff. Like you, I don't know what I'll do without that woman. I'll try my best but I cannot guarantee you anything," he called out, causing the elder man to stop in his tracks. Jeff turned to look at the younger man behind him and smiled, a sad smile yet it didn't fail to show the relief he felt.
"With her sickness, no one can guarantee anything, Jon but I can guarantee you one thing and that is how grateful I am that you came in her life," Jeff told the blue eyed man. "It's about time Annie finds a place where she belongs after all those travelling and exploring she'd done and I think she too had realised that and it's about you do too. She belongs to you, Jon and that's the end of her never-ending search for her place of belonging."