One Last Breath

Skylar

"You look horrible."

"Shouldn't I be saying that to you?" I whispered, chuckling quietly and squeezing Julia's hand.

She had woken up only twenty minutes or ago, and as soon as she had, she demanded I be with her. I had no problem with that and raced over here as quickly as I could. As soon as I saw her, I had been ready to cry with relief, but I held it in and smiled at her. I was just happy that the surgery had gone well, or as well as it could go. I still didn't understand what kind of operation a girl with brittle bone needed, but I hadn't questioned it. As long as Julia was okay, I didn't care.

"No, you're supposed to be telling me that I don’t look as bad as I feel."

"Then that would be a lie," I teased, taking my other hand and brushing away the brown hair that had stuck to her forehead. She gave me a ghost of a smile before she sighed and looked away from me.

"What's wrong Jul?" I questioned. She continued to look away from me, and the fact that she was "hiding" from me worried me.

"Look Skylar, you're probably going to hate me for this, but you needed to know before something happened to me."

"Nothing's going to happen to you Julia, you just had a scare, probably broke something that hit and organ and-"

"Skylar, I don't have brittle bone," she interrupted, finally looking me in the eye. She was being as serious as she had ever been, so I knew this wasn't some kind of joke. I sat there for a moment or two, opening my mouth and closing it as I attempted to say something. What did she mean she didn't have brittle bone?

"I lied to you when you first came here," she continued, not giving me time to say anything, "I didn't want you to know that I had a different disease. I wanted you to know that you had a friend that was going to be here as long as you were. Unfortunately, everything didn't work out as I had planned it."

"What do you have then?" I got out, not really sure how to feel right now.

"The name doesn't really matter right now. It's a cancer in the cartilage and there's not much you can do to get rid of it but have multiple surgeries to get rid of as many cancer cells as you can. When you don't have a severe case, you can cut off the appendage that the cancer has infected, but when you're as far as you can get like me… it can only help for a little while."

I gulped, running a hand through my hair. I knew what this meant, deep inside I really did, but I didn't want to accept it. But the brain had to get my body to know what the hell was going on so I asked, "What does that mean?"

She grinned at me, the typical Julia grin that held all the humor it always did. There wasn't a hint of any other emotion in the smile except for happiness. "It means I'm going to die Skylar. Really, really soon. On your way out, can you tell Lucas to come in here? He deserves a proper goodbye."

Noah

Julia had informed me of what she was going to tell Skylar when I saw her the day before. I knew it was a good idea, but I also knew that it was going to break the older girl's heart. Her best friend had lied to her the entirety of the time that she had known her, if she wasn't upset then there was something terribly wrong with her.

I was now standing outside of Julia's recovering room, waiting for my patient to come out. Yes, I was still going to refer to her as such, because I wasn't even sure where we stood right now. It had just been a kiss, a mistake in her eyes maybe, so I was trying not to keep my hopes held up to high.

When the door opened and I saw Skylar there, I wanted to instantly wrap her in my arms. She wasn't crying, I hadn't expected her to because she was Skylar, but the girl looked so lost that she didn't even know what to do with herself. I cleared my throat and she looked up, seeing me for the first time.

"Hey," I whispered, pushing myself off the wall.

"Hi," she replied back, sounding a little shaky.

"Come here," I said to her, opening my arms wide for her. Skylar hesitated and I thought that she wasn't going to come to me. I was proved wrong when she ran full speed at me and collided with me, almost sending us to the ground. I balanced us once again and wrapped my arms around her while she did the same to me.

She rubbed her face against my chest, her breathing shallow as she tried to control her emotions. I don't know why, but she never wanted to cry. Right now, it would have been a good release for her, but I wasn't going to push her. I just shushed her, rubbing her back soothingly.

"Why didn't she tell me?" she asked, although the question was muffled by my chest.

"She didn't want you to know she was going to die before you. She thought that you wouldn't want to be her friend if she told you."

"That's so stupid," the teen hissed, "I love Julia for who she is, not how long she had left to live."

I nodded my head, agreeing with her even though she might not know. "I think she knows that now sweetie. And she's regretting ever not telling you before now."

Skylar hugged me even tighter to her, and I believed that deep in her mind that she thought, if she didn't, I would disappear on her. "What am I going to do without her?"

"You're going to live Skylar."

And that's when she cried. It wasn't heavy, it wasn't even a normal cry, just a little slip of tears from her. I wouldn't have known she was crying if she hadn't been so tightly pressed against me. I kissed the top of her head and whispered that over and over again. You're going to live.

//////

Unfortunately, the same could not be said for the younger teenager, the spunky brunette who brought life to the Hospice. After that day, she had started to recover somewhat, and Julia had even gained the ability to walk again.

Skylar had gone up to the girl and told her how stupid she was for not telling her in the beginning and told Julia she forgave her. Everything after that had been like before, with the two more inseparable that before. Only this time, it wasn't just the two of them. Luca had become part of their group, and by the end of that week, they were finishing each other's sentences and laughing at nothing in particular.

Then everything turned around. Now, here we were, at the closest cemetery to the hospice. Skylar and I were in the second row of chairs closest to the coffin. There were many crying people in front of us as the pastor spoke, blessing the passing.

Skylar was clad in a modest simple black dress that went down to her knees. Her hair was down, as it usually was, and her blue eyes were dim while she looked at the wooden casket. Her hand was held tightly in mine, and she was being brave again, even when she didn't have to.

The wails of women got louder as the caskets were lowered into the ground and I felt like part of me was going down with me.

This was a double funeral, which made it all that harder to watch. Julia was in the lighter casket, and the one that was going down beside her, the one with the darker wood, belonged to her other half. It belonged to Lucas.

That fact only proved what the two had was real. When Julia went to sleep that night, with Lucas by her side and Skylar in the other bed, the two teenagers died together. Peacefully, I do not know, but they both passed away in their sleep.

And today, on this unusual sunny afternoon, we were putting them both to rest, side by side, and blessing their souls to travel together in Heaven for eternity.

When it was time for everyone to leave, I pulled Skylar along to my car, where I was going to drive her back to the hospice. I opened the car, and was going standing there, waiting for her to get in. When she stood there for a couple seconds too long, I was going to question her actions, but she stopped me when she gently kissed my lips.

"I'm going to live."