One Last Breath

Skylar

I had always dreamed about this day during my stay at the hospice. The one day in the week, didn't matter which day, when a doctor would come to me and say "You're going home Skylar." I would smile and laugh, tell them thank you for taking care of me, and say goodbye to all the friends I had made. Then I would go back home to my parents and continue on with life.

Unfortunately, this day of freedom did not come with the pre-ordered happy ending. I was leaving the hospice, but I was not really free. I was going home, but I wasn't cured. I would be with my family, but it was so I could die in their arms. It was so hard to feel happy about this, or feel any one emotion at all. I was so confused; what was I supposed to do?

My blue eyes were focused on the scenery outside of the car, all of it which was passing by so fast that it was hard to focus on one thing at a time. But what was clearly obvious was the fact that I was no longer in the city. The Hospice, which had been surrounded by businesses and busy streets had given away to a calm and quiet forest. The road was long and winding, and all around I saw trees, all of them full and green. Everything looked the same, but it was such a beautiful site that I didn't want to look away.

"Skylar."

Hearing my name through this daze, I lazily pulled myself away from the window and looked to the person in the seat next to mine. Noah was looking at me, his face calm and blank, and my attention was all on him now.

"We're almost there," he continued, giving me a closed lip smile while I returned the gesture.

"It's been such a long time since I've been here," I mumbled, looking through the windshield as we turned down the dirt road that led to what I hadn't called home in such a long time.

It had never really been my home, though I had wished it had, and that's what I had called it when I had stayed here. As I looked at the house that was coming up, I couldn't help but grin. It was almost like a log cabin in the woods, very simplistic. But there was more glass than there were logs, and that's what had always been special about this house.

Our Summer home, that is what this had been. A picturesque home with a lake right in the front and nature surrounding its entirety. I remember the nights I had spent outside, catching fireflies in the glow of the shining moon and just enjoying the brisk night air.

But that had been before my disease became apparent. Before my life, and the lives of the ones I loved, changed.

The car stopped in the driveway of the house and Noah jumped out of the car and was on my side in a second. He opened the door for me and held my arm tightly as I stepped out of the car, making sure I didn't fall because of my weak legs. Once I was out I smiled over at him and wrapped my arm around his waist. It was for my pleasure, as well as for support as we traveled up to the house.

"Where are my parents?" I asked Noah when we started to walk up to the path to the front doors. Since most of the front was made of glass, I could tell that all of the lights were off, signaling that no one had entered it today.

"They said they might be a little late getting here, they'll be here in thirty minutes."

I sighed and nodded my head, pushing off from the man by my side and opening the door that had already been unlocked before my arrival. "I didn't really expect anything more."

Noah

I let Skylar walk inside herself, but being sure to watch her every move, just in case she did fall. But I was also listening to what she was saying to me. I followed her right inside and switched on the lights to the front room as I closed the door behind me. It was needed, since there was plenty of natural light, but more helped me see the room better.

"It's exactly as I remember it," I heard the girl whisper, causing me to look her way.

Skylar was standing in the middle of the living room, her back turned to me. Her blond hair looked so much brighter now that the light of the sun was bouncing off of it, and I also noticed her firm and strong stance. She wasn't sitting, and her legs were not shaking like they sometimes would with strain. For once, the woman looked normal, like nothing at all was wrong with her.

"My best memories always came along with this house," she sighed happily, plopping down on the couch that face the window so she could see the lake in the front of it.

I sat down next to her, putting my arm over the back of the couch and around her. She smiled at me for a moment before scooting into my side and looking out the window again.

"This was our summer home, one we went to every year, just the three of us. We would always swim out in the lake, go traveling in the woods, have fun around the campfire. It was just perfect, you know?"

I stayed quiet, knowing that what she had just asked was a rhetorical question. What I did do, however, was tighten my hold on her and stroke her arm, silently telling her that I was here.

"We were the ideal image of a perfect family. We got along, loved one another, and were together. This disease just went and messed everything up. I was diagnosed and everything was taken away from me. I couldn't dance anymore, I lost all of my friends, and slowly, the family was dying. My parents would fight all of the time, mostly about me and what they should do to keep me healthy. They always fought about me.

"But we still came out here, every summer we would come and try our hardest to be that family again. It never reverted back to what it had been. We didn't swim, we didn't go in the woods, we didn't have campfires, we didn't do anything. Eventually, we just avoided one another. I was left alone in my room and they would occupy themselves with work. The only thing in my life that stayed constant was this house.

"Then they got a divorce, everything ended quickly and I spent most of my life traveling between their houses. Then my father got a new family and I tried to fit in with them. But I just couldn't, and I wished for the family that I had before. I wished for the times in this house again."

A smile graced Skylar's pink lips, one that had a hint of happiness but was overshadowed by pain. Her eyes didn't betray to what she was feeling inside as she stared at the scenery through the glass.

"It would be stupid to think that anything would be different."

"It's never stupid to hope for something that you really want," I said quietly right next to her ear.

Skylar turned her face a little to look me straight in the eye, and I saw a quizzical expression on her. "Don't you think that's a little naïve?"

"No," I admitted, placing a small kiss on her lips, "just positive."

A real smile lifted her cheeks, making her even more gorgeous than she already was. "I hope for my family back. What do you hope for?"

It was my turn to look out through the window, watching as the light breeze moved the trees that surrounded mst of the property.

"What I hope for is for you to survive."

The girl's hand found its way into mine and it squeezed tight. I squeezed back and a chuckle left Skylar's mouth.

"I'd like to see that too."