One Last Breath

Skylar

As soon as the heavy wooden door closed behind me, I leaned against it and let out a large sigh. The doctors, who were still in the room, probably thought I was gone by now. And I usually would have been, but as of right now, I felt extremely tired and my muscles were still sore from the workout earlier. Through the thick door, I heard them mumbling, and I couldn't hear what they were talking about.

But I knew what the conversation was about . It was about me, and the progress of the dystrophy. Before the test was even over, I had known exactly what my diagnosis was. The look on Nicole's face had said it all

And I could feel it, couldn't I? I was already starting to feel the effects of my weak muscles. My legs had a burn to them and my arms were sore.

When I heard shuffling in the test room, I pushed myself off of the door and scurried down the hallway and sround the corner before Noah could see me.

Without any more incidents, I made it to my room, where Julia was napping, the TV still on and her soft breathing mixed with the dialogue. I smiled at the scene and walked over to her, pushing her light brown hair out of her face. She scrunched her face a little in her sleep and turned over, cuddling closer into her white pillow.

"I'm going to miss you so much," I whispered, remembering all the time we had spent together in this hospital.

All of a sudden, I felt exceedingly tired and thought that Jul had the right idea. With one more glance at her innocently sleeping face, I crawled into my own bed and closed my eyes. The studio laughter from the TV was the thing that lulled me into sleep.

//////

Later on, I could feel someone shaking my shoulder, their deep voice trying to bring me back to consciousness. On most occasions, I would have swatted them away and told them to leave me the hell alone, but I felt too weak to do anything. After a moment of me not opening my eyes and the deep voice not getting me to awaken, a familiar feminine voice started to talk to me. Along with that, a small and soft hand gently stroked my face.

"Skylar, please, you need to wake up. Just open your eyes for me then I promise you can go back to sleep."

Apparently, that seemed like a good deal to my brain because my eyes started to open. Thankfully, the room was darker than it usually was so I didn't have to adjust much to the lighting.

The first thing I saw was Julia's concerned face with a ghost of a smile gracing her lips. I smiled at her weakly and instantly shivered when a large, warm hand started to stroke my bare arm. I managed to turn my head and see Noah standing there. It clicked in my mind that he was the one who had been trying to make me.

"Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?"

"Tired," I confessed to my friend, "but this means the dystrophy is slowing down. You don't need to be so freaked out."

Julia scoffed, rolling her blue orbs. "Just because this is normal for you doesn't mean I can't be worried."

"Are you feeling okay now Skylar? Is there anything you need?"

I shook my head at the question my doctor had posed. "No, I'll be fine. I just need to rest and when I wake up… I'll be fine."

Noah

As soon as she stopped talking, it seemed like she instantly fell back to sleep, her ocean blue eyes closed and her breath slowed down. Julia, Skylar's roommate, patted her hand and headed out the door With one last glance, I followed the teen, head to the dining room for dinner.

"I hate seeing her like that," the brunette said, not looking at me, "I'm the one who is supposed to be weak like that while she's strong and taking care of me. It seems wrong any other way."

The studied the girl as she walked, her hands in her pockets with shoulder's slumped. She was very small, in height and in weight, which was unusual for a girl her age. I wasn't exactly sure if it was because of whatever disease she had, or if it was just her own body's doing.

"What kind of illness do you have?"

She turned to me, her eyes blank as well as her face. "Skylar thinks I have brittle bone."

"Thinks?"

She nodded and looked forward again, but before that, I noticed the guilty look. "Yes. She doesn't know that I really have chondrosarcoma."

I didn't let the feeling of shock and pity take over my face, because I knew she had gotten that too many times in her life. I just addressed the situation at hand.

"Why doesn't your best friend know your true disease? She doesn't even know that you're going to… you know."

The more we walked, the louder the sound from the dining room became, but I desperately wanted to know the answer, because I didn't understand her action what so ever.

"Skylar looked so sad when she came here; she was leaving her family behind, the only people who were there for her. She was always all alone, because she had no roommate. There's no other person here with muscle dystrophy, and they like to put us in pairs. So, I asked Dr. Mutter if he would let me stay there with her. He said I could, but I also wanted to keep what I had a secret. Who would want to be friends with someone who's going to die so soon? Even now, I only have…"

She trailed off then, no longer paying attention to me, but all the children who called her name happily. She laughed and walked up to them, hugging and greeting them all. She did give me one last thing to think about before she left, though.

"I want you to take good care of her. You'll be all she had left after I'm gone."