We Only Breathe for so Long

“Morning,” I said, groggily, as I made my way to the living room of John’s house. Everyone, who was watching TV, momentarily paused what they were doing and looked over at me.

“Oh hey, look everyone, Lisette’s finally awake!” Pat exclaimed. His statement was then followed by a chorus of unenthusiastic yays. Everyone then chuckled.

“What time is it?” I asked. I just wanted to go back to sleep. We woke up really early yesterday and went to bed late, so basically, I’m lacking sleep.

“Almost twelve.” Isa winked at me.

Suddenly I didn’t feel so sleepy anymore. I just stared at her with my eyes wide. I then realized that everyone was already dressed up, as if we were going somewhere. And me? I was still dressed in my pajamas. And then I noticed John wasn’t in the living room with us, probably why Isa doesn’t seem mad at the moment.

“Yeah, you slept for like twelve hours,” Kennedy laughed. “All of us were awake at like 9 or something.” The guys then nodded in agreement.

“Are we going somewhere today?” I asked.

“We’re going to some city nearby. Just to hang out. I mean, there’s nothing much to do in this house anyway,” Jared said. True that.

“We’re leaving this place tomorrow morning, right?” I asked, just to make sure.

“Yeah, and that’s another reason why we’re going out – to get stuff we need for the road,” Garrett said.

“Come on, Lissy, you better get ready. The guys already ate lunch while waiting for you to wake up,” she chuckled. “Come on, I’ll join you at the table.” We then stood up as the guys agreed to play Call of Duty.

By 12:30, we were all set to go.

“Don’t forget to lock the door, Pat,” I said teased, as we made our way out of the house.

“On it!” He said, when everyone got out. John’s car was gone, I assumed he was going to meet up with us somewhere in the city. I don’t know if Garrett told the rest of the guys. Well, most likely he didn’t. Isa grabbed my arm and dragged me into her car while the other boys boarded Jared’s car. Isa was driving, of course. I sat beside her at the passenger seat. Jared’s car started going into the forest path we originally came from and our car followed it.

“So, where’s the first stop?” I asked.

“I don’t really know, I think we’re going to a mall,” Isa shrugged. “Oh, which reminds me, you and I are going shopping, okay?” She smiled at me sweetly.

“Sure,” I smiled back at her. “To be honest, I’m not much into fashion,” I mumbled.

“Well, I am, so I can go pick clothes for you!” Isa squealed.

“Okay, as long as they’re comfortable,” I said. I mean really, would you expect someone who’s been in a hospital for most of her life to get into the latest fashion trends? Well, yeah, maybe you would. For a fact, I knew Jordan was very fashionable. I didn’t really care what I was wearing though; as long as I was comfortable and I knew my outfit was decent-looking. We were silent for a long while until Isa asked a question.

“So, I guess you haven’t heard of The Maine before?”

“Well, they sounded familiar. Probably I heard about them already; I just forgot. How long have the guys been a band?”

“When I was in high school,” Isa chuckled. Her face then suddenly tensed for a moment. She was probably stumbled upon dark memories.

“How have they been? In terms of success and all,” I said, to make her break away from her thoughts.

“Well, they released their first album last year andI think they’re planning on going on a tour this year,” she said.

“I see.” I noticed now that we were not surrounded by trees anymore, but we were already in the city. We managed to follow Jared successfully. A few more turns and we arrived at a big mall. We then parked our cars and went out of them.

“Alright, we’ll see you in a bit then,” Kennedy said as he got out of the car, hanging up from his phone. I just let that pass as we continued to walk to the mall entrance. Isa and I were linking arms and she was telling me how eager she was to go shopping.

And when we went in, behold; John was there, waiting for us. I immediately felt Isa tense up beside me, tightening our linking arms. My arm was going numb by the second.

“Hey,” he greeted, giving us a grin.

I knew Isa couldn’t stand being near him at the moment. “Uh, guys? Isa and I want to go shopping, so can we split up and just meet somewhere later?” I asked.

The guys just nodded. We agreed to coordinate through our phones and we walked away from them. Isa then loosened her grip on my arm. We started to wander around the mall, looking for stores that would catch our eyes.

“God, seeing his face makes me mad,” Isa muttered.

“Uh, you know, Garrett asked me last night if I was indirectly telling him that you liked you-know-who,” I slowly said. I don’t even know why I brought that up, but whatever.

“Nah, don’t believe him. I don’t like John,” Isa said, with no emotion or whatsoever in her voice.

“Well, I guess you shouldn’t act so mad when he’s around. I mean, you can’t keep running away from him. At least just ignore him,” I advised.

“Yeah, you’re right.”

“So, where to?” I asked, since we started to pointlessly go up and down some escalators and we were getting weird glances from people.

“Oh, let’s go over there,” she said, smirking at me. I sighed and we made our way to the store.

~~~

“You guys want to go for pizza or something?” John asked. It was four o’clock and my arms were carrying more shopping bags than I ever did in my life. Isa had probably as much as I had, except that she was completely used to this. I don’t know what the guys have been doing, but they did buy some food for the road trip tomorrow. We (except for Isa) all nodded.

“Where?” Jared asked.

“Oooh, oooh! Pizza Hut!” Pat exclaimed.

“Alright then, let’s go,” Garrett smiled.

Moments later, we were sitting at Pizza Hut, eating.

“So Lisette,” Kennedy started once we got our shares of the pizza.

My heart stopped for a moment. “Yeah?”

“We have good news for you,” he continued, smiling.

“What is it?”

“Jared heard around that there’s a carnival somewhere on our route going back home,” Kennedy said.

“And, we decided that we could pass by on the way,” John continued, grinning.

I immediately felt a smile form on my lips. This was the third thing to do on my bucket list: ride at least one roller coaster.

“Oh gosh, thanks, you guys,” I grinned.

“So now, you may start mentally preparing yourself for tomorrow,” Isa chuckled beside me. My face fell immediately. I forgot that I’d get scared whenever I’d see a ride like that on TV or something. I merely wrote this on my bucket list as a result from trying to be brave. But it was on my list, so what could I do?

“Don’t worry, I can sit beside you if you want. We’re doing the bucket list together, anyways,” Kennedy said, chuckling at me.

“Okay…” I mumbled, immediately feeling heat rise to my cheeks. I stared down on my plate as everyone engaged in different conversations after taking a good look at me.

~~~

After we were done eating, we all headed back to John’s house and decided to just hang out in his living room.

We were watching (trying to pay attention to, rather) some James Bond movie when I heard my phone ring. The guys asked me if they should pause the movie but I said it was fine and I excused myself to go to the kitchen.

I didn’t bother to look at the caller ID. “Hello?”

“Lisette!”

“Oh, hi Mom,” I greeted.

“How are things going?” She suspiciously asked. I scratched my head and sighed.

“Good.” I wouldn’t dare tell her about my near-death experience yesterday.

“Have you been feeling okay?”

“Yes, I’ve been feeling perfectly fine.”

“You sure?” I’m sorry, but god.

“Yes, I’m sure,” I rolled my eyes.

“Do you realize that your bone marrow could just fail you anytime? You could get serious infections. Bleeding in your lungs, brain and other organs. Possibly have anemia. Stomach problems as well! Not to mention, inflammation in your digestive track. Even damage to your internal organs!”

“Mom, look, I already fully recovered. Since three years ago! And nothing bad ever happened since then!” I demanded her to stop worrying. Seriously, it annoys the hell out of me. I still had to be polite though. She still had to power to ground me for life. But I was this close to hanging up.

“Fine, fine. But I’m warning you. You could regret it someday,” she said, sternly.

“No, I won’t. Nothing’s going to happen, okay?” I then ended the call. I put my phone into my pocket and then stormed into the room. I then slumped back on my seat beside Isa.

“Hey, is everything alright?” Isa asked, hey eyes on the television screen.

“Yeah, you were practically close to yelling,” Garrett said. I didn’t realize that I was probably talking too loud while on the phone or whether I was stomping my feet as I walked back.

“Everything’s fine,” I assured them, mumbling.

“Sure?” Kennedy asked me.

“Yeah. Perfectly fine,” I said, my eyes on the screen.

I don’t even care what they could have heard while I was on the phone. All I know was that I was going to ride that roller coaster and live my life.