The Fault in Our Lungs

At the age of ten, I found out not everyone sees your way. Everyone has different perspectives. Not everyone had cancer or knew what it was like to be a cancer kid. The cancer is made of you, eating away itself, killing you.

With Augustus Waters, he had almost won. The cancer took his leg, and then decided it liked him, so it killed him. One bit leads to another.

I had stopped going to my cancer support group meetings. What's the point when your inspiration is dead and you have to find another?

Those two people in that meeting room found me once again, in the parking lot of the mall.

"Excuse us," the girl mumbled to the crowd around her and the boy.

I had decided they were twins or at least siblings. It made sense.

"Hey, girl!" I called to her.

Of course that didn't stop her since there were a dozen other teenage girls in the mall. I pushed through the crowd slowly, having to tug on my tank behind me. I grabbed her shoulder once I got to her, and she jumped up into the air with her brother's wrist in her hand. She looked at me.

"Hello, my name is Hazel Grace," I said to her.

She stared at me for what seemed like forever. People pushed by rudely, and the brother stared at the ground.

"Hi," she finally greeted in her hushed tone. "I am Annabelle. He's Blaze."

"Do you want to grab a drink with me?" I asked.

"Sure," she replied, tugging on Blaze's arm.

Blaze looked up. He was the kind of person the dressed to blend into their environment. Camouflaged in close that didn't yell 'Hey, look at me'. Annabelle was just the same with her dark colors. Today, she was in dark blue, and he was in light blue, like the tiles on the mall floor.

I lead them to the coffee shop that served everything from lemonade to hot chocolate. The name of the place was 'Grab-And-Sip', GAS for short. We pulled up chairs to an empty table and waited for a waiter.

"Why are you so quiet?" I asked Annabelle.

"It's a disorder. Borderline personality disorder," Annabelle whispered.

"What about him?"

"We aren't very sure about what happened to him. He justs like to be a literal wallflower. He wears clothes that blend in with the surrounding area and never talks. The last word I heard him say was 'shut up'."

"Oh, the irony."

"Yeah, what about you, Hazel?"

"I prefer Hazel Grace. I have depression and cancer, obviously."

"Does it hurt?"

"What?"

"The tank and cannula."

"No, it tickles my nostrils, but my lungs are dysfunctional."

"So you're dying?"

"Well, yes."

"We are all, Hazel Grace. We are all."

"Are you always so open?"

"Only with my dad and Blaze. I don't care to talk much."

"Okay."

The waiter came and took our orders. Annabelle ordered for Blaze and got them both a guava smoothie. I got a lemonade. We kept talking in whispers because honestly, people are intrusive.

"We better go, Hazel Grace," Annabelle told me quietly.

"Okay. I'll see you?"

"Yeah, you'll see us; most definitely!" Annabelle nudged Blaze.

Blaze looked up at me and smiled.

"Bye, Blaze. Bye, Annabelle," I said. They waved.

I stood there, watching their receding backs while I thought how I was going to mean something to these two. How did Augustus Waters make you feel so invulnerable and alive? How'd you do it, Gus?