Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72822 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 364(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 243(@300wpm)
She looked down at her hands.
“It hurts,” she whispered. “And the cancer has metastasized. It’s now in my lungs, heart tissue, my liver, and it’s spreading into my reproductive system.”
Hearing this news was devastating.
I thought that she was going to be the one to beat it all.
It wasn’t supposed to be me. Never, not in a million years, would I have thought that I would come back from stage four cancer. But I had. I’d done it, and I thought that she could, too.
But still, what she was asking me to do… that just wasn’t me. I couldn’t kill my best friend, no matter what the circumstances were.
Especially not with all the secrets she’d been keeping from me lately. Hell, I barely even knew who she was at this point. It was downright scary.
“I can’t.” A tear slipped free. “Please, don’t ask that of me. Please.”
Marianne looked away, her bald head shining brightly in the harsh glow of the hospital lights.
“Marianne…”
Marianne looked back at me. “It was a selfish thing to ask.”
It wasn’t.
I knew the kind of pain she was in. I had been there at one point myself.
If what she was feeling was anything like what I felt… I could even totally sympathize.
Before I could say anything else to her, the alarm on my phone rang, reminding me that I had my own doctor’s appointment today.
Check-up day.
“I love you, Mare.”
Marianne held her hands out to me, and I went to them willingly.
Pressing my forehead against hers, I tried to instill some of my strength into her through our hug.
“I love you, too, Cobie.”
Giggling through my tears, I walked out of her room.
When she’d called me today from the hospital, I had a minor freak out.
She’d told me that the doctor had admitted her for dangerous dehydration levels, and I came as soon as I’d heard.
I just wished I didn’t have my own appointment today. I didn’t want to leave her there, especially not with those thoughts that I knew were swirling around her head.
I want you to help me die.
I shivered from head to toe.
I never thought I’d hear her say that. Not Marianne, my best friend. The only person I could really rely on in this world.
I swiped at my tears and cleared my throat.
I passed a man in the hall. He was carrying a little girl in his arms.
Our eyes met, and instantly I saw him take in my tears.
He stopped.
“You okay?”
I smiled tremulously. “I’ll be okay.”
Then I walked away, hoping that guy wasn’t going into that cancer unit to visit someone sick like my best friend.
He looked like a man that had seen enough pain.
How I knew that, I didn’t know. But I did.
I had no idea that the man that I’d spoken with that day would help like he did.
No idea.
But I’d find out.
And it wasn’t going to be good.
Chapter 5
I’m proud to say that my house doesn’t have any unhealthy snacks… because I ate them all.
-Cobie’s secret thoughts
Cobie
6 months later
Marianne was dead.
I looked over at the coffin, wondering if I’d ever get over her loss.
She was my best friend and confidant.
Why did I get to live and Marianne didn’t?
What made me so special?
She had a husband—sure, she’d told me he wasn’t the greatest man in the world, but that wasn’t abnormal—and a child.
Though the child she’d told me about wasn’t with her husband. It was with some man that she met while she and her husband were separated.
“Hello, Cobie.”
I shivered at the words coming out of that mouth.
It wasn’t a good shiver, either.
I turned to see Drake standing there, looking at me with concern.
Drake was incredibly good-looking. Tall, about six feet, and in good shape. His hair was salt and pepper, graying more to silver along his temples. I always felt that he and Marianne seemed to be that golden couple. The one that you couldn’t help but look at when you walked into the room because they were just that beautiful.
“Hi, Drake.” I tried to smile.
“Are you okay?”
I shrugged. “I guess maybe that should be me asking that of you.”
His grin was small.
“I’m fine.” He smiled then. “Would you like to come over?”
I frowned. “I’m sorry, Drake. Were you having a memorial after the services? I didn’t know. I have to babysit tonight.”
That was a lie. I didn’t have to babysit anyone. I just didn’t want to do anything with him.
Drake winked. “No, no memorial. Marianne didn’t want one. She never wanted me to dwell on her death. I felt that a memorial was dwelling.”
Dwelling. Was remembering a person for what she used to be dwelling? I didn’t think so.
“Okay,” I smiled. “I’ll be seeing you around, Drake.”
And I did. Much more than I would have wanted to.
But, I couldn’t help but feel bad for my dead best friend’s husband.
It was all innocent, right?