one day left

1 day before

It was an ordinary day, the same old scrambled eggs for breakfast, the famillar football practice.

And, of course, my ‘favorite’ part of the day, taking my medicine.

It was 5:00 pm, I was eating dinner while my phone started ringing, I picked it up and an immeditate frantic sound reached from the other line.

“Miles was involved in an accident, please hurry up Caleb.” said coach Finstock.

“Can’t. Catching up on school-work. Will arrive tomarrow morning.”

the day

“Caleb, glad you finally decided to show up.”

“Sorry, was busy recently. How is he doing?” I asked

“Fine for now, he’s still on bed rest.” Said coach Finstock.

•••

Iv’e been sitting here next to Miles’s bed for the last 3 hours, spoked to other team members and Miles’s relatives.

Fortunately, I got to bail myself out of there before Miles’s grandma started talking to me.

I was wandering around the hospital until I saw something that caught my attention, it was a chronic diseases clinic.

I stepped into the first room I saw and sharp blue eyes and erratic blonde hair met my sight.

“hey.” said the nameless boy.

“hi.” I replayed.

“I’m Jake.”

“Caleb.”

“New here?”

“Came to visit a friend.”

“Which one? Lucas? Oliver? Alex? Eliot?”

“He’s not in this department.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“Was just interestad.”

“Cool.”

Silence took over the room until Jake suddenly speaked, and the words that came out of his mouth was the last thing I expected to hear.

“Got one day left to live. Wanna bail me out of this hell?”

•••

“Where are we going?” I asked Jake.

“We’re almost there.”

“Very helpful. But where exactly is ‘there’?”

“mountain climbing, I used to go there all the time before I got sick.” Jake said.

We walked a little longer until I saw a climbing staff. We signed in and they tied a rope around our waist. I won’t ever admit it out loud to Jake, but i’m actaully terrfied to climb on this massive mountion.

We started climbing a few minutes ago in total silence.

“When did you find out?” I asked.

“Two years ago, went to an annual blood examination and they found out i’m sick.”

“How’d you took it?”

“Pretty easily, supressed most of it, but it was mostly harder for my parents than to me, we didnt had much money to pay rent then to pay the hospital bills? They both started working full time and rarely ever visited. Can’t blame them, though, they took on themseleves much more than they could handel just for me.”

I was silent after that statemant, until I made a horrible mistake and accidently glanced down.

“My god,”

“What?”

“Let’s get down.”

Me and Jake left the climbing area and we’ve been wandering around until I noticed a football field at the corner of my eye.

“Where is our next destination?” Jake asked.

“Right here.”

“What?” Jake asked, obviously confused.

I pointed toward the football filed to our left.

“Cool, let’s go there.”

We walked toward the field, and when we reached I saw spotted a deserted football on the grass.

I picked it up and tossed it over to Jake who stood on the other side of me.

“Do you play?” Jake asked, returning me the ball.

“Used to, stopped playing around 17, my sister was the only one having my back through that decision.”

“What about your parents?”

“My dad was very unhappy about it.” I throwed him the ball back.

“What do you mean?”

“Well, my dad wanted me to continue the family legacy, so telling him that his son isn’t following his lead hasn’t made him joyous.”

“He played as well?” Jake said, tossing me the ball.

“Was one of the most successful players of the decade.”

“Was? why did he stopped?”

“Got injured and couldn’t play anymore.”

“What about your mom?”

“She died on Ivy’s birth.” I tossed back the ball, but this time, he didn’t catch it.

“Ivy?”

“My little sister.”

•••

Our last destination was the beach.

It’s late november so there were no people around, it’s pretty peacful around here at 11 pm.

We laid on the sand while watching the sky turning darker with every second passing by.

“So this is it, then?” I said.

“What are you talking about?”

“Our last night.”

“Our- what do you mean our?” Jake asked.

“I wasn’t at your department today just because I was ‘curious’, well, I was but from completly other reasons.”

“What reasons?”

“Was curious to see who has the same illness as I do.”

Jake looked at me with wide eyes and his jaw dropped.

“You better close that before a fly is going to get in your mouth.” I said pointing at his mouth.

“Your joking, right?”

“No, got sick about two years ago.”

“Which means..” Jake said, still looking shocked from my last statemant.

“Which means we’re both dying tonight.”

We sat in total silence for a few minutes until Jake spoked up.

“How come I never saw you at the clinic before?”

“Being sick wasn’t great for my dad’s reputation, so I took care of myself.”

“Then how did you figured out you were sick?”

“I went to a private doctor because I knew something wasn’t right.”

Jake and I have been laying on the sand, listening to the sound of the waves gently brush the surface.

In total silence.

We haven’t spoken a word for almost an hour.

“I’ve known you less than a day, yet here I am, spending my last day with you.” Said Jake.

“My entire life I was waiting for something extraordinary to happen, nothing ever did. Who would’ve thought it would happen on my last day on earth with a person I barely know.

Thank you, Jake for making that wish come true.”

And thoes were the last words we have said to eachother.

We fell asleep near the ocean, breating our last breath letting the waves drift us away.

It was marvelous

That I found my best friend

And soul mate

All in the same person.

THE END