the third person

04

ASHER

"You know Jane Allen?" I whisper-shouted at Delilah once she looked at me back again.

"We have mutual ex-girlfriends."

"Plural?!"

She frowned at me and walked past. My jaw dropped as I turned towards Jane to see her looking at us. She smiled and then turned back to whatever she was doing on her phone.

Delilah took a U-turn very dramatically, grabbed my arm, and dragged me away from the cafe's entryway. Ryan was giving me looks and his girlfriend was shooting me glares. I smiled at them from afar.

I made a motion to walk toward my friends. 

"Oh, that way? Okay." Delilah's hand was still at my elbow. We were walking towards my usual place when she asked, "I don't know them both. I don't think I've seen them in school."

"They're not in the same school."

"How do you know them?"

"Cancer."

She gave me an incredulous look as I chuckled involuntarily.

"Hey, Ash," Ryan murmured carefully as I and Delilah settled in. 

"'Sup," I replied, nodding at him and Mary as a greeting, then looking sideways at Delilah.

"I shouldn't be on this table." Delilah began, looking at all of us in turn. "I should be on that table." She chin-pointed towards a table in which a girl in a hijab and a boy in a tux were sitting. Date.

Mary turned back to look at them. "Doesn't look like they want you there-"

Delilah suddenly slammed her hands on the table, making us and a few people around us jump in their seats. The girl in the hijab and the boy turned in our direction and Delilah waved at them. The guy looked visibly disappointed and the girl looked relieved. Delilah turned to us now. "I'm Delilah. Asher's friend from school."

"Asher's acquaintance from school." I corrected her and she gave me a look. 

"But you can call me Del."

"Like, the laptop?" Mary suggested, leaning on her boyfriend. 

"I'm not sure I classify as a laptop, but yes."

I snorted. Ryan shot me a look. 

"I'm Ryan and this is my girlfriend, Mary." Ryan held out a hand and Del shook it. Mary just smiled.

"You're not from the same school," Delilah said.

"We're Texan."

Del blinked, then turned towards me with a confused expression. "Then what are you doing in New York?"

"We came to get our cancer treated."

"Our cancer?"

"Asher has lung cancer, I have blood cancer, and Mary has bone cancer."

"So, all of you are friends because of cancer?"

"Technically," Mary commented.

"Wow, that's... depressing."

"Not really, it isn't." I broke in. "It's nice to be friends with people who realize how important life is."

"You think only the ones who are going to die know the importance of life?"

"Yes."

"You're wrong. People who've seen death realize the importance of life too. Just like you don't need to see a disease to know how disastrous it is, you don't need to be faced with death to realize and cherish every moment of your life. It's like saying that only those who know can feel. Those who don't know can feel it better. It's better to die without knowing, it's better to die unconsciously." 

"Y'know Ash, she reminds me of a certain someone-" Ryan began but got interrupted. 

I love having deep dark philosophical conversations like these. 

I began, "I refuse. I don't want to wake up one day in death's face without arguing about my life. Without getting any chance to fight for my life. We're fighters, Del, all of us. We want to fight against death till we have no life left in us. Death is only ever gonna take me once I let it ain't nobody sneaking up on me in my sleep."

"You have a fight in you, many people don't."

"Then they can die, goddamnit. You get one life to live, and earn the right to live before wanting to die. Death will be meaningless if people succumb to it."

There was silence for a long time as everyone drank their coffee. I wondered if I'd said too much. Ryan and Mary got ready to leave after a while and Del shifted to the seat in front of me. We both looked out of the window at Springfield. I've always liked that house.

"Shop's closing, kids," Murphy muttered as she brushed past us, patting my shoulder as she went. I sighed. Del was looking at me.

She suddenly got up. I got up with her. We walked out together and parted ways on a crossroad. We hadn't said goodbye. Just nodded at each other. I'd turned my back to her and had started walking away when she called out for me. 

I turned and there she was, a stranger in the dimming sunlight, the wind blew her hair away and she held her beret in her hand, which she waved at me. Her eyes carried an emotion that sent me back into another world, another time. 

I waved back and smiled as Ryan's voice echoed in my ears. 

Y'know Ash, she reminds me of a certain someone.