is death an option? / larry ✅

0.1

A note from Harry Styles, the author of this book

Don't you know how on The Fresh Prince of Bel–Air, Will Smith starts out the theme song with "Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped–turned upside down"? I don't mean to be corny, but I personally think that that's a great way for me to begin off on the tale of when Columbia, Ohio got their very first case of leukemia.

(And, okay, I understand that it probably wasn't the first case, and certainly won't be the last, but still. It was a big fucking deal for everyone involved.)

My name is Harry Edward Styles–shit name, I'm aware–and I'm seventeen years old. I was born and raised in Columbia, and I'm Ohio's very worst filmmaker. I have an iguana named Betsy, my mother is a Buddhist, and my father eats a bit too much sugar for someone who had been diagnosed as diabetic. I'm not the most attractive boy you'll meet, and even if I was, the aura of awkwardness I put out would be enough to drive anyone wanting a stable social–life away. But, enough about me.

On September 2nd, 2009, I was informed by my mother that a boy who I have one class with named Louis Tomlinson had been diagnosed with eye cancer. There's actually a scientific, intelligent title for what he has, but it'd be too draining for me to actually look up. The computer's TOO far away.

Let me just say that this isn't some type of prosperous love–story, where my love cured his cancer. It didn't, and I didn't love him like that. He died at the unfair age of 16, and he was one of my best friends. This also isn't your usual tearjerker where you collapse in a fit of tears after you're finished reading. It's just a story about Columbia, cancer, and a film so awful that it actually killed a guy. That's it.

I guess I'll go back to the day that I first came in contact with the kid.

This, of course, is after I figure out where Mom's hidden her good ballpoint pens. Mines is shit.