Chapter Twenty - Damon
“I know what suffering is! More than you could ever know!” “My heart breaks for you, it really does, but at least you’re going to live past you teenage years!”
It hits me hard. She’s got it worse than me.
My mouth falls open as I stare at her, her eyes shiny with unshed tears.
“I’m sorry, Sophie,” I say.
She exhales. “I hate it when people say that,” she replies through gritted teeth. “I don’t need an apology from you. You didn’t give me cancer, so why are you saying sorry?”
“You’re right, but what else do I say?” I mutter. “I’m kind of speechless at the moment.”
“Just pretend like I’m healthy as the next person, okay?”
How the hell do I do that?
“Um,” is all I can get out.
She sighs. “The reason I didn’t tell you straight away was because I was scared of seeing pity. I don’t want sympathy. I know that it’s hard to be anything but sympathetic when you meet someone like me, who has cancer, but…I don’t know. I just want to be treated normally. And my family manage that fine, but people outside of it, they can’t help but remember I have cancer every time they look at me. I’m sorry, though. That I didn’t tell you, I mean.”
I feel angry, all of a sudden.
She lied to me. She lied to me, even when I told her how I got my burns, and I never tell anyone! I don’t know what made me tell her, but I really, really shouldn’t have.
“I can’t believe you didn’t tell me,” I hiss.
She looks taken aback at my sudden anger.
“Why are you angry?” she asks, confused.
“Because I told you the truth even though we just met! We made a deal! I told you why I was at hospital and you were meant to tell me! But you lied! Your sister hasn’t got a broken arm, and I’m not going to treat you any different now that I know you have cancer – but I’ll treat you different now that I know you lied!”
I’m breathing deeply.
She looks so worn out. “I swear that I didn’t mean to lie straight out,” she whispers sadly. “It just came. I was going to tell you, but I couldn’t. Please, please, please let it go.”
I shake my head. “I don’t know. What if you lie again? I hate liars.”
She bites her lip. “I won’t lie. I pinky promise?”
“Pinky promise?” I frown. “What’s that?”
She gapes at me. “You don’t know what a pinky promise is?!” she asks, dumbstruck.
I shrug. “Should I?”
“Yeah! Here, look.”
She holds out her little finger. I hold out mine, too.
Gently she latches her finger onto mine, and shakes my hand. “I pinky promise never to lie to you again. Ever.”
She beams.
“And I pinky promise never to say I’m sorry, or what’s wrong ever again. Even if I am sorry,” I promise.
A creak makes me look in the direction of the door to Sophie’s bedroom.
Sophie’s sister – Carly, I think – steps into the room shyly. She clutches a big sheet of white paper in her hands.
“I’ve drawn a dragon,” she announces, turning the paper round.
YOU ARE READING
Before We Say Goodbye
RomanceSophie is dying of cancer. She knows she hasn't got long left. Damon is the victim of a fire that left him seriously disfigured. He's lost faith in friendship. Neither of them have much hope left. Until fate brings them together, and everything chan...
