Finding Finley ✔

7

"So, how long have they been married?" Darby asks as we make our way down the stairs, having just left Kit and Ellie's apartment. We didn't stay long, just long enough for Ellie to ask a few questions that she's been dying to ask Darby, all while making me extremely embarrassed to call her my best friend. The girl really needs a hobby, one that's not trying to play matchmaker. 

"A couple months. They got married over spring break." One day before I met you. 

"How long have they been together?" We're on her floor now, but instead of opening the door and stepping out of the stairwell and into her hallway, she leans against the wall and awaits my answer. 

I mimic her, leaning against the railing so that we're facing each other. "The beginning of our senior year, but it feels like a lot longer." 

"Do you think it will last?" 

"That's the only thing in life that I'm sure about." I know they seem a little crazy and irrational to most people. I know that people think they rushed, that they should have waited, or that they won't make it - but those people don't know them like I do and they didn't witness their relationship grow like I did. 

"How can you be so sure?" Darby sounds exactly like all those people that don't know, and I could let her doubt, I could let her think what she thinks and go on with my night - but I don't want to do that. I want her to know, I want her to believe in them like I do, I want her to know them and admire them. I want her to like them, just like I want them to like her. 

"Kit was diagnosed with a brain tumor out junior year of high school. It was declared terminal and it couldn't be removed. We didn't know how long he had - he didn't want to know, so we never asked. He shut down completely at first, he wouldn't talk to me or our mom, he wouldn't even listen to the doctors at times." I cross my arms and look at the ground, not wanting to see her face until I'm done or else I might not be able to get it all out.

Darby stays still and silent as I continue, " Eventually he started to open back up to us, it wasn't the same, but he would talk and there would be a rare day when he would almost be back to how he was before - mostly though he kept to himself. At school he was silent, he would only talk to me and he moved through the halls like a ghost. It scared me, seeing him that disconnected all because he didn't want to burden anyone or have them treat him differently."

I look up at Darby, who is listening intently, "The first day of senior year, almost a year after his diagnosis and almost an entire year isolating himself, he met El. It was weird, he saw her in the halls and it was like he forgot everything he'd been so focused on avoiding for an entire year. He talked to her, he flirted with her, and he texted her like he couldn't help himself. And she - she was everything he needed. Watching them be there for each other -  even when they didn't have all the details - it was like watching a movie or something. Two people loving each other that much, that quick and that pure - " I shake my head, still in awe of their relationship after all this time, "it shouldn't exist, but it does. Those two are meant for each other, no one can ever change my mind about that. They're the best two people I've ever met and they deserve each other and all the good they bring to each other's life." 

"Wow." 

"Sorry, I just - they've been through a lot and they get a lot of shit for getting married so young, so I just wanted you to understand that they're not stupid or something." 

"Is he - is his tumor still terminal?" 

"He's tumor free." I can see her next question forming in her mind, "That's a whole other, long, story."

She pushes her self off the wall and takes a step towards me. She looks hesitant as she bites her lip and looks back at the door, then to me. "Do you want to maybe tell me about it? Like, while we eat popcorn or something in my apartment?"