Snow was falling down harshly. Was it even snow? It hurt on the skin as he walked down the road. His black hair was covered in white snow, dripping wet. He kept trying to dry the freezing water from his face, but it was to no avail when even his jacket was wet. He never felt such a cold winter in his life, this felt all too new. The cold water kept going into his brown eyes, making them water slightly. But he kept on going, quickly, trying to avoid a certain someone. He didn't want her to get more worried than usual. He didn't know why, but it felt very lonely as he walked. He wasn't even alone, there were people around, but they were surrounded in the air of coldness.
"Alex!"
He got frightened and snapped away from his thoughts as he looked at the person who called his name. He knew who it was as soon as he heard her voice.
"Oh, hey, Oliviera." He didn't know why he liked saying her name so much, it felt right.
She stepped up to him, looking up at him with her small brown eyes. She was quite short, her skin was dark and her hair was curled tightly. Alex smiled as as she approached him, just as he always did. She put her umbrella over both of their heads. He took it out of her hand softly, not letting her hold it. She was too short to just hold it up like that for too long. She took this shot to hug and kiss him, which caught him very much off guard.
"Why don't you have an umbrella?" She questioned, hoping she didn't know the answer already.
He smiled nervously. She sighed. Here we go again.
"Umm, a girl in my school didn't have an umbrella so I gave it to her." Alex answered, hoping that she wouldn't see him without an umbrella this time.
"Alex, what did we say about self care?" Oliviera questioned, growing worried for his health.
He kept going around without an umbrella, getting wet constantly. Not to mention how many times he bought an umbrella, just to give it to someone else. He spent too much of his money on other people. The weather was getting worse and worse and seeing him walk around wet every day made her overly nervous. She could see him getting sick, it's just that he'd never admit it. He kept coughing and sniffling.
"I know, I know, I'm sorry." He told her, feeling guilty every time she scolded him like that.
"I'm not saying this to make you feel guilty, just think about yourself a little bit." She tried to get him to understand, but it always felt like he wouldn't do it.
"And what if-" Alex tried to question her, but she already knew what he'd say.
"It's okay if it's your sister or anyone else from your family, just be more selfish when it comes to people that don't matter that much. You have asthma, this can end very badly." She explained, feeling like she was giving a lesson to a little child.
"But I don't want them to get wet." He continued, not getting something very simple.
She sighed, looking at him with very tired brown eyes, giving up for today.
"How about you walk me home and then walk home with my umbrella?" She decided this would make the most sense in his head.
"But then I'd be taking your umbrella..." He whimpered a little bit, feeling wrong once again.
"I have five of them at home, don't worry." She smiled up at him, making him give up very fast.
"Let's get going then." He smiled even more once he noticed her wrapping her arms over his, pulling herself closer to him.
Oliviera thought this would be a good way to make him take care of himself. But she thought wrong. She saw him once again, soaking wet, trying to run through the street so she couldn't see him. She sighed, there was no use getting angry at him. She did what she always did, yelled his name very loudly. He'd always get very scared and react immediately. He could always pretend he didn't hear her, but he didn't want to lie.
As she approached him, she noticed him looking horrible. His eyes were watery, tired and the bags under his eyes made it more obvious. His usually tanned skin was pale, he looked a little bit skinnier than usual. Even his breathing seemed oddly loud and pained. She got shocked, not much time passed since she last saw him. She did what she always did, put an umbrella over his head, and he took it from her hand as always. The difference was that he stopped her when she tried to kiss him.
"Don't, you'll get sick." He said and sniffled a little bit, obviously sick.
Oliviera rolled her brown eyes and kissed him anyway, which he secretly wanted anyway. But his skin was very hot, too hot. She went to touch his forehead, it felt like he was burning up.
"Alex, you're sick! Why are you still going to school!?" She yelled out in panic, not out of anger.
"I need good grades. Collage is coming up soon, dad wants me to be a good role model for Ilaria. I need to work hard to get into this very-" He was cut off by his own coughing, it looked like he was in great pain, not only in his lungs, but his stomach and throat as well.
On his bare cold hands, there was white mucus mixed with something red. Blood. She got panicked.
"A-Alex, this isn't normal. P-please, go to the hospital or something, you're sick, this looks like a lung infection, you shouldn't force yourself to do this..." She said nervously, looking at his pained facial expression.
"I'm fine. I can bare through this, Oliviera." He smiled at her, but he kept coughing.
She didn't know what to do. He looked so pained, she patted his back, trying to give any type of comfort. But very suddenly, he threw up just as well. She knew what this was. A very very bad lung infection, just what she warned him about. People started gathering around them. She was very happy when the ambulance came, since she was too panicked to do something properly now.
After that, everything seemed like hell to her. She was right when she said that he had a lung infection. To make things even better, his asthma didn't make the illness much easier to bare with. She tried hoping for the best, but she didn't know what to expect.
"I got you a present..." She gave something wrapped to him as he laid in the hospital bed.
She always felt like she was on the verge of crying when she looked at him like that. His breathing was hard to listen to, it was pained, rapid and harsh. And even though he tried to hide that it didn't hurt at all, sometimes his smile would twitch from pain. It hurt too much to breathe from his nose.
"I wonder what you got me." He opened it, looking surprised.
"A hoodie?" He looked overly happy from the gift, making pained faces when he made anything more energetic than a smile.
"Yeah... I thought that since you always give your umbrella, you wouldn't give this. You know, to keep you at least a little bit safe from the rain." Oliviera told him as she gently caressed his hair.
"Well, I sure as hell won't. I can't wait to wear this when I go outside!" It hurt him when he tried to say that a bit louder and started coughing painfully.
She looked at him in worry, not knowing what she should think of his state. He noticed her looking at him with worry. He felt sorry for not listening to her. Now he just made her extra worried.
"Don't be like that! I promise, when I go out, I'll take care of myself so you don't have to worry! Trust me, I won't let this ruin me!" Alex bared through the pain of this, his eyes getting watery, it hurt him to be so enthusiastic and loud, but he did it to sound more comforting to her.
She believed him. She shouldn't have. It made the news of his death much more hard to comprehend.
