//Daniel
It has been five months since Maddie gave me her sweet yes, and things were a lot better than
expected.
It was actually the first time that Maddie formally introduced her boyfriend to her parents, and well they weren't surprised at all. They said that they always knew this moment would come and they couldn't be happier for the both of us. Same goes with me and my parents, so yeah that part was easy.
As for Alexa and Liam, they are also doing pretty well. Fortunately, there was not a bit of awkward between the four of us. In fact, we became like best friend couples or whatever you call it. We made it a thing to have double dates atleast once a week if possible.
As for Maddie and I, well it couldn't be better. It's like one of em fairytales or those cheesy teenager movies or whatnot. Oh wait. Everything would've been perfect, if Maddie isn't going to die any time soon.
Amidst all this happiness, I still couldn't believe that Maddie is sick; that she could die any minute now. I must treasure every living moment with her, cause her days are counted, and I couldn't imagine what my life would be without her.
"Helloooo," Maddie said, snapping her fingers in front of me, trying to get my attention. It didn't take me too long to realize that I was staring into empty space for the past few seconds.
"There you go again with your deep thinking moments," she said. It was a beautiful Sunday morning, and we were eating at this new place called "BigKups", a store which sells big cupcakes but swears that they are still cupcakes, not cakes.
"Haha, I'm sorry," I said. Maddie took another bite on the big almond chocolate cupcake. She then flashed a smile, purposely leaving some of the cake on and in between her teeth.
"Gross," I laughed.
"Well, I finally caught your attention today," she said as she licked all of the cupcake bits off her teeth.
"You've been either staring into blank space or just plain silent. What's wrong? Am I boring you?" she asked.
"Oh gosh no, you always have my attention and I could see you a million times everyday and still not get bored of you," I said. "I just have a lot of things to think about that's all."
"Whatever," she said. "So what do we do now?"
My eyes widened when I saw her empty plate. I swore there was still a big chunk or cupcake like three seconds ago. "Uhmm.. I have no idea really."
She stood up and brushed her pants. "Let's just take a walk in the meantime. I need a way to burn these calories." And we did.
We've never been to this side of the city before. Will we get lost, a big maybe, but we're adventurous people and we always get lost in random places and we always find our way back, so that wouldn't be a problem.
We passed by a bookstore, and since Maddie loved books so much we decided to spend some time there. The same happened when we passed by this thrift shop, seafood museum and a shoe store.
We continued walking after spending twenty minutes in the shoe store, looking for another place to spend the rest of the day in. Then we passed by this beautiful church. A sign outside said "Healing Mass at 3:15" and so I thought, why not go to church?
Despite Maddie being a Catholic, she isn't really the type who goes to church every Sunday. She has this point of view wherein the Church is just making their own rules and just making money off of people. I very much disagree but I respect her opinion. Besides, it's a healing mass. What if it would heal her sickness? I know that it takes a whole lot of faith for these healing masses to work but I'm taking all the chances I could.
Encouraging Maddie was hard but I eventually got her to agree, though we're ten minutes late. The priest did the rites and right after the priest said his homily, everyone started to form two lines.
"This is pointless," Maddie said. "Why am I doing this? I'm not even sick."
"Well.. uhm.. it's spiritual healing," I said. "You know, heal your heart and spirit."
"Are you serious? It's fake Danny, if this was true then AIDS and cancer wouldn't be such a big problem for anyone. I don't see why-"
"Just.. please? For me," I pleaded. She rolled her eyes and fell in line. When it was our turn, we were asked to lay our palms infront of us as the priest murmurs stuff, making the sign of the cross on a lot of places using this holy oil thingy.
We went back to our seats afterwards. Maddie leaned closer to my ear and whispered, "That's one thing I'm never gonna do again," and my heart sunk thinking that it was possible, that we would never do this again, or anything again soon.
~
"Hmm, so you're telling me that you've been friends with Maddie for a very long time and you're letting me choose your anniversary gift? What kind of best/boyfriend are you?" Alexa ranted as she scruffled through the hanged clothes in the department store.
"I don't know," I said. "You're like her best girl friend now, and girls around girls- it's an entirely different thing. Quite unfathomable, I think. You girls have this thing which makes you aliens to us boys despite how close we are."
"Of course. If girls weren't like that, there wouldn't be any mystery would there? It would ruin all the fun," she replied. "And if there's one thing I know about Maddie is that she wouldn't like any of these, gosh why would they even put this up. These belong to the thrift shop."
We walked every inch of the department store, and we still couldn't find anything. After three hours of wandering, thinking and arguing, we decided to take a break and brainstorm over a cup of coffee.
"You should do something romantic," Alexa murmured.
"What?"
"You see the thing about us girls is that we want you guys to be romantic, no matter how much we deny it. It's just that we have a different brand of romance. Some girls love flowers, some girls love chocolates, some girls love dates where it's just the two of you and there are some who loves public flash mobs with their faces and names everywhere and blah blah blah. We love surprises, something unexpected, something that would make us shiver just thinking about it," then she started shivering.
"Is that something Liam-"
"Oh god everytime!" she said cutting me off. "It's like he's using it to his extreme advantage. He just knows exactly what to do, and when to do it. Gawd. Like he could burn my house down and he'd just do one of his romantic things and I'd forgive him. He's amazing but wicked at the same time. "
"Oh.." I said with my voice slightly cracked. If there's one thing I know about Liam is that he's the romantic one, and my title holds nothing more the being the gawky one.
"Okay, let me help. Despite me being a girl, you still know Maddie more than I do, no doubt about that. And she must've shared you some girly bullshit about boys in the past. I.. well, I like guys singing for me. That's my ultimate weakness, but this shit could be overdone. So there goes my weakness for doll shoes and romantic sunsets and etcetera. Now, what does Maddie like?"
"Well.. she likes flowers.."
"But she's had enough flowers in her liftime. Make a twist." She brought her face closer and fastened her eyes onto mine, waiting for me to say something though the stare was making it harder for me to do so.
"Uhhh, chocolate flowers. She loves white chocolates, especially those with almonds. I've never given her chocolate flowers before."
"Yes, hmm, good." She leaned back to her seat, giving me the chance the breath again. "And what
else? The rule with giving special gifts is that you shouldn't give edible gifts ONLY. You should also give a gift that would last, something to reminisce on, or something that she could throw away when you break up but I doubt that will ever happen."
I returned her previous stare with a stern one. Breaking up with Maddie was never really a favourable thought.
"So should I still push through with the chocolate flowers then?" She nodded.
Okay, Maddie. Let's talk about Maddie. She is the most amazing girl I've ever met. She loves chocolates. She loves All Time Panic. She hates rats, street dogs and anything that crawls. She hates the Church. She hates yellow. Unlike Alexa, she wouldn't bother looking at sunsets, but she'd go crazy over a sunrise. She loves the stars. She has this bitter point of view in love but she has this thing about promises. She has twenty pairs of pink socks. Err wait.. Promises. Hmmm. She has a thing with promises.. She has a thing with promises!
I bolted up from my seat and grabbed my stuff and hugged Alexa in her seat. "Thanks Alexa! Could've not thought of this without your help. Now go home and make yourself prettier than you already are because it's already 2:30 and you'll be having your date with Liam in an hour."
"Oh shit," she blurted. Alexa has the every cursing right to say shit because it takes her a lot more than an hour to get ready. "Your gift should be amazing Daniel, you cost me my date."
"Oh you'd still look beautiful even after a hurricane, and I bet my life that Liam thinks the same." She
blushed a little. "Now goodbye," I said as I bolted out the glass doors.
~
So I finally bought my gifts for Maddie. The only place I've found within a favorable distance which sold chocolate flowers were at Chocco Early's and unfortunately, the shop only opens in the afternoon during Fridays and weekends, which is too late for my surprise plan so I had to wait for three freaking hours for
the chocolate flowers to be made and done. But it didn't bother me for long cause I used every up every second productively.
It's getting late, and Maddie still hasn't called. I'm a getting bit worried. But it's a bit hard to be in a hurry when you're bringing a big bouquet of chocolate flowers and two annoying paper bags. And it's a bit harder when you're in this situation and your phone's ringing incessantly. That must be Maddie. I guess she can wait for a while.
I finally got into my car and I started driving. I checked my phone which read seven missed calls and two
messages. I opened them, and they were all from Maddie's mom. My eyes widened when I saw what it said.
08:15 pm
Dan? Maddie's in trouble, pls take my call.
8:22 pm
Daniel Maddie wudn't wake up! Her breathing's getng slowr but shes stil got pulse. Were taking her to Byford Hospital please be there ASAP! Ty
Maddie! Oh my god!
I stepped on the pedal. What happened to her? She can't die! It's our anniversary tomorrow! No she just can't!
I passed the speed limit, but for the first time in forever I didn't care about the law. I ran two red lights, though thankfully no police car has followed me yet- oopps spoke too soon. Shit. Another red light. I don't care, I have to see Maddie! I need to! I love her, she can't die! Please, God, please.
But bright light and louds noises told me that I might see her sooner than I thought.
----------------------------------
//Maddie
I was just sleeping, and it felt like waking up in my bed if not for the plain white walls and the unusual reviling aroma, so there popped the question "Where am I?"
I could barely move or speak but I was conscious enough to know where I was and to hear the doctor and my mom converse.
"It's a miracle, I tell you," the doctor said. "Her levels just stabilized all of a sudden, which is very, very rare for people in her condition. Most of them just die after having an attack this serious, some revive as a vegetable but only very few revive healthy and stable, and she's one them. You should be thankful, Maam."
Condition? Are they talking about me?
"So you're saying.. she's cured?" mom said with undeniable happiness hinted in her voice.
"I'm glad to say that she is. But just to be sure, I suggest weekly check ups, in case it comes back, though I'm very hopeful that it won't"
"Thank you, doctor," she said. The doctor glanced at me, smiled, said "You're awake. God must really love you," and left.
Mom turned around and ran towards me, hugging me like I was a military man home from Afghanistan.
"Mom, what was the doctor talking about?"
"Oh Maddie, if you only knew what you had all these years.." Tears started to escape from my mom's eyes, then she started sobbing. What is wrong with her?
"What's wrong, Mom?"
"Nothing is, darling. It's absolutely perfect. I'm sorry we kept it from you. We just had to. You had this rare heart disease where you couldn't handle a certain level of stress or emotion. That's why you kept on fainting before, why we were so strict and why we treated you like a princess. If you'd known about your condition, you might be too psychologically stressed, having the thought of dying eat you up everyday. It was a usual death ticket."
I froze. When all the words were finally absorbed, I didn't know how to react. You have just lived your life with a sickness you never knew you had, and you were just cured all of a sudden. How in the world should I react to that aside from being happy that I'm not dead?
"Danny knew," Mom continued. "He was worried as hell too. The cure has not yet been discovered but a very few cases, including yours, had their levels stabilized unknowingly. You are very lucky my love. Very lucky."
Then it hit me. All this time. Those times when I asked for ridiculous requests, those times when he took the heat some of the things I did, and those times when he never left my side no matter how much I tell he to. I realized how much Danny has sacrificed for me- how he had to endure the pain, how he knew that the love of his life could die any minute now yet he just looked happy in front of me like nothing's wrong. So that's why he always tries to divert the conversation when we start talking about the future. He was just there, trying his best to make me happy and make me live my life, and indeed he didn't fail.
"Oh look, Danny's calling me," Mom said. My eyes lightened. I couldn't wait to tell him the good news! Wait till he knows that we could get married, have kids, grow old together. This was too exciting for me!
"Yes, this is she," Mom said. Her eyes started to lose spark. What? This is she? Why would she respond like that? It's not a telephone, he has her name on his contacts, she didn't have to respond that way. The only time I hear people respond like that is either-
Oh no.
"Okay, we'll be there in a bit." She slowly put the phone down from her ear, she bit her lip and her eyes started to water.
"Mom, what's wrong?" I asked. I was scared. Shattered, already, without even knowing what it was all about. You see, my Mom never cries. She didn't even cry watching Hachiko, Titanic, A Walk To Remember or any of those tear jerking movies. She only cries during three situations:
1. When she catches dad cheating, or when we enter an extreme stage of rebellion: in short, family problems.
2. When she's chopping onion.
and three..
"Maddie," she said, her voice cracked. Tears started to overflow, her face began reddening. I gulped. My eyes started to well up as well. Anything but these words Mom, anything. But she did said those words, the words that could kill me despite a beating heart.
"Danny's gone, Maddie. He's dead."