The paper was passed around the room slowly, each person ending it with tears in their eyes. Colin was crying, Jen's head resting peacefully on his shoulder. No one expected it. No one was ready to say goodbye. Jared, only fourteen, threw himself into Jen's arms when he finished reading, sobbing into her shoulder. It was moments like these that would stick in her memory, the ones where everyone was together for one cause. The note was passed to the last person, Lana. She couldn't make it past the second line. She fell to her knees, sobbing into her hands.
"Lana, it'll be OK." Jen called weakly. The exhaustion of working fifteen hours a day wearing down on her. Her face was pale, her normal bright green eyes dull, her hands shaky. Colin kissed her head and brought over her oxygen mask.
"You need it, love." Colin tried to hand it to her, but she pushed it away with a shaky hand
"They're scared enough." You could hear it in her voice. She wasn't going to be OK. The wedding fell a few weeks from that day, and the preparations had been made. Lana was her maid of honor, she was being rolled down the aisle by her stepfather, everything was set.
"Jennifer." Colin crossed his arms. Jen put the mask over her mouth with shaky hands, her dull eyes shutting gently. She ignored his pleads for her to stay in a seat that was easy ti get up from, moving towards Lana weakly.
"I don't want you to go." Lana sobbed.
"I don't want to go. Promise me you'll look after them for me?" Jen asked with a smile. Lana nodded and wrapped her arms around her weak friend gently.
"Jen, come on." Colin called. You could tell by the way she walked that she was exhausted, pulling her oxygen tank on it's little portable stand. She almost fell into Colin's arms, and he led her to the guest room downstairs that was now theirs, because Jen hated stairs in her exhaustion. The cancer was finally attacking violently. When he rejoined the group, there was no sound. Simple silence as they all tried to understand what was happening. Jen seemed so healthy before, they didn't know how they had missed the obvious exhaustion in her eyes, the way her collarbone was so much more defined, her sickly pale color, how weak she was. They all felt like terrible friends, not noticing the obvious differences in her behavior. Jen rejoined the group, despite Colin's protests. She clutched her side, her pain obvious in her eyes.
"Pain meds?" Colin asked, and the group was surprised how casual their interaction was. Does this happen often? Lana wondered. Little did she know, it often happened right in front of their faces, but Jen was good at hiding it. They were only now noticing it in the silence, when they had been made aware of the problem.
"Thanks." Jen replied quietly, taking the water and pill from her fiancée. She took it quickly, but didn't move her hand from her side. They could tell Colin just wanted to take her pain away, to give her the world. But he couldn't.
One month later, Jen and her friends were in a rental car in Chicago. They were headed to the wedding venue, Lana sitting between Jen and Ginny, Colin driving, and Josh in the passenger seat. Hailee and Evan were with both Colin and Jen's parents. Jen had fallen asleep in Lana's shoulder, her oxygen mask gone, now she had permanent oxygen tubes in her nose. She was still connected to an oxygen tank, which she hated, and the pains in her chest had only increased. She was in the worst part of her treatment. She only had a month left to live, and she was spending it with her little family. Little did her friends know, she had a surprise waiting for her.