I padded frantically down the long hallway, my heart hammering loudly in my chest.  Sweat beaded my forehead, causing my hair to cling to my face uncomfortably.  I barely noticed it, though.  My eyes were trained on the end of the doorway.  It was lit mysteriously, like objects usually were in horror films.  Doctors and patients littered the hallway, chatting casually amongst each other.  I pushed past them without murmuring so much as an apology.  I had one thing on my mind, and one thing only.

Dannon.

“Something’s happened,” they’d said.  “We need you to come in immediately.”

I’d been in the middle of history class.  Dannon’s empty seat was haunting, piercing me every time I spared it a glance.  History wasn’t the same without him looking over my shoulder, laughing as I snapped at him for scaring me.  It wasn’t the same without the playful teasing or the animated conversations.  It just . . . wasn’t right.  At all.

My cell phone rang in the middle of Mrs. Carl’s sentence.  She hadn’t glared, though.  Everyone knew that I kept my cell phone in case the hospital called with news about Dannon’s condition.  He’d been in a coma for three weeks now.  There was no sign of him waking up, no sign that I would ever see his affectionate eyes, his loving smile again.

“What’s happened?” I demanded loudly as I threw the doors of Dannon’s room open.

The doctors simply stared at me with melancholy eyes.  I glared, placing my hands on my hips, swallowing down the fear that was threatening to overwhelm me.  Why weren’t they saying anything?  Why were their gazes connected with my forehead and not my eyes?

“What’s happened?” I repeated, my voice hardening.  “Dammit!  Tell me what’s happened to him!”

The first doctor, the taller of the two, placed his hands neatly in front of him.  Finally, his gaze met mine.  “I’m afraid Dannon has left us,” he murmured softly.  “I’m so sorry, Brianne.”

I shook my head violently, refusing to believe it.  No.  That couldn’t be.  He had three days left before his deadline was up.  I had three days left with him!  “You’re lying!” I shrieked, my voice rising hysterically.

I pushed passed them, throwing myself out of the doorway and into the room.  He was residing in the cancer patients’ sector.  In my daily visits, I’d come to know many of the patients here.  There was Cammy, the little girl going through chemo.  There was Zachary, the teen who was going to be discharged in a few days.

I threw myself around Dannon’s lifeless body, tears streaming down my cheeks.  “He had three days left!” I wept to no one.  “Three days!”

The doctors, having seemingly disappeared from the room entirely, appeared out of nowhere, prying me away from him.  I resisted, thrashing my elbows out as I screeched at them to let me go.  But none of that mattered.  They were too strong.  “No!” I hissed.  “Let me stay with him.”

“Brianne, you must let go,” the doctor whispered in my ear.  “You must let go.”

The words echoed through my head, becoming my entire being.  You must let go.  You must let go.  You must let go.

I screeched, consciousness suddenly coming forth like a bucket of water had been splashed on my face.  Tears from the horrible dream soaked my cheeks.  I hurried to wipe them away, looking around at my surroundings.  I was in Kyla’s room, the scenery almost as familiar as my own bedroom.  Polka dot hangings sat atop the window, blowing lightly in the early morning breeze.  Clothes were thrown haphazardly around the room, covering the light purple rug.  Her television sat on the floor, banished there when Kyla decided to chuck her desk (“It’s as ugly as hell!”). 

Kyla sat on her bed, staring down at me with the same eyes the doctors had in my dream.  She had her arms wrapped around her knees, her head resting on top of them.  I wondered how long she’d been sitting there.  Ten minutes?  An hour?

“Kyla?” I murmured, sitting up and fixing my hair.  My voice was hoarse.  I had a feeling that it wasn’t because of my screech when I woke up. 

“You kept screaming,” Kyla whispered.  Her blue eyes connected with mine.  They were so sad.  “You said you were okay.  You lied, Bri.  You lied.”

In order to calm Kyla down last night, I’d resorted to acting like I was totally okay with everything and had accepted it.  In reality?  I wasn’t okay.  I think that point was made clear the evening before when I bawled my eyes out in my bedroom.  But Kyla wasn’t there so she didn’t need to know that.

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, standing up now and dropping down beside her.  I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close.  “Remember, we can’t act like anything is wrong today.”

“Easier said than done.”

True.  “I know, but I promised Dannon.  Normalcy is important to him, and I’m not going to mess it up for him.  Are you?”

Kyla shook her head, stray strands of her blond hair falling into her face.  She put on a bright smile.  If you didn’t know her well, you would think that she was as happy as could be.  I was probably the only one who could see passed that smile.  And that was good.  That would conceal her—at least for a little bit.

“Just think,” I said, putting on a smile of my own.  “You’ll see Oliver today!”

Kyla smiled legitimately, standing up and stretching her arms in the air.  I sat back and watched her, cocking an eyebrow.  She seemed to be practicing her smile, trying to get it just right.  That in itself was comical.  “Kyla,” I said, laughing softly.  “You’ll be fine.  You’ll be with friends—you know, the people who make you laugh?”

Kyla scowled at me, slapping my shoulder.  Yep, the girl was back.  For now.  “Shut your face, Bri!”

“Shut my face?  Really?”

Another slap.

Who knew that getting the real Kyla back would be so painful?

I thought of how school was going to be.  Were we really going to be able to pull it off?  I mean, if Dannon got me to laugh like usual after, like, a minute, then it was possible, right?  I shook my head slightly with a sigh.  It had to be possible.  I didn’t have a choice.

Speaking of Dannon. . . .

“Shit!” I shrieked, covering my mouth with my hand.

“What?” Kyla demanded mid-way to taking her tank top off.  The girl was changing in front of me.  Pervert.  “What’s wrong?”

Deciding to ignore the fact that she was undressing in front of me despite the fact that she knew I hated it when she did that, I let out an exasperated sigh.  “Dannon was supposed to pick me up this morning, and I forgot to tell him that I came here.”  I slapped a hand to my forehead.  I was such an idiot.

“So call him,” Kyla said simply, shrugging as she returned to her task at hand.

I sighed, grabbing my phone from my backpack.  I’d stuffed it in there on my way out the front door yesterday, almost whacking Garrett in the process.  But, since he was being generous, he didn’t slap me for it.  What a nice brother, right?

Flipping the phone open, I quickly dialed Dannon’s number and brought the phone to my ear.

“Hello, my lovely Brianne!”

How Dannon was so chipper this early in the morning was beyond me.  “Oh, I’m lovely am I?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

“Well, you have your moments.” Dannon chuckled.

“Asshole,” I muttered under my breath.  “Anyway, I felt the need to tell you that I slept over Kyla’s last night, so I’m going to get a ride from her.”

“Okie dokie!”

I paused, biting my lip.  I didn’t really know what else to say.  “Well, I’m going to hang up now.”

“Aw, why?” Dannon whined.  “You get on the phone with me for two seconds and then hang up?  Our first conversation on the phone was longer than that.”

I scoffed, instantly recalling the first time he’d called me.  “You still haven’t given me a reason for the phone call,” I pointed out, a mischievous smile curling on my lips.

It was easy to imagine the smile on Dannon’s face.  “I told you that I don’t know.”

“Nah, I think you were attracted to me from the beginning.  You were being some creepy stalker because of hormones.”

I glanced at Kyla.  She was giving me the strangest look I’d ever seen.  She was staring at me like I was some alien life-form having an ugly face that resembled something along the lines of a mixture of a fish and Sebastian from the Mortal Instruments.  That was a disgusting combo right there.

“Oh, really?” Dannon inquired, ripping me from my reverie.

“Yes, really.”  I placed my free hand on my hip.  “And, I need to get ready for school.”

Dannon sighed dramatically.  “Okay,” he replied.  “I’ll see you soon.”

“Bye.”  I hung up the phone and turned to Kyla.

She’d changed into a different shirt now (a plain orange tee), and was in the middle of putting on a new pair of shorts.  She was pretty damn lucky that I turned now instead of earlier.  I’d have to kill her.  “What did I tell you about changing in front of me?” I demanded, my hands going back to their places at my hips.

“Must have slipped my mind,” Kyla murmured, grinning as I pursed my lips my lips.  “It’s not like you saw anything!”

I rolled my eyes and grabbed my duffle bag, hurrying to the bathroom.  Even though Kyla felt comfortable enough to undress in front of me, I couldn’t say the same for me.  Some people—like Kyla—called it an issue.  I called it being self-conscious about my body in front of others.

“Yo!  Let’s hurry it up, okay Bri?  We have to be out of the house in fifteen minutes!”

I scowled, rushing now to put on my clothes.  Way to wake me up late, Kyla.

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

Dannon wrapped his arms around my waist from behind, leaning his head on my shoulder.  We were standing with the crew, talking casually amongst each other as we waited for school to begin.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be—talking casually with my friends.  Once we got back into the norms of things, I kept almost forgetting that Dannon was going to leave us in three months.  Which, I suppose, was a good thing.  Who wanted to remember something as dreadful as that?

“How did you sleep?” he whispered in my ear.

I hesitated before answering.  Was it just me or did he sound like he knew that I’d had a nightmare last night?  “Fine.”

“Liar.”

I twisted around and pecked his lips.  “Don’t worry about me.”

“Look at those lovebirds converse secretly!” Garner called out obnoxiously.  “Woot woot!”

He was so weird. 

Shelley whacked him on the shoulder, telling him off for disturbing our romantic moment.  I tilted my head to the side as I watched them squabble.  There were two types of relationship starters.  Hate to love, or friendship to love.  It seemed plausible that they were eventually going to end up together. 

Oh gosh.  Look what being in a relationship has done to me!  I’m pairing people together now!

“How can I not?” Dannon whispered in my ear as though we hadn’t been interrupted.

Ignoring the fact that everyone around us was staring, I twisted my body around, wrapping my arms around his waist.  Let’s just say that I’d become much more accustomed to showing off affection.  Yeah, it scared me too.  I scowled at him, tempted to whack him in the head.  “What do you mean?  I’m totally fine.  Should I be worry about you? You seem to be acting suspicious today.”

Wasn’t he the one that said we needed to keep our mouths shut about the whole ordeal today?  I could understand where he was coming from, but if this continued, people were going to suspect something.

“Me?”  Dannon grinned.  “Nah, I’m perfectly normal.”  He kissed me shortly, conscious of the fact that we were in public.  After shooting me a glance that signified that our conversation was not over, he smiled.  “Now, let’s get on with the day, shall we?”

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

“You dragged me over to your car, picked me up, and plopped me into it why?” I demanded as Dannon closed the driver’s door and backed out of the parking lot.

Dannon tossed me a smile, shrugging.  “I think it’s time we caught up on our earlier conversation.”

I scowled, crossing my arms over my chest.  I was not at all enticed to divulge my nightmare to him.  That would only panic him, causing more worry than he needed.  I mean, he had so much on his plate already as it was.  He didn’t need my stupid nightmares to go with it.

But, apparently, Dannon didn’t see it that way.

“I told you, I’m fine,” I muttered.

“I know you’re lying.”

The seriousness in his tone startled me.  Dannon glanced at me from the corner of his eye, trying to figure out my expression.  I sighed, leaning back in my seat.  “If I tell you, will you promise to drop it so we can better act like you’re the healthiest human being alive?”

Dannon chuckled.  “Of course.”

I sighed again, shooting a glare to the roof of the car.  How to start.  What was I supposed to say?  “Oh, I just had a nightmare about you being dead in the hospital, and apparently I was screaming all night.  At least, that’s what Kyla said.”  Yeah, I didn’t think so.  That was too blunt, too. . . . I didn’t even know.  It just felt wrong.

“Brianne?”

“I’m thinking of how to word it,” I said, not even thinking before I blurted the words out.  “Give me a minute.”

Dannon waited patiently as I collected my thoughts within my head.  Not once did he coax me to open my mouth, to spill out whatever information I had.  And I was thankful for that.  “I had a nightmare, that’s all,” I said, finally, with a shrug.  “I slept through the night, though.”

Dannon nodded.  He didn’t need to ask me what the nightmare was about.  He knew.  “Okay.”

Immediately the topic changed.  Dannon kept to his word, not at all mentioning the reaction I’d had to yesterday’s events.  We talked about what we were going to do next for the project and what songs we wanted to have.  We talked about prom and how “lucky” I was to be going shopping soon.  I didn’t find it fair that they guys didn’t have to go shopping with us when I was being forced against my will.

“It’s going to be so weird seeing you in a dress,” Dannon mused, tossing me a smile.

I snorted, slapping him playfully.  “Would you rather me wear shorts and a tank top?”      

“I don’t care what you wear.”  Dannon stuck out his tongue.  “You’re beautiful either way.”

Despite my better judgment, I flushed, my cheeks turning rosy red.  Damn him and his corny ways of making me blush!  “That was really, really corny,” I muttered, hastily attempting to hide my blush.

Dannon chuckled, sticking his tongue back out at me.  Very mature.  “You always say that, yet you enjoy it.”

I rolled my eyes, crossing my arms over my chest.  I refused to acknowledge that he’d pretty much called me a romantic.  I’d always gone through life making fun of anything romantic.  I made fun of those who found chick flicks cute.  I’d made fun of the guys who said incredibly corny things.  Now add in Dannon and I was liking those things.  He was destroying me.  Stupid apple-denter.

“Yep, you did.  Just admit it!”

I shoved him playfully, earning a shove in return.  It was a wonder that we hadn’t managed to crash his car yet.  “I’m not going to admit anything,” I retorted, flipping my hair dramatically.

“You’re not denying it either.”  Dannon wriggled his eyebrows, causing me to snort out a laugh.  Did he realize how hilarious he looked when he did that?  Probably not.

A few minutes later we were parked in my driveway and hopping out of the car.  Apparently Dannon was coming over today.  That was new information to me, but I didn’t really care.  I just hope that Garrett wouldn’t make the situation awkward.  He would probably stare Dannon down, waiting for him to admit that he was ill.  I got chills at the thought.

“Yo, Brianne, is that you?” Garrett called as we entered the household.

“Yeah!” I shouted back.  “Dannon’s here too.”

“Oooh the boyfriend is here?”

Thank goodness his tone didn’t sound any different.  I glanced at Dannon before kicking off my shoes and trotting inside.  I wondered if Dannon knew that my family knew about his condition.  Probably.  I mean, wasn’t it impossible to hide something like this from the people you loved?  Well, I thought, not exactly.  Dannon had hidden it from me for quite a while now.  Not only that, but he’d been hiding it from the crew for two years now.

“Yes, the boyfriend is here.”  I strutted into the kitchen where I found Garrett stuffing his face full of ice cream.  This must have become a horrible habit.  The guy didn’t even grab a bowl.  “There are these things called bowls in the cupboard, you know.”

“Too much work,” Garrett said dismissively, stuffing yet another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth.  “Where’s the boyfriend?”

As if on cue, Dannon trotted in, a smile on his face.  “Hey, Garrett.”

“Hey, man!”

The boys proceeded to clap their hands together and embrace in a man hug.  It occurred to me that men had ways of making the most girly things look manly.  Like hugging, for instance.  You would think it would look awkward, but it didn’t.  It looked completely natural.  And then, when one guy had his arm over another guy’s shoulder.  I always thought it would look weird, but it didn’t. 

Gosh, I was rambling.

“So, what’s up?” Garrett asked, wriggling his eyebrows at Dannon and me.  “Got any plans, you two?”

“Nope,” Dannon and I replied simultaneously.

Garrett smiled devilishly.  “Well, do you two have much homework?”

I didn’t like where this was going.  “No. . . .”

Garrett grinned.  “Good.  We’re going out.” 

Oh no.  “Okay.”

| It ♥ All ♥ Started ♥ With ♥ An ♥ Apple |

Apparently going outside consisted of going into the backyard and jumping on the trampoline Garrett just had to buy.  How he’d accumulated the money, I had no idea, but I wasn’t about to ask.  Apparently he didn’t want to jump on it alone, so what was better than forcing two high schoolers to come out and jump on it, too?  Nothing, apparently.

“Come on, Bri, put a little heart into it!”

I grumbled under my breath, hopping harder.  Dannon laughed from across the trampoline, hopping up high and doing a perfect split.  Stupid Dannon and his stupid flexible-ness.  If I tried to do that I would have broken something.

“See?” Garrett called, pointing at Dannon as he came back into contact with the trampoline.  “Dannon’s having fun.”

I scowled at Garrett  before hopping over to him and bouncing up and down as hard as I could.  My goal was to make him fall, but, apparently, that wasn’t meant to be.  In the end, he tripped me and I fell onto the scratchy surface of the trampoline.

“Dammit!” I shrieked, glaring up at him.  “That hurt!”

I struggled up and began bouncing again.  I was going to strangle Garrett once we got inside.  He knew I wasn’t an outdoors person.  Yet he dragged me outside anyway.  Jerkface.

I gave up, falling back onto the trampoline and allowing the boys to cause me to jolt up and down as they jumped. It was rather fun, actually, laying there while they bounced around.  I found a smile growing on my face as Dannon and Garrett drew closer, almost stepping on me.  I looked up at the clouds and the sky.  It seemed especially bright today.

The boys collapsed along with me, making me once again in the middle.  I turned my head between the two of them, smiling contently.  The two boys that I cared most about were standing—well, laying—beside me.  Odd how these things worked out.

“Well,” Garrett muttered, his voice breathless.  “That was fun.”