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| Chris placed a weak smile on his pale face, glancing at her delicate features. "Liz," he breathed out, his fingers roaming over her face softly. She laughed in a hoarse tone of voice and shrugged his hand off of her. "Chris, I'm fine," she reassured him for the millionth time, "Just don't worry, okay? You're making my condition worse!" She laughed once more, but hacked that one up. Chris stared, amazed. In Liz's world, Liz would always be alright. But here she was, in his vision with cords hooked to her nose and tubes shoved down her throat and needles shoved into her wrists. "Elizabeth..." Chris trailed off, his eyes tearing slightly. He couldn't handle to see her like this, but he had to. It was like those gory scenes in horror movies that you don't want to look at, but you just can't help it. Except, this horror movie was real life. "Christopher!" Liz shouted. "Nothing is wrong with me, damnit! I'll even prove it to you..." She yanked the tubes and wires off of her, fearlessly. Fearlessly- the way she did everything else in life. Suddenly her face turned ghost white, causing Chris' knees to buckle and his face to turn the same shade as hers. His hands had gone from lightly trembling to violently shaking. "Chris," Liz gasped, "Chris get me a nurse. Go! Go get me a nurse!" He couldn't move. There she was, his best friend, life being drained from her body and he couldn't even blink in response to her cries. "Chris," Liz sobbed. He snapped back into reality and sped out of her room. * * * "...and...and, um, that was the end of it," Chris spoke, tearing his eyes away from the coffin on the altar he was standing on. "That was the last memory we had. The memory wasn't even a food fight, or a laugh. I've never lost anyone I was especially close to. This was a major shock. Like getting the wind knocked out of you. Except it wasn't even a grandparent or someone who had at least lived their life a decent amount of years. Liz...she was....young. And she was my best friend. "She had struggles, like any other single twenty-eight year old, but she was happy. She always looked on the positive side, always looking for an adventure. And now that she's gone, not only is my life incomplete and adventureless, it feels like I'm incomplete." When he'd first started speaking, Chris kept repeating to himself not to cry. She may be dead, but everybody dies, right? He had to be a man about this situation, no matter how heartbreaking. Screw being a man, he had thought to himself, letting the tears fall freely now, before quickly wiping them away with his shirt sleeve, and then continuing. "She made everyone giggle with almost every word that came out of her mouth. It wasn't the jokes. The jokes were terrible. It was just the way she told them. And the way she made you feel when she told them. She looked you in the eye, and even if there were ten people listening in on the joke, she would look at every single person, but it still felt like you were the only one with her." "Last night, while letting my feminine side out with a good sob-fest, I had a breif flashback. We were kids, around twelve I think, and we were watching a movie. 'Grease' or something she picked for the night. And I told her that even when we were seventy and she'd need to start wearing contacts and glasses to see the TV, we'd still be sitting on the same couch together, watching a movie toghther. I guess we're not." Chris looked around at all the familiar faces once more. "I want to say that you shouldn't take things for granted. And you definitely shouldn't take people for granted. Each day is a brand new day with a brand new path for you. Anything could happen. You could become a pop star....or your best friend could pass away. But no matter what your day holds, you should thank God for the things you have, because you could turn around for just one second, and everything could be gone. Even the person you love the most." "I think, having given the opportunity to just be alive, every single person on this earth should give something up, something special. Something to offer up to God. I guess, Liz was my offering. But even if she physically isn't with us anymore, at least she's in our hearts." And Chris left the altar. |
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