The Bucket List

Real Life

Bella groaned deeply, her body tense and surging with pain from every breath.

"What's wrong Bells?" Chris was at her side in an instant.

"I don't know." She cried, the heel of her hand rested on her forehead frustratedly.

It had been about 6 months since she had gone into a coma. The brain tumor making things very complicated. Her words became more broken and thinking was hard. Eventually she lost use of her entire right side, being paralyzed on half of her body.

"It's okay, just take a moment to think." Chris adjusted the thin plastic tube that entered Bella's nose feeding her oxygen.

"I-I don't know Chris!" She sobbed.

"Shhh, it's okay. Don't worry about it, it'll come to you again." Chris cradled her head to his chest. "Would you like something to eat?"

Bella's face lit up a little, she nodded her head yes.

"Cheerios?" Chris knew what her go to food was during this time, dry Cheerios with sliced banana.

She nodded yes again and started to relax. The TV played before her, Animal planet, all the dogs and cats being rescued from unsafe homes made her happy.

"I can't think." Bella said looking off to the corner of the bedroom.

"Yes you can Bells." Chris stroked her cheek gently and gave her half a smile.

"Who are you?" She looked wide eyed and panicked around the room. Chris' smile faded into nothing and he took her hand in his.

"I'm Chris, I'm your boyfriend."

"No, I don't know you." She cried attempting to push herself away. "I'm so confused. I don't know you."

"You are Bella Marie Jenkins, I am Christopher Robert Evans, we have been dating for almost 4 years. And I love you, I am so insanely in love with you."

"Chris." Bella quietly repeated back.

"Yes, Chris."

Bella started to cry and whimper the word 'okay' over and over. Her head ached terribly and she couldn't make herself say anything else.

"You're okay Bella. It's all right. I'm going to go get your Cheerios."

Chris left the bedroom and went to the kitchen, the house was a mess. Food cartons strewn everywhere, dying or dead floral arrangements decorated the table and kitchen counter. Unopened mail and newspaper leaves were thrown about the house like large floppy snowflakes.

Chris grabbed one of the few clean bowls, since the dishes hadn't been done in quite a while, and poured some Cheerios into it.

His phone buzzed as he reached for a banana in the fruit bowl.

"Hello?"

"Chris, it's Tom. I wanted to know if Bells was up for a visit today." The Brit on the other end of the line was cheery, a tone of voice that Chris hadn't heard in a very long time.

"Yeah, um, come on over." Chris rubbed his face, his hands stopped on his beard. Man he needed a trim.

"Great! Say about 2 o'clock?"

"That sounds good. Just a warning, Bella has a really hard time remembering stuff, so she may not know who you are at first."

"She's doing that bad eh?"

"Yeah, I just got done reminding her that I'm her boyfriend." Chris cut up the banana into the dry wheat cereal.

"I'm sorry Chris. Well here's hoping she'll get over this hump. I'll see you at 2." Tom sighed and Chris could hear the crackle in his voice from tears.

"I'll see you." Chris hung up and carried the food back to Bella, her eyes trained onto the TV.

"Here's your snack, Tom is coming over in a bit so I'm going to clean up the house and get a shower." Chris patted Bella's head that was now covered in new hair.

"Okay." She began to eat but didn't make any real response to Chris.

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Chris worked to clean up everything in the house, he threw away the dead flowers and washed the vases to be put away.

He lifted Bella's motionless body and laid her comfortably on the bed.

"Tom is coming over in a few, I'm going to go get a shower and you just rest for a bit."

"No, Chris don't leave."

"I'm sorry I've got to go shower before Tom gets here."

"No!" She screamed. Bella balled up her fists and pounded on the mattress.

"Bella. Stop that. You're a grown woman stop acting like a child."

"No!" She continued to scream. Chris grabbed her arms and turned her face to look at him.

"Bella you need to calm down."

Her breathing began to return to normal and she pulled her arms away from him. She was mad at Chris but he knew it was just her medicine, it wasn't her.

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Chris went into the bathroom to try to clean up a bit before Tom came over. He looked his beard over a few times in the mirror, it had gotten shaggy and definitely needed a trim, maybe a whole shave.

Taking out his phone, he snapped a selfie and posted it on Twitter asking if it should just be trimmed or completely shaved off. Almost instantly replays came in, but he waited until there was enough to really make a decision.

"A full shave it is." He scrolled through Twitter a few more times to double check. Chris clicked his phone off and stuck it in his back pocket, he shed the grey t-shirt that clung to his body tightly.

Taking out an electric razor he started taking the beard down to a more manageable size.

Another selfie. Caption "we're halfway there!"

He then got out his shaving cream and razor and started going to work on the bristly hairs. Bella always liked it when he was clean shaven maybe she would like this now.

A final selfie was snapped. Caption "all done! Whaddya guys think?"

He smirked at the replies of heart eyed emojis and the occasional "MARRY ME." and then hopped in the shower.

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A shower can do wonders for a person, Chris was like a new man when he was finished, the stress that made his body tense and rigid washed away with the soap and water.

Bella seemed to be in a better mood, she was half asleep but she was quiet and behaved. Chris sat by her feet, it pained him to see her in this position, unable to do anything herself, her life bound to the bed.

This was worse than death.