A Love To Die For (Camren)

epilogue

Camila's POV

I really thought Lauren and I would make it farther than we had. But I guess God has his reasons for everything that happens.

For about a year after the Games we lived together, happily married, taking care of Taylor and Chris. Lauren and I are still legally married but we do not live together nor do we talk anymore.

It all started after Lauren got the call that her mother had died. She and her siblings returned home to District 12 to take care of things. I had been feeling ill for a while leading up to Lauren's mother's death. It wasn't until Lauren left that I decided to get checked out. I was diagnosed with stage 4 pharyngeal (throat) cancer. That means the tumor in my throat has spread to my lymph nodes and my distant organs.

It really wasn't that bad at first. I lacked energy to do things and I had sore throat. But once I learned my illness would someday kill me, I decided to break things off with Lauren in order to spare her the pain of my death. I gave her a phone call and told things just "didn't feel right." She told me she never wanted to speak to me again and that was the end of that. Sure countless nights were spent crying and screaming and asking God "why me?"

It's now six months after Lauren moved back to District 12. My voice changed a lot and became very hoarse in this time. Now I'm at the point where I can barely speak at all - only a few short words like "hi" and "bye" and a few short sentences being whispered. I've lost nearly fifteen pounds and most of the time when I cough I cough up blood. I can't really eat anymore, either, unless the food is in liquid form. My doctor estimates I have up to two weeks left of life. Now more than ever I wish I had Lauren with me. She's the only one who could make me feel good through all of this.

My parents and Sofi have been taking care of me since I learned about my throat cancer. They moved me back in with them after I told them. All my mother does now is cry, and it really pains me to see her like that knowing it's because of me. My father hasn't ever cried in front of me, but sometimes late at night when he thinks Sofi and I are asleep, I can hear him crying in the kitchen.

Sofi spends a lot of time with me in my room since I can't leave my bed anymore except for when use the bathroom. She's been such a trooper, although I'm pretty sure it's because she doesn't exactly understand what "fatal cancer" means. Sofi paints me a lot of pictures of me and Lauren together because she knows how much I miss her. She also watches me cry almost everyday because Lauren is not with me.

As the sun begins to set, I hear a knock on the front door. I assume it's just a neighbor asking to borrow sugar or something else. And then I hear something shatter. I want to yell and ask if everything is alright but I can't manage to make a loud enough noise. Then someone barges into my room. I get my eyes to focus on the person and I'm thoroughly shocked.

The person standing in my bedroom is not who I'd expect to be there. Instead it's Lauren.

—

Lauren's POV

It's been half a year since I last heard from Camila. I still can't believe she broke off our marriage just like that. And over the phone! You'd think she'd have the decency to at least tell me in person, but I guess not.

The first two months I was a complete wreck. I couldn't leave the house. I was supposed to be taking care of Chris and Taylor but instead they were taking care of me. I cleaned up by the third month and I got my act together. I even started a garden in the front of our house.

Then I met a girl. Her name is Lizzy. We became friendly with each other fairly quickly. I knew I wanted our friendship to be something more, but I had no idea how Lizzy felt. On the day I finally got my courage up enough to ask her, she brought her boyfriend to the market with her and I knew that was the end of our friendship. I valued myself enough to get out of my friendship with Lizzy before I ended up getting extremely hurt all over again.