My heart was pounding against my chest in every step I took on the glossy white floor. The creamy white walls seemed to narrow down as I approached the door. Room 301, it said. I brought my hand to a gentle knock, and her mother let me in.
It has been a week since Julia was rushed into the hospital. I was right next door, and I could never have imagined such a commotion outside of our sleepy suburban community. She was taken out of her house in a stretcher — unconscious and pale. They said she passed out in cold sweat, which had always happened to her, but never as worse as that moment.
Julia was diagnosed with leukemia a year ago. I was there when the doctors broke it to her family gently. Her mother sobbed against her father's chest, and I had no one to cling onto but myself. I knew how powerful her spirit was. She was my best friend. For everything that she has done for me, I couldn't comprehend on how she could deserve such a fate.
"Jacob, thank you for coming," her mother said. Her eyes were glassy and rimmed with her dark bags. She looked like she hasn't slept for months, but it was nothing compared to the girl who was lying down with wires through her body.
"Hey." I smiled and reached for her hand. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm... I'm okay." She took a deep breath with her mouth.
I could distinctly remember who she was before all of these. Her golden hair, green eyes, a dusting of freckles on the tip of her nose. She would get red whenever I teased her of River, the guy she had a crush on in the seventh grade. Her two front teeth were slightly crooked, but nevertheless, her smile was one of the brightest I've seen. She was frail, but that didn't stop her from skating. It was the thing she did the most, probably even more than breathing.
But now, it all fell apart. Her hair was nothing more. Her eyes faded into a gray jade, and her skin turned into a translucent porcelain. She tried to hide her fear and her suffering beneath her smile, but I knew every breath she took had her closer to be gone.
"Natalya? Is she here?" Julia's head inched from side to side, looking for my girlfriend.
"She had something to do. She said she was sorry she couldn't come," I replied with a monotonous sound.
Her face fell as she whispered an "Oh..."
You could say that Julia and Natalya were inseparable before. We were the trio of friends, until I somehow got the courage to ask Natalya out, and she actually felt the same way, too. While Natalya and I dated, she and Julia seemed to drift apart, since Natalya didn't really like me hanging around with other girls anymore. But I still hung out with Julia whenever I could. She and I weren't easily separable, either.
When Natalya heard about Julia's condition, she, too, felt heartbreak over her friend. Julia became a frequent patient in the hospital, and Natalya and I would always visit her together. Just except this one time.
"Mom, could you... step outside for a moment?" Julia told her mom. "I just... I want to speak with Jacob for a moment."
Her mom nodded, and exited through the door.
I turned to her, "So, what's up, Juli?"
"I... I just want to say how much I missed you, Jake." The sound of my nickname rolling off her tongue still felt the same way as the day she created it. It was way before Natalya moved into town, and Julia and I were nearby the riverbanks. We were both never given nicknames by our parents, so we decided to give each other our own. And thus, she was Juli, and I was Jake.
