Somewhere a phone buzzed.
Kyle sat up, swinging his jean-clad legs over the side of the bed and reached for where his phone was nestled atop his shirt lying on the floor.
“What is it?” Skylar asked grumpily and pulled a blanket up to her chin, covering her lacy black bra sheepishly.
“Jack.” Kyle said in surprise and unlocked his phone, lying back under the covers with the phone in his hand.
“Jack can wait. Put it away. Your parents get back soon.” Skylar complained and wriggled back to her former position on her boyfriend’s chest, burying her nose in his hair and smelling his musty scent.
“He knew I was at yours. He wouldn’t text without a good reason. Hold on.” He said with one hand in the air as if to say ‘wait’. Skylar groaned and rolled to the other side of the bed, hurt.
“You’re such an asshole.” She said quietly into the cold mattress and stared blankly at the Meshuggah poster on the wall beside her head.
Kyle ignored her and the sulky disappointment in her voice. He held the phone up and read the message aloud in a quavering voice.
(1) Message Received from: Jack
To Seth, Garland, Matilda and Kyle.
As you might have already heard, I’ve gotten myself cancer somehow. Knew that Chernobyl holiday would come back to bite me one day. Anyways, you’re almost done with school and obviously I won’t be needing to finish my HSC so I want to invite you all to my uncle’s place up the coast. It’s right on the beach and a five minute drive from the hospital and only ten minutes from the local cemetery. Yay! I’ve been given two months because I declined treatment to keep these luscious locks. In all seriousness, I want to spend the last weeks of my life with my best friends. RSVP to my pre- death festivities in a week because this party bus is leaving in a fortnight from today with or without you losers.
P.S. Kyle you can bring your new girl if you think she’s got what it takes to be one of the cool kids. xoxoxo
“Holy shit.” Skylar swore, her anger at Kyle’s sudden disinterest forgotten.
“Holy shit, indeed.” Kyle said, his mind racing at a million miles per hour. One of his closest friends. Cancer.
Message To: Jack
We will come
At a complete loss as what to say, Kyle sent the three words and hoped he didn’t sound dismissive.
Skylar sat and reached for her loose shirt and jeans piled haphazardly at the bottom of the bed.
“No,” Kyle took her tiny, scarred wrist delicately between his fingers. “You’re right. A little while longer.”
She smiled sadly and turned back to him.
YOU ARE READING
Jack's Last Summer
Teen Fiction"I guess that's the thing about time. It might not heal wounds; but it does smooth them over." When Jack Summers is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he chooses quality over quantity and refuses therapy. He instead decides to invite four of his best f...
