wattys longlist 2018 | MEET ELLA. She's drowning, literally. Ella has lung cancer, causing her lungs to fill with liquid that needs to be drained daily. Every breath she takes feeds her life, but also takes it.
MEET JAKE. Resident smoker and bad boy...
"This place is kinda boring without Mads isn't it?" Ella's mumbled against my arm, her hot breath melting through my sleeve.
"Eeehhh. I guess? I don't mind not having her yabbering every five seconds. Wait. Are you calling me boring?" I mumble back, wondering if she could hear my words muffled by the pillow my face was currently sinking into. We spent most of the day's like this since Ella got back, just lounging around and watching tv.
She got me hooked on Gossip Girl.
Not one of my proudest moment's, but what are you gonna do.
It's a great show.
"Soo... you're out of bed rest tomorrow, do you wanna do anything specific?" I ask her. I need to do more, I-if this is her last time we might as well make it good rather than just lying in bed cuddling.
Not that I'm complaining.
By any means.
"I mean we could get some food and have a picnic on the roof? I could see if someone can smuggle me in some fairy lights. OOOhhh and we could get your favorite mock chicken and avo sushi from that vege place. That shit's good. Ella? What do you think?" I lift my head to look at her, but her head was still hidden in my shirt. "Ella?" I ask again softer this time.
If she was asleep I didn't want to wake her, the medication they gave her certainly has taken a toll on her, she'd be lucky if she could go three hours without crashing and needing to sleep.
I brought out of my thought's when I feel her small arms wrap around me.
More like a quarter of me.
She's getting smaller and smaller as she struggles to keep down a meal. It breaks my heart and I can see her pain, but still, she gets up and fights.
So that's what I'm going to do.
That's really all we can do.
Fight for each day.
I turn pulling her closer to me to keep her warm and start to drift off, face buried in her neck, being lulled into the darkness by the soft rise and fall of her chest and her quite, almost unnoticeable snoring.
____
"Jake." I heard a soft voice as hands pushed at my chest. "Jake." Push. Poke. "OHHHHH JJJAAAAKKKKEEEEYYYY BOOOOIIIII!" Ella screeches, and I jump falling off the bed as I cover my ears.
"GODS WOMAN ARE YOU TRYING TO SCARE ME TO DEATH! JUST BECAUSE YOUR JEALOUS OF MY OUTSTANDINGLY GREAT LOOKS, DOESN'T MEAN YOU HAVE TO INJURE ME!" I yell out sitting up, before falling back onto the floor with a huff, blankets tied around my legs making them tingle.
I feel uncomfortable.
I don't like not being able to feel my legs.
I'm suddenly pulled out of my pit of pins and needles despair by a laugh sounding from up on the bed.
"Oii What do you think you laughing about Missy. I'm going to get you for that." I call unwrapping the blankets from around my legs and standing up to see Ella hiding under a pile of blankets giggling still. "You can't hide from me," I say jumping on the bed and digging through the blankets to find her.
I start to tickle her when I manage to grab a hold of her squirming frame.
"Not so fast." I laugh pulling her back to me as she tries to escape, landing a kiss on her lips, before tickling her again.
"AHHHH! N-NO JAKE! STOP. STOP. PLEASEEEE. I-I SURENDEEERRR!" She screeches in a fit of laughter underneath me.
"Hmmmm... I don't know... I don't think you've suffered enough for that, really hurt my ass you know? I think it's going to be bruised."
"Aaaww, poor jakey boiiiii," She giggles again.
"You don't sound very sorry giggles," I say tickling her again.
"AAhhh! No. Jake. STTTTOOOPPP! OOOwwwww wait. Seriously stop." She say's and I do so instantly checking her for the source of pain.
"I'm so sorry, where does it hurt baby?" I ask softly. Heart now clawing at my skin.
I continue to search before stopping when she starts giggling again.
Wait a minute-
I didn't even have time to finish my thought before I was pushed into the other side of the bed, and Ella was scrambling away and out the door.
"HEY! COME BACK HERE!" I yelled jumping up off the bed, only to face plant after tripping on the same blankets I had just untangled my legs from.
"OH YOU'VE DONE IT NOW!" I yell finally managing to get back up from the floor.
Oooowww my ass hurts.
I stumble towards the door to find her, being only guided by her distant fading giggles.
____
Kinda a short filler chapter but oh well.
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Soooooo another question you ask? Here it is:
Q: What subjects do you do at school, and how long do you go for?
A: I do Mathematics B (High level math in Australia), Senior English (Uni requirement level English), Christian Studies (Requirement of my school cause it's a private one), and P.E. Which are compulsory for everyone but at different levels in senior high, in junior it's compulsory to do humanities (History & Geography). My personal Subjects have changed like every year cause I'm not great at deciding and like a lot of things, but currently I do Visual Art, Media, and in my third I do external study in which I am doing Adobe ACA so photoshop etc. qualifications, and I just finished an accelerated university course in Psychology A (Shortens my uni time, and guarentees my entry. tbh I don't really know why I did it. It was just offered to me, so I did it). As for school times. I start at 8:20 am and finish at 3pm, however, I actually hop on a bus at 6:45am in the morning, and in the arvo's my bus comes at 4pm and drops me a block from my house at round about 5:30pm so I get home at 6pm? Basically, school is twelve hour days for me and it's pretty shit cause I don't even live that far away, the bus system is just crappy.
So yeah. I do a lot I guess. and that's a lot of writing.
