UNEDITED
Not all storms come to disrupt your life, some come to clear your path.
Those are the words that Justin McCallister has been repeating in his mind since the day he was diagnosed with a non-cancerous brain tumour that's been causing partial...
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Justin
I'm disoriented when I wake up. Confused and exhausted. For a moment, I wonder if I was assaulted during an armed robbery and had my head smashed into the pavement of a parking lot.
Images blur around me, moving blobs of nothingness.
Noises combine together to create nothing but white noise.
The weird fabric surrounding me is itchy.
An antiseptic smell is making my nostrils burn, but in the next breath, I smell vanilla and cherry blossoms.
There's a bitter taste in my mouth.
My senses are all over the place, like they can't quite figure out their proper placements.
I'm weak, too. My muscles are rubbery, like they'll bend whichever way my will desires them to. And I feel if someone were to poke at my skin, their fingers would go right through it like plastic wrap.
I close my eyes, trying to embrace the tiredness. I don't know where I am or how I got here. I'm exhausted. I need some sleep.
And I do start to fade, but something brushing against my hand jolts me back to consciousness.
Groaning, I open my eyes. Hovering above me is a girl with dirty-blonde hair and big blue eyes that remind me of cornflowers. There's a crease between her eyebrows and she looks exceptionally worried. In fact, I think she's been crying – her eyes are red and puffy. But through the worry and puffiness, she looks vaguely familiar. I have this tugging feeling in my heart that makes me think I know her.
"Justin?" she asks, her voice hoarse.
I reach up with a hand to rub my tired eyes but stop in midair. I frown. There's an IV in the back of my hand and the sight of it causes certain things to click together – I now understand why the sticky potency of antiseptic is clouding my nose, and why the bedsheets are so scratchy.
I'm in a hospital.
"Justin?"
I turn my attention back to the girl, catching a whiff of the vanilla and cherry blossoms again. There's also the tang of musk. I know this girl. I have to or else I wouldn't be feeling such a strong tug of familiarity.
"Justin? Are you okay?"
The girl looks over her shoulder as if she's searching for a doctor. When she looks back at me and our eyes connect, the rest of the fogginess fades and everything that's happened today replays in my head.
Adelaide Levesque. My girlfriend. I went to her house because it was easier for Zander and Sophia Clarke, her cousin, to pick us up and head to the Winter Formal. That's what we were going to do tonight. That's why Addie is standing beside this hospital bed and looking sexy as hell in her black dress.
And I'm the reason her mascara has started to run. I'm the reason why we're not at the Winter Formal right now.
We're in a hospital and that means Addie knows the one thing I wanted to keep from her.
