The Day I Lost Her

Chapter 2: Absences

One thing that I've noticed is that, no matter how big and tragic the situation is, life still goes on, it doesn't stop for you.  It doesn't wait to reconsider if this will be right for you or not, life just keeps driving, hitting people and not stopping to reconsider.  Irene came to school that Monday after telling us the news.  

To say it wasn't hard, is just underestimating everything.  She told us the basics, about her cancer, how it was a very new type and no one really has it.  She told us that her attendance rate would be low since she'd be taking dozens of tests almost everyday.

What was most surprising is that we all held our cool.  No one broke down in  front of her.  I know it must have been hard for both Kathy and Sienna, it was hard for me too.  But we knew she would make it through this, she was strong.  

The last two weeks were full of empty holes.  She wasn't here for a lot of the school days and people from school were getting suspicious.  Irene didn't want anyone else to know about her cancer except for a few selected people, mostly her close friend group, consisting of us: Kathy, Sienna and I.  

"Where is Irene?  Did she get sick?" the girl sitting beside me asks.  "Yeah, she's got a high fever,"  I answer, uncomfortably.  I was not the lying type, so if she didn't believe I would've screwed up, but thankfully she didn't question me further.  

I know the girl beside me was one of Irene's friends before, but as they grew older their paths separated while Irene and mine collided.  We technically started talking at the beginning of this year, but through these few months we've gotten closer and I couldn't bear the thought of losing her, much less any of my other friends.  

Last year, I was a complete newbie to the school, so I was totally alone until I met Kathy.  And then this year our duo met up with Irene and Sienna and became a group of four.  I didn't ever think that these three girls would mean so much to me in a few years time.  To be totally honest, Irene and I had a mutual dislike for the each other, last year.   More like we both thought the other was annoying.  Look how times change, now I'm here as her friend taking some of her burden and making it mine, but I'm not complaining. 

We started to get closer in the middle of this year when we both realized that we both had a mutual liking for BTS, although I was quite new into the fandom and not a total ARMY then.  Guess who completely changed that?  Yes, it was Irene, giving me song recommendations telling me memes and stories and helping us connect even more through BTS.  I really thank you boys, for helping me become closer to this precious gem of mine.  

The last few weeks of 8th grade went by in a rush of huge assignments due, sleepless nights and endless worries.  Two huge presentations later, I feel like I've won the biggest marathon ever held, I was so relieved.  I hate oral presentations.  But the plans we were making were the ones that filled my head now.  

Kathy, Sienna and Irene were all coming over to my house, of course it was all for a project we had to do in class.  On that day, Kathy had to unfortunately cancel...so technically our presentation work was on hold for now.  So being teenage girls who didn't want to do homework, we fooled around.

Irene literally took my blanket and wrapped herself with it and became a potato.  We took pictures, we sang and we talked about everything, except that one thing.  In that moment, the atmosphere being full of the joy of adolescence, we all forgot about the elephant that was standing on our chests.  It was a moment of pure bliss, a moment I will never get back.