A/N: Hey guys! This is the chapter--this chapter and then they will meet. YAYYYY! BEWARE: lots of description. Long chapter, but not too long, because this is a shame short story. And beware. You will cry.
Luv u guys!
-Tera

The teen boy checked himself in the mirror.
His brown hair was greasy, and his emerald green eyes drooped.
He was tired.
Dark circles, wrinkled Darth Vader t-shirt.
Untied shoes, stained NIKE socks.
Nothing he did changed the fact that he spent three weeks in a mental ward, and the week before in prison.
But he had to try.

The boy walked into the room,
more like ran,
and found himself trying to adjust to the bright light.
White.
It was everywhere.
White table,
white cabinets,
white bed,
white blanket,
white girl.
Pale, pale girl. Unconscious girl. Lying in the bed.
Connected to medical torture devices,
otherwise known to human-kind as IV's and oxygen masks.
But no.
The teen boy saw it as hell.
And he hated it.

Jake Gregory wanted to run up to the cancer-stricken girl
and rip all the tubes
and medicine
and tape and
bandaids and
gauze off her, just to swoop her up and kiss her.
He wanted to move farther than second base,
even if it meant being thrown out of the hospital.
Oh, so, so much the poor boy wanted to do.
But all he could do was take one,
slow step forward. One.
And he'd been in the room for six minutes
and twenty three seconds.
But Jake Gregory needed to do this.

One.

More.

Step.

Then he would reach her.
He would reach his one true love.
In fact, the teen boy was just a hand's
width away from touching her cheek. Only

Five

Inches.

And he was about to. He really had gathered the courage.
But just as soon as he moved he stopped, afraid he might hurt her.
Not physically, but emotionally. He read her letters.
She only sent them to him because she had thought she would die.
But she lived. Oh, how insecure she would feel if she just woke up,
looking into the eyes of her true love, who would see her in her
wretched state and pity her. Oh, how she would cry.

For pain, for love.

Jake looked down,
crying silently,
tears falling down his cheek

One

Drop

At

A

Time.

Then he turned around.
Oh, such a fool he was.
Such a stupid fool.
He reached the door.
His hand felt the knob,
which he turned,
hearing the creak of the metal,
which hadn't been rusted in years.

He turned it.

Slowly.

Talking his dear time.

And all of a sudden, a cough.

A cough that sounded throughout the small room.

A cough that would change two special lives,

In under

Ten

Seconds.

A cough, that would,
Scientifically,
Change the
Future