The end was always something I knew I had coming for me.

The end. Death. The finish line. The expiration date.

No, I'm not one of those people who just have an unhealthy, weird obsession or desire for death. I am chronically ill and I've been living on borrowed time ever since I was born, so I guess that explains it.

This is just my destiny, I better just accept it and move on. That's what I've learned to do, and it's probably for the best.

Whenever I looked in the mirror, like right now, besides looking at my blonde hair that has seen better days, I saw the short future I had ahead of me, and I thanked my lucky stars that I am getting to live yet another day.

I washed my hands on the sink and dried them off with some paper towels before opening the door of the bathroom. As soon as I did that, I was presented with three teenagers standing by the neatly made bed on the opposite side of the large common hospital room.

I couldn't fake my look of startledness as the three of them and their eyes watched me intently as I walked out of the bathroom and made my way towards my bed.

I got in, taking my phone in my hands on the way, pulled the covers over me and checked the time on the screen - 6:12 P.M. - oh right, that's what they're all here for, it's visiting hours. They must be in the wrong room because I'm the only one in this room and I don't know them at all.

Either way, visiting hours meant that my parents will probably be dropping by any second now.

After scrolling through my Instagram feed I locked my phone and put it on my bedside table while I noticed from the corner of my eye, the same three teens that were looking at me before, looking at me now.

Stalkers.

I looked up at them and one of the boys who looked older, took a step further. He was definitely eighteen or older, and despite the disposable paper like blue scrubs that was required that all visitors had on while visiting this room, plus the gloves and the face mask, I could tell that he was a sports guy. He had the muscles to prove it and he carried a hoodie underneath the scrubs with the name of some sports team I couldn't read the name of.

"Hi." He said, seeming unsure of how to speak to me.

"Hi." I said back, trying to muster a fake smile to show him and not scare him away.

"Has Noah returned from his surgery?"

I knew it. He was here for someone else.

"You must have the wrong room, I've been all alone here since last week." He looked confused and I tried to explain myself a little better. "I don't know this Noah guy. It's just me in this room."

The hospital room I was in was a common room that took up to three patients. However, it's been just me since I got admitted for the third time this year.

"Isn't this room 311?" He looked down at the screen of his iPhone and checked the information he was given with me.

"It is."

"Maybe the surgery took longer than they were expecting." The only girl of the group said from the back.

The guy who had asked me about his friend turned in his heels and the three teenagers spoke to each other, but I couldn't understand what they were saying.

"Try talking with Nurse Hopkins. She'll help you." I spoke up, my voice a little louder than usual, to capture their attention.

They stopped their conversation and turned their heads towards me.

"Thanks. We won't bother you anymore." The other guy of the group who hadn't said a word to me spoke to me this time. He sounded like he had some latin accent, but with the mask covering his mouth, his voice sounded muffled and I couldn't put my finger on which accent it was.

My lips joined into a tight line as I offered them a small smile before asking them the question that's been in my head ever since I saw the three teenagers in this room.

"How did you even manage to get three visitor stickers?"

The latin guy cleared his throat and the older one who spoke to me first replied to my question, with a hint of a smirk in his voice.

"We have ways." The suspense hung in the air, but I let it go. Not that I wasn't curious about how on Earth they got not one, not two, but three visitor stickers.

"Do you know where we can find her?" The girl with dark hair asked me.

"Nurse's station. If she's not there now just wait around for a bit, she's probably on her break." I said with another tight smile.

"Thank you." She said before the group of three took off all their hospital gowns and put them on the contagious items bag by the door, and walked out of the room.

Just as they were walking out, someone else was walking in. My cousin, my best friend and basically the sister I never had, Harper.

I instantly smiled as I saw her and sat up in my bed.

"Zozo! How are you feeling?" Zozo was short for Zoey, and what she started calling me when she learned how to speak and hasn't stopped calling me that ever since.

Despite all the protection required for the visitors, we still couldn't nor shouldn't hug, which sucked. But at least I got to see her.

"Hi! I'm feeling a lot better."

I was hospitalized last week with a MRSA infection. That's contagious and dangerous for everyone that doesn't have it or hasn't been in contact with the multi resistant bacteria, hence why I was in a room all by myself and why every visitor had to put on their disposable gowns before walking in.

"You do look a lot better." She sat on the chair next to my bed, reserved for visitors.

Harper was just one year older than me and ever since I joined her family, we have been the best of friends. She was an only child and so was I, and so we were extremely close, almost as if we were sisters.

"The doctor told me he was thinking about sending me home after my next blood test results come back."

"That's such great news! God, I can't wait to have you come to my house after school again."

Harper was my dad's sister's daughter, so my aunt's daughter. She was a year older than me and therefore, a year ahead of me in school. Harper was a senior in high school, which meant she had a lot on her plate right now, including college to think about.

She was excited to go and I was excited for her, especially because I know she is a dreamer, she has a lot of dreams to chase and attending college in New York is one of them. She's always wanted to do the whole adulthood thing in the Big Apple, and who could blame her? Sounds pretty perfect to me.

My cousin was also drop dead gorgeous. She had dirty blonde hair - that blonde meets brown hue with tones of wheat in it. Her hair was wavy and it fell down below her shoulders. She had blue eyes and thin lips that were always painted in whichever color she thought looked better according to the outfit of the day. And she was a beautiful person not only on the outside, but on the inside too. Harper has the most beautiful, kindest soul I have ever met and she deserves the world for it.

Of course, looking and being like that caused her to have the entire school chasing after her, but she's never been interested in dating, especially not right now when she's just months away from going to college.

My other best friend, Kyle, used to have the biggest crush on Harper and they even dated for a while when they were fourteen. Too bad it only lasted a month.

She says she wants to find a proper New Yorker for her. I personally think she has enough time in her life to think about that and she should just enjoy the present, but she's stubborn as hell and as her best friend and confidant I just sit back and stand by her.

"I miss coming over too, and our game nights and movie nights." I said with a sad expression on my face. "And I miss swimming."

Harper shot me a sad look after hearing my confession.

"I just hope the coach let's me join back in and compete this fall after all of this."

"Don't stress about it now." She said, reassuringly, although I was not sure at all about that.

Despite my lack of luck when it comes to my health, I have always been a swimmer. My parents got me into it when I was one and by the age of ten I was competing for the school's team.

It was the one thing in life I can safely say is my passion. I feel like this is all I was born to do. Not that I think I was born to do much.

Now at age sixteen and a junior in high school, I was one of the most respected members of the girl's swimming team, also known as the member who's got the team's last three consecutive wins.

"I can't stay too long, your parents are coming here straight from work."

It's so sad and disappointing how fast time passes by when you have visitors over when you're in the hospital. My cousin has been here for the past thirty minutes but it feels like she's been here for like three minutes tops.

But, I was obviously happy to see my parents too.

"Alright." Again, no goodbye hugs. She just waved at me and left the room. Not too long afterwards, my parents invaded the room.

"Our baby Zoey!!" They said in exclamation, their eyes glowing as they walked inside the room.

"You look so much better, sweetie." My father said with a smile I could basically see through his mask by the way his cheeks grew bigger and almost touched his eyes.

"Your hair on the other hand looks terrible. We're taking you to the hair salon as soon as you're out of here." My other father said, eyeing my blonde, below the shoulder length hair.

Yes, I have two dads. And I couldn't ask for better people to have as parents to be honest.

Gay parents were definitely God's tier of parents, no joke here. From what I've gathered between conversations with other people, having two dads was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. Firstly, they stopped my life from going down the spiral of kids in the system. Secondly, they loved me beyond measure. Thirdly, they were super cool.

They adopted me right when I was born and had to go through me being in and out of hospitals and neonatal intensive care units for more times than I can count. Still, as problematic as I was, they took me in, they took care of me, they loved me and they made me the girl I am today.

I literally owe them my life.

"The doctor was here this morning. I'm getting some blood work done tomorrow and after the results come out he's considering letting me go back home." I said with a perky smile on my lips, excited to share the good news.

"Sweetie, that's amazing!"

Meet Jack and Gavin Moore, my real life superheroes.

Jack was much more serious, down to earth, and he was always the dad I would go to if I needed advice for something more serious. Gavin was the opposite of Jack, with blonde hair and a lighter, funnier spirit that brightened all our days. Both of them had beards that matched the color of their hair and more importantly, both of them loved me equally.

"The house is not the same without you."

"I miss it." I pouted before sitting crossed on the bed.

The normal situation for the sixteen year old I am would be to hate my parents and feel embarrassed every time they were around, but that never happens. When I was younger? Yes, for sure. But after they told me the story of my adoption and after I grew out of those pre-teen years, I started looking at them differently and valuing them much more.

And the plus side of being an adopted girl by two gay dads was the fact that a lot of our interests matched.

"Have you met your new roommate?"

"My new what now?" I gave them a questioning look as my eyebrows furrowed.

"There's a boy joining your room. He's coming out of surgery today."

"He should be coming in anytime now." Gavin added, a bright smile dancing on his lips.

"How great!" I said sarcastically, giving them a fake smile before letting my back fall down on the mattress behind me.

"Oh, don't be like that. You'll have a friend, you won't be all alone in here."

"If it's a three year old that cries all night I'm paying nurse Hopkins to switch rooms."

The downside of being chronically ill and sixteen is that the pediatrics floor is still the place where I belong.

When you're sick with an infectious disease you have to be in a specific room for that contagious infection, meaning that the only other patients that can share it with you are sick with the same disease, and that meant having to share the room with little kids if there was ever the need to.

Shortly after our conversation, a nurse who I didn't know and was probably new here, walked in and told my parents to leave.

"I'm sorry to interrupt but I'm gonna need to ask you to leave, we're bringing in a new patient."

"Oh, of course. Bye sweetie. We'll talk." I nodded in agreement and waved them goodbye, making my heart shatter a little.

"Bye Zoey."

Although this visit still felt like it was only three minutes, in reality it really wasn't much longer than that, and that was what hurt the most.

A few minutes later, the hospital staff was wheeling in a bed with a boy still asleep in it. Wires and tubes were surrounding him, making it hard for me to see what he looked like.

"Hey Zoey." One of the guys that was helping with the transfer smiled at me. He knows me quite well. In fact, the entire hospital staff knows me well.

"Hi." I replied with a smile. "Who's this?"

"Your new neighbor."

I leaned forward to read the patient info they were putting up behind the headboard.

Noah Wilson.

He was asleep, probably from all the drugs they had used during surgery to anesthetize him. He had dark hair, tanned skin tone and two saline bag drips attached to his hand. One of those probably had pain killers in it.

Well, at least he's not a three year old.

Let's just hope this one doesn't cry through the night.

* * *

author's note:  FIRST CHAPTER IS HERE!!! i'm so exited for y'all to read this story, i've been thinking about it since february and working on it since july and i feel like it's a story that's totally different from the ones i've been writing, i hope you'll like it 💗

AND MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! i chose to put the first chapter out on christmas day for a specific reason that you'll  understand later on in the story <3

anyway, please vote and comment and add the story to your reading list so you won't miss out on any updates, trust me you do not want to miss this story!

also if you haven't read my other story "the missing gem", please do, that one is my baby and i'm actually so proud of it <3

xoxo, mars