We're at the end of the road, but I felt haggard and old long ago.

Mari had gone out for lunch with Tay and I didn't know what to do anymore. I walked over to Alex's while Josie was at Trevor's house. I knocked on the door and Alex quickly answered. I just fell into his arm, collapsing into tears. I needed to be strong for my girls. They needed someone to be strong for them and I just needed to break down.

Alex dragged me into his house and pulled me onto his couch. I curled up with Alex who was trying to calm me down. I couldn't make words out as I sobbed. This physically hurt me, it hurt to cry this much. My blue haired friend was stroking my back. I wanted to feel anything other than the pain. I didn't even care how stupid I looked, I needed to cry.

"Jay, what's up, you don't cry," he asked.

"it's Mari," I whispered.

"What did she do this time, I'm going to hurt her if she hurt you!"

"She has... diaphragm... stage four... not gonna make it..."

I was sobbing too hard to be able to form a complete sentence. Alex started rubbing my back, not forcing me to say anything. Just saying it was too hard for me. How am I supposed to continue when she's gone? How am I supposed to breath when the very thing I breathed for was being ripped from my hands? I just couldn't hold myself together anymore.

"She has cancer Lex," I finally whispered.

"What," he asked.

"She has diaphragm cancer, she's not going to make it. She has months Lex, I need to be strong and I just can't do it."

"Jay, I'm so sorry."

He gave me a look that told him everything he needed to know. There was nothing that he could say in this situation. What even is there to say? The most amazing women in the world had come back into my life and now I was about to lose her, forever this time. There was so much we hadn't done, we hadn't said, we hadn't lived. I needed to be with her, I needed her in my life.

I have turned into a ghost there's nothing left but the bones of before.

I wiped my eyes, no, I needed to be strong. I walked to his kitchen grabbing a beer. There were a lot of things that I needed to start thinking about but I sure as hell didn't want to think about any of it. There was a will and burial plots and the cremation option. Tears pricked at my eyes when I began to think about it. No, we were going to get through as painlessly as we could. I promised I'd be her hero. I was the Superman to her Lois Lane. The Spider-man to her Gwen Stacy. I needed her as much as she needed me.

I began to feel what I could only think Spider-man felt. Having to decide between your passion, the thing that makes you who you are and the people you love. One way you have to push the other's to the back of your mind. While he's out saving the world Gwen is getting taken by villain after villain because he can't make that decision because in the end who can?

I just stared at the doors of the open frige. What was I doing here drinking, I needed to be with her. I couldn't be with her forever but I was going to spend every waking moment making sure she was alright. She deserved to at least be comfortable and taken care of. She'd done so much for Josie and I, why was I going to leave her on her own now?

I left the beer on the counter and ran out of Alex's house without as much as a simple goodbye. I needed to find my soulmate, my other half. I began to walk to the Starbucks where we had ended up meeting after that fateful party all those years ago. She always seemed to go back to the places with the memories. There I saw the girl of my dreams talking with her best friend.

I ran in and saw the tears falling from their eyes.


"Jack, why are you here," she whispered.

"I'm not going to leave you alone unless you ask me to. I love you Mari," I whispered, kissing her softly.

"I love you too Jack, more then you'll ever know," a tear fell from her cheek.

All we are is skin and bone, we're too old to die young.

Notes

Chapter 2 is finally up (I'm going to bed right after this posts so I will not be updating anything else tonight. I worked a yard sale from 6 am to 5 pm today and was running around literally all day yesterday so I'm quite exhausted.

So, I get to see Train on Tuesday which is uber exciting (my friend somehow managed killer seats for cheap so I'm quite excited). Also, I graduate on Friday, like I'm done with high school now, I'm a grown up (uh oh). I also have a "date" next week which is kind of cool. I'll update when I can, I have work and stuff since I'm out of school but I'll try to stay kind of consistent. :)

Leave a comment and rate if you enjoy :)

Title and lyric credit: Skin and Bone - Courage My Love