CHAPTER 38: the Bucket List

GABRIEL’s P.O.V.

A few days passed by. Today is the day when Erevell could finally go out from the hospital again. I asked her for a friendly date, a day in the mall. Thankfully, she agreed and even her Mom allowed us to go. I prepared myself as early as I can before driving down towards the hospital. I will be picking her up in front of the lobby. I’m too excited to see her, since this would be the first time that we can continue what we are doing before she got hospitalized after our camping.

“Hey!” She waved at me once she saw my car parking in front of lobby.

“Hi! Get in. We got a long day to spend ahead,” I called her.

She get inside of my car, before we drove towards the mall. The loud and blaring music is what we can only hear in the road. As we gone to the parking lot of the mall, Erevell and I got down, before going to the entrance.

“Where do you want to go first?” I asked her.

“Uhm... I want ice cream,” she demanded.

“You can eat that? I guess not.”

“But, Gab!” she complained, clinging on my arm before she pouted.

“Let’s just eat anything aside from that, alright?”

“Fine. You will be the one paying for it,” she stated, laughing.

“Sure, sure. It’s on me. Just please, don’t eat ice cream.”

“Alright then,” she finally agreed before hopping like a kid beside me.

“Where do you want to eat?” I asked her.

“Uhm... Food court?” she suggested.

“Let’s go then. I’m starving.” She chuckled, before we decided to go directly into the food court of this mall.

As we are walking towards the food court, Erevell suddenly pinched the side of my abdomen, causing me to sneak a loud laughter inside the mall. That was loud enough for everyone to hear, and unfortunately, I caught all of their attention. Erevell chuckled, before she started walking away from me, muttering to herself. Damn this lady.

“That’s not fair,” I stated, before giving her a glare. She just stuck her tongue out, before I started walking faster than before. “You will pay for that.”

“Catch me if you can,” she mischievously stated, before walking away from me.

I’m starting to get worried for her, seeing how much energy she’s spending while brisk walking inside the mall. The thought of her passing out is giving me chills, and I knew that I would die out of panic if something happens to her while knowing about her disease. I sighed, before giving up. But as she continued walking, something dropped off from her pocket, so I quickly ran before picking it up.

“Erevell’s Bucket List,” I read.

It was a list full of so many things that she wanted to do, I guess. One of those is to touch a sunflower, a real one. Eat hundred of siomais and take a picture of the Merlion statue and many more. It was a lot. I wonder why she created all of this. Maybe she wanted to fulfill this before she fully recovered from her disease, I guess. When I turned my gaze upon her, she is now looking at me in a curious way, before she finally came back to my location. Maybe she already realized that I’m done chasing her.

“What is that?” she curiously asked me, pointing the piece of paper in my hand.

“Uhm... You dropped this. I guess this is your bucket list.”

“Wait, what?!”

I immediately raised my hand, not wanting her to snatch it away from me. We’ve been friends for so many years so I knew what she was thinking. She wanted to take it away from me, so that I won’t be able to read it. And because I am taller than her, I gave her a hard time reaching for her own belonging.

“Give it back, Gabriel! This is not funny!” she complained.

“Finders keepers!” I retorted.

“But that is mine before you took it!”

“I didn’t took it. You dropped it.”

“Liar! I don’t care how you got it! Just give it back!”

She jumped up, causing our foreheads to bump into one another. I could feel the pain caused by our collision before she sat down, catching her breath. I panicked, thinking if she got tired.

“Damn.”

“Stop cursing,” I scolded her, before looking at her forehead.

“Give it back to me right at this instance, Gabriel Elizar!”

“I’ll keep it for now,” I stated, before putting it inside of my shirt so that she wouldn’t find a way to get it out of me in a public place like this.

“You stupid! That was gross!” she complained.

“Take it if you want.”

“You’re a weirdo.” She stood up, before rolling her eyes on me.

“Now I am the weird one? I think it’s you. After all, how many people are still making their own bucket list?” I chuckled, before she looked down.

She looked hurt, however, I tried my best to ignore that. I thought that she might be feeling something else, something related to her condition. So I immediately held her hand, afraid that she might lose her balance if something happens to her indeed.

“Uhm... What are you doing?” she asked me, looking at our intertwined fingers.

“I’m just making sure that you wouldn’t hurt yourself if ever you passed out on me again.

“But I won’t, Gabriel. I won’t.”

“Then what’s the matter? Tell me if something is bothering you. I will immediately take you back to the hospital.”

“I’m fine. You don’t have to worry about me,” she assured me.

“Alright then. I just wanted to make sure,” I stated.

“About what you said... I made that list because I wanted to do those things before I... I die.”

“But you aren’t dying, right?” I asked her, getting nervous at her response. Then she gave me a thrifty smile, before shaking her head.

“Of course not. Just in case...”

“You won’t die from that disease, Erevell. I promise you that. We are going to die in old age, okay?”

She nodded, before smiling, a genuine one. Then she gripped into my arm, as if not wanting to let go. That made me smile, for once again, I felt the butterflies in my stomach.

Erevell and I enjoyed the day. After a very long day out, I took her back to the hospital, before the two of us bid our farewells to one another. As we did, I sighed, before I got inside of my car. That’s when I finally got another chance to look at her list.

“Sunflower...” I whispered, after looking through her list. “I’ll have to find that flower, I guess.”

And with a smiling face, I drove away from the hospital, ready to search a flower for my one and only sun.