Rhi

"So, I've got tons to tell you," I said firstly as Dr Perez and I started walking down the corridor. He smacked his chubby hands together in anticipation. "It was amazing," I added but my mind couldn't help but go back to how dejected Artemis looked back there, he laughed but it didn't reach his eyes like it usually does. Just as we were about to turn the corner I looked back one last time to see him, Artemis. I caught a glimpse of his sluggish retreating figure just as we turned the corner. "But before I do that, I've got a favour to ask of you," I said and he gave me a look, he knew I'd be getting him into trouble. "So, Rya is turning 18 and she's been surrounded by these four white walls of the hospital since she was 11 years old. So I, well the bandits, wanted to throw her a birthday party to remember because after all she only turns 18 once in her life. Plus it's a milestone because with her CF no one actually believed she'd make it this far. So I'm asking for you to give us permission to be up on the rooftop for the party, since we're not allowed to your permission would at least soften the blow of Jac's wrath," I finished saying.

"So you're using me as a scapegoat?" Dr Perez asked looking a bit perplexed. I nodded my head in a nonchalant way and bubbling laughter fell from his lips. "I would say I'm shocked but I kind of expected it. I'll agree, only if you promise to get me a huge piece of cake," he said smiling at me. I knew that I'd have to pay the protection toll but with Dr Perez the toll was always something affordable like food.

"So, I was with dad down at the beach," I recalled softly. "When we got there it was around lunch so he ordered some take out, we had fries and a crumbed hash brown burger. We went down to the beach later that night because it was full moon, it was so bright out. We floated in the water and bathed in the moon," I say with a small smile settling on my lips. We had made it to the cafeteria and Dr Perez was seated with a plate of what seemed to look similar to a Big Mac. "Saturday, my aunt came over for the first time in a while and we went to all the tourist hotspots since she hasn't been here in a while. I got a ton of plants which meant that dad was forced to change my room decorations from back when I was eleven to something more appropriate. The last day we spent it swimming in the lagoon and looking at fish in the coral reef," I finally finish.

Dr Perez has now just finished his meal and he nods softly to my enthusiastic eyes. He smiles then, he likes seeing me happy like this. We continue to sit there as I go into deeper details of my weekend and he listens with complete interest.

"So he really did that?" Dr Perez asked, questioning what I'd just said. In the corner of my eyes I see Rya and my attention completely switched from Dr Perez to Rya.

"Dr Perez I've got to catch up to Rya, I'll catch up later," I said before abruptly standing up. I run the short distance between Rya and I. "Happy birthday to you!" I start belting out the age-old song. "Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Rya! Happy birthday to you!" I'm basically screaming the lyrics as Rya hides behind her hands and people passing by stop to stare a while. "How old are you now?" I ask lowly.

"Oh, god no. Please stop, I'm 18," she cuts me off before I can even continue. I stop and she lowers her hands from her face to reveal her flushed cheeks. A giant smile takes over my lips as I look at her. "Did you really have to do that? You literally do this every birthday, isn't it tiring?" She asks and although she doesn't say it, this gesture made her smile because a ghost of a smile lingers on her lips.

"Every year is worth screaming for," I say softly. I looked down at her hands and for the first time I notice two cups of chocolate pudding in her hands. "Where are you headed with those?" I ask pointing to the pudding.

"Afternoon pills for O'Rein and I," she answers softly. "She's probably wondering where I've gone," she adds and I look at her fondly— she genuinely cares for O'Rein.

"Let's go up to her, I need to talk to her anyhow," I say.

We walk up together and as we do we catch each other up to what has happened while I was gone. They got closer together, Rya spent time with O'Rein and they all isolated Artemis— the last thing I didn't quite agree with. By the time we reach their floor O'Rein is standing outside in the corridor pacing as if worried. Her face lights up as she sees us both. I wait in the corridor as they both take their pills before O'Rein walks out. We say bye to Rya before walking away.

"I need your help but I need everyone else there before I speak," I say as we walk down the corridors of the third floor. Artemis stands outside his door checking when his next scheduled therapy session is. "Artemis, I need you too. Follow me please," I say and his face lights up at the mention of his name.

As we walk through the hospital I make a call to 'Charming' and Abby telling them to make it to my room. When we get there Abby and Charming are waiting, we get in and the two CFers take up spots on opposite sides of the room. They all turn to me.

"I need help, it's Rya's eighteenth and it's a giant milestone. I need your help to get a party set up. This is also your official invitation to the birthday party," I speak and now I have they're full attention. "I got permission to use the rooftop as a venue so setting up will be done there. Rya needs to always be with one of us to make sure we don't run into her while setting up, she's smart enough to figure it out. O'Rein you're on first shift, keep your phone on for communication and go now because she's probably already suspicious with me having called you all," I say. O'Rein places her phone on sound and she leaves with a goodbye. "Artemis, there's a cake delivery coming in the next ten minutes. You need to be downstairs to pick it up, take it straight to the kitchen fridge and tell the chef it's for Rhi, I'll talk to him later," I say and Artemis nods in understanding. "Make sure to use my secret elevator down the dead end hallway, Jaclyn is in the cancer ward and will use the main elevator cause it's easier access," I inform before he heads off to wait for the cake.

"You two need to help me with those," I say pointing to a few boxes on the floor. We start moving them immediately. Once most of the boxes are up, I turn to Abby and 'Charming'. "Please stay here and start setting up, I'll go down for the last box," I say and they both nod at me.

Artemis comes up just as I'm about to go down, I grab his hand and lead him down with me. "I need your help down in my room," I say softly and he just follows. I remain holding his hand, mine being smaller in his. We only let go once we reach my room. "Please, the helium tank," I say as I lift a box and pointed towards a tank. He lifts that along with his own oxygen tank before we walk out.

We remain on the roof; Artemis and I filling the balloons with helium, and Abby and 'Charming' putting out decorations, chairs and pillows. My phone rings and I rush to pick it up, it's O'Rein. She says Rya is getting restless and wants to see us all, we immediately stop and secure everything so that it doesn't get blown away.

"So she's grumpy already?" Amsterdam asks and we all nod. "Then why the hell are we going down there?" He asks and we all roll our eyes.

We make our way to the auditorium in our side of the building, soon we enter and O'Rein looks relieved not to be the only one with Rya.

"Hey you, we know it's your birthday but bossing us around doesn't count for anything," Amsterdam says— literally saying the dumbest thing possible. We all disregard him and gather on the couches where O'Rein and Rya were sat.

"So you all know it's my birthday, so why are you all leaving me alone," Rya complains but she soon realizes her words and adds, "not that I don't love O'Rein's company, I'd like you all to be here."

We settle down and hang out for a while, losing track of time until I receive a phone call from the pizza place I'd ordered pizza from earlier. I excuse myself to pick up, once I hang up I excuse myself completely to go continue setting up, I text everyone to excuse themselves strategically. Soon I'm with Abby and O'Rein back at the rooftop and Artemis waits for the pizza in the hospital lobby.

We finish setting up just before dinner and we quickly make our way down so that Jac doesn't become suspicious of our absence. Throughout dinner we joke and chat as we eat. It seems like everything has gone back to normal, and our bandit group has come back together. Just after dinner Abby, Artemis, Amsterdam, O'Rein and I all go for a shared therapy session to compensate for the ones we missed during the day.

As we leave to head to our separate rooms I stop them just outside Dr Perez's office. "After lights out I'll send a text to go out and we all meet at the roof top, I'll be responsible for getting Rya up there," I say and they all nod with smiles on their faces.

. . .

Back in my room I wait for time to pass. Jaclyn makes her last night round as she says good night to us before she goes to the nurses station for the night. Once our lights are out I wait a little while longer before sending the text. I can hear Abby leaving her room. I wait it out a while before I leave my room, grabbing the gift bags on my way out. I go down to the third floor, hand the bags to Artemis who's heading to the rooftop and then knock on her door. She mumbles behind the door before footsteps approach the door. She swings the door open and I stand there with a smile on my face.

"It's past nine, why is your crackhead looking self at my door?" She asks with a scowl. I just grab onto her hand before closing the door behind her. I pull her to the elevator and she begins to protest with her oxygen tank in her hand. "Come on you weirdo, I need to sleep," she whines once the elevator doors shut.

"Would you keep it down, we don't want Jac hearing us," I say and she clamps her mouth shut.

Once we start climbing the stairs to the roof top she starts complaining again. "I knew it was too good to be true, you're gonna kill me," she blurts out. "All this time you've been pretending to be a hippie but really you're a sociopath who's just waiting for the right moment to kill someone," she adds and I can't help the belting laugh that comes out of me. "You're even cackling like an old hag," she says and this does nothing but increase my laughing.

We reach the door and she huffs out heavily. I open the door to reveal the fairy-light lit rooftop and I step aside to reveal it to Rya. Everyone jumps out from their hiding places and yells out 'surprise'. Rya is taken aback and she just stands there shocked. I go to stand in front of her and she lightly punches my bicep. "So this is why you were all acting strange," she says and we all laugh at her.

The party begins and we all spend time sitting on the throw pillows scattered on the rooftop and chatting while we ate pizza. The atmosphere is light and everyone seems cheery. Once the food is cleared we begin playing party games like spin the bottle and pass the card. Once those have bored us we sat chatting.

"Let's play seven minutes in heaven," Amsterdam says and he has our full attention. We all sit in one circle and spin a bottle, the first round lands on Amsterdam and Abby. While they are in the closet— which is actually the stair way that leads to the rooftop— we chat amongst ourself. The second round lands on O'Rein and Rya, we have a hard time deciding whether it's safe for them to be in such close proximity due to their CF. We ended up deciding that it was okay to ignore the rules for just a few minutes of Rya's special day. The last round landed on Artemis and I.

We found ourselves seated on the stairs his oxygen tank between us as we talked about everything. He apologized the moment we were alone but I insisted on talking about something more cheerful. We talked about a lot of things within those seven minutes and once they were up we came out to find everyone snuggled up in couples. We decided to sit together and chat. Approaching footsteps in the staircase we came in had us taking whatever that was left and running towards the back exit.

We burst into laughter as we raced down the narrow staircase with food tucked under our arms. Artemis in the front with oxygen tank and pizza box in hand and out of breath, Abby following with two sodas in hand and a few pillows, Rya with oxygen tank and packets of snacks in hand and some tucked under her arms with laboured breath, with Amsterdam at toe with a hand full of balloons and pillows, O'Rein following him with her oxygen tank and pillows in hand with breathing turning to whizzing and I with a handful of packets of snacks and the remaining cake.

Laughter bubbles even as our pursuer called out our names. We were long gone by the time she was beginning to go down the stairs, once we reached the eighth floor we laughed so loud some patients came out of their rooms to watch and we raced down the halls of the hospital like little kids all over again.

"Get to your rooms safe!" I yelled to everyone just as we split to go to our respective floors and rooms. The giggles and laughter didn't stop even after I'd shut my door I continued laughing. Even as I pressed the accept button on a group FaceTime I continued laughing along with all the laughing faces on the screen. We said our goodnights before hanging up.

I got ready for bed and Abby drew the blind shut. I respected her privacy and continued getting ready for bed. But just before I could turn in for the night there was a knock on my door. I walked to open it and when I did Artemis stood in the doorway with his oxygen tank in hand.

"I need to say something," he started and I just looked up at him. "I know we hatched things out but you not being here really had me thinking about a lot," he spoke and I listened but at the corner of my eyes I saw some colorful scrubs. I pulled him into my room before shutting the door but that left us with with our chests pressed together, I stepped back. "I like you," he said and my eyes shot up from the floor to look into his ocean eyes. "I like you, in a way that I might wanna make you my wife," he said and my throat seemed extremely dry. "I know you like me too," he said stepping closer to me. "I know this and I wanted to tell you too," he adds as he closes the little space left between us.

I look up at him, my heart beating in my chest and my cheeks rosy. I don't know the right words to say because I've never been in a situation like this before.

"Can I kiss you?" He asked softly, almost shocking me— Artemis was never this gentle. I was silent and still. "You've got five seconds to say no," he said softly. His hands went to my waist and he pulled me in closer. And as the five seconds ran out his lips connected to mine in the most gentle of ways. His hands making their way from my waist to holding my head in between them. He let go after sometime and stepped back. I was out of breath and flushed and he looked unbothered. "That wasn't so scary was it?" He asked a small smile making it's way onto his lips.

"Not at all," I said in a breathy voice. At this he steps back to me and connected our lips again, this time his lips are a little harder and his hand roamed my body completely. My stomach dipped— was this how all the teens in romance movies feel? He moves back once the kiss is over and I'm even more flushed.

"I had to stop myself from doing that so many times before," he said leaning his back on the shut door. He chuckles then as if not believing he'd done what he just did.

I move to my bed but before I can sit a loud thud sounds from Abby's room. Artemis' eyes widen as if knowing what that sound was, he looked terrified and I seemed to be as well. We rushed out of the room and barged into Abby's room, me first and Artemis in toe. The sight of Abby on the floor was what I saw first, then the sight of blood. So much blood seeping from the cut veins in her arms. Artemis stood frozen at the sight of blood. I immediately knelt next to her to try and wake her up but it was too late, even I knew but a part of my wished for her to wake up.

When Artemis turned to the corridor he screamed, "Reflex!" After that first warning time stilled and I couldn't stop the tears from falling down my face. Everything seemed to move slowly, I could hear Artemis' heavy steps pelting down the corridor as he screamed out the angle. I could feel every laboured breath from my lungs.

I picked Abby's head up off the floor and secured it on my lap and I took off the lose shirt I wore before ripping it in two and applying pressure to her open wounds. "Abby, please don't go," I whispered softly, tears streaming down my face. "You need to wake up because I need you," I said in between sobs. Sobs wrecking through my entire body and I rocked myself as if to put her to a peaceful sleep.

Now I could hear the stomping feet of the nurses that were probably being lead by Artemis, they couldn't get here fast enough. My tears still flowed, joining her pool of blood that I was sitting in. Just as I was losing hope the nurses barged in, Jaclyn leading the charge. When Jaclyn saw what was going on she stopped in her tracks and once the other nurses saw, they retreated back knowing that it was already too late. Artemis stood at the doorway behind Jaclyn.

I knew from the look on their faces that this was futile, the blue color settling into Abby's lips confirmed that it was futile and the lack of warmth from her secured the thought. I dropped the clothes I'd used to apply pressure with and pulled her into my body. I cradled her to me as I rocked to put her to sleep. I ran my hand through her hair and my tears continued to join her blood.

"À la claire fontaine. M'en allant promener," I begin to sing softly as I smooth out her hair. The song continues even as I sob for her. "Il y a longtemps que je t'aime. Jamais je ne t'oublierai," I sang these ones slowly near the end with my heart breaking further as I made peace with having lost my best friend. I knew it was time to let go but I couldn't, I pulled her closer to my chest. "I don't understand why," I whispered into her ear crying even more.

"Honey," Jac's voice came from close by and I felt her hand on my shoulder as she whispered to me to let go, that it was time to let go. I shake my head and tears continue to flow. "You gotta let her go now, she's gone," she says softly and a switch flips in my mind. I let go of the cold limp body of my best friend. "Artemis, get her to her room, get her washed up and stay with her," she says to the boy.

Artemis hoists me up and supports me as we walk to my room. Once he's seated me down he goes to the en-suite to get a warm bath running. I don't need him to help me bath, I do that on my own and once I was done I got dressed and back to my room. Artemis has settled in the old vintage chair and I settle into bed. The silence in the room seemed suffocating and it chocked me, I couldn't help the uncomfortable feeling I felt.

"You ought to sleep, it's late," Jaclyn says popping her head into the room before saying goodnight and shutting the door.

Artemis pulled his legs under him and he placed his head on the cushioned back of the chair, getting ready to sleep where he had sat. I looked over at him, he didn't have to be here but he was. I don't think he deserved to be sleeping in an uncomfortable old chair. I stood from the bed which caused him to open his eyes, I walked towards him and reached out my hand when I stood close enough. He looked at me before taking my hand and I lead him back to my bed. I got in and he stood there shaking his head.

"Stay, please," I whispered softly and he got into the bed along with me. His oxygen tank sat on the floor next to the bed and I curled up at his side.