Page 68 (2/2)

“I’ his neck so hard it ht bleed “I wrote it before … well, you know Before we knew”

Sasha just smiled, her features as soft and beautiful as before she learned about her sickness She thanked hihtful new perspective on cancer, said she could understand why the disease would choose the fertile cells of her body as the honant children

She just wished the lymphoma had asked her permission first

Chapter One

Last night had been a good night, one of the best Sasha has had in weeks Her body is still frail, her cheeks sunken in and her eyes rimmed with dark circles under a nearly bald head, but she’d had a ton of energy Even though it was a school night (for ht

The thing about having a best friend dying of cancer? Your parents let you do al days at a tirades slip froh My best friend has to be dying to get these privileges

We’d spent the night in the Cades’ home library, which has become Sasha’s temporary bedroom ever since the cancer weakened her body too much for her to walk up stairs In the corner of the room, on top of the built-in desk, the television plays the DVD menu screen from Sixteen Candles on a loop Weit

I sit up on the brown leather couch, o back to sleep, but Sasha’s phone alarhout the small, book-filled room

“I want to tell Daddy bye before he goes to work,” she’d said last night, setting her alarm for six thirty Her voice was frail and barely

s will be my last, and I don’t want to miss the chance to see him”

I think my stomach knows before I do An uneasiness swells up inside of rab her phone Silencing her alares that filtered in overnight There are 124 students at Peyton Colony High School, and every single one of them considers Sasha a friend But I am her only best friend We are attached at the hip Left toot a personality that attracts everyone, and because of that, we are often invited to parties, school dances and the popular lunch table

There has been nore them I have a boyfriend, after all, and Sasha would be way out of ue

When Sasha’s cancer diagnosis hit the school, devastation rocked the entire senior class Sasha had always been well liked, but after that, she was like royalty Everyone wanted to sit with us at lunch and take pictures with Sasha as if they were old pals just standing near the lockers between classes It didn’ton, all of her new best friends wanted to docurairls had been the ti and I had to carry her books from class to class, Sasha just smiled and treated everyone with kindness

Once all the che T — terminal — all of her newfound friends becao, when she quit school altogether, she was no doubt the irl in our tiny Texas town I was happy just hanging out in her shadow, although soic fame trickled onto me, too I was the best friend, after all, and everyone wants to know the dying girl

Now I a her in the face

And I know it I just know