Golden Miracle

He let the cold wind pierce his skin despite having warm blankets in his comfortably luxurious hospital bedroom. Sitting on the balcony, his lungs begged for him to go back inside and stop the self-torture, but he was too stubborn to stand. He fed on the pain he felt when the air hit too hard, and he almost couldn't breathe. If he was going to die anyway, then why wait? He had no desire to "Go through with the treatment" and "Take the chance." as his optimistic mother always said he should. He just wanted everything to be over and done with.

Noticing where his train of thought was heading, he paused and decided to think of something else. He started listing ten things that made him happy at the top of his head, a technique he saw in a BuzzFeed article about dealing with irrational thoughts. During his slow count and search, he was disrupted by something dropping next to him and abruptly turned to be met with the angry and worried expression of the first thing on his list.

"Are you crazy? Why would you sit outside, barely covered in this cold?" Emerald exclaimed while frantically putting a heavy blanket around his bare shoulders. His heart warmed at the gesture. An automatic smile playing on his lips.

"I don't see how this is funny, Arlen." she sighed and started picking her things up from the floor as he stole a glance over the balcony upon hearing the sound of a passing plane. When he turned his attention back to her, she'd stood up, hands behind her back, smiling and rocking back and forth.

"Is this where you stab me?" He asked in a mocking tone, and she rolled her eyes, her smile never leaving her face.

She wordlessly exposed what she was hiding behind her back and placed it in his hands. He looked down on them, and his expression quickly went from curiosity to confusion to shock in the span of two seconds at the bouquet of Marigold flowers on his hands.

"you-how did you-you got me Marigolds?" He asked quietly, still in a daze,and she laughed at his reaction.

"Yes, me. I've heard you talk about how much you love the double orange on Marigolds before, about how that specific orange is your favorite color, So I said why not," she said as if it was the most normal thing to recall what someone said almost two years ago.

Too overwhelmed by her remembering such a small detail about him and The fact that the moment was the first time he'd received flowers from anyone ever, He pulled her into his blanket. And he hugged her the hardest that he'd ever hugged anyone in his life. After a minute of her laughing and telling him to let go and him holding her tighter and saying no, she pulled back, looking at him with a sad smile, and took a deep breath before starting with the speech that she'd been rehearsing in her head all night.

" Arlen, I know you don't want to go through with the surgery and that you see no point in...."

"I'll do it," He interrupted, surprising both Emerald and himself.

"What?" she whispered in disbelief. Arlen started bouncing his leg up and down, both from the shock of what he just said and the emptiness that hadn't left since she broke their hug forty seconds ago, he'd been counting.

"I'll do the surgery, I'll get the treatment and add a few more years to my fleeting life. Just come here," He said impatiently and pulled her in for a hug again, to which she responded immediately.

His parents had been trying to convince him to go through with the treatment for months, and they still couldn't get him to agree. He never thought that his decision would one day change so impulsively.

He didn't know how she made him agree so quickly but, for the first time Since he'd been admitted to the hospital, he felt like his stance had changed. Because Arlen suddenly realized that he had something to live for, He was sure of it now. He wanted to keep feeling the way he did when he was with her, and leaving would only cut that short. Dying was no longer an option now. He didn't know if he was irrational or not at that moment, but it was a familiar pattern whenever she was around him. And honestly, he didn't mind.