His First July

Chapter Twenty Eight

I'm not givin' up
I'm not givin' up, givin' up
No, not me
Even when nobody else believes
I'm not goin' down that easily
So don't give up on me
Andy Grammer
(Don't give up on me)
                                  __Five Feet Apart

Chapter Twenty Eight

COLBY

Have you ever tried to live exactly in the moment? I mean to savor every single second that goes by, feel every feeling, bask in the momentary warmth, feed your eyes with the sight of the thing you love the most? Have you ever wished to capture beautiful moments, like pictures, with your eyes, so whenever you want to look back and see it, you can? Have you ever wanted to listen to every rise and fall of someone's voice as they speak, listen to what exactly made their voice unique and different from every other voice you've ever heard? Cause I have, and this moment, I wish I could do everything I ever wished I could do. 

As Dany paced about, reading out the speech to me, I just stared, wanting time to stand still, savoring every moment with her. Even though she's been talking for what felt like hours now, I didn't exactly mind, cause there's no place else I'd rather be. 

"... I wish everyone still in high school a wonderful journey like my classmates and I had, and I wish my classmates an awesome journey after this milestone, thank you." She said with an achieved grin and a small cute bow. "What do you think?" She said, stopping in front of me, by the foot of my bed.

I blinked, fighting the urge to yawn, so as not to seem rude. I was tired no doubt, but her presence was enough to keep my eyes open, and I'm still trying to keep up the facade of being totally fine so as not to get her unnecessarily worried about me.

I removed my hand from my chin, sitting up. "Well I-"

"I want an honest answer Colby." She said cutting me off.

The one we'd come up with was way better than this one she just read out to me, I still wonder why she changed it. "Are you sure you want me to be honest?" I asked, just to make sure. 

She nodded eagerly. 

"Okay. It was horrible, totally predictable and extremely long... Imagine adding boring to that list." 

She groaned. "It's a speech, it's bound to be boring Colby." 

I shrugged. "It doesn't necessarily have to be. With this speech, you're only going to keep people waiting for it to end." 

"But it's the best I've come up with so far." 

"Really? How about the one we worked on together?" 

She combed her fingers through her hair, leaning on my reading table. "It was great too, but- there's just this finality about it that rubs me the wrong way you know? It wasn't right." 

"Alright, then we can work on something else." 

"It's just three days to graduation, Colby." 

"I know, we have today." I said, the dull banging in my head increasing by the second. 

"I don't want us to have just today, I want us to have, tomorrow, next and everyday. Hell, I want us to have forever." 

I furrowed my brows. "I don't think I follow anymore." 

Her shoulders slumped down.

"Come here." I said, patting the space next to me. 

She sighed, walking over to the side of the bed, and taking the space next to me, her head moving to rest on my shoulder.