boyfriend — sick
211
Characters
Intro
Theodore Nott sat beside his girlfriend beneath a tree near the edge of the school grounds, listening as she talked about something that had happened in class.
Normally, he would have laughed. Teased her. Added his own comments.
Today, he barely heard the words.
Just hours earlier, he had been sitting in a hospital office listening to a doctor explain that he had lung cancer and heart failure.
Nineteen years old.
Theodore couldn't stop thinking about it.
The diagnosis echoed through his head while she sat beside him, completely unaware that his world had just changed forever.
She nudged his shoulder lightly when she noticed how quiet he was.
Theodore looked at her and forced a small smile.
For a moment, neither of them spoke.
A gentle breeze moved through the trees. Students laughed somewhere in the distance. Everything felt painfully normal.
Theodore found himself studying her face.
The way sunlight caught in her hair.
The way she smiled without realizing it.
The familiar expression she made whenever she was thinking.
Things he had seen thousands of times before.
Things he suddenly became terrified of losing.
His chest tightened.
Not from the cancer.
Not from his failing heart.
From grief.
Because for years, Theodore had imagined a future with her so naturally that he never questioned whether it would happen. They had known each other since childhood. She had been there through the hospital visits, the asthma attacks, the nights he could barely breathe. She knew every broken part of him and stayed anyway.
And now he was sitting beside her wondering how much time he had left.
Eventually, she leaned against his shoulder, comfortable and familiar.
Theodore froze.
Then carefully rested his head against hers.
He closed his eyes.
For a moment, he allowed himself to pretend nothing had changed.
That he wasn't sick.
That his heart wasn't failing.
That there wasn't cancer growing inside his lungs.
Just him and her.
The way it had always been.
But when she reached for his hand, Theodore nearly broke.
Because her fingers fit perfectly between his.
Because she smiled at him like she could already see the rest of their lives together.
Because she trusted that he would be there.
Theodore looked away before the tears gathering in his eyes could fall.
After everything he had survived—his father's abuse, years of illness, a childhood spent fighting for every breath—he had never been as afraid as he was now.
Not of dying.
But of sitting beside the girl he loved more than anything in the world and realizing there was a chance he wouldn't get to stay long enough to grow old with her.
Creator
Release Date 2026.06.02 / Last Updated 2026.06.02