Day 1
704 Words
The ride home was silent.
Luna sat beside the bus window, watching the city lights blur together through her tears. People boarded and left at every stop. Some smiled. Some looked exhausted after a long day. Others stared at their phones, unaware of the lives passing beside them.
The world continued as if nothing had happened.
But Luna's world had changed forever.
Ninety-nine days.
The number echoed inside her mind like a clock that refused to stop ticking.
She closed her eyes.
There are only ninety-nine days...
When she finally reached home, she walked straight to her bedroom without saying a word.
Her mother noticed.
"Luna?"
"I'm tired."
She closed the door before another question could follow.
She sat on the floor beside her bed and placed the hospital envelope in front of her.
Her hands trembled as she looked at it.
She wanted to throw it away.
She wanted to pretend she had never seen those words.
Terminal Heart Failure.
She wanted to wake up and discover that this had all been a terrible nightmare.
Instead, she quietly opened the envelope again.
Every medical report told the same story.
Every doctor's note ended with uncertainty.
Every page reminded her that time was slipping away.
A tear fell onto the paper.
Then another.
Soon, she was crying harder than she ever had before.
"Why him?" she whispered between sobs.
"He doesn't deserve this."
The room answered with silence.
The next morning, Luna arrived at school earlier than anyone else.
She climbed to the rooftop and sat on the familiar bench.
The city was slowly waking up beneath the pale morning sky.
A few minutes later, the rooftop door opened.
Noah smiled when he saw her.
"I had a feeling you'd be here."
She stood and walked toward him.
Without saying a word, she wrapped her arms around him.
Noah froze.
After a moment, he hugged her back.
"I don't want you to go through this alone," Luna whispered.
"You don't have to pretend anymore."
He rested his chin gently on her head.
"I'm sorry."
"Stop apologizing."
"I'm sorry I couldn't tell you sooner."
"I said stop apologizing."
She pulled away just enough to look at him.
"If you keep saying sorry..."
Her voice cracked.
"...I'll think you're already saying goodbye."
Noah's smile faded.
"I don't want to say goodbye."
"Then don't."
"I don't get to choose."
His quiet answer broke her heart all over again.
They sat together on the bench, watching the sunrise paint the sky with soft shades of gold.
After several minutes, Luna finally spoke.
"You said you have ninety-nine days."
Noah nodded.
She took a deep breath.
"Then let's make every single one count."
He looked at her, confused.
"What do you mean?"
She reached into her notebook and tore out a blank page.
Across the top, she carefully wrote:
99 Days of Living
She turned the notebook toward him.
"We're not going to count the days until you leave."
She smiled through her tears.
"We're going to count the days you truly live."
Noah stared at the page in silence.
Luna picked up her pen again.
"Day One."
She looked at him.
"Tell me something you've always wanted to do."
He laughed softly.
"Right now?"
"Right now."
He thought for a moment before answering.
"I've always wanted to watch the sunrise from the beach."
Luna wrote it down.
✓ Watch the sunrise at the beach.
"What else?"
"I've never learned how to ride a bicycle."
She smiled.
"Then I'll teach you."
He chuckled.
"You don't even know if you're good at it."
"I'll learn first."
For the first time since the hospital, Noah laughed—a real laugh that reached his eyes.
Luna smiled too.
The pain was still there.
The fear hadn't disappeared.
The countdown hadn't stopped.
But something had changed.
Instead of waiting for tomorrow to take something away...
They had decided to give today a reason to be remembered.
As the first rays of sunlight spread across the city, Noah quietly looked at the list in Luna's notebook.
For the first time since his diagnosis, he stopped thinking about how many days he had left.
Instead...
He began wondering how beautiful those ninety-nine days could become.
- Writer
