Rain (21 page)

I hadn’t spoken yet; his confession had taken all words away. How could I deny the connection we had? He knew it was there, and so did I. Even though I had made the choice, the past few weeks had been downright miserable for me also. I was hurting myself, and most of all, I was hurting him—the one person who did not deserve to be hurt after everything he had done for me. Everything had changed the day we met in front of his house. It was time I stopped fighting it.

“I love you,” I told him, feeling like it was the only response worthy of what he had just told me. I had been holding on to the words, terrified to part with them, but I knew I’d needed to tell him. He had opened up his heart to me and told me exactly how he felt, and I could tell it hadn’t been easy for him either.

“What did you just say?” he exclaimed with a combination of shock and happiness across his face as he pulled me to him suddenly, making me involuntarily squeak, which seemed to tug a smile from him.

“Umm—that I love you,” I said, short of breath all of a sudden.

The biggest smile I had ever seen on him spread across his face before his lips were on mine desperately. His hands went to my face and then found my hair, getting tangled in it. Warmth and a full swarm of butterflies went through me.

“I love you too, Taylor,” he said between kisses. “More than I ever expected,” he added, breathing deeply. His eyes were bright and alive as he kissed me passionately again and again, making up for all the kisses we had missed out on. I didn’t want to miss out on any more of these beautiful kisses or any more time with him, so I decided to let my worry about Leah go.

I don’t know what the future will bring or how long I have to live. The cancer could come back tomorrow and I could die within a year, or I could live a long life. I don’t have the luxury to take my life for granted anymore, so that means I need to stop wasting whatever time I have with Kyle. I can’t stop from dying when that time comes, just like I can’t stop the rain from falling, but I can live today with what makes me happy. That is what I plan to do with Kyle every day until then because he is it for me.

BE AWARE

• September is childhood cancer awareness month in the United States.
  
• Gold is the childhood cancer awareness ribbon color.
  
• Cancers that develop in children are almost always different than the ones that develop in adults.
  
• Childhood cancer as a whole only receives about 4% of federal funding for cancer research.
  
• Cancer is the second leading cause of death in children.
  
• The most common types of cancers in children are:
  

• Leukemia
  
• Brain and other central nervous system tumors
  
• Neuroblastoma
  
• Wilms tumor
  
• Lymphoma
  
• Rhabdomyosarcoma
  
• Retinoblastoma
  
• Bone Cancer
  

• Leukemias account for about thirty-one percent of all cancers in children.
  
• Cancers in adolescents (15-19) can be different from cancers in younger children, but they are not unique to the age group.
  
• About five-thousand adolescents are diagnosed with cancer in the United States each year.
  
• About six-hundred adolescents die from cancer in the United States each year, making it the fourth leading cause of death for the age group.
  
• The most common types of cancer in adolescents are:
  

• Lymphomas
  
• Leukemias
  
• Thyroid Cancer
  
• Brain and Spinal cord tumors
  
• Testicular cancer
  
• Bone Tumors
  
• Soft tissue tumors
  
• Melanoma
  
• Ovarian cancer
  

Find out more at
www.cancer.org

(American Cancer Society, Inc.)

Bibliography

American Cancer Society, Inc.
American Cancer Society
. 2014. 25 03 2014 .

Find out Kyle’s story in

Before The Rain

Kyle Thorne was a stranger, harboring secrets every waking moment, haunted by them every time his guard was down. He moved in with his dad in the hope of escaping his dark past. That proved to be difficult when a piece of that past showed up at his front door, jeopardizing his new beginning and his relationship with Taylor—the one person who made him want to expose all of his secrets.

CHRISTIE COTE

resides in Vermont with her Husband and their dog. When she isn’t reading, writing, or dreaming up her next story, she can be found shooting targets with her bow, drawing or baking.

Rain
is her first book.

Christie writes Young Adult Realistic Fiction, Fiction, and New Adult novels.

Find out more at CHRISTIECOTE.COM.

Table of Contents

Bibliography