Five Feet Apart

by Rachael Lippincott

I’ve been everywhere without actually seeing anything.”

I know in that moment, even though it could not be more ridiculous, that if I die in there, I won’t die without falling in love.

“You can’t be friends? At least be adults,”

“You want to tell me what to do with my life?” I shout back. “What about yours? You and Tim. You and Rick. Marcus. Michael.” His jaw tightens. “Don’t go there, Stella!” “Oh, I can keep going there!” I clap back. “They all knew you were sick and they loved you anyway. But you ran, Poe. Not them. You. Every time.” I lower my voice, shaking my head, challenging him. “What are you afraid of, Poe?”

I watch the way she looks at Abby, and her parents, even the way she jokes around with her friends—but, most of all, I watch the way that people love her.

I didn’t know it was possible for a person to make old things become new again.

I stopped living the day Abby died.

“It’s just life, Will. It’ll be over before we know it.”

“You make me want a life I can’t have.”