**Kayla's POV**

We gathered outside Fiona's room, a heavy silence hanging in the air as we awaited the call to enter. After what felt like an eternity, her mother gestured for us to come in.

There she was, lying so still, her face resembling that of a peaceful sleep, but I knew better. Fiona had slipped into a coma earlier that night, and the pallor of her skin suggested that life was slipping away from her all too quickly.

I wrapped my arms around her mother, holding her tightly as her sobs echoed in the small space.

“It’s going to be okay, ma’am. Fiona's a fighter; she’ll pull through,” I reassured her, though I couldn’t shake the knot of fear in my stomach.

After a while, we reluctantly decided to leave.

The ride home was thick with unspoken worry.

“Is Fiona really going to be okay?” Ashley’s voice broke the stillness, mingling with the sound of the car engine.

“She has to be,” I replied softly, more as a plea to myself than an assurance to her.

Once we reached our destination, Luca dropped each of us off one by one, and soon it was just me left.

“Bye, guys,” I said, giving a small wave as I stepped out of the car.

“Bye, Kayla,” they chorused, their voices trailing off as Luca drove away.

I opened the door to find my mum waiting for me on the couch, her expression taut with concern.

“Hey! Where on earth have you been? I was worried sick! I tried calling everyone, but no one picked up,” she exclaimed, relief flooding her tone as I stepped inside.

“Fiona… she slipped into a coma tonight,” I managed, the weight of the words pressing down on me.

“Oh my gosh, sweetheart, I’m so sorry,” she said, enveloping me in a warm hug that felt like a lifeline in that moment.

“I’m just going to head to bed. It’s been a really long night,” I responded, the exhaustion creeping into my bones.

“Of course. Sleep well, honey,” she replied softly.

“Good night, Mum,” I said, forcing a small smile before retreating to my room.

Tonight had been a blur of emotions, and all I could do was hope for a miracle.

We saw her.
We stood in the room, and five
of us, shoulder to shoulder, pretending we were brave.

Now we were back in the world, and I couldn't decide if it felt too loud or too quiet.

I was lying on Lila’s bedroom floor, staring at the ceiling like it might blink first. The others were scattered around —  on the bed, Ashley curled in the beanbag, Jake sitting by the window, Luca on the floor next to me, legs stretched out like he might run at any second.

No one was talking. The silence felt heavier than it did in the hospital.

Fiona was still there.
Unmoving. Hooked up to machines that sounded like ticking clocks, like time is running out and no one was saying it out loud.

“She didn’t even look like herself,” Lila whispered suddenly.

No one responded, but we were all thinking about it.
The pale skin. The tubes. The stillness.
Like her body was there, but she took the Fiona out of it before we got there.

I swallowed hard. “I thought she’d wake up. Just... I don’t know. When we walked in. Like in the movies.”

Luca let out a sound that was not quite a laugh. “Yeah. And then she’d say something ridiculous like ‘I dreamed Zac Efron was feeding me waffles.’”

That earned a soft smile from Lila, but it faded fast.

“We left and nothing changed,” Jake said, his voice distant.
“We did everything we could. And she’s still... there.”

“What were we supposed to do?” Ashley snapped, sitting up.
“Magic her awake with friendship? That’s not how it works.”

I flinched. Ashley never got sharp. She noticed and sighed. “Sorry. I just... I don’t know how to do this.”

None of us did.

Because the world didn’t stop spinning. That was the part that messed with my head.

After we left the hospital, birds were chirping. Cars honking. Someone mowing a lawn like everything was fine. Like Fiona wasn’t asleep in that room, slipping further away.

“I feel guilty,” Lila said, so quietly I barely hear her.

“For what?” Jake asked.

Lila shrugged.  “For laughing. For coming home and watching dumb TikToks. For eating pizza like everything’s normal.”

Ashley leaned back, staring at the ceiling like it might give us answers.

“I don’t think Fiona would want us to sit around being miserable,” she said.
“She’d probably make us dress up and do karaoke in her honour.”

“She always made things loud,” Luca murmured.

I nodded. “Even when she was mad. Especially when she was mad.”

We were quiet again, but it’s different now. Like we’re remembering her — not just the girl in the hospital bed, but her.

“I don’t know how to talk about this at school,” Lila said, fiddling with the drawstring of her hoodie.
“People ask like... they’re curious. Not like they care.”

“Because they don’t know her,” I responded.

And it hits me harder than I expected. They don’t. Not really.
Not like we do.

They didn’t see her sneak a ferret into biology once. Or throw water balloons at us during finals week. Or pretend to faint in the gym just to get out of running. They didn’t know the way she’d light up when her lungs were finally clear enough to let her dance.

We did.

We knew Fiona as a thousand little things. Not just “the girl with cystic fibrosis.”
She’s Fiona. Our Fiona.

And now she was... not with us. Not completely.

“Should we do something?” Luca asked.
He was looking at me, like I was the one who was supposed to have a plan. I don’t.

“Like what?” Lila said.

“I don’t know,” he replied. “Something that feels like her. Something... alive.”

Ashley sat up, eyes sparking for the first time in days.
“We could make a video. For her. All of us. Our dumbest memories. The best ones. Things we never told her.”

“And if she wakes up?” I asked, scared to hope.
“Then she’ll see it.”

“And if she doesn’t?” Lila asked, her voice cracking.

No one answers that part.

But slowly, we all nod.

We didn't know what was going to happen. We didn't know if Fiona would ever open her eyes again, or laugh, or yell at us for doing her eyeliner wrong.

But we do know this:

We love her.

And maybe that’s something we could still give her.
Even now.

We created something special: a compilation filled with our funniest moments, each one perfectly capturing the joy we’ve shared. We even sprinkled in some of our favorite pictures together to make it all the more memorable. I truly hoped she gets to see it; I couldn't wait for her to relive those cherished memories with us.