So I have not yet written a TFIOS story, and if I has it's been a long, long time, and I think maybe you will like this. This is Isaac's story after the end.

Not About Angels

Disclaimer: I do not own TFIOS

Gus had been gone a year, and Hazel had been gone a few months. Phalanxifor stopped working days before the cancer finally took over her body exactly three months after Gus's cancer stopped his heart, which according to Hazel, was made of him. Hazel's cancer was made of her too, much longer and much worse than Gus's was.

Why is the world so cruel to me? I lost my best friend, his terminal girlfriend left alone to be depressed and slowly sinking into her own hole, unable to dig out any longer, it was all we could do but wait. Her medication had officially stopped working, her doctor saying that unfortunately, there was no use trying to refill her prescription.

After Hazel had died, I felt like I was next. Both of my friends and their reoccurrence of cancer took their lives, and I thought that maybe I would die in three months, just like Hazel and Gus did apart.

That was four months ago, to tell you the truth.

I've gotten to the realization over the past few months; life really sucks. I mean, it really, really sucks. You get your hopes up that maybe something good will happen, and maybe something good does happen, and you'll let your guard down long enough for it to be whisked away with the wind.

Summer is almost out, and my mother suggested to me today that I go back to support group. I felt bad, because I kind of laughed at her and told her that there was no point in going back because Gus had been gone and now Hazel wouldn't be there with me.

She didn't think I had a valid argument. "Isaac, it can be good for you."

If I had eyes, I would have rolled them, and I'm sure my mother knew that. "Come on, Isaac, you might meet a new friend, maybe someone to keep you company or something. Maybe you can find someone to-"

But by that point, not only was I already halfway up the steps, but I knew what she was going to say, the same thing she always had about how I couldn't let missing Hazel and Gus distract me from the rest of my life, which still felt like a life without meaning, but nevertheless, I was laying upstairs when I agreed to it.

"Alright," I said when I could sense my mother was in the hallway. I was confirmed of my suspicions when she opened the door and flipped on the light. I heard the switch and sighed.

"What is it, Isaac?" She said, in a slightly hesitant and irritable tone. I don't blame her. One of her sons runs around the house all day and drives her crazy and the other one is blind.

I sighed, a feeling of my heart sinking to my stomach before I could even speak. I must've looked like a fool, laying there staring up at the ceiling with my mouth agape like a fool. Finally, thought, I managed to form somewhat coherent words.

"I think I will go back to support group."

I was concerned for a minute. I thought she had left the room.

"Mom?"

"Yes, Isaac?"

I turned toward her direction. "You didn't leave?"

I could sense her shaking her head, "No dear, I didn't."

"So did you hear me?"

"Yes."

"And what do you think?"

I could only imagine the smile on her face, the pleasure in her voice evident when she said, "I think you are a survivor."

Yeah, because that's so comforting, to call me a survivor when my two best friends had died from cancer, only months apart on the dime, and as I grew to think about it I thought that maybe they died apart like that because they were meant to be together, and that would have been okay with me.

Except death is never okay, at least, not as cruel and expected as it happened to Hazel, but at least she seemed at peace. Her mother told me one minute she was breathing and the next, well, she wasn't, and her body was still, cold, and her limbs had gone stiff. No coughing, no screaming, no suffocating, nothing just gone.

Yeah, so here I lie, about to tell you my boring story of my life without my two best friends.

And yet I don't see how I can be a survivor if I am barely living.

I hope you all enjoyed the prologue. I can't assure it will always be happy, but it wont always be this depressing either.

Please review!

~Leigh