Stranger Than Fanfiction(81)
“Yes, you can make me a promise,” the actor said. “Promise me you won’t waste the rest of your lives pleasing other people, because if you do, you’ll wake up one day and realize you’ve never really lived. Trust me, you don’t want to learn that lesson the way I did.”
Topher, Joey, Sam, and Mo gave the actor their word and it was the greatest gift they could have given him.
“Good,” Cash said with a light chuckle. “Then my mission is now complete.”
The Downers Grove gang were determined to stay by Cash’s side until the very end. They called home and told their families they’d be returning a few days later than expected. All they said was that they had met a new friend on the road who was sick in the hospital and they were going to stay with him until he could leave. None of them felt an ounce of guilt about the claim because, just like Cash taught them, there was a difference between telling a lie and not giving the whole truth. It was a blessing that none of their parents took issue with it, because not even a meteor impact could get them to leave the actor.
As the week went on, Cash’s health rapidly declined more and more each day. By Thursday the actor had lost feeling in his legs and feet. By Friday, the numbness had spread to his arms and hands. By Saturday he stopped eating and drinking water. By Sunday the actor stopped talking and opening his eyes. Then on Monday, July 10, Cash Carter took his final breath and peacefully passed away in a very quiet room surrounded by new friends. The actor had had so little control over his life, but his death was exactly how he wanted it to be.
From that day forward, when Topher, Joey, Sam, or Mo thought about Cash, they never imagined his character from television or the sick man in the hospice bed. Instead, the group pictured the actor behind the wheel of a sleek and shiny Porsche 550 Spyder, cruising down an open highway of the afterlife, pranking, peer pressuring, and corrupting every naive angel he found along the way. That was the Cash Carter no one else got to see, and that was the Cash Carter they would miss forever.
Chapter Twenty-Three
TRUSTS
On August 10, exactly one month after Cash Carter passed away, Topher, Joey, and Mo sat in the dining room of their favorite Chinese restaurant in Downers Grove, Cok with a Wok. They were there to celebrate their final meal together before splitting up for college the following day, and impatiently waited for Sam to join them. They weren’t only anxious because they were all starving, but also because today was the day Sam was going to tell his mother that he was transgender, and they wanted to know how Candy Rae Gibson had reacted.
“Here he comes!” Mo said when she saw Sam through the window. “Oh gosh, I’m so nervous to hear how it went! I practically feel like I came out as transgender, too!”
“Only you could make this about you.” Joey laughed.
Sam entered the restaurant and had a seat at the table. His friends were jumpy with anticipation and didn’t even bother saying hello—they went straight for the details.
“Well?” Topher asked.
“Weeeeeell…,” Sam began, and all his friends leaned closer to him. “Honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I expected.”
“That’s terrific!” Joey said.
“Don’t get me wrong, there were still a lot of tears,” Sam prefaced. “But for the most part Candy Rae Gibson handled it pretty well. I didn’t have to explain what transgender meant like I thought, which was nice. Apparently there was a trans character on Grey’s Anatomy last season so my mom thinks she’s an expert on the subject now. There were a lot of questions, though—did it have anything to do with her, was I trans because she failed as a mother, was there anything she could have done differently that would have changed it, blah blah blah—but once I assured her it had nothing to do with her she was pretty much okay with it. Actually, a little too okay with it—she made me listen to Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way’ with her like six times.”
“Sam, I’m so happy for you!” Mo said, and gave him a hug. “You’ve been dreading this day for your whole life!”
“Yeah, it feels good to be open with everyone now,” Sam said. “I told her all about the clinic I found in Providence where I’m planning to start my first round of hormone therapy. She wanted to know if she could meet me there and maybe do a round of estrogen herself—so I had to explain that it’s not like getting a mani-pedi.”
Joey was over the moon for his friend, but he couldn’t keep some sadness from surfacing in his eyes.
“Joey, are you okay?” Sam asked.
“Totally,” he said. “I’m so happy for you, Sam. I just wish it had been a little easier for me, you know?”
“Have you still not spoken to your dad?” Mo asked.
“Not a word,” Joey said. “I’ve been meeting my mom for lunch every other day, though. She’s so dramatic—she’s always in sunglasses and a veil so no one in the church catches her. I keep reminding her I’m gay and not a terrorist.”
“I know it really sucked when your dad told you to leave, but it’s been wonderful having you at my house,” Topher said. “Joey’s been a huge relief to my mom and me by helping us with Billy. He also makes the best pancakes in the world on the weekends. Yesterday my mom actually referred to him as her son and didn’t even correct herself.”