Within These Walls (The Walls Duet #1)(94)

30. Go to the library

31. Adopt a dog

32. Paddle boat around a lake 33. Order a ridiculously expensive cup of coffee 34. TP a house

35. Play miniature golf





36. Eat cotton candy


37. Go to the drive-in and make out the entire time 38. Go to prom

39. Experience a hangover 40. Pay bills

41. Buy my mom a birthday present 42. Go to a roller-skating rink 43. Dance in the rain

44. Get a bad haircut

45. Jump in a bouncy house 46. Have a sleepover

47. Get a bikini wax

48. Make love

49. Dance in my living room





50. Go caroling during Christmastime


51. Have an entire conversation in only text messages 52. Go furniture shopping 53. Babysit a child

54. Buy lingerie

55. Visit an art museum

56. Make snow angels

57. Eat dinner by candlelight 58. Do a Lemon Drop

59. Try sushi

60. Go to an ice cream parlor 61. Learn to ice-skate

62. Make a meal from start to finish 63. Go to a bachelorette party 64. Get a pedicure

65. Spend an afternoon fishing 66. Spend an entire day outside 67. Go on a hayride

68. Take salsa lessons

69. Try on wedding gowns with my mother 70. Make an apple pie

71. Go to a movie theater 72. Have my heart broken 73. Learn to use a hammer 74. Have a makeover





75. Eat fast food


76. Ride a Ferris wheel all the way up to the top 77. Get married

78. Catch lightening bugs 79. Go camping and sleep under the stars 80. Get a massage

81. Learn to stand up for myself 82. Have a picnic

83. Change a diaper

84. Take a hike

85. Fail a test

86. Run errands on my own 87. Fly on a plane

88. Adopt a child

89. Have someone to miss 90. Plant a garden

91. Make a sand castle

92. Celebrate an anniversary 93. Take a yoga class

94. Go boogie boarding

95. Go someplace humid

96. Go on a hike

97. Get a speeding ticket 98. Hail a taxi

99. Go to an adult store





100. Go trick or treating


101. Volunteer at a children’s hospital 102. Ride a horse

103. Go to a gym

104. Learn to eat with chopsticks 105. Take the subway

106. Burn an entire batch of cookies 107. Get a Facebook profile





108. Walk a mile start to finish


109. Read a “dirty” book





110. Go to a birthday party


111. Have a girl’s night out 112. Go on a date

113. Go to a strip club

114. Get a tattoo

115. Go apple picking

116. Drive a car

117. Get a tan

118. Go swimming

119. Rake leaves





120. Fly a kite


121. Ride in the back of a cop car 122. Vote in an election 123. Take a writing class





124. Sleep through the night


125. Eat ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner 126. Go bungee jumping

127. Be a organ donor

128. Watch the sunrise from a mountain top 129. See a waterfall





130. Go kayaking


131. Save someone’s life 132. Paint the walls of my own house 133. Go to Disneyland

134. Scuba dive

135. Go hot tubbing

136. Go skiing

137. Spend an entire day on the beach 138. Visit someone in the hospital 139. Learn to shoot a gun 140. Go on a road trip

141. Serve jury duty





142. Make a new friend


143. Live until I’ve seen it all





Dear Reader,



Congenital heart defects (CHD) affect nearly 1% of the population. In the United States, roughly 40,000 babies are born with CHD a year. While Lailah’s plight was fictional, the disease is not. Many children suffer their entire lives while others don’t make it past infancy.

When I began my research on heart defects and chronic diseases, the amount of information I unearthed in a short amount of time made my head spin. It was overwhelming and completely confusing because it really was a whole different world—a part of life I’d never thought of.

Clicking through pages of research and reading endless statistics made me realize one thing. I had no idea what it must feel like to have my entire life revolve around something so crucial and vast that it could eclipse your entire world. I decided I needed to find someone who did.

That’s when I found Becca Atherton. Becca is twenty-one and has been living with CHD her entire life. Faced with the vey imminent reality of a heart and lung transplant, she is one of the bravest and brightest young women I’ve ever encountered. Stumbling across her blog “Living as a Chronically Ill Young Adult” was like cracking a window into a world I’d barely begun to understand and I can’t thank her enough for letting me take a peek inside.

Meeting Becca, hearing about her life and the struggles she’s had to overcome really became my inspiration when writing Lailah. Becca shared stories with me, gave me her own “Someday list” and helped make sure I was portraying the life of a CHD patient correctly.