Don't Forget Me

Chapter 2

Maggie wheeled another patient, Haleigh, to her room after Bruno and Phred played music and talked to each other patients about their hopes and dreams. Nurses and volunteers, like Maggie, took a step back to let all the patients suffering from various forms and stages of cancer have their moment with the star. Maggie said good bye to Haileigh, who would probably not make it to the next celebrity to stop by the hospital stopping near the door to see her close her eyes and moan with a slight twinge of pain.

“Oh Haileigh. I’m so sorry.” Maggie said under her breathe.

“Sorry for what?” she heard a familiar voice behind her.

“Oh…umm…” she turned to see Bruno Mars standing behind her. “From all the pain she is in. The experimental treatment she is in has run out of funding. Her medical treatment is going to end in October…October 22nd. She’s most likely going to die within a month from the blood cancer.” Maggie said wiping a small tear from her eye. “She just has so much ahead of her.”

“I’m so sorry….” Bruno said in a soft voice that somehow soothed her.

“Maggie?” he asked jolting her out of her relaxation. “Are you okay? How often are you here?”

“When I’m not at work or asleep.” She answered.

“Doesn’t it make you sad to be here all the time?” he asked.

“Umm…no…it’s the least I could do.” She shrugged starting to walk away. “I’ll see you at the thing tomorrow. It was nice meeting you.” She told him.

“Umm…okay…” he said walking in the opposite direction.

“Was that Maggie?” Dre asked Bruno as they started to walk down the hallway.

“Yeah.” He responded. “She’s interesting. She said that she’s here a lot.”

“That’s weird.” Dre answered.

“She said it was the least she could do. I don’t know what that means, but…she said she would see me tomorrow.”

“Oh. Yeah. She would be there.” Ryan answered.

“Why?” Bruno asked. “I mean…that sounded really mean…but…why?”

Ryan handed him the rough draft for the show the next day. “She’s the keynote speaker?” he questioned.

“Says so right here.” Ryan answered. “Maggie Lyndon. Survivor.”

“Hmm…” Bruno said thinking about what she had told him earlier.

**

Maggie sat at the desk in her small apartment looking over scribbles and index cards with her speech on them. “Oh my god. I’ve done this before. Why am I so damn nervous?” she asked herself hearing her cat meow at her.

“Shush. I know. I’m over reacting. I did this in Chicago. I can do this here.” She answered the cat.

She reviewed her notes standing up, sitting down, laying on the couch, walking around the small park at her apartment, eating dinner, chewing on gum, drinking a glass of wine, everything she could think of to get through the nerves that for some reason had started plaguing her. It’s not because of him. It’s not because of Bruno Mars. Jesus fucking Christ, Margaret. Get it together. She thought to herself after showering and starting to get in bed. Come on. She started to focus on the air conditioning running in her bedroom trying to fall asleep. It’s not because of Bruno Mars. She thought to herself not waking until her alarm went off in the morning.

**

Bruno stretched out on the bed in the hotel room grabbing the remote from Ryan.

“Hey!” Ryan exclaimed. “Oh..I guess that’s alright.” Ryan responded seeing the baseball game Bruno landed on.

“Yeah. See. I ain’t that bad.” Bruno smirked at his friend.

They watched the end of the baseball game with Dre and Phred eventually coming in to watch the game with them.

They spent the night together doing nothing special, it was just a bros night with sports, music and even some random music. After Dre and Phred went back to their rooms and Ryan was in the shower Bruno laid his head back on the hotel pillow thinking about the day. It’s the least I could do, survivor, Maggie. Wow. How does she do it? He thought to himself. She’s probably a pretty cool chick.