Love Found Me (English Version)

Three

Claudine's POV

The next day came and I came home with the result of ultrasound of my illness.

I hid it between my clothes inside the drawer knowing that mama will be too tired to fix my things.

I can be pretty sloppy with things when I am in a hurry.

I took a two day leave from work and have to check the bank how much can I withdraw and loan for my chemotherapy.

I was disappointed to see that my savings alone cannot support my treatment.

It would only take me two to three chemotherapy sessions and I was losing hope.

I sighed and sat at the empty table outside a fastfood chain.

I was hungry so I decided to stand up to order when someone sat across me.

I raised my eyes and saw the guy whom Dr. Javy was with yesterday when he checked on me.

"Hi." He was grinning and began unloading his tray.

I watched him placed his hamburger, medium fries, spaghetti, coke float and sundae on the table and put the tray on a vacant one behind him.

I was in awe when he pushed the spaghetti and sundae towards me.

"You are Claudine, right?" He asked and smiled. "I'm Nicholas. Nicko for short. I am Javy's cousin. I hope you don't mind sharing this table with me?"

I nodded and blinked.
"Uh, okay. I will just order some food." I started to stand but he held my wrist.

I glance at him quizzically.
"Don't you like spaghetti at sundae? I can order for you. What do you want?" He asked.

"These are for me? I thought these are all yours." I said and sat again.

Nicko chuckled and placed the fries between our foods.

He picked two and chewed them softly.

I willed myself not to be swooned by how sexy he looked.

I don't want to be obvious that I am attracted at him.

"I'm not that hungry! Hahahaha! Come on! Let's eat?" He asked and raised an eyebrow at me for a go signal.

I just nodded and started mixing the spaghetti noodles with the sauce.

I began twirling on my noodles with my fork and we ate in silence.

It was weird sharing table and food with a man I only met once yet the silence was comfortable enough.

"So, where do you live? What do you do?" Nicko began the conversation and I answered his queries.

Soon, we were exchanging numbers and social networking sites.

But before we separated ways, he handed me a single-stemmed red rose out of nowhere.

I accepted it and smiled shyly.
I have to admit. He's not hard to like.

He was easygoing and has a great sense of humor.

We had to go our separate ways and promised to be in contact with each other.

I did what I had to do before I went home.

"Mom! I'm home!" I squealed outside our door like my usual routine.

I was greeted with silence.

I don't know why but my heart started pounding.

I saw papa and mama consoling each other at our sofa.

I stepped inside our house quietly and saw a familiar sheet of brown envelope in mama's hands.

Both of them were crying.

My tears automatically started to fall.

I haven't reach our sofa yet but mama immediately hugged me and I was at loss for words.

Shortly, all three of us were bawling our eyes out.

We have our takes on about three glasses of water each to calm our hearts but tears were flowing nonstop.

When we were already calm and our tearducts have dried, we started talking about my illness.

"Since when did you knew? Why didn't you tell us?" Mama asked and sniffed.

"Just the other day that I didn't come home. My stomach ached for a couple of times in the office. I blacked out. That's when I knew that it's already stage 4." I said in all honesty and in a shaky voice.

"I will accompany you in your chemo sessions" Mom said.

"No mom. We cannot afford it. The treatment is expensive." I shook my head.

Mama & Papa cried again.
"Don't you want to live? Don't you want to spend time with us anymore? Why do you want to die early ahead of us?" Mama wailed.

"It's not that, mom. It's also hard for me to accept that I'm dying. There is no cure for this illness. Even if I did have my chemotherapy, my death will just be delayed. We'll just waste money." I ranted and wiped my rampant tears.

"Just let me live my life normally! Just let me enjoy the remaining days of my life as if there is no problem. As if I don't have this illness. Please mom. Let's not spend so much for me. Just save it for the both of you." I pleaded.

It took me a long time to convince them.

The rest of our family came to know about my illness and all were sympathetic and were in disbelief.

They also started pointing out their recent observations about me and my health.

That I started to lose weight than necessary because they never see me have a serious exercise or zumba sessions with mom.

My hair also began getting thin and fell off.

I was becoming conscious of my look but I tried to ignore this gnawing feelings of sadness.

Months passed and I lost interest in work.

I started to have absences every week.

Dr. Javy and Nicko also started to visit me occasionally and check up on me.

I came to know that Nicko is also a doctor. A palliative doctor to be exact.

Nicko began showing interest on me on my birthday.

He confessed about his feelings despite knowing my illness and the sick truth of me going away and leaving him alone.

I started getting weak day by day.

On my fifth month, December, the supposedly one of the happiest months, I started vomiting blood and frequent nauseousness crept in.

My parents would never get used to seeing me suffer being their only child.

I have to hide the pain but always failed.

My parents decided that I need a new environment where I won't feel confined and alone.

Dr. Javy suggested where Nicko is assigned.

In Hospicio de San Carlos.

That's when I knew my whole life will never be the same again.