The Girl Next Door

Chapter 1

The tree house in my backyard had always been so peaceful. It was nestled in a small copse of trees, mostly willows and the branches swayed in the wind, making a soft sound. On one of the trees Noah and I had once braided a bunch of the weeping willow branches together and tied them together at the bottom, creating a swing. That’s where I sat now, weaving my fingers through the branches.

Cancer. How could I have cancer? As much I ran through reasons why in my mind, I still couldn’t think of a valid one. It might have been that I hadn’t gone to church for a month straight, or maybe it was because of Noah. Because I let him get drawn into a bad crowd and hadn’t tried to get him out of it when I was supposed to be his best friend.

It had been a week since I had been diagnosed with acute lymphocytic leukemia and today had been the hardest day. I started chemotherapy tomorrow and was scared out of my wits. My fear of chemo had even over-ridden my fear of cancer. For the past few days I’d been scared to move, or let anyone touch me. Afraid to eat anything or do anything but lie in bed, like doing something might set my cancer off. But, the coming chemo had me trembling and jumpy.

I glanced up. Someone was coming; I could just make out their outline through the branches. Too tall to be my mom; and my brother was at his friend’s house and my dad was at work. I almost got up and made a run for it, but I was so tired and my head was pounding. The person swept the branches aside and stepped inside the little umbrella of willows. It was Noah. I almost groaned aloud, but restrained myself at the last second. What the hell did he want?

“What?” I snapped, “What do you want?”

Noah looked taken aback and shoved his hands in his pockets. He snapped at me and gave me rude looks plenty of times, but now he gets upset when I gives it back to him? Pathetic.

“What’s wrong with you?” Noah asked.

I really wanted to scream, ‘what’s wrong with me? I have cancer you idiot!’, but all I did was snap at him again. “Nothing. Nothing at all is wrong with me, Noah.”

“If you say so,” Noah muttered.

“You really don’t know, do you?” I asked angrily.

“No. I really don’t,” Noah said irritably, shifting his weight back and forth. I was surprised; surely my mother had told his, our mothers were best friends. Maybe he just didn’t care.

I stood up and grabbed my jacket, “Then go find out,” I said as I brushed past Noah. I got a burst of energy from my anger and ran up the hill to my back door, slamming it behind me. My mother called out to me, but I ignored her and ran the rest of the way to my room, locking my door. Furious and upset I collapsed onto my bed in tears.

My phone buzzed and sniffling I reached over for it. Paisley’s name shone on the screen along with a picture of the two of us grinning and happy.

“Hello?” I asked.

“Wakey, Wakey! Eggs and Bakey!” Paisley called, “You wanna come over for breakfast?”

“I don’t know,” I murmured.

“Please, Gemma. I’m really worried about you. We need to talk, and not just over the phone,” Paisley pleaded, her voice changing from bright and happy to sad and worried in an instant.

“Will your parents be weird about it?” I said, fidgeting my fingers.

“Tell you what,” Paisley started, “Forget coming over. I’ll pick up breakfast and bring it to you. That sound good?”

“Yeah,” I whispered emotionlessly.

“See you soon. Love you madly.”

I barely had the energy to mutter the end of our daily mantra, “Love you more” into the phone. For the next twenty minutes I laid completely still on my bed. My mom must have made it for me while I was outside. Cleaned my room too. For a while I stroked my comforter softly, and then it all drifted away. My troubled feelings about Noah, my fear about tomorrow. Just gone. I slipped into a dream, a memory.