Letting Him In

Chapter-20

"In and out of focus
Moments that I keep
Something for the pain
And something so I sleep
Won't you comfort me?
Warm the air that I breathe
Visceral in doses
Hiding in the seams
Standing on the sun and I don't feel a thing
Won't you comfort me?
Take the fear I don't need"

-Luke Hemmings, Starting Line

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Declining his mother's fourth incoming call, Elijah sat back in the slightly uncomfortable bed with a sigh. He wasn't sure what he would say if he did answer. Saying 'hey, mum... yeah I'm a little busy... you know, about to get tested for cancer' would be a lot more dramatic than he wanted it to be. Not to mention a direct path to his self-destruction. He was sure she wouldn't hesitate to come all the way here just strangle him for keeping all this a secret.

"You're gonna have to answer it eventually, you know. Elise is probably freaking out right now; I can bet she's come up with at least a hundred horrible scenarios with you dead in some ditch because you aren't answering her calls," Kaeden said without looking up from his phone. Sitting the recliner a few feet away from the bed, he looked rather amused at the thought of Elijah's mother jumping to her uncannily ridiculous conclusions just because Elijah hadn't told her where he was.

"Well, maybe if someone had told me that I would be stuck here, a little earlier than he did, I might have come up with a believable excuse," Elijah said, giving Kaeden a pointed look, which caused the other boy to raise his hands in mock surrender.

"Well, I wasn't exactly sure you wouldn't kill me... you can be unpredictable. Be glad I didn't just bring you here without any warning," he said, finally looking up from his phone. "Also, be a little more thankful, considering I just texted your mother saying that you're with me and Allen for another project, and that we're using your phone for a video recording so you can't answer right now. Not to mention I didn't drag you here for fun. It isn't exactly a picnic for either of us, Lijah."

Throwing his head back with a dramatic exhale, Elijah shook his head. He knew he was being unfair to Kaeden by bringing up the same thing over and over again. He also knew that Kaeden was just trying to help, but Elijah wasn't ready.

But he understood that this was affecting Kaeden just as much as him. The other boy was just doing a better job of hiding it.

"I hate it when you're right," Elijah muttered, deciding to take it easier on him. Kaeden just stuck his tongue out at him like a child.

As they both lapsed back into silence, Elijah's thoughts drifted to about two hours ago. Doctor Larskson had had to bail on them because some emergency had occurred, and he had to leave for an impromptu surgery. But he had left behind instructions with one of his colleagues, who had overseen Elijah's testing. After a quick CT scan, whose results the doctor had received in fifteen minutes (which surprised Elijah, considering such stuff usually took a few hours at the bare minimum. But then again, since the man was a doctor, he probably had his ways of getting the reports earlier than a patient did), but the doctor still hadn't told them anything, saying that nothing would be conclusive until a biopsy was performed. So that is how Elijah had found himself being guided away for another round of testing.

He had woken up groggy and disoriented, with Kaeden sitting in the recliner beside his bed. A slight sensation on his stomach and the bandage around it had indicated that the biopsy was done; it wasn't painful, considering some sort of numbing cream had been applied on the area prior to the procedure. The doctor had abstained from using an anasthetic, saying that a numbing cream would suffice; and Elijah wasn't going to complain. He had fallen asleep during the procedure anyway.