See You Around~ Grester (completed)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Grace’s POV 

He came and sat with me everyday for three weeks. Leaving late at night and returning as soon as the doors opened. In a way I felt guilty, for making him come and waste his days with my fatigue self, an unresponsive wreck. He spoke to me as if we were going about our everyday life, as if one of us wasn’t in hospital and I appreciated that; I like the way he didn’t treat me any differently. 

Although sometimes I wish he didn’t. Sometimes I could see his cracks surfacing, his eyes sagging, his smile dropping. This was hard on him and I hated myself for that. Chester would normally immediately tell me if something was wrong but this he couldn’t share, this was something he put on a fake smile for and pretended he wasn’t breaking; because I was the reason for his tears. 

I could see the effect I was having on everybody, I noticed how people never really looked into my eyes, not even Chester. They would focus on the skin in between them and look around the room as if my eyes were cursed. As if seeing my broken eyes would break theirs. It was exactly the opposite though, I needed the support from my family but how was I to redeem that strength if people couldn’t stand to look at me? 

I was becoming stronger, staying awake for longer periods of time. Sometimes even long enough to flick through some bridal magazine- giving myself some ounce of sane normality. Everyday bought a little more hope, a little more brightness to shine over the dark. I could tell I was getting better, physically not mentally; I was still doomed by the factor I was holding Chester back. I could feel myself return to who I used to be.

Of course the cancer hadn’t gone, but they said what my body did consume of the medicine worked well and I could carry on taking it. Chester had argued that this would mean that this incident would just happen again; I took that statement that he didn’t want to be back here, that he couldn’t do this again rather than for my own protection. But the doctors had said something about cells eventually becoming immune to the foreign ones.

It made me smile to think of home, I had missed it too much. I missed the comfort and security of my own home. I missed the way I could wake up in the middle of the night from a bad dream or lack of a hand to hold and Chester would be right there, no matter what. 

Whereas this hospital confined me to a place where I would need someone there but yet no one was. I would wake and white ceilings and white walls would surround me. A plain blank world. I never understood why they did that in hospitals, why the children’s wards were full of life, hope and colour but the adult wards were a place of inhumanity? As if they didn’t wish you would survive as much. As if all you need is medicine to fix you up when in reality you need so much more. 

So when Chester walked in one day and began packing away my things and grinning I immediately began to feel better; as if the thought of home was healing me. 

“They’re going to come and discharge you in a little while!” He was excitable, almost a little too excitable because I was terrified that going home would just lead me back here. 

I smiled slightly, sitting up as a doctor emerged towards my bed. He took a few papers and signed them quickly. 

“We’ll see you next week then Grace? Just to see how you’re doing.” He had one of them smiles that was contagious, where his smile would make you smile too. He nodded at me and Chester before leaving, a sense of liberty pulsing through me. 

“Right, better get you home Gracie.” Chester spoke, his voice pumping with anticipation. I liked the thought that soon I would be home, in the comfort of my own privacy. With the only person I wanted to be with. 

Chester ran up to my side, holding my arm as I slowly took steps. I wasn’t exactly the same, I needed him there to keep me steady. 

There wasn’t word to describe my feelings right now: excited, scared, intimidated, free. All I was sure of was that this was a new beginning, that I can start again. With new medication and a new mindset; with hope in a man named Chester.