Top Priority

37

Taylor’s pov
“So besides your meeting, what did you do today?” I asked, throwing myself over the back of his couch and landing on my back.

“Not really much of anything,” Colby ran his fingers through his hair, “I do have to edit though,” 

The way he said that made it sound bad, like “editing” probably wasn’t something he enjoyed to do.

“What’s that mean?” I asked, questioning his tone.  He walked over to his gaming system in the corner of his room, with his cool white and black gamer chair and led lights lining the floor that were off.

“It means that I’ll be here,” He pointed to the chair, and grabbed his headphones, letting them hang around his neck, “for the next four hours.  At least,” 

Colby sat down in the chair, spinning it around to face me. “Well what am I supposed to do?” I asked, sitting up on the couch.

“You could watch a movie, Katrina and Tara are downstairs.  You can smash with Jake-”

I cut him off, “I’m not smashing anyone,” I insisted.

“Not like that,” He shook his head, “I mean the game,”

“I’m not a player though,” I continued.  We both knew that I was just trying to distract him from editing.

Colby shook his head, turning to his computer monitors and turning them on.  I really never understood the point of having more than one screen to stare at like him.  It would just confuse me.

“I’m going to have to call my dad,” I said to myself after a couple minutes of me scrolling through my phone, texting everyone who messaged me over the weekend that I couldn’t get back to.

“Hey Colby?” I asked, then I realized he probably couldn’t hear me because his headphones were now covering his ears.  I repeated myself, and this time I caught his attention, “Is it okay if I go sit on your balcony and call my dad?”

“Do whatever you want, babe,” He said quietly, focused and not looking away from his computer.

I didn’t really process that he called me “babe” until I had shut the sliding door behind me.  It was a cute little name, I suppose.  In past relationships I never really let people call me that, but Colby seemed different from the men from my past relationships, so it was okay.

I sat on the massive cushioned chair that Colby had, dialing my dad’s number.  He picked up on the second ring, and I held the phone to my ear, “Hey Dad,” I smiled, listening to his voice.

“Hey T, how’ve you been? We miss you back here,” He said.  I didn’t know what it was, but his voice sounded off, exhausted, almost.

“I’ve been pretty good.  I just got back from a trip with a couple of friends, so that was fun,” I tugged at the hole in my shirt that I didn’t realize was there until now.

“Oh, really? Where’d you go?  Did Alex enjoy herself?” He had already assumed Alex went on the trip with me, which she had for every other adventure we went on.

“Um, Alex didn’t go.  I went with a couple of new friends she introduced me to, and we went to Cerro Gordo,” I smiled as bits and pieces of the trip popped into my head.

“Who are these friends? You should fly them out sometime, I’d love to meet them,” As usual, my father always wanted to meet my friends.  I never really knew if he wanted to make sure they were good for me or if he was just generally lonely.

My parents were divorced, they split when I was fifteen.  But because I had a very young sister at the time, they realized they needed to get over their personal problems and be there for us.  But he still lived alone, with my brother stopping in occasionally.

“Sure dad,” I laughed, “Um, their names are Jake, Corey, Sam and Colby,” I recited, “I’m actually at their house now,”

“You said his name funny,” Dad said quickly.

“Huh?” I leaned forward, confused by what he meant.  How can a human say someone’s name weird over a phone?

“The last one you said, Colby? ‘He your little crush or something?”  I couldn’t tell if he was teasing me or not, but I’d figure I’d be honest with him since he’d find out one way or another.

“Um, he’s my boyfriend, dad.” I suddenly felt nervous as I leaned back into the comfortable position I had been in.  My father was never one to say bad things about the people I’ve dated, but I knew he would judge them when I wasn’t around.

“Really?” He asked, his voice muffled for a second, “Can you put him on the phone?” 

“No, I can’t,” I said quickly, “He’s working right now,”  

“Oh.  What does he do?” I laughed at my father’s nosy behavior.

“He’s a youtuber.  That trip we went on this weekend was for their video.  He’s editing the footage we got right now,” I explained, leaning forward to see if anyone was in the backyard.

“Well that’s nice, T,” He said, and I could almost picture him smiling on the other side of the phone,“I don’t want to put a damper on your mood, but I have something important to tell you,” 

I didn’t like the way he began that statement, “What?” I said quietly, my way of telling him to get to the point.
“Um, so about a week ago, I started feeling, um, that way, again.  And I went to the doctor,”

“No,” I said quietly, my hand going to my mouth.

“Yeah.  I haven’t told anyone yet, you’re the first person I’ve told,”  His voice was quiet, and I could tell he was sad about the news he was sharing.

My dad has gotten and beat cancer two times now, the first time when I was five and the second right after he filed for divorce with my mother.  

“Is it bad? Are you starting treatment?” I began to bite my nails.  I knew my dad would be fine, seeing that he’s already had cancer twice now, but there was always a chance that he wouldn’t be able to beat it.

“Yeah, my first round of chemo was yesterday,” He explained, “I’m sorry, Taylor,”

“No, don’t apologize, it’s not your fault,” I felt a lump in my throat as I spoke, and I tried to swallow it, to push it away and be there for my dad, “Do you need me to fly out? I’ll be there tomorrow if you need me to,”

“No, I’m going to let your mother know.  She’ll be here for me, she’s good like that,” He said, and he tried to change the subject, “Are you coming out for the fourth of July next week?” 

“Yeah, I’ll see if I can get off work for it Dad,” I pulled the phone away from my ear, coughing to try and get the sadness out.  It didn’t work.

“Thank you, T.  I love you,” He reminded me, and by his tone I could tell he was ending the call.

“I love you, Dad.  See you soon, okay?” My voice cracked at the end, but he didn’t mention anything.

“Of course.  Bye,” I hung up the phone, and for a moment I just sat there.

I didn’t know what to think, I didn’t know how to act.

My dad had cancer for the third time.

And there’s always the thought in the back of my head that he might not make it through this time.