This story has a happy ending. (An R5 Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

In Melonie's opinion, the courtyard is kind of a joke. Sticking a patch of grass and palm trees in the middle of a city and calling it nature hardly counts for much. Sure, they tried to make it look like it was meant to be there but Melonie has grown up in Los Angeles and she knows what belongs and what doesn't. There are palm trees of course, especially the closer you get to the ocean, but they don't grow naturally among the concrete and tall buildings. Most plants don't.

The first time she had to stay at the hospital for chemotherapy, she was young and naïve so Melonie begged to have a room overlooking the courtyard. It made her feel like she was outside even though she was stuck in a sterile hospital room by herself since her immune system was so compromised that anything (even the common cold) could have killed her. But after a few weeks the courtyard made her sad. It reminded her of everything she was losing all because some stupid cells in her body couldn't get their act together.

When things got really bad for Melonie and they thought she was surely going to die, she got to make a wish and it was guaranteed to come true, no matter what. Her wish was to go to Yellowstone National Park, the only National Park she could think of when they asked her wish, and it was granted that summer. Now that's real nature, she thought as she walked slowly through the park. Ever since then she's tried to avoid having a view of the courtyard if she can choose. She got a glimpse of what the world really looks like, and not just out of a small window in a smoggy city.

The room she's in now is the first she's had with a courtyard window since her wish was granted (and she subsequently proved that she was not, in fact, about to die). Ross has no idea about her true bitter feelings towards the outside, so when he gets back from his tests and asks if she wants to go for a walk with him in the courtyard, she says yes.

For Ross, walking isn't the correct term. He has to wheel himself around in a wheel chair because of the leg injury. This makes Melonie grateful because she's still pretty weak from her current round of treatment and can't walk too fast. Ross is so unused to the wheelchair that she's able to keep up with him for now.

"Favorite color?" Ross asks as they stroll down the evenly paved walkway. After a few awkward minutes, Ross and Melonie decided to play the Favorites game. It's not much of a game, really. All they do is ask each other their favorite of something and then say what their own is. It goes back and forth. It's sort of the kind of thing you would play on the first day of school or at some sort of team building retreat.

Melonie has to think for a second. "Blue," she says. "Like the sky on a clear day when there aren't any clouds."

Ross nods. He likes how Melonie's answers are never just one word even though they could be. She likes to explain herself and she's pretty poetic when she does. "Yellow," he says. "That's mine. But not like bright yellow. More like the yellow that you'd find on a baby's blanket. Subdued. Calm."

"Favorite band?" Melonie asks. Ross studies her face. He can't tell if she's asking because she knows his secret or if she's just curious. He decides she's probably just curious.

"That's a hard one. For me it changes a lot. Like right now I'm listening to a lot of Young the Giant but tomorrow I might be listening to some other random band."

"I get that. For me it's the Plain White T's, mostly because I love Hey There Delilah so much. I know that's lame but I really like listening to that song. I think if a guy ever sang it to me I would probably die."

Melonie bites her lip and waits for Ross to yell at her for making a comment about dying, but he doesn't. He just smiles and nods like he understands exactly where she's coming from. It takes her a second to realize that he doesn't know she's got a disease that will probably kill her. He thinks she has the flu which probably wouldn't kill her.

They reach a bench in the center of the courtyard and Ross rolls up next to it. "Do you think we can rest for a minute? My arms are starting to hurt. Wheeling yourself around is not that easy."

"Sure." Melonie tries to act nonchalant but she's grateful for the break. She was starting to feel like she might pass out any second which would have been really bad.

"What's your favorite thing to do on a date?" Ross ventures. He's not usually this forward with girls but he doesn't know if he'll ever get the chance to see her again. The doctors cleared him to leave tomorrow morning and he has to go bright and early to make it to the studio.

Melonie laughs and it's a beautiful thing because it doesn't happen very often. As the years go by she finds she doesn't feel happy enough to laugh much. Ross brings out the best in her. "I wouldn't know," she explains when Ross gives her a strange look. "I've never been on a date."

He gapes at her. "How old are you?"

This makes Melonie feel a little self-conscious. "I'm sixteen," she says. "Didn't we go over this already?"

"No," he says. "I told you my age but you never told me yours."

"Oh. Right. Well, I'm sixteen."

"And you've never dated?"

"Nope."

"Are your parents strict or something?"

Melonie shrugs. "No. I just haven't met anyone I'd want to date."

This isn't the whole truth. She doesn't want to tell him that she came close once. Four years after she was first diagnosed, she was in her hospital room after a round of chemotherapy. That was the first time she had a male roommate. He was the same age as her and he had a tumor on one of his kidneys. They talked a lot and Melonie started to like him. Like, really like him. She was fourteen and he was the first guy she ever had a crush on.

This story doesn't end sad or anything. Austin — the male roommate — was lucky. The doctors caught his tumor early and they were able to get rid of the whole thing in surgery. He did chemo just to be safe and went into remission about a month after Melonie met him.

They'd played go fish and other card games in their room between treatments and sleep, both of which took up a good amount of their days. He was shy and didn't want to make a move on her because he couldn't quite tell if she felt the same about him as he did her. When he went into remission and left the hospital, they never talked again. He hasn't relapsed since. He hasn't come to visit Melonie either.

"Well then, just describe your perfect date."

"Not here," she says before she can think better of it. Ross is slightly offended because he kind of thought they were having a nice enough time that it could be considered a date. "I'd want to go camping." Melonie has never been camping, what with the cancer and everything. "I love nature. I'd love to sit on top of a mountain and watch the sunset and fall asleep under the stars."

"Wow," Ross says. "That sounds perfect."

"Yeah." Thinking about it makes Melonie sad. Will she ever get a chance to go on a date like that? Or even hike a mountain? Or watch a sunset?

Ross senses that Melonie's mood has shifted. "My favorite date would be spent in a wheelchair in a manufactured courtyard with a pretty girl."

Melonie looks up and blushes. "Are you calling this a date?"

He smiles and can't hide the blush on his own cheeks. "Do you want me to?"

Before she can answer, a nurse runs out and all but throws a mask at Melonie. "You know you can't go out like this! What if you caught something?"

Ross is confused and Melonie looks like she might be sick. "I already have the flu," Melonie says with as much force as she can. "How much worse can it get?"

The nurse, thankfully, was once young and can recognize the faces of teens who like each other. "Right. But you wouldn't want to catch something else that makes the flu worse."

"I guess we should go in," Ross says even though that's pretty obvious to everyone already. "I should probably get ready anyway. I'm leaving tomorrow."

"Right," Melonie says. "Let's go in."