His last thought

06| A gift

"Morgan! Brownies are done!" My mom yells from downstairs. I grab what I was working on and run downstairs. Me and my mom walk downstairs and out to the Hall's house. My mom knocks on the door and a woman answers. "Hi, we made some treats for the new neighbors." my mom tells her.

"Thank you, do you want to come in?" The woman asks. We agree and walk in. "I'll go get my son, he's in his room."

"Actually, I've meet him. I have something for him too." I say and lift up the box I was carrying. "Can I go bring it to him?"

"Sure. His room is the first on the left upstairs." She tells me. I walk upstairs and knock on the door. I don't hear any reply, so I creek open the door a little.

"Caleb." I say and close the door. "Pss. Caleb wake up."

"Mm." he mumbles and opens his eyes. "What are you doing?"

"Sit up, I have somethings for you." I say and sit at the end of his bed. He does, and rubs his eyes to wake up.

"What's with the box?"'Caleb asks.

"It's a present." I tell him. "Open it." He lifts the cover and starts going through the box.

"What's with all the food?"

"It's a gift." I say. "Sour, salty, sweet; chemo messes with tastebuds, so here's something for when you start your treatments. I was going to get some protein powder or energy drinks because I know it's hard to eat, but I couldn't find anything that isn't really-"

"Shut up, it's fine. Thank you, Morgan." He says. "How do you still know?"

"But am I right?" I ask.

"Yeah." Caleb says and opens a pack of sour candy.

"We made brownies, they're downstairs." I say to Caleb.

"Well why didn't you say that first?" He says and gets out of bed. We both walk downstairs and into the kitchen, where our moms were talking.

"There they are." my mom says.

"Hi, I'm Kate." The woman says and holds out her hand for me to shake.

"Morgan." I say and shake her hand.

"Thank you, and congratulations." Kate tells me.

"For what?" I ask.

"Your mom told me you help out at the hospital, and that your a cancer survivor."

"Yes, thank you." I tell her.

"So are you ready for school Morgan?" Kate asks me.

"Yeah, Im ready to see some friends I haven't seen in a while."

"That's nice." Kate says.

"What about you, Caleb? What are you exited about for school?" My mom asks him.

"A new start, I guess." He says.

"I told him I'll drive him to school on Monday. I'm driving one of my friends already, So it's not a big deal."

"Thank you, Morgan." Kate says with a big smile. After a while of awkwardness, me and my mom leave and walk home.

"So you met him at the hospital?" She asks.

"Yeah, it was a coincidence." I tell her. and before she could say anything else I ran up to my room and shut my door.

"What's school going to be like?" I kept asking myself.

The next day I go downstairs and start making breakfast. I make some pancakes and bacon, and my mom walks down and sits at the counter.

"I like your new friend." She tells me.

"Yeah?"

"He's cute." She says and I don't reply.

"You're just happy you have a new mom friend that you can talk to about this stuff." I tell her.

"I mean. you're not wrong." She says smiling.

"What about me starting junior year? How about we-" I start but her phone goes off.

"That's Kate. I'll be right back." She says and walks out.

"Yeah, okay more bacon for me." I say and grab a piece.

A second later my mom comes walking back in.

"I'm going out with Kate. I'll be back later." She tells me. "Will you be fine?"

"Yeah, I'm good." I say and she walks out. A while later, I get a call from Ashley.

"You're picking me up tomorrow, right?" She asks.

"Yeah, and another person." I tell her.

"Who?"

"my new neighbor. His name is Caleb."

"Caleb?" She says in a discussed tone. "Caleb.."

"Yeah, shut up." I say and chuckle.

"So what's Caleb like?" Ashley asks.

"There's not much to say, he's sarcastic, like hell."

"So like you."

"Yeah, you'll meet him later." I tell her then the doorbell rings. "I'll see you tomorrow." Then I hang up before she could reply. I open the door and see Caleb. "Breakfast?"

We walk back to the table and I sit down and start eating again.

"If you want any, just take it." I tell Caleb. "I made extra for my mom but she didn't care."

"Thanks." He says and sits down in front of me. "I had to get away from my mom. She keeps on trying to get me ready for school tomorrow."

"At least she's trying." I say. "Tomorrow you can spend eight hours away from her."

"True." Caleb says and smiles. It's then when I notice he hasn't eaten, so I ask again.

"Caleb, take something to eat, trust me there's more than enough."

"Okay." He says and takes a single piece of bacon.

"Tomorrow we won't be doing anything in school, so don't worry about that." I tell him.

"I know, it's the first day." Caleb says and pauses. "I think I want to keep the fact I'm sick a secret for a while. Did you tell anyone?"

"No, my friend Ashley called, I told her about you but I didn't mention anything."

"You told your friend about me?" He asks smirking.

"Shut up, she wanted to know who's driving with us." I say and take another bite of my food. "I won't say anything. I can respect that you want somewhat of a normal teenage life."

"Yeah, then my hairs going to fall out."

"Tell who you want when you want."