Bullied By Calum Hood

fourty-six

"Hey!" Ashton opens my front door, with diaper bags and a car seat in his hand with no baby. "Where's Paige?" I look at him. "Kaitlin has her, she's coming. She's right here." He holds the door open for her. "Would you look at you! New parents being nooby." I laugh at all the stuff they brought. "How do we not be noobs?" Ashton looks at me like I'm insane. "First of all, don't bring so much in the diaper bags. Second, you only need ONE diaper bag. Third, Don't worry too much, it leads to stress and that lead to gray hair." I stare at Ashton. He stares and blinks twice, "Gray.... hair?" He drops the bags and grips his hair. "I DONT WANT GRAY HAIR!" He yells. "Shut up!" Kaitlin and I yell at him. "Why?" He asks. "Paige is tired and I don't know why Nev wants you To shut up." Kaitlin rocks Paige. "I want you to shut up because Calum is upstairs right now reading Haze to sleep." I groan and walk up stairs. "Is she sleeping?" I ask Calum, shutting the door behind me. "Kind of." He whispers. Hazel breathing gets shallow and her eyes droop signaling she's sleeping. I sigh and lay on the floor. "Why hasn't she slept in so long?" I whine quietly. "We should take her to the doctor when she wakes up." Calum lies down next to me. "I agree. Kaitlin and Ash are downstairs." I sigh. "Make em wait." He gets on top of me, hovering. "Why? We can't sit in here and wake her." I glare at him. He does a push up, kissing me on his way down but not going up. I kiss back just hoping that this will make him go downstairs soon. "Come on let's go." He pulls me downstairs.

I sit in the waiting room, waiting for results of Hazel's sickness or health issue. "Calum and Nevaeh Hood." The doctor walks out. Cal and I walk up to the doctor, Cal holding Hazel like she's a baby again. "We found something in her. It isn't a great thing, but a very terrible thing," The doctor sighs, "It always hurts me to tell parents this but.. Hazel has a brain tumor." I stare, this is all so... argh! Tears fall, harder than when my dad was stabbed, harder than the current of Niagara Falls. This can't be happening. "An effect of the brain tumor is restlessness. That is why she's not sleeping." He looks at me. I grab Hazel from Calum and hold her in my arms tight. "No." I cry. "NO!" I scream. Hazel shakes awake, worry spread across her face. "No worries baby. Just go back to sleep." Calum takes Hazel from me. I curl into a ball and cry, just cry. Cry through everything. "She has a possibility of living. Her percentiles are 50%." The doctor finishes. I wipe my tears away and continue to let the tears fall. "I don't want daughter going through all those surgeries. That's too much for a two year old." Calum wipes a tear away, I know Calum and I know he's fighting the tears. "It's either that or she begins to die slowly." The doctor looks at me. "I can't do this." I cry, shaking. "Fine. It's not like I don't have the money. I have the money, I can make it happen. The thing I'm worried about is how much this is going to hurt my baby girl." Calum speaks softly, stroking her back. "The pain of cancer will hurt a lot but the surgeries not so much as cancer pain." The doctor explains.

I walk up the stairs so slow, with Hazel in my arms. I open her door and rest her on her bed. "I'll grab the airmatress." Calum whispers. I nod and tuck her in, kissing her forehead. "Just ask us if you need anything baby girl." I smile, placing a bottled water and some gold fish by her bed. She nods and curls into a ball. I pull her blanket on her body and wait for Cal to blow up the mattress.