Song: Time is Running Out - Muse
There was no reason to repeat words that would say the same thing.
On the next day, before going to the hospital, Michelle sent a message to the group chat: «I'm getting hospitalized because there's a treatment I need to follow, guys.» She no longer had the energy for meaningless friendships, forced interactions, or unnecessary conversations.
"Is that it?" Sage asked when she saw it.
"You can explain them later, right?"
Some will say I'm being selfish, but I don't care. When did I actually care?
Michelle did care. The problem was that it was becoming harder to describe the human race.
Sage gave her a kiss on the forehead, at the exact moment Aelin got out of the bathroom, with a shower taken and wearing Michelle's clothes that definitely didn't fit them. But they didn't care. Aelin wanted to keep that shirt and that jacket until Michelle left the hospital.
"You feeling ok?"Aelin asked.
The bell rang stifling Michelle's answer. Sage rushed to the door. Hannele came in, bringing a brighter aura and atmosphere. She ended up eating a cake Sage baked for Michelle but that was barely touched, as this mentioned was secretly smoking in her room with Aelin's company.
"Here you are again, being an accomplice one more time."
"And for the last time, love. You have to stop smoking." Aelin were leaning against the wardrobe. They took a few steps and sat on the other girl's lap. "I'm going to miss you." Their arms found Michelle's neck.
"I miss you already, Lin."
Michelle passionately kissed her, also for the last time. For a second, Aelin opened a gap between their lips, knowing Michelle was probably tired, but she pushed them right away, and kissed them deeply, this time with more desire and hunger.
"I'll never forget the day we met." She laughed, with their foreheads pressed against the other.
They remembered that day like it had passed years, wondering how was the man that punched Michelle.
Around eleven o'clock the three of them left the apartment. Hannele was already in front of the hospital when they arrived, holding a bouquet of flowers and a tote bag with volumes of manga. Talking excitedly about how Michelle would spend her days, they accompanied her until a doctor told them that from there Michelle would have to go alone.
Before she could go to her new room, a few exams and an extreme cleaning process of her things needed to be done. The isolation unit consisted of white cold corridors with dozens of doors side by side and a touch of depressed nurses that could go a day without saying a word.
***
«What do you mean, Michelle?», «Treatment?», «Explain!», «Are you sick?». Those were the replies she got on the group chat but didn't bother to answer. When she was already installed in her 'hotel room', she got a call from Louis.
"Hospitalized?" She sighed wondering why Sage hadn't talked to them yet. "Why?"
"I've cancer, dude." Louis believed in mishearing, so he stood in silence. "Yey!" Michelle celebrated.
"You said cancer?"
Michelle made an effort to explain everything, when she found out and how it all happened fast without giving her enough time to assimilate the whole situation and so tell the others.
That is what it seemed like. However, Michelle Kellet did not care about any of that. If possible, she would maintain that secret forever and maybe die without giving herself the trouble to tell her friends. Louis wanted to go there and see it with his own eyes, but Michelle anticipated it and sent a picture. On the group chat, she saw Sage's messy, saying what needed to be said, with simple and easy words.
On that same day, the expected, or the unexpected, happened. The watch was about to hit 10 PM when someone entered the division next to Michelle's room and knocked on the door.
"Dad..." Michelle's eyes caught Silas' on the other side of the glass. What are you doing here? She got up and got closer wondering how he was still looking the same after years. "Everything's cool?"
"I called you."
"I'm sorry. I was busy being hospitalized, don't know if you noticed." She chuckled.
Silas was a tall man, with short black hair, a clumsy air, a fragile man who wore a fake mask his whole life. "Can you tell me exactly what happened?" He asked after a long moment of silence.
"You wanna know what happened, Silas? You forgot you had a daughter. Or you decide to pretend I don't exist." The tone of her voice got aggressive with a bit of outrage and incredulity about that scene, that person she despised. "I became just one of your expenses."
"You don't know what you're saying, Michelle." He calmly said.
The girl deeply looked at her father, narrowing her eyes, thinking he really hadn't changed, not a bit. She sighed, disappointed. "What do you wanna know?" They sat on the chairs at the same time.
"Since when?" Michelle didn't remember. Maybe November? "Why didn't you tell me sooner?" It wasn't like it would make difference. "I care about you."
"You cared about me. Then mom died." He was going to say something but was interrupted. "Don't..." She got up. "I'm really tired."
Silas got up and affectionally advised her to rest, holding a genuine sad expression. He loved his daughter, but since her 14s, he realized they wouldn't get along with each other because they were similar and apparently only opposites attract. Besides the physical part, Michelle's psychological traits were just like her dad's. She had inherited his way of observing a problem, handling a problem, the hidden low self-esteem, the instability when it came to keeping a healthy relationship...
Fuck... Michelle exclaimed of the event and, at the same time, of the pains all over her body. Carefully walking, she drove back to the bed with some winter clothes to look for «A Certain Hunger», lay on top of them, and read until her eyes couldn't anymore.
Was there a better way to fall asleep? After all, seconds before shutting down, Michelle wasn't living in her own reality.
Since that day, things changed. Opening her eyes and moving her body around were hard tasks for Michelle. On the opposite of what she had expected - the feeling of her body getting healthier -, the first days of the new treatment process came along with nausea, vomiting, and feeling washed out included.
Her daily routine turned to be laying in that depressing bed, pretending to watch TV shows or animes, listening to music at low volume, looking for something harmful within viewpoint, and reading when she could.
YOU ARE READING
I Hate My Roommate
Teen Fiction«It felt like things were going back to normal, their balance, the peace between those walls that sooner or later would reach a climax and everything would break into pieces, it would look like the damage is irretrievable and there's no turning back...
