His last thought

16| rick

When I walk into Caleb's hospital room, I drop all the bags in my hands.

"What'd you bring?" Caleb asks and smiles.

"Food, candy, and more. You're going to be here for a few hours."

"I got out of my MRI about a half hour ago, chemo is going for a few hours." He says and points to the chemo bag. "Adam left this morning."

"I know." I say and sit on a rolling chair next to him. I hand him a bag of sour gummies and roll over to the bags of chemo. "Did you just start?"

"Yeah."

"How long do you think you'll be here?"

"Few more hours. I'm not sure."

"I told Ashley." I blurt out. "I told her that you're at stage 3, and that she had no right telling anyone about you."

"Four." Caleb says, and I look at him confused. "I'm at stage 4 now. The MRI showed the tumor spreading to the frontal lobe. Chemo's now every three days."

I look at him shocked and confused but he keeps staring down at his hands.

"Every three days?" I ask. He tucks his knees up to his chest and mumbles a 'yeah'. "What about school?"

"It'll be after school. You can tell Ashley about this, I don't care anymore."

I stand up and start walking to the door.

"Morgan?!" Caleb yells as I walk out. I run down to the desk and see Noel standing there.

"When did you get here?" She asks and raises an eyebrow.

"Where's his treatments going?" I ask her.

"Huh?"

"Caleb, please just tell me."

"You know I can't, and anyway I don't have any information for you."

We stand there in silence for a while before I walk back over to his room. When I walk in I see Paige sitting on the rolling seat that I was sitting in earlier and she has a clipboard in her hands.

"Where'd you go?" Caleb asks.

"Morgan, please leave. I need to have a serious talk with Caleb." Paige says and points to the door.

"No, I don't care." Caleb says, so I sit on a chair beside them.

"Okay." Paige says confused and goes back to her chipboard. "Your mom is aware of these new meds, and they're important to monitor especially with the faster chemotherapy. If you find any side-effects, call us immediately." She tells him.

"Okay." He tells her.

Paige nods and walks over to the door. "I'm going to go tell your mom, fair warning she might come to check up on you."

"Yeah, I know." He says and she walks out.

"New meds, too?" I ask him and sit in the rolling chair.

"Just in the morning. I don't know how much longer I'll be able to go to school though."

"How come?" I ask.

"All this treatment shit is coming faster and faster every day. I don't know if schools going to be the top priority, and if I'll even be able to go."

"I got pulled out of school too when I was halfway through chemo. It's not that bad." I tell him. He doesn't respond and lays back in his chair. I put the bag of food next to him and walk out of the room. I try my best to avoid everyone as I walk back to my car. When I get home, I walk in and see my mom with a guy at the kitchen counter.

"Morg, I thought you were supposed to be home around 5." My mom asks.

"Caleb fell asleep; Who's this?" I ask her.

"This is Rick, Rick this is my daughter, Morgan."

"Nice to meet you champ." He says and reaches his hand out for a fist bump. I ignore him and walk upstairs.

Around 6, I walk downstairs but stop at the bottom of the stairs. I try listening in to my moms conversation and realize it's Kate with her so I walk into the living room and all eyes go on me.

"Hi honey." Kate says and wipes one of her fallen tears.

"Hi?" I ask confused. "Did you tell her about Rick?" I ask my mom.

"Morgan, stop it." My mom tells me.

"Well, is Caleb back at your place?"

Kate just shakes her head and looks at the counter while my mom rubs her back.

"He's back at the hospital. He'll be there for a few days." My mom tells me.

"Huh? Why? I was just with him a few hours ago, and he was okay."

"They just want to keep him to look over him. They're doing chemo until he leaves on Wednesday, and he'll be okay when he gets home." My mom tells me in a soothing voice.

"Wednesday?!" I yell. "He can't do four days of chemo, he's gonna be miserable for days."

"The doctors know what they are doing. Caleb will be back home before you know it." She says and sits back down by Kate.

I sit down on the couch and take out my phone. I start calling him, but he doesn't pick up. I'm suddenly scared awake by my phone ringing. All the lights in the living room were shut off, it's dark outside and no one was down here.

"Yeah?" I ask as I pick up my phone.

"Why'd you call?" It was Caleb.

"Why are you calling? It's four am."

"Cause I just woke up."

"Why didn't you tell me that you are staying at the hospital for a while?" I ask him.

"Cause I was asleep when you called?" Caleb says sarcastically .

I sigh, he's obviously fucking with me.

"Okay, sorry. I kind of blanked out earlier, so they're running a few tests and keeping chemo going for a few days." He says. "I'm okay, don't worry."

"I'm just worried about the fact that you don't take anything seriously, Caleb. Are you actually going to start watching these new meds and your treatments?"

"Isn't that what I have you for?" He says and chuckles. I hang up on him and turn my phone off before going up to my room for bed.