Lost and Found

The Diagnosis

8 months ago

Ritz picked up the bag of fruit gummies we were sharing while an episode of Glow Up played on my living room TV. He comes over every Friday afternoon to watch an episode with me and Velvet but she hasn't been feeling well for the last week, so it was just the two of us this time.

However, she did come out occasionally during his visit just to get a drink of some sorts. This time, it was a large glass of ice water. While she was filling the cup in the water dispenser built into the fridge, she began coughing aggressively. Ritz was the first to speak up about it and break the silence,

"Do you know why your sister keeps coughing? It's been two weeks." I acknowledged his question without turning my head away from the TV, and taking a sip of some pink lemonade I had on the table next to the couch.

"All I know is that it's not a cold. Do you think your mom could check it out?" Ritz's mom is a doctor working at one of the best hospitals in Mount Rageous and she's always been so good to me and Velvet. Probably has something to do with the fact that we're like Ritz's only friends.

"I think she loves you more than she loves me, so probably." I laughed at his statement while he leaned forward and picked up his phone from the glass coffee table. I raised my head slightly to see what he was doing and saw him texting his mom asking if we could come to the hospital. Does she really need the hospital? I guess it would be faster to go straight to her office instead of sitting in an emergency room for hours.

"Velvet! Come on, we're taking you to the hospital." I shouted out and looked over to the kitchen where Velvet was taking a sip of her water before placing it back down on the kitchen island.

"Why? I'm not a baby, I'm fine." She continued to sip on her water ever so slightly while Ritz proceeded to stand up and find his car keys.

"Yeah, but the cough is irritating both you and me." As if it were on cue, Velvet let out a dry cough as she held herself up by leaning on the counter.

"My point exactly." She placed her empty cup in the sink and then gently wrapped her hand around her neck with a look of discomfort on her face.

"No, I just feel like I have something stuck in my throat but I can't get it. It's so annoying." I stood up from the couch once Velvet started making her way over to the door. Ritz held it open for us while I grabbed both mine and Velvet's jackets from the closet. Can't have her catching an actual cold on top of whatever this is.

Velvet put on her jacket and I put on mine before the three of us left and got into Ritz's bumper car that was covered in the same multicolored splotch pattern as the outfit he always wears. Velvet sat in the back while I took the passenger seat and turned on the radio as soon as we all got buckled in and drove off.

The first channel I tuned into started playing the beginning of one of our favorite songs and Velvet was freaking out and squealing about it.

"OH MY GOD YES! I love this song!" I turned around in my chair to see Velvet moving her hands like she was playing on an invisible piano and I started doing the same thing. Once the lyrics kicked in, all three of us began singing at the top of our lungs quite poorly, but we were having fun so who cares?

"♪ At first I was afraid, I was petrified~ Kept thinkin' I could never live without you by my side~ But then I spent so many nights thinkin' how you did me wrong and I grew strong~ ♪"

I kept making dramatic poses while singing the lyrics which, from what I could hear, was making Velvet laugh while she was also trying to sing despite her raspy voice that was probably due to her cough.

"♪ And I learned how to get along and so your back from outer space~ I just walked in to find you here with that sad look upon your face ♪"

We pulled up to a red light and I can't even count up to how many times we got looks from other Rageons we drove past because we were blaring the music and singing our hearts out. Most of the looks were probably because we had The Kid Ritz in our car.

There's only two kinds of people in Mount Rageous: either everyone knows you or no one does. Ritz got his big break a few years ago and got to host Bop On Top which made him go from being a nobody like Velvet and I, to being someone who teenage girls put up posters in their room of him and kiss it.

I'm glad the fame didn't really change Ritz at all and he still stuck around with us. Even with all of his money, he still buys the off brand products and shares a Netflix account with me. I feel like if I had all that money and love, I'd go haywire and blow it just as fast as I could make it.

The light turned back to green and as we accelerated, Velvet let out an absolute gargantuan cough and it genuinely made me jump at how loud it was.

"Oh my god, are you dying back there?" I turned my head around to the back to look at her as I spoke with a laugh. She rested her forehead against the back of my seat and started laughing too,

"Holy shit, probably." The song continued playing in the background but only Ritz was humming along. Velvet and I stopped because I didn't want anymore looks and her throat was most likely not doing too well to keep going.

We pulled up to the hospital shortly after the song ended and I got out first to help Velvet get out. Ritz led the way to get to his moms office and with him being famous, of course everyone was just letting him go wherever he pleased purely based on his status. This hospital has some shit security.

— — — — — — —

My worry was growing as I paced back and forth through the little hallway outside of Ritz's mom's office.

"A cough shouldn't take two hours, why is it taking two hours?" Ritz sat on a chair on his phone but he looked up to reassure me,

"I'm sure she's fine, my mom is probably just busy and she keeps working on other random stuff. I don't know how this works." I stopped pacing and sighed out while looking at the ground.

"Still..." My head shot back up when the door opened and out stepped his mom in her long white lab coat with her blonde locks tied up in a neat high bun.

"Veneer, you need to come in." Her face and tone were completely dead which made my guts feel like they turned to water. What happened?

I slowly stepped into the office and she shut the door behind us. Velvet was sitting on a chair in front of her desk with tears pricking the corners of her eyes and staring at the ground. Even with her having snow white skin, she looked extremely pale.

I took a deep breath and sat down next to Velvet while Ritz's mom took her seat. My hand placed on Velvet's shoulder and my face filled with concern as I looked at her clearly about to break down in tears about something.

"I won't dance around the issue because I love you two very much, but it's not good news." I looked back towards her and raised an eyebrow. Issue? What issue?

"Velvet has mesothelioma. It's a type of cancer that mainly affects the lungs and possibly other vital organs." My stomach sank at the word 'cancer'. That can't be right. My limbs felt weightless and numb and suddenly everything felt like it didn't make sense anymore. Why my sister? My breathing became heavy as I felt water running down my cheeks.

A singular arm wrapped around me and I hadn't even realized that Ritz's mom got up. She had one arm around me and one around Velvet as she held us both in a tight embrace.

"I'm so sorry you two..." I was crying but there was no sound. I didn't have words for what we were just told. Velvet on the other hand looked like she needed to scream but had nothing left in her. Her eyes were puffy and the sides of her nose were chapped which is probably from repeated blowing into a tissue.

What the fuck are we gonna do now?