Forbidden Touch

Part 3

Part Three

"You're not interrupting. I was actually about to leave to go get food from the cafe if you want to join." I say try to be friendly.

We walked down to the Cafe sitting down at two chairs about 6 feet apart. We started having small talk just as June one of the nurses came down. "What are you doing out of your room Will? Where is your mask? And Lindsay you know better."

Will grabs his oxygen compressor, puts on his mask and walks away. Will. That name is familiar. It takes me some time to finally put two and two together that Will is her woman's son. June sits down at the table with me.

"Spill what was that about?" I ask.

"Will has Cystic Fibrosis, B-cepacia. Contract that Lindsay and I swear you will be seeing your parents a lot sooner than expected." She said as my jaw draped. "Sorry. I was just trying to get a point across. He is a part of a new drug trial. Cevaflomain."

"I thought it was funny. You know I talked to his mother this morning. She was telling me a little bit about Will."

She sat with me for a little bit until her pager rang and she had to get up and leave. It was nice to catch up with a good friend. June has been one of my nurses since I was 4. She is like an aunt to me. When me and my brother would stay here to avoid going home June would play card games with us and keep us entertained. Then when needed she was there to help Caleb and I medically. My mom taught her everything she knows.

"Shit" I say looking at the time. I still need to write my speech for tomorrow. Or at least figure out my built points. I went back to my room and grabbed my laptop, phone, and speaker. If memory serves me right there is a nice spot on the roof where I can look up at the sky and get some peace and quiet. None of the nurses should bother me for the next three hours so I set an alarm for two and half hours.

I carefully walked around the hospital up to the roof. Put on some music and figured now is the time to look over the email about what they wanted me to talk about.

Good Morning Miss Baker,

We are so excited to have you speak for some of our continuing education courses. There are two that we are asking you to speak at. The first one is going to be targeted towards our pediatric caregivers. We were hoping that you could talk about medical trauma and how we can help navigate that. The other one that we were hoping you could talk at is one talking about how to talk to teenagers about their health. This section is going to be a few parts but we only need you to talk at one. The three parts are going to be 1)New diagnosis (cancer, a new chronic illness, ect). 2) will be for those who have had a chronic illness -this will be your turn to speak- 3) will be for those who will be sick for a short amount of time.

Best regards Dr.Samuel

I zone out letting my hands type what naturally comes to mind. When I'm interrupted by the sound of the door opening. I whip my head around and see that it is Will.

"What are you doing up here Will?"

""I like to see the world. With my stupid body seeing the world from a roof might be the best that I get." He tries to sit next to me and get up and walk away.

"Listen, you can sit up here and look at the world. Just not next to me." I say before bursting out into an awful coughing fit.

He nods in understanding. Either he asked about me or he figured out that we both have cystic fibrosis. We sat in silence as I worked on my speech and pondered life. I glanced up when I heard him burst out into a coughing fit. Taking off his nasal cannula gripping onto the ledge so as to not fall off.

"What the hell! Do you not care?" I yelled as I finally finished my lecture notes and turned off my laptop to join him.

"I thought you were cooler than that," he says in a smug tone, regaining his breath.

"You're almost 18 and won't take control over your own damn health. If you don't care give up your spot for someone who does care," I snap back.

"You barely know me. Don't act like you know my whole story," he says clearly annoyed at me. I shake my head looking away. I wanted to get up and walk away but that would admit defeat. So I stayed up there. "Why do you even care?"

"We just met, it's not like you need to know my whole story." I hop on the ledge and grab my laptop to head back to my room.

As I come back into my room I see my nebulizer set up with a note from June. Reading: Do your nebulizer and vest. Text me if you need anything before my shift tomorrow. (672-980-7624) Hope you had fun exploring and be safe.

I grabbed my phone curating a text message to let her know that I'm doing my treatment. I finished my vest before my nebulizer was finished. I turned on my favorite show and fell asleep while doing my nebulizer.