don't forget about me | ethan cutkosky

|21|

Ethan-

I walked up the stairs and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind me. Somehow Taryn always manages to take my breath away. She does it with her voice, what she says, her laugh, her smile, and her good heart that always manages to forgive me whenever I fuck up. 

I did what I had to do and stood in the bathroom for a while with no apparent reason, until I heard a knock at the door. 

"Yeah?" 

Butterflies erupted in my stomach when I heard the voice and realized who it was, and within seconds, the door was open and a huge smile spread across my face. 

"Can we go lay down? I don't feel well." Taryn frowned. 

"Are you okay? Do you need anything? I can take you to the doctor's if you need to go." I panicked. 

She laughed, "I'm okay, just an upset stomach." 

I nodded, picking her up in my arms, wrapping her legs around my waist and walking into her room. I walked extra slow just so I could hear her giggles just a little longer. 

Taryn dug her heel into my back and laughed evilly as I fell onto her and the bed. We erupted into laughter for a while but that soon stopped when Taryn held her stomach and hissed in pain. I immediately stopped laughing and looked at the beautiful girl laying across from me, concerned.

The blood drained from her face and I grabbed her arms and stood her up. 

Her skin became oily and moist as the sweat beaded through her skin. Taryn was limp, almost like a ragdoll in my arms and thats when I got scared. 

With any energy left in her body, she threw herself out of my arms and onto her hands and knees and started throwing up on her bedroom floor. 

"Shit... Taryn.." I whispered, pulling her hair back. I grabbed a hair elastic from the floor and tied her hair back away from her face. 

I rubbed her back and after almost five minutes, she wasn't stopping. It was getting worse. 

"Ethan.." She gagged. "Get my mom.. Please!"

I nodded and flew out of her room and down the stairs. When I got to the bottom, I slid into the kitchen where her mother stood with wide eyes. 

"Something wrong?"

"Its Taryn, she's throwing up and she hasn't stopped and she told me to come and get you!"

Her mother ran past me and ran upstairs, calling Taryn. We got into her room where she was laying on the floor crying. 

"I don't know what's wrong! I'm in agony!" She cried. 

Her mother spoke up, "Ethan, carry her to the car, we're going to the hospital."

I kneeled down behind her and just as I went to pick her up, I noticed a stain on the back of her pants. I immediately knew it was blood. She had gotten her period at the beginning of this month, so I got scared. 

She pointed towards the black sweatpants under her bed and I grabbed them and slid her up her legs and carried her down to the car, whispering how much I loved her and how everything was going to be okay as she cried in my arms. 

My heart was breaking at this moment, and there was no stopping it. 

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We were sitting outside of a room for almost two hours in dead silence. Her mother was sitting beside me and I could feel the worry coming from her. 

"Do you know what it could  be?" I asked, looking up at her. 

She shrugged her shoulders, "I have an idea of what it could be, but I don't know.."

Just as I opened my mouth to speak, the doctor came out of Taryn's room with a clipboard in his hand. 

"Will Taryn's father be present today?" He asked. 

"Unfortunately, no. He's away on business and couldn't make it home. But I'm her mother and this is her boyfriend." 

He nodded and flipped through a bunch of pages on the clipboard. We both stayed silent as his eyes scanned the pages. 

"Well to introduce myself, I'm Doctor Blake. When Taryn was brought in, her fever was incredibly high, there was intense pain in her legs, lower back, pelvis and abdomen and intense bloating. She explained that she has a very irregular menstrual cycle as well. The main thing was the big lump we found on her abdomen."

As soon as the doctor mentioned the lump, my stomach jumped up into my throat. Her mom grabbed my shoulder and gave me a reassuring smile, but it was so forced. So, so forced. 

"We aren't one hundred percent sure if the lump is cancerous, so we ran a few tests and we rushed the results, so we should have them by this time tomorrow. Just to be safe, we want to keep Taryn for as long as possible. We are moving Taryn into a bigger room so family can come and stay if needed."

"If the lump is cancerous, what could it be?" I blurted out. 

He exhaled deeply, "There could be many options of what it could be, cancerous or not. If it's not cancerous, it could just be severe bloating or digestion problems. But if it's cancerous, it could be ovarian cancer. However, ovarian cancer is hard to detect and can be confused with other illnesses. It's very rare for a fourteen, almost fifteen year old girl to be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, it does not really match the statistics.

"Ovarian cancer runs in the family..." Taryn's mom whispered with tears in her eyes. "My mother died from it ten years ago..."

"Everyone is different, Ma'am. I wouldn't worry okay? Of course don't have high hopes either, just prepare yourself for good or bad news." He spoke, placing the clipboard under his arm. "You may go visit her but only one at a time. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go. It was nice meeting you both."

The doctor smiled as we shook his hand. He walked off down the hallway until he was out of sight and we sat down, exhaling like a five thousand pound weight was lifted off of our shoulders. But there wasn't. This weight was something you simply couldn't put a number on. It was Taryn's life. 

If it is cancer, it's going to be a fight for her life. And her being so young with a possible illness that isn't common until the early fifties, could be so much more dangerous. Her body is still growing and developing, it's not as strong. 

I decided to sit down while Taryn's mom was with her and do my research on ovarian cancer, which is where I got a bunch of information.

Before I knew it, the doctors were wheeling Taryn to a room up on a higher level which could accommodate her, and three other people. Her mom and I took a separate elevator up and made ourselves comfy in the room. 

I laid with Taryn for a while and held her hand, even though she was asleep and told her that everything is going to be okay. I told her to keep her head held high and to know that she has all the support she needs. I told her at least seventeen times that I loved her and when the clock hit eleven, my eyes closed. 

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its friday so today marks the beginning of march break! i don't have school all next week (march 13-19) so i'll try and upload again. two chapters left! 

i also thought it would be cool to do a whole chapter in ethans pov 

thank you for reading! please don't forget to comment and vote and follow me on instagram (gallagherxgrimes) it really helps! 

thank you for all the support, i love you guys! xoxo