Author's Note:
I'm sorry! I know I said 12-1ish but I had a National Honor's Society Meeting!
So here it is...the beginning of the middle :)
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Ro stared out the windowpane, watching the water from the rain fight its path, a formless tidal wave of grief. Her emotionless expresion masked the true feelings that were tearing her apart.
In the two weeks since the funeral, Ro had decided two things. One being that she thought her cells had decided to become cancer after all: she was starting to get uncomfortable warts. They made her feel disgusting. The second being that since the silent car ride home two weeks ago, Mico was ignoring her, based off the fact that he hadn't talked to her since. Other than their "break-up" she had no idea why.
The day after the funeral was a Monday, which meant that no matter how much she had wanted to cry her eyes out, it just wasn't an option. She went through the entire day avoiding Alex, and the unavoidable issue that she needed to end it.
With her phone in hand, Ro cornered Alex and texted him. Facing him in the hallway, Ro smiled at Alex, sorry she couldn't say anything out loud. Alex nodded, texted back, and pushed past her. "bye, Rosalina," he said. Ro read her incoming text.
coward
Since then, Ro had slipped into a mellow depression. It wasn't because of Alex. It was because she hadn't seen Mico. Ro was sad that it was so easy to stay away from him. She'd expected it to be a lot harder.
She dragged her index finger down the screen and tears built in her emerald eyes. She pryed open her bedroom window with her fingers and let the rain squeeze through the screen. The small beads of moisture felt cool on her fingertips as she felt thoughts of Mico slip from her mind. She would focus on this cancer that she had to beat.
Before; after the diagnosis, Ro thought of life as one big joke and that she had nothing to live for. But seeing Ben's life swiped away so easily and so quickly made her realize how vulnerable human life is. Now she was sure she wanted to live, and nothing was going to take that want away from her. Life may not be easy, but it was worthwhile.
Mico lay on his bed for the fourteenth night in a row with his hand cupped behind his head, feet crossed, and Ro on his mind. The one, most single, complicated and deadly word he'd never associated with Ro was now permanently planted like a seed in his mind. Ro was the flower that towered over cancer, more powerful and able to resist. Then Mico thought of cancer as the weed choking the beautiful flower, finding strength from the sun to drain the life from the flower.
Mico was shaken out of his hostile thoughts by the doorbell. Not the least bit curious, thoughts still swirled in his mind. Cancer. The word had six letters, as did simple. But cancer was nothing like simple: cancer multiplied your cells to the extreme until they controlled a part of you.
Cancer wasn't simple. It was a number of things besides simply, namely, complicated.
A knock on his door barely put a pause on the fast track of his mind until he saw that someone opened it. He looked at Jay's blank face and inclined his head as a greeting. The blank look on Jay's face was replaced with horror as he looked at Mico's face. Knowing what was wrong, Mico swiped at a stray tear.
Jay walked into Mico's room, closed the door, and looked around him. Jay pointed to the picture of Ro, but when Mico shrugged in response, Jay dropped his hand. "Dude, what's wrong with you?" Jay asked, and Mico noted the level of actual concern on his face.