The Tale of Us

Found Love?

I got up early this morning got dressed in some comfortable clothes and pulled on my favorite slippers. I was too nervous to eat so I just checked my bags one more time then it was time to go.

We drove up the hospital and got me checked in. As we walked to my room we passed a room with the door open there was a boy who looked to be about my age laying in a bed with several tubes running out of his chest. He looked so familiar but I couldn't quite make out his face.

After I got settled and the nurses hooked up all the tubes to my chest they left me and my parents in the room. We talked until it was around twelve o'clock the extra bed wasn't set up yet so my parents slept in the two chairs by the foot of my bed. They fell right asleep but I didn't sleep at all that night. Instead I stayed awake running the image of the boy through my mind again and again. Suddenly I realized it was Jake! Jake was in the room right next to mine. That's why he hasn't been to school these last couple of days. I wanted to jump out of bed and go talk to him right then and there but he was probably asleep and even if he wasn't the nurses would probably scream at me for getting out of bed at five in the morning. I would have to ask first thing when the nurses come in.

Finally when it was around nine in the morning one of the nurses came in to check on me.

"Well good morning," she said to me as she glanced around the room noticing my parents were still sleeping. "I'll come back when your parents wake up." She turned around and started to the door.

"Wait," I almost yelled. The nurse stopped and turned around.

"Yes?" she asked.

"Is there anyway I could visit other patients?" she looked at me quizzically "one of my friends are here," I explained.

"I'm sure we could arrange something, let me talk with your doctor and their doctor and see what I can do," she answered, "my name is Tina by the way."

"Nicole," I responded.

"Nice to meet you, what's your friend's name," she questioned.

"Jake Johnson," I told her.

"Ok," and with that Tina turned and walked out of the room.

A few hours later around 11 or 12 in the afternoon Tina walked back into my room she talked quietly with my parents for a little bit. Then she made her way toward me.

"I asked the doctors about it and they said it would be fine if both your parents and Jake's parents were ok with it. Plus you would have to wear these," she held up a light blue mask that doctors wore when they worked in surgeries. "I already asked your parents and they said it would be fine."

"Ok, do you know what Jake's parents said?"

"I haven't asked yet but I was just about to."

Ok," I replied as Tina walked out of the room. I listened closely and sure enough I could hear Jake and his parents talking. I barely made out the word ok. And at that moment I thought what if I really don't want to see him? What if he thought I was a total loser?

Tina interrupted my thoughts when she walked in the room.

"Hey," she walked up to my bed, "So good news you can visit him after lunch."
I did really know what to say it wasn't like I could tell her I changed my mind.

"I'll come get you when we're ready," Tina continued seeing that I wasn't in the mood to talk. She turned and walked out. After Tina left I played on my tablet for a little bit and went on a walk around the hospital clinging to the metal rack that held my tubes and the bags they were connected to. Almost using it as a walking stick. But it had wheels. Both of my parents had gone to do some grocery shopping, because I told them I wanted to be alone for a while. I told them to sleep at the house and visit me every now and then. They had to stay away, because I couldn't bare the sight of my mother slipping away to drugs. The day we found out she started again I found ten empty prescribed pill bottles in her car. It doesn't sound bad but the problem is that they weren't prescribed to her. Most of them were for some guy named Daniel Gray. I had no idea who he was but if he was giving my mom drugs I hated him for it. I could've let my dad stay but my mom need someone to take care of her. Plus I would be just fine on my own. It almost seemed I was always alone now-a-days. All my friends were to scared of my cancer and didn't want to see me die. So they moved on and left me stranded in a cold, suffocating hospital room with no love or happiness. My friends moved on with their lives and I was just supposed to watch them leave me behind. It wasn't fair but then again when is life ever fair. I didn't want to go to that dark place, I tried so hard to stay away from it. But when I entered there was nothing anyone could do to save me. My parents were lost somewhere caught up in their own problems, and my so called friends had left me what seemed ages ago. Interrupting my thoughts a second time Tina walked back in the room, she carried a large beige tray stacked with plate fulls of potatoes, chicken, corn, green beans, and apples. There were two drinks one was a carton of milk the other was a small cup of water.

"Lunch time," she exclaimed in a sing-song tone.

"Hey, Tina," I giggled a bit at her voice.

"Hey, hope you're hungry."

"Starving."

"Always good to hear."

Tina left me to eat my lunch, when I was finished I pushed the table she had left the tray on away from my bed and began to watch some movies on my tablet. With all my new "freetime" I had caught up on all the new Upside Down episodes, and now the trouble was I needed something else to keep me from pulling my hair out, not that I would have it much longer.

"Hey your room or mine," came a soft voice, I knew I heard that voice before but I couldn't tell who it was until I looked over at the door. Jake was in the doorway. He was sitting in a wheelchair with a nurse pushing around the cart with his bags which were connected to his tubes.

"Well you're already here aren't you," I said nervously motioning for him to come in. Jake pushed the wheels forward and the nurse followed him with the cart. I stood up slowly and took my own cart over to the chairs in front of my bed. I sat down and Jake stayed in his wheelchair. The whole time he was smiling at me, with his, big white, toothy smile.

After Jake was comfortable the nurse left.

"So do you come here often?" He joked.

"Not really my first time," I joked back.

"My second," Jake laughed. I let out a small giggle.

"So.." I tried to keep the conversation going.

"So," Jake picked up where I left off, "what are you in for." His smile faded, and his tone became more serious.

"You make it sound like prison," I joked trying to change the subject.

But Jake didn't laugh.

"In some ways it is."

"Ya I guess," now I had to answer his question," anyway, I have cancer."

"Hey, me too," Jake exclaimed as if it was a good thing,"What kind.?"

"Leukemia."

"Lymphoma," Jake answered his own question. Neither of us talked for what seemed like hours.

Finally, I broke the silence, "Now all the heavy stuff is out of the way we can be hospital buddies."

"Ya," Jake laughed. We talked until the nurse came to get Jake and take him back to his room.

"Same time tomorrow?" Jake laughed as he started to leave.

"Sure," I laughed back.

"But you're coming to my room this time, right?"

"Whatever you want, picky," I joked.

"Oh that's how it's going to be, bossy." We both let out laugh as he rolled out of the door.