❝Who're you?❞
❝Fallon. I'm your candy striper for the next two months. Who are you?❞
❝I'm a lonely, incredibly depressed, cancer-inflicted, dying, nineteen year old boy.❞
❝Nice to meet you, a-lonely-incredibly-depressed-cancer-inflicted-dying-ninete...
you give me something to talk about, something to talk about,
that's not the shit in my head.
- pvris ; st. patrick
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
fallon.
"They let you have a lip piercing?" I asked with my eyes (for some reason) fixed on the black little hoop hanging from Luke's lower lip.
After swallowing the two lime green and one orange pill my Mom had continuously reminded me to make sure he took an hour before bed, he scoffed. "Just because I have cancer doesn't mean I'm prohibited from doing things people who don't have cancer can do, Bambi."
The embarrassment was practically crawling down my pants. I scratched lightly at the nape of my neck, feeling pretty awkward, now. "I mean, yeah, I knew that, but-"
"For most of the part, they let me do whatever I want." Luke interrupted and snapped both pill containers shut, turning around and giving me a look once he saw that I was seated on his bed. It was basically a silent command to get the hell off, the way I saw it. I was feeling a little defiant, though, so I gave him a challenging look, staying put on the (rather uncomfortable, actually - how the hell does he sleep in this?) bed. He sighed, shaking his head dismissively and continuing, "Nobody wants to be an ass to a person with cancer."
"What do you mean?"
He shrugged, "I mean, I'm dying. They know that. Of course they'll let me have whatever I want as long as it doesn't put me in any risk of dying quicker."
"Don't say that..."
"Inevitability."
"Don't you do chemotherapy?"
"Sweetie, chemo can't save everyone."
Not with that attitude it can't, I'd wanted to say to him. Instead, I shifted the topics, asking him if he wanted to play a game of charades only for Luke to tell me that he'd never even played before. Like, ever.
"For serious?" I laughed, eyeing the blonde boy in disbelief. "You've never played charades once in your life? What'd you do as a kid?"
Luke tensed, glancing at me from where he was sitting across from me with his eyebrows raised. "Besides chemo and TV because I was stuck in the hospital for so long that I inevitably had no actual friends? Not much. Slept. Ate. Breathed. Crossword puzzles."
"Sorry, I need to stop doing that." I apologized, twisting my lips to one corner of my mouth. Goodness, Fallon."Can we just pretend I didn't say anything?"
Luke simply shrugged, "Whatever sinks your boat, Bambi."
I looked at him in confusion, "It's whatever floats your boat."
