Stay With Me § BWWM JB

49 • North Carolina

"Breathe, baby.
Just breathe for me."

1:26 PM
Aaliyah's POV

"Mom?" I breathe into the phone. "What happened? What was that voicemail about? I couldn't understand you."

"Baby, it's your father," she sighs and it sounds like she's doing the dishes by the sound of the running water in the background.

I sit up from my bed and my eyes start to fill with tears, "W-What's wrong?"

"He um, he's," she sniffles as the water stops. "He's sick, Li."

I blink out a few tears and shake my head. "Sick how?" I ask in a hushed tone. Sick could mean so many things. He could have a cold, the flu, bronchitis, strep, etc.

"Stage three A lung cancer," she replies before breaking out into a cry.

"No," I cover my mouth and let the tears stream down my face. "No, no, no." This cannot be happening right now. I'm sleeping right now and having a horrible nightmare. Cancer? Oh no.

"Honey," my mom sniffles, trying to get my attention. "I'm so sorry."

"Stage three A?" I wipe my eyes with my duvet. "How long have you known?"

"We found out yesterday," she sucks in a breath. "Um a few days ago, he woke up with a bad cough. Mucus and blood came out, I panicked so badly and he tried to say it was fine and that he was okay. I knew he wasn't, so I called the doctor the next morning and made an appointment. He was seen that day and got a chest X-ray as well as a CT scan. The next few days, it kept repeating and you have no idea how hard it was for me to just watch it happen."

"Mama," I frown as I look down at the J tattoo on the inside of my ring finger on my right hand.

"When the doctor finally called with the results, I have never seen your father so-so distraught and sad."

"Oh my God," I gasp. My dad is always happy, like the only time I saw him sad was when I moved to California. "I know at this point it's probably already spread to other parts near his lungs, but is he going to go through chemo?" I ask as I try to keep myself calm despite the situation.

"Yeah, he wants to try it even though it will most likely cause him even more pain. He-hey do you wanna talk to Li? Alright, your dad wants to talk to you," she says and I can hear the melancholy in her tone.

"Daddy?" I bite down on my wobbling lip.

"Hey, sweets. How are ya?" his chipper voice flows through the speaker and I smile at the fact that he's always so positive.

"It doesn't matter how I'm doing. How are you? Are you hurting?" I bring my thumb to my mouth and lightly bite down on it out of nervous habit.

"I'm alright," he clears his throat. "It just kinda hurts to breathe sometimes and the coughing really knocks the wind out of me, but other than that I'm just peachy."

"Mom and I told you to stop smoking," I say in all seriousness. It had to come to this at one point. I just didn't think it would be so soon.