Bad Luck · a MGC fanfic

Chapter 6

~unedited~

"Mikey", my mom's voice pulls me out of my happy place, the place I wanna be now, and back to the place I most definitely do not want to be. She's softly stroking my hair and I let out a groan.

"Fuck, my hip hurts", I mutter.

"Do you want something to eat?", my mom asks, "because your dad is getting us some food."

My mood lightens immediately at that, and I sit up before laying back down again after feeling the pain in my hip, "he's here?"

She smiles a bit, "of course he's here Michael, he's your dad." As if on cue, my dad walks in with a tray with food on it. "Hey Mike, did you sleep well?"

I nod and whisper, "I'd rather sleep than be awake." He gives me a sympathetic look and hands me my food. I eat a bit and before long doctor Joseph walks in accompanied by doctor Costello. My heartbeat speeds up and I take a deep breath. I look at the file in doctor Joseph's hands and chew on my bottom lip. It's a nervous habit of mine that sometimes makes a reappearance.

"Good afternoon Michael, and of course Mr. and Mrs. Clifford", he says before sitting down. Doctor Costello doesn't sit down and simply nods as a greeting. Doctor Joseph continues, "I have the results here and I'm not going to mince matters. The results came back positive for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Doctor Costello can explain to you what this means", he finishes. My mom bursts out in tears and my dad tries to comfort her.

She nods and starts talking, "your bone marrow makes blood stem cells. These are immature cells. Later on, they become either myeloid stem cells or lymphoid stem cells. The myeloid stem cell has three different mature cells it can turn into after that. It either becomes a red blood cell that carries oxygen, among other things. A platelet that helps your blood clot. Or a white blood cell that fights infections and diseases. The lymphoid stem cell becomes a lymphoblast cell and then turns into either one of the following lymphocytes, and lymphocytes are white blood cells: a B lymphocyte that helps antibodies fight infections, a T lymphocyte that helps B lymphocytes to make the antibodies or a natural killer cell that attacks cancer cells and viruses. When you have acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, ALL for short, too many of those immature stem cells turn into lymphoblasts, B lymphocytes or T lymphocytes. We call those cells leukaemia cells. They don't work like normal lymphocytes and can't fight infection very well. Another thing that happens is that your blood and bone marrow become overcrowded with the leukaemia cells, therefore the other cells like red blood cells, platelets and good white blood cells have less room. And when there isn't enough room, less of those are made. And as you may have figured, you can't live without those healthy cells."

My head is seriously spinning now. This happens to other people. People I don't know. But not me. This shouldn't be happening to me. And yet it's happening. Or it has already happened. I don't know. I'm so lost.

Doctor Joseph speaks up again. And I don't like what I'm hearing. And that's an understatement.

"We need to start chemotherapy right away", he says before he explains that the chemotherapy will kill the leukaemia cells but also the normal cells and then he goes through the possible side effects. Like hair loss, nausea, headache, sore mouth, tiredness, weight gain or loss, easy bruising, higher risk of infection, dehydration, skin or eye changes and infertility. And that's only a few of the possible side effects. Sigh.

"What are my chances? What is the survival rate?", I ask him with an almost robotic voice.

"In those aged between 15 and 24 between 70 and 80% of them will live five years or more after the diagnoses. Many live much longer than five years without it coming back. The younger you are, the better your chances are. So I'd say your chances are good."

"Can you leave now? I want to call my friends. I haven't talk to them since yesterday afternoon before the tests and all", I'm not asking. I'm demanding he leaves and he knows. He gets up and nods at me.

"A nurse will be with you soon to start the chemotherapy", he says before walking out, doctor Costello following suit. I look at my dad and he looks back at me with something in his eyes that I can't quite place. Pity? Disappointment? Sadness? Maybe even devastation.

"I'm gonna call the guys now", I mumble. It's 1:18 pm so they should be on lunch break now. I hope I can get them on the phone all at once, because I don't want to tell the same thing three times. "D-dad? Can you give me my phone?" He quickly hands me my phone and goes back to my mother who seems inconsolable.

"Not my boy", she sobs. I almost feel worse for them than for myself. But I'm gonna be okay right? More than 70% of people my age diagnosed with this live longer than 5 years after the diagnosis. "Daryl", she sobs again, holding on to my dad's shirt. "I'm here Karen, I'm here. Shh", he tries to calm her.

I press the call button close to Calum's name and the phone rings. After a couple of rings I hear chitchatting teenagers on the background and then Calum's voice.

"Hey mate, any news?", he asks.

"H-hi... Could you, Luke and Ash go somewhere quiet with the phone on speaker?"

"Sure, give us a minute", he says. Then I hear him talking to Luke and Ashton and minutes later all I hear through the phone apart from silence is Calum's, thank god.

"Okay, you're on speaker now. The only ones here with me are Ash and Luke. So, tell us. How'd it go?"

"Well. Yesterday I had some tests, lots of needles. Small and big ones. They were testing me for leukaemia. And it came back positive", then my voice breaks, "I have to start chemo today." It stays silent on the other side of the line. "Guys?", I try.

"We're still here. I just... I don't know what to say. This is a huge shock. I think that I speak for all of us if we say that we never saw it coming. Can we come visit you?", I hear Ashton say.

"I-I don't know, I'll have to ask", I cautiously say for I have the feeling I can't trust my voice.

Then Luke speaks up, "of all the people who get this disease, how many live?"

"The doctor said that in my age category, more than 70% lives longer than 5 years after diagnosis", I say quietly.

"We're gonna get you through this Michael. You're gonna be one of the people that recovered", Calum says, more emotional than I've ever heard him I think.

"We love you Michael. Please be okay", says Ashton before sniffing. Oh no, he's crying. He's gonna make me cry too.

"Ash, p-please don't cry", I tell him while my tears start to flow as well.

"Please ask if we can come visit Michael, cause we will as soon as possible if we're allowed to", Luke says.

"I-I'll ask", I reply. I then hear someone come in, turn my head towards the door and am stunned to silence.

Again, for this chapter I did quite a bit of research. I'm sorry if you think it's boring. But I just really wanted to explain what exactly this disease is. I'm very sorry if you or any of your loved ones have cancer or any other life threatening disease. I've had a few loved ones die of cancer and it's horrible. But luckily the medical field is having more and more breakthroughs and developments can be made so more people can survive things like cancer❤️ I cried while crying this, oopsie. I hope you "liked" this! Leave a vote and/or comment if you want and have a good day and/or night lovelies! Big loves xx