Moving On

Chapter Three

Anaya called the ambulance, not knowing what else to do. His parents were at work, so she called them in the ambulance van. Her heart was racing and all she kept thinking in her head was "this is not happening", but it was. The EMT got Adam in the hospital and Anaya was right beside him. She waited and waited in the waiting room while the doctors took him for all sorts of tests and his parents finally came. They were crying, both of them, they hugged Anaya and she explained what happened. Then her mother came and sat with them. It was two hours of torture before the doctor called them in.

"We're all family," Mr. McCee explained when the doctor was about to deny everyone coming in at once.

The look on the doctor's face confirmed what they were all fearing,

"His cancer came back, this time more aggressive than before. It's spreading too fast." But Anaya shut everything out, she did not want to hear it. He was just proposing to her. After his parents went into Adam's room, Anaya went in. When she walked in, she thought he looked more frail than a few hours ago. She couldn't help but start crying. She went and sat next to him on his bed.

"Please don't cry." Adam's voice was breaking.

"You were just asking me to marry you, how did this happen?" She couldn't even see his face with all the blur from her tears.

"I still stand by that proposal, will you marry me Anaya Mason?" Anaya started sobbing, her face fell onto his chest, his hands were caressing her hair. She yelled "yes" but it was not enough. She could tell that he was not coming back from this, he was already too weak.

Anaya went by Adam's house that night to get the ring, but when she stepped into his room, her heart felt heavy. It was where everything went wrong. She saw the picture on the dresser of his room, it was a picture of the two of them from the first day of high school. Elizabeth took that picture, Anaya has the same one on her bedside. Anaya saw that picture more than a thousand times before, but in that moment she wanted nothing more than to go back to that very day when Adam was healthy, by her side as he always was. She picked the ring up from under his bed and wore it on her finger. It felt right. She went home that night with a heavy weight on her chest, and let everything out crying that night. It became a routine, she woke up with the same heavy weight in her heart, went to the hospital, came home and cried to sleep. When classes started again that fall, it was harder, but Anaya went to Adam every day. The doctors kept delivering bad news after bad news, first with saying that the chemo is not working, then with saying that he might only have six months and finally saying that he might be too weak to move from the hospital back home if he were to get discharged. The heavy weight in Anaya's heart only got heavier, so she shut everything out. She couldn't talk to anyone about how she felt, it was too hard and when she went to visit Adam, all she could do was put on a brave face and hide her sadness. She couldn't even imagine what Adam's parents were going through. Niani tried to help her, tried to talk to her but Anaya knew if she started to cry, she would not be able to stop so she did not open up. One evening, after she was done with her classes for the day, she went by the hospital to see Adam. He was sitting up, reading a magazine looking a lot better than before ever since he moved in the hospital room. Anaya felt her hopes rising up, maybe he can get better again and they can get married and get their happy ending. Maybe, or maybe it was just wishful thinking.

"Hey." Adam looked up and saw her. His face had a peaceful smile.

"Hey, come here." He patted the space on the bed next to him. "You're a little late today, is something wrong?"

"No, nothing's wrong. I didn't know I was late, I'm sorry."

"I was kidding about that. I was just worried you wouldn't make it. You almost missed the pudding round you know?" Anaya smiled but looked away. Adam pulled her face towards his. "Hey, tell me what's wrong." Anaya became teary.