Everlasting: a One Direction/Eleanor Calder fanfic

Chapter 9

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An entire month had flown by, as it was now in the midst of July. The events over the past few weeks had to be altered because of Liam's drunken rage. Louis had to take a week and a half off of performing because of his fractured rib. After the injury to her hip, Eleanor stayed in the hospital much longer than Louis. Her injuries caused by Liam were not as severe as Louis', however, it took her longer to heal because of the cancer.

Though Louis could never truly and completely forgive Liam, he decided to make amends with him after Liam begged for forgiveness every day. The words that were said to Liam by Eleanor had hit him quite hard, and he realized daily how much he wished he could take it back. Since that time, he had not touched alcohol of any type and surely didn't plan on it either. The revelation of Liam's dark side scared him deeply, and he never wanted it to be released again. He and Niall had even confronted Danielle and confessed about breaking into her house. They apologized to her and made it even by replacing everything they damaged in the house. Liam even gave her a check for her to spend it how she'd like, as he knew he didn't care about having excessive amounts of money for himself.

The slightest bit of sunlight that peeked from behind the clouds shined in through Eleanor's window and onto her face as she awoke in her bed. Though it was mid-summer, her flat was quite chilly, as she cuddled up with her duvet and tried to stay warm. As she stretched, jolts of pain went through her body. Her muscles felt weaker and more stiff than usual. With a final sigh, she got up out of the bed and over to the thermostat. Her teeth chattered as she walked across the cold hardwood floor and over to turn up the temperature.

She then made her way to the bathroom, stopping to take a look in the mirror. The bags under her eyes were more prominent than ever. Her bare head looked strange as small fuzzy brown hairs were grown in splotches. She had not done anything to her hair since shaving it off over a month ago. Every day, she either stayed in her flat and left it bald or went out and put on her wig.

Looking at her reflection, she began to make silly faces. She put on a smile to see if she looked remotely pretty. She stuck out her tongue and rolled her eyes. Walking back to her bed, she grasped her left shoulder as it throbbed.

She plopped down on her bed and grabbed her phone from the nightstand. As she hit the home button on her iPhone, the lock screen lit up and she saw that it was past 11 in the morning. She rolled her eyes, she hated sleeping so late and being so tired all of the time, but it was because of the chemo. She scrolled through her listed notifications and saw that there were countless numbers of messages, tweets, and missed calls to her.

Eleanor furrowed her brow and scrolled back up to the top of the lock screen. The date at the top was Tuesday, July 16th. It was her birthday. Feeling foolish, she hit herself in the forehead. Her mind was still all over the place, and the numerous medications that she was on surely didn't help.

She went to her recent calls and looked at the first name to pop up. The first call that she made a point to return was to her mother. Clicking the contact name, she waited for an answer. After a few rings, Kim picked up on the other line.

"Hello, sweetheart. Happy Birthday!" she said to her brightly.

"Thanks, mum. I love you." Eleanor responded with a smile on her face.

"How are you feeling today?" her mother asked with care.

Eleanor felt her shoulder and her stomach throb just thinking about how she felt. She shook it off and responded with a lie. "I'm feeling great. I won't let anything hold me back today."

Kim smiled lightly. "That's great to hear, darling. Well, we shall be coming over to your flat in a couple of hours."

"Sounds great, mum. I love you." Eleanor said.