Hold On, I'll See You Again

Oh Boy

I left Dan 5 minutes before my appointment, hugging him goodbye. Back in the operating room, they gave me some medicine that put me to sleep. Yea. Pretty much all I can remember. I woke up drowsy sometime after the tests, and was wheeled back into my room. Something about pain killers, results, and lions. Might have imagined the last one. I recall Dr. Brown coming into my room to hand feed me more painkillers, but I slept afterwards. I woke up to find Dan sitting on the side of my bed, combing his fingers through my fringe. "Hey there. How are you feeling?" "Nnnhhhh." "Want me to get you some food?" I nod. He gets up and exits my room, closing the door softly behind him. I slowly adjusted to my surroundings and became alert of what was going on. There was a note on my bedside table saying to call Dr. Brown on extension line 12 to ask for more pain killers or to alert him of anything unusual. There was also a pill bottle of some sort of prescribed pill. To me, of course. Must be my pain killers. I looked out the window across my room to see a bit of snow has fallen. The first of the year. How long have I been here again? Oh yea. Less than three days. Deep in though still, I heard my door open and close as Dan comes in with a tray of soup, hash browns, and fruit. "Thank you." "No problem. You did it for me anyways." He put the tray in my lap and started to leave. "Wait! Why don't you stay here?" He smiled as he walked back. I patted the spot on the bed next to me. After he sat down, we began talking about our pasts. "You start first, Dan." "Oh ok. Well, I had a great life. My parents and brother loved me to pieces, I went to a private school, and even had a few girlfriends here and there." My heart sank. "But then college came. I was at a party and found myself in a game of spin the bottle. The group was about half girls and half guys, and so when it was my turn to spin, it landed on a guy. He wasn't popular or anything, but he was kind of good looking." Wait. Is this going where I think it's going? "Of course I had to kiss him, and even my girlfriend at the time was urging me to do it. Anyway, I kissed him, but I actually enjoyed it. I think he liked it too, for we kept on kissing afterwards. My girlfriend was very upset and dumped me right there. That wasn't bad, but she just had to yell out that I was gay to everyone in the room. I thought these people would be cool with stuff like that, but they then kicked me out of the party. Called me names. Even the guy I kissed acted like I was disgusting." I put my hand on his shoulder. "Anyway. I had to come out to my parents at some point, and when I did, well... Yea." No. No! Why! Why would they hate such a sweet guy!? "So I was disowned. Haven't talked to them since that day. My brother still talks to me though. So that's good. I finished up college with new and better friends, and started a job at a bakery. From there, you know my story. So how about you?" I didn't speak. I just looked into the eyes of probably the cutest, most nicest guy I had ever met. To think that he was disowned by his parents because of who he was was just... No. That is not right of them. I was about to say something when a frantic knocking at my door interrupted our moment. Dan swiftly got out of bed to open the door for, surprise, Doctor Brown. "Dan. Phil. I need to talk to Phil for a moment please." Dan waved a small goodbye to me before he left. Doctor Brown shut the door behind him. "Phil, there's no easy way of telling you this, but you have cancer. We tried to cure it with the operation, but that is now impossible. It's too late. We'll start on chemo to keep you going, but just know that you won't make it for over a year from now." And that was when I passed out.