MiniZerk - You Could Follow Your Heart

Chapter 13

On the way back to London, Ethan got sick on the plane ride, and as soon as they landed he was back in the hospital. Harry was toting his bags back to his flat for him. They did intensive testing and found something that Simon wished they hadn't.

Stomach cancer.

They caught it in a relatively early stage, the doctors said. But they also said that Ethan would need to stay in the hospital and undergo extensive treatment and chemotherapy. It was the first time Simon had ever seen Ethan cry, and it was foreign and heartbreaking.

When he visited Ethan in the hospital for the first time, it was unpleasant. Chunks of his hair were starting to fall out, and he already lost his Florida tan, looking sickly and pale. He told Simon that he never suspected this and that he never thought something like this could happen to him, and Simon couldn't believe it, either. He had never experienced the feeling of someone so close to him being so sick. He wondered what the odds were, but everything was up in the air and confusing.

Things were rocky as far as the fanbase went. People were concerned about Ethan and what would happen to the Sidemen if anything happened. Simon couldn't answer those concerns, he wasn't certain that he would continue making videos if Ethan died. He knew for a fact that it would be the end of the Sidemen and the brand that they had created together.

It wasn't right to think about the situation in such a negative light, but Simon wasn't about to start sugarcoating anything. He knew exactly what could happen if Ethan didn't start getting better. He didn't like to think about it, but it wasn't something that could be helped.

Hope was just about all that they could hang onto at this point