A Walk In These Bones

Chapter 1

Dear Friends and Family, This book has been a blast to write and couldn't wait to share it with you all. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did. I love the Characters and I think you will grow to love them as well. Thank you all.

For Cheryl Dante

My Dearest Friend

I miss you

Part 1

Hailey's Story

It was summer of 2014 on an ordinary day in Chicago. My name is Hailey Carmichael, and this is my story. I was at school with my friends when all of a sudden I fell, and my legs got numb. My friend Caitlyn called an ambulance. On the way to the hospital my friend Sam called my mom to let her know the news. As the doctors rushed me into the hospital, I saw my mom race out of the car to the door. As soon as the doctor saw my mom she told her the news. Apparently it happened to be cancer. The doctors said it was osteosarcoma. Osteosarcoma is a type of cancer of the bones. It is the most common type of bone cancer in children and in teens, but it was unusual to get it right away. I was diagnosed with it in my legs. Most osteosarcoma begins sporadically, which means it appears in people who have no other diseases and no family history of bone cancer. Osteosarcoma may start because of overactive bone cells. Excuse my scientific mind. When my mom heard the news she immediately grabbed my hand and started praying to God and I joined in and started praising too.

A few weeks flew by and I wanted to do everything on my own. Every morning when I woke up I would go down to the park down the street from my house. I started finding myself daydreaming and remembering the days I had with my legs. Caitlyn texted me and said weather I wanted to watch a movie with her. After that Caitlyn took me back home. As soon as I got in my room I logged on to my laptop and signed into my Skype account. I saw my dad was on so I chatted with him. My dad was stationed in Iraq.

"Hi dad."

"Hi beautiful girl."

My dad left my mom when I was 4 years old and he is engaged to a nurse that he met on the base.

"How are your legs?"

I never told him I was diagnosed with cancer. So I basically told him I broke my legs. My dad told me he had to go. So I signed off.

Caitlyn texted me saying she wanted to hang out at the pier this weekend. I asked my mom and I was allowed to go. We stayed all day long and stayed for the firework show. After the show we started for the entrance. When we exited I saw a cute Blonde boy with brown eyes and a Hollister shirt on. I asked Caitlyn if she saw him, she told me he was Sam's cousin Steven. Sam was one of my dearest friends. I felt like my life totally change right side up to upside down. The whole rest of the night I couldn't stop thinking of Steven. The next day I felt nervous, but didn't make it obvious.

I kept bumping into Steven since the day of the pier. I would say we instantly became friends, like I knew him already. Steven was one of those who wasn't fond to people. Sam told me that he was lied to all his life. I couldn't believe that a sweet boy like Steven would be lied to, but I don't think I would ever lie to him.

Steven actually talked to me for the first time since the day of the pier.

"Hey, it's cool to see you again."

Every time he talked to me it was like he knew me for a long time. Steven and I finished shopping at the same time. When we checked out he offered to wheel me home. I found out that Steven lived down the street from me the whole time. Steven told me that his dad was stationed in Iraq as well.

"Hey, this is a pic of my dad in Iraq."

I generously took it from his hands. At my sudden surprise, my dad was in the picture himself.

"That's my dad!"

Steven smiled knowing that our dads were good friends.

"When is your dad coming home?"

He acted like he was a little annoyed by what I just said.

"A couple weeks."

I thought it was odd that my dad was coming back around the same time.

"Hey I have a brilliant Idea."

Steven was helping himself cope with me and to try to recover himself, kind of like I was his consular.

The week came by when my dad was going to come home. Steven had a plan to set up a dinner with my parents and his parents. Even though both of our parents were divorced, we thought it would help one another. It happened to be the best night ever, my mom was laughing and my dad couldn't help but smile at her. Steven talked to me the whole night and his parents were so shocked. When the night ended Steven thanked me for having my parents come. Steven's dad wanted to talk to me.

"Thank you so much for opening up my son, he really needed it."

I thought to myself thinking "Yeah because you did it to him." I felt like slapping him for making his son feel like that. Steven and I were best of friends now. I found that I was a healing help for Steven, so I tried to hang around him for a long time. Steven was a generous man, and he couldn't be around people because he was claustrophobic, and for some reason he was comfortable around me. Steven and I started writing letters to one another even though we lived right down the street from one another.

A few days after that Steven called me and told me he was down for the pier. He picked me up at 9:00 on Saturday. Steven brought his guitar and started singing to me. It felt like a first date, or maybe it was. He started singing Teenage dream from Katy Perry, and I joined in. He grabbed my hand and put it on the guitar and taught me how to play. He wheeled me home and gave me a friendly kiss on my cheek.

Later that night I had an attack, and I couldn't breathe. I screamed for my mom and we rushed down to the hospital. The doctor said it was a false alarm and not to be scared, but with cancer you never know. I stayed in the hospital until 10:00 a.m. that day. Steven was outside my house with yellow roses. He didn't stay but he left me a note in the flowers.

I called him immediately and I told him I would be there. It was Saturday and I dressed myself in my best dress. My mom did my hair and my makeup. I wheeled myself down to the restaurant and Steven was standing outside. He wheeled me inside to the table we were sitting at. We probably talked for 5 hours. We went over to the pier when we were done. He took me in the skyline and told me he really liked me. He kissed me, He actually kissed me! I like that he didn't want to rush into anything because we were friends for a while. We got together with Caitlyn and her friends. Caitlyn wanted to talk to me privately.

"What's up?"

Caitlyn has just told me she has cancer herself. I grabbed her and cried. Steven was hanging out with Sam and the others. Steven finally came back and saw that I was crying. He grabbed me and kissed me. I'm guessing he already knew because he told her he was sorry for the news. A few days later Caitlyn went into Chemo and went through all her treatment, and few weeks later Caitlyn died in the ICU.

I went into a depression mode for a while and didn't believe that she was dead. Every time I looked at her twin sister Kailey I couldn't help but think of Caitlyn. I didn't go to her funeral.

Steven called me and asked if I was okay. I told him I needed a few more days. He accepted that, and he gave me two weeks. I recovered after the Two weeks, and was better enough to call Steven back and talk to him.

"Hey, Hailey I sent something to you on Facebook."

I immediately signed onto my Facebook and saw the message from Steven.