Chris
I sat on the bed, not believing what I had been informed a week ago. My lung cancer has returned; well there's a fifty percent chance. I've been stressing and trying to cope with this shit. I never thought I'd have to go through this again. The pain is almost unbearable. My chest hurts whenever I attempt to cough or vomit. Everything is slowly falling apart and I don't know how I'm going to tell Zonnique. She's oblivious to what's going on. I got up from the bed then headed downstairs. Ariana continued watching tv while frowning.
"Chrissy! I was calling you for a long time" she sighed.
"My bad I was... nevermind. What's up?"
"Can you help me with my homework? Usually I'd ask my mommy but she left"
"Yeah" I said before sitting beside her on the couch.
Ariana grabbed her bookbag and dug inside. She pulled out a textbook along with some papers. She held the paper up and showed me.
"We're doing multiplication and not that easy stuff either. You know about this?"
"Of course, I was a math genius in school" I stated confidently taking a look at the paper. "What do you need help on squirt?"
Ariana pointed to the problems with her pencil. "They're hard..."
"Well I'll show you an easy way to knock these out. See for number one on here, what's six times three Ari?" I asked.
She held up her fingers and began counting to herself. "I only know six times two which is twelve!"
I smirked. "Add six to that"
She counted again before screeching. "Holy crap! It's eighteen!"
"Now keep going and I'll check them"
Ariana nodded and continued doing her homework. Within thirty minutes she finished the entire packet. As I began checking them, I was somewhat amazed. Every question was correct even the double numbered multiplication questions. I handed her back the packet and high fived her. For a third grader she's pretty advanced.
"Thanks Chris, you're not a jerk after all" she grinned.
I raised my eyebrow and began tickling her nonstop. "Oh since I helped you with homework I'm not a jerk huh?"
She giggled then vigorously shook her head yes. "Okay! okay! I'm sorry!"
Suddenly the front door swung open and we both looked over to see Zonnique. Her face was red as ever and she looked overwhelmed. She ran upstairs with a brown paper bag like she lost her mind. I shrugged it off then looked at Ariana.
"I think she's going through menopause"
"Menopause! Do you know what that is?"
"When a girl is transformed into woman and she goes through this cycle every month" Ari said.
I put my hand over my face in disbelief. "You mean menstrual cycle?"
"Same difference! But anyways I have to go brush my hair twenty times and reorganize my stuff animals. Bye" she skipped off leaving me in laughter.
I sat in the living room for awhile and tried thinking of way to tell Zonnique. Honestly I don't think I can do it. She's going to be devastated. I got up off the couch then walked upstairs. I might as well just get this over with now. I shouldn't waste any time. Nervousness overflowed throughout my stomach while entering the room. I noticed she was in the bathroom since the door was closed. I walked over and twisted the knob open. Zonnique stood there looking down at something. My eyes travelled from her to the white stick in her hand. I couldn't help but blink a few times making sure I was seeing what I thought I was. She looked at me and let out a deep sigh.
