An Abundance of White Blood Cells // [WATTYS 2017]

TWENTY-THREE

Nurse Shilling was forcing me to make friends. Since my friends and my boyfriend had school and my parents had work and Gramma wasn't aloud to drive anymore, Nurse Shilling thought it would be better for me to meet some of the other patients instead of being in my room all day, thinking about death.

I mean, I get where she was coming from, but still.

"I'm not saying you have to become blood sisters with someone, I'm just saying maybe you should talk to people." Nurse Shilling said as she led me to a common room.

It was mostly white, like all the other rooms in the hospital. The floors were tan. There was a blue couch and chair off to the left side of the room. There was a T.V. across from that. Most of the room was taken up by tables and stuff. There were about six people in the room, most of them my age, maybe a little older. I spotted a bleach blonde girl sitting at a table with her nose in a book.

I liked her already.

"Fine, I'll talk to someone, but I'm leaving when Nate and my family gets here." I told Nurse Shilling as I walked into the common room.

"I'll come get you when they're here." She promised.

I dragged my feet to the table the book girls was at. She was somewhat tan, her curly hair went to her shoulders. She wore a loose tank top, yoga pants and extremely fuzzy socks. She wore no makeup and had the same startling green eyes that Nate did. I pulled the chair out and sat. "I'm being forced to make friends by my Nurse. I'm Sloane Danvers." I said.

She looked up from her book. "Mercer Bexley." She went back to her book. But her eyes weren't moving. Finally she doggy eared the page she was on and set her book down. "So why are you hear?" She asked, tucking a curly lock behind her ear. I smiled a little. "I'm getting treated for leukemia."

Mercer's eyes went a little wide. "Oh...I'm sorry?" It was more of a question than an apology. She scratched he nose for a second. Finally, I asked her why she was here. She took a deep breath and kept itching her nose. "I need a heart transplant." She said. "My doctor says they can't find anyone with my type, plus hearts are pretty hard to come by."

"That sucks," I said. "How long have you been here for?"

"Since Saturday." Mercer said, her nose was turning a shade of pink.

"Me too."

We sat there for a moment in awkward silence. We didn't make eye contact. She was looking down at her book, and I was staring at a wall. "You don't have talk to me." Mercer said. "I know you're kinda being forced to."

"No, I wanna talk to you." I lied. I'd rather be in my room. But I was curious about this girl.

"Why?" She began to itch her nose and slouch.

"I...I don't know," I shrugged. "You're reading, I like reading."

"Oh..." Her eyes lazily found her book. "Sorry, I just...I don't have friends at school, so this is kinda weird." She continued to scratch her nose.

She seemed really nervous to be here, or maybe it was just my presence. I had no idea. But I wanted to make her feel better, So I started telling her my story. From the beginning. She listened, but never made eye contact. She seemed more intrigued when Nate entered the story. I told her about our dates and everything. I told her about how we'd been making out right before I got my cancer back. And I told her about how I'd done all the things I'd wanted to do before I was stuck here. I even showed her my tattoo.

"So basically, your life started to get really good, and then god was like, Naw, let's just do this instead, and gave you your cancer back?" Mercer said. Way to put it lightly.

"Basically." I nodded.

"That's shitty."

We sat quietly again. I had no idea what was going through this girls head. She was biting the skin off her lip, which was a little gross. She began to scratch her nose again. "I passed out before I came her." She said. "I was working the spotlight for stage crew at play practice and I just passed out. They only noticed when Mackenzie Fuller didn't have a spot light on her during her big number."

That so sad. I had no idea what to say to this girl. "So, Nate's still you're boyfriend?" She asked,

"Mmmhmm." I nodded.

"What's he gonna do if you die?"

Straight forward, I liked it. "I hope he moves on, and meets a new girl."

"You really think he's gonna do that?"

I shook my head. "I don't know what he's gonna do."

We fell back into silence, Mercer reached for her book and started to read again. I pulled my phone out and played a game on it until Nurse Shilling came back to the common room to get me. I stuffed my phone into my cardigan pocket and got up to leave.

"I hope you don't die." Mercer said, her eyes staying on her book.

"I hope you get a heart." I replied.