Breakeven

Chapter 3

I walked down the stairs to find Danny sat talking to his mum while he waited for me.  He looked relaxed, if maybe a little tired.  Alleysha was curled up in his lap and looked like she would drop off to sleep at any minute.

"Keira's still sleeping so I think she'll sleep right through now" I told Ailish "and I don't think she'll be far behind" I said gesturing to Alleysha.  "Don't let Jess and Amber stay up talking all night, I've set up the guest bed in Jessica's room and Adam's in the music room, he'll probably stay there for a while.  If there's any problems, just ring us and we'll come back."

"Calm down Kay, I've raised 6 of my own remember, we'll be fine so just get yourselves out and enjoy your night."  I don't know why I get myself in a panic when I leave the kids with Ailish, she's right, she raised 6 so my 4 must be like a walk in the park for her.

I went through to the music room to see Adam.  He was sat on a stool with his guitar resting across his legs, strumming the strings.  I assume he was writing a song because I didn't recognise what he was playing.  "We're off now Adam, be good for Grandma" I said.

"I will mum" Adam said as he took the guitar from his knees and rested it against the wall as he came to give me a hug "Have a good night".  I kissed the top of his head before leaving him alone with his music.

I left the music room and headed through to the kitchen, Jessica and Amber were sat at the kitchen table painting each other's nails.  "We're off Jess, be good" I said to her.
"We will mum, have a good night" Jessica replied.
"Yeah, enjoy your night Mrs O'Donoghue" Amber added.
"Thanks Amber, but how many times? Call me Kay" I chuckled.  Amber has been coming around to our house on almost a daily basis for at least 4 years now and she still insists on calling me Mrs O'Donoghue.

I went back into the living room and Danny said, "I'm just going to take her up to bed" as Alleysha was almost asleep.  He stood up from the sofa carefully as he had her in his arms.  When he passed me, I kissed Alleysha's forehead "Goodnight honey" I whispered.

"I'm not tired" Alleysha protested, barely able to keep her eyes open.

"I know you're not" Danny said with a smirk as he continued upstairs.

A few minutes later I heard the horn of our taxi beeping to let us know it was waiting.  Danny came running down the stairs taking them 2 at a time.  "Thanks for this mum, we won't be late" he said as he kissed Ailish's cheek before taking my hand as we left the house heading to Glen's.

The short taxi ride was pretty much silent. It was a comfortable silence but I was anxious about tonight.

As we approached the door of Glen's apartment I took a deep breath, Danny noticed my anxiety and gently squeezed my hand in reassurance, "It's going to be fine" he said to me and I smiled in return.

Danny knocked on the door and it was quickly answered by Sophie.

"Thanks for coming" Sophie said as she hugged us both in turn.  I slipped off my coat and hung it on the rack in the hallway before following Sophie through to the living area.

Mark and Rina were already here and Glen was making small talk with them.  "I'll get you both a drink" Sophie said before disappearing into the kitchen.  Danny and I went and sat on the sofa joining in with the meaningless small talk that was taking place.

Once Sophie had returned with the drinks she went to sit next to Glen, they exchanged silent glances for a short while before Rina said "So, are you going to tell us what we're all doing here then?".  It sounded slightly abrupt but I knew that she was as desperate as I was to unravel this mystery and find out what was going on.

"Yeah" Glen replied thoughtfully.

"Well, we haven't really told anyone about this yet, and I don't want it to be a big thing" he started, although he was struggling a bit with his words.  I noticed that Sophie's eyes were beginning to fill with tears and her hand was rested on Glen's leg, stroking it as he spoke.  I felt a knot in my stomach and I knew that what Glen was about to tell us was a big thing, regardless of whether he wanted it to be or not.

"I went for an eye test last week" Glen continued "and they saw something while they were checking my eyes and they had to refer me for some further tests."

"So you've invited us round to tell us that you're going to have to wear glasses?" Mark joked, much to Rina's disgust as she slapped his thigh before saying "Let Glen finish" in a scalding way to Mark.

"If only....." Glen let out a half-hearted chuckle and smiled at Mark but the sadness in his eyes was clear.

"They've um...." Glen couldn't find the words and a single tear trickled down his face.

I instinctively stood up and went over to comfort Glen.  I crouched in front of him and rested my arm around his shoulder.  "Come on Glen, it's just us here.  Take your time." I tried to reassure him.

Glen tried again.  "The doctors have said that ..." again he trailed off.

"Do you want me to tell them?" Sophie asked.

"No, I can do this" Glen replied before whispering to himself "Be strong".

"They've found a tumour on my brain and they need to operate to try to remove it."

The room fell silent, an eerie silence.  Nobody knew what to say, what can you say?  I looked around the room as I tried to process what I had just heard.  We all had tears filling out eyes but nobody spoke.

Glen was the one to break to silence, as he wiped the tears from his face he simply said "It's going to be alright".  I wondered if he really believed this or if it was just what he had to believe to get him through?  I leaned forward to hug Glen, if I couldn't find the words I could at least show him that I cared.  He only hugged me briefly before pulling away as he said "Please don't give me sympathy, I don't want that"

"So, what do you want?" Danny asked "Like, what can we do?"  It was clear from Danny's tone how useless he felt right now, I guess we all did.

"There's nothing you can do, just don't treat me any differently now that you know" Glen replied.

Sophie then spoke up.  "We needed to tell you because he's not going to be able to work for a while when he's having treatment."

"Don't worry about it" Mark spoke up immediately "Health is more important so you take as long as you need, and you beat this"

"Yeah, don't worry about work" Danny agreed "It'll all still be there when you're ready to come back"

"So, when's the operation?" Rina asked.

Glen looked shocked by this question, "The day after tomorrow" Sophie replied.

"So soon?" The words were out my mouth before I really had time to process what I was saying.

Sophie nodded as she said "They can't leave it, they need to operate straight away.  But they say that they've caught it early so there's a good chance they can remove the whole thing"

The stunned silence returned, how could Glen say that this wasn't a big thing?  It had literally rendered the whole room speechless.