Neighbors

Pain Felt 'Round The World

With the air cleaned between the pair they set off on the road to the sunny state of Florida. Alex kept a cautious eye on Madison, knowing that the nine hour drive might be a bit too much for her to take, but they were five hours in already and she seemed to be more chipper than she was before they left.

Madison absentmindedly hummed along to the mindless pop tune that she was sure she had already heard at least seven times since they had left the hotel. She would have been a liar is she said she wasn't bored out of her mind. She had already picked all of the remaining "calypso blue" polish off of her nails, tried keeping a running count of every mile marker they passed, and played a game of trying to find unique license plate tags. Her favorite being the silver Infiniti that had they license plate "&beyond" the owner of that car was definitely a clever chap in Madison's mind.

However, it was only forty five minutes later when Madison's good mood began to tarnish as a head splitting migraine settled into the space between her eyes. Her hand instantly jerked towards the volume knob and quickly shut the radio off leaving her ears to battle the road noise caused by the interstate and the passing cars.

"You okay?" Alex worriedly asked, offering a quick glance over to the passenger seat where Madison had tried her best to curl her body into a ball on the seat. Her head placed on the tops of her knees with her arms tightly wrapped around her head, but it was no use in combating the pain in her head that was so intense that tears helplessly ran down her cheeks.

"Lex, it hurts so bad" was all that Madison dared to whisper as the throbbing between her eyes grew stronger with each passing second rendering her vision to become blurred.

Alex felt his heart beat skyrocket as he began to panic, he knew all along that there was a possibility of Madison's cancer symptoms throwing them off course and he had talked to her mom about what to do but he was still just a kid. He frantically looked for a rest stop sign knowing that the best solution he could offer would be to pull over away from the interstate.

"J-just hold on okay? There's a rest stop in two miles, can you hang on for me, mads?" Alex asked, trying his best to sound calm and collected when in reality he was sure that he was going to have his own panic attack.

Madison briefly nodded her head, her breaths coming out in shallow pants as it grew harder to breathe. She wasn't new to having a passing attack like this, though it had happened much more often when she was a kid before she started treatment. She was mindful enough to realize that this was the consequence of stopping all of her treatments, after-all, her doctor did warn her that her quality of life would deteriorate either way.

Alex let out a sigh of relief as he took the rest stop exit and found a parking space away from the rest of the public. He quickly shut the car off, trying to eliminate as much sound as he possibly could before grabbing the medication bag from the center console. With shaky hands he searched through the orange bottles looking for the correct medication and regretting that he hadn't made simple labels on the caps because all of the long names looked the same.

"Sumatriptan" Madison whispered though even that action brought tears to her eyes and a grimace to her face.

"Sumatriptan, sumatriptan, sumatriptan...." Alex quietly muttered to himself before successfully finding the half filled bottle of triangle shaped pills. He quickly poured two tablets from the bottle and unscrewed the cap off of the water bottle in the cup holder before handing both to Madison.Madison took a sip of water, popped the two pills in her mouth and finished with a larger gulp of water before handing the bottle back to Alex.

"Thanks" she whispered and offered a small smile before pulling the lever to lower her seat back, knowing this particular medication would make her drowsy, not that she minded because being asleep was much more ideal than waiting for the medication to make her head stop pounding.

"Mads," Alex paused, grabbing her left hand and placing a kiss on her knuckles "thanks for being honest with me" he simply said before starting the car and reversing out of the parking space.

"I promised, ya goof" Madison mewed in response with her eyes closed ready to give into her sleepiness.

Alex just drove on and smiled, happy that Madison had told him she wasn't well and happy to know that only two days into their trip and they had made a tremendous amount of progress in their relationship, and happy to know he could be there for her when she was truly vulnerable and needed him.

It was four hours later when Madison finally awoke from her passenger seat slumber and they had arrived to Florida only a short while before that. Madison stretched her body out, various cracking sounds emitting as her bones popped. She sat her seat back up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes "Sorry I slept for so long, i'm a boring passenger" Madison yawned.

Alex shook his head in protest "Are you feeling better?" he asked, not at all concerned that he himself was practically exhausted from the nine hour drive.

"Feeling great" Madison reaffirmed while turning the dial on the radio only to find that same pop song playing for what had to have been the thousandth time. Alex chuckled and grabbed her left hand, lacing their fingers together as Madison once again began humming to the tune.

"Hey, 'Lex?" Madison prompted.

"Yeah?"

Madison hesitated for a brief second to contemplate her wording, not wanting to come off as unappreciative and wanting Alex to know that she only meant well "I know you have the whole trip planned out and I love you for doing that, but...if we could just crash at a hotel and watch disney movies and cuddle...well, i'd be down for that" Madison proposed anxiously.

Alex squeezed her hand in reassurance that she wasn't hurting his feelings in any way "That sounds great, Mads, I'm exhausted anyways." Alex admitted.

Just as the night before, Alex pulled into the parking lot of a decent hotel and grabbed their check in information, telling Madison to wait in the car as he sorted it out and ten minutes later they were toting their bags into a small room with a queen sized bed. Alex hadn't even gotten into the room before Madison had plopped down on the bed and snuggled under the covers, silently begging Alex to join her, and he wasn't one to deny any of her requests.