The Player

The Player- 7

The Player

Chapter 7

"Brain tumor"

Let me tell you something about Ash Miller. There's times when he seriously pisses me off and there's times when he doesn't. But what I said to him was overdone.

I mean, it was meant for it to hurt him. But kill him? No. I would never wish for something like that on him much less my enemies. He may have been an asshole who put my hatred of chavs to shame...

Did that make me one now?

Drug dealing and killing off my only brother?

No. It made me horrible. I said to him that I meant what I said. That I hated him. My brother. The Player. And now what?

Now he was lying on a hospital bed, dying.

A male doctor walked out of Ash's room, a clipboard in his hands, probably noting down Ash's conditions.

"I'm sorry Mr and Mrs Miller, no signs of change, but it seems as if the tumor has spread,"

Tumor?

Ash... Ash had cancer?

Mum's eyes flicked my way, filled with concern, waiting for my reaction, but I had already put up my walls-a facade in front of the doctor.

"It seems that something almost traumatic has increased the reaction..."

I tuned him out.

Traumatic?

Did he mean me?

"Danny?" I rushed back to reality, noticing that the Doctor had left.

"So...?" Mum dragged.

I chose to ignore her.

"Dan, don't do that!"

"I ain't doing anything, just like you did!"

Mum sighed and Dad went to her side, comforting her. She watched me.

"You have to tell us what you think."

Anger sored through my body.

"Tell you what?" I sneered, "you didn't think it was important enough to tell me!"

A tear ran down he face. She deserved everthing I said to her. Ash didn't. Ash was defenceless and near death and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

Did they think it was alright to hide this from me. Hide that my brother was dying. Ooh wasn't it funny? Playing tricks on poor Danny, when he didn't even know what the joke was about. When did they want me to find out? When he was dead?

No? Did they want me to think he was going to University in September and never coming back. All my life I would be thinking of seeing him again, when in fact he was ten feet under, literally.

"When did you first find out?" I asked, breaking the awkward silence. No one answered.

"Your brother was having difficulty" my father finally spoke. "He was seeing double and feeling dizzy all the time- ever since he was a teenager actually- and then, one day he was temporarily paralysed. I remember he was at school that day and the school nurse told us to bring him here to the hospital to meet Dr Kepburn-you know the man you just saw- an expert Doctor he is in the field of cancer."

Mum took over.

"He checked your brother, Dan, and then finally after two hours of agonised waiting we were told the results."

"We were told that Ash had a brain tumor and that the cancer was spreading, FAST," Dad said. "We didn't know what to do so Dr Kepburn suggested Chemotherapy."

At the end of all this I was extremely shocked and then realised. Those days they went out early in the mornings without waking me. The notes saying how Ashleigh didn't feel well. They were all signs. Signs of my brother dying.

And you know what? I didn't even see it coming.