Different | Grayson Dolan

>30<

Brooke's POV

"Okay, bye baby. I love you." I giggle, ending the phone call with Grayson.

"I love you too, princess." He replies, imitating a kiss noise.
I go back to the work I was doing
On my laptop as my dad approaches me.

"Daaaad!" I whine playfully as my father presses my laptop screen down with a smile on his face.

"Not today, sweetheart. I've made a decision. I'm gonna mow the lawn." He says, huffing his chest in pride at the last sentence.

I roll my eyes, giggling before a thick feeling rises in my chest. I hold my hands to my mouth, coughing violently.

When I drop my hands, I feel something sticky. I look down and see blood. I just coughed up blood.

Suddenly, the metallic taste of bloody reaches my taste buds and I feel sick. Not throw up sick. Nerve racking sick.

It's happening again.

What if it's back?

"D-Dad?" I shake, my bottom lip quivering as I'm about to cry.

He looks just as nervous as I do. "I'll call your mom honey. Get in the car, we're going to the hospital." He hurriedly says, lending me his arm, while taking out his phone.

My hands and legs shake. When I try to get up, my legs just can't support my weight. The same thought keeps going through my head: why is it happening again?

My father gasps, helping me up. "Don't panic darling. You'll be okay...." he says in a high tone. I know he's trying to seem calm for me but I can hear the fear rising in his voice too. He's just as scared as I am.

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Doctors rush to my sides, sitting me down on a white bed. My dad keeps moving around, filling doctors in for the information. Also the questions. Always the same questions though, Ant allergies? Any symptoms? Always that stuff.

I sigh heavily. It's happening again. 5 years ago, I was diagnosed with a tumour the size of a baseball behind my lung. I couldn't breathe, I could barely talk cause of it, and I missed a ton of school. It made it harder for me to keep up with friends. Or keep them.

It was a miracle. They say. It was a miracle I survived. It was in a hard to reach area and I was basically presumed dead.

Not by doctors. By family. Everyone treated me like I was going to slip away any second. They talked to me like I could barely hear them. They talked like I was 3 years old sometimes, like I couldn't comprehend what they were saying.

Friends always gave me that look. Like I was a kicked puppy or a walking disease. Like I would blow up any minute now.

That's why I didn't tell anyone here. I didn't tell Grayson or Alison.

Oh my gosh. I didn't tell Grayson. Or Alison.

I quickly take my phone and call Alison.

"Hey?" Alison answers on the first ring.

I take a deep breath. "Alison, I want you to listen carefully."

"Okay?" She answers, sounding a lifting confused.

"I want you to tell Grayson everything I tell you after this call. I want to tell him but I don't..... I-I don't know how."

"Okay..... Brooke what's going on?"

"CT shows tumour behind left lung." A nurse says behind me, showing my surgeon a black X Ray sheet.

I feel my stomach drop. Oh no.

"I have a tumour. A big one I'm guessing. 5 years ago, I was diagnosed. It was as big as a baseball. It seems to have grown back. I'm in the h-hospital c-cause I was coughing b-blood." I stutter, feeling my breathing get heavy and tears fall.

"I d-don't w-want to d-die". I cry, looking around the hospital.

Ali hushes me. "Hey.... Shut up." She says. I can hear her voice break too. "We're bad bitches, you can't kill us. You're not going to die." She tells me. "I'm coming. So is Grayson. You'll be okay."

I nod my head subconsciously, gasping for air.

"Brooklyn, you're going to be okay. I know you will. Just fight. I promise well fight with you. I'm coming Okay?"

"Okay..." I croak, wiping my tears.

As I end the call, my surgeon comes up to me with my dad behind him, who has a grave look on his face.

"Brooklyn. You're going to need surgery right away."

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Grayson's POV

I sprint through the sliding hospital doors, looking around for a hospital desk.

"Brooklyn, B-" I huff to an older woman behind a desk.

"Waiting room upstairs. She's in the OR. A friend just came a minute ago. What're your relation with her?"

"Boyfriend." I reply, taking a breath.

The lady nods, pointing upwards. "2nd floor." She says, in a dull tone.

I race past her to the elevator on the right. Pressing the arrow pointing up several times until it opens.

"Please be okay... Please be okay." I mumble to myself, tapping my foot nervously.

After about a minute, or what seems like hours, I reach upstairs.

Alison is pacing back and forth, biting her nail and her mom and dad and sitting quietly in a corner, hand in hand.

Her dad spots me and weakly smiles, but I can see his eyes are puffy from crying.

"Will she be okay?" I mouth, closing my hands.

He nods, looking back down to his feet.

"Oh thank god you're here!" Alison exclaims. "The tumours huge.... It's grown... A lot...."

I feel my knees grow weak and I lean against a wall to support myself.

"I-It looks tricky...." Alison sighs, wiping a seat tear from her eye.

"W-What?" I ask,hearing my voice crack.

"It looks really bad..... They're hoping they can remove all of it but..... It's in a tricky spot." Alison mumbles, twisting her fingers.

I scoff, pulling at my roots. "Why didn't she tell me?" She murmur, closing my eyes.

"She couldn't, Gray...." Ali says, crossing her arms. "She wanted to but she couldn't.... I don't think she had many friends with this story..."

"B-But I'm her boyfriend." I say, narrowing my eyes. "S-She could have... I-I...." I sigh, falling to my knees.

"Fucking hell." I curse to myself, hitting my palm against the floor angrily. "I-I can't lose her, man...."