I remember the day we found out about Luke. My mom came into my bedroom and shook me awake.
"Mom, what are you doing?" I asked, groggy from my slumber.
"Breanna, get up. We have to go. Now." she said in an urgent and serious tone. I knew something was wrong when she called me Breanna.
"Mom, you never call me Breanna unless it's serious. What is happening?" I questioned. She stared at me for a second.
"Luke is in the hospital. We need to go." She said, fear flooding her face.
I threw the covers off of my body, grabbed my glasses, TOMS, and keys, and ran to the car. I started towards the driver's seat when my mom stepped in front of me and grabbed the keys. Without objection, I gave them to her and climbed over to the passenger seat. She pulled the car out of the driveway and drove to Sydney Hospital. We parked two islands away from the main entrance and ran to the door. They slid open and we rushed into the lobby.
"His mom said they were in room 320, which is the third floor." my mom said. We ran down a long hallway looking for the elevator, getting halfway down it before getting yelled at for running. But we didn't slow down. After about 30 seconds of running, we reached a mini-hall with 4 different elevators. We ran into the open one, and repeatedly pressed the 3 button. The doors closed and we started moving upward. In the silence I realized I was crying, not to my surprise. Luke had been my best friend since I was 7 and he was 10, and I had just turned 14, and he 17. Our birthdays were three days apart, so we always celebrated together. The light finally showed the number 3, and the doors opened about two inches before stopping. I waited, expecting it to be the result of a loose cord or something, but the doors stayed jammed. My mom and I pushed against the doors, to no avail.
"Help! Somebody get the door!" my mom shouted, and a couple of security guards came and pushed the doors open. We looked at the sign that showed what rooms were which way, and ran left towards room 320. I reached the room a second before my mom, and immediately ran to Luke in the bed and held him in my arms, kissing his forehead. His eyes were red and puffy, and he had tear stains down his cheeks.
"Luke, what is it? What's wrong?" I asked, scared out of my mind.
"I'll leave you two to talk." his mom said, taking my mom out into the hallway. Luke grabbed my hand.
"Bre, I'm sick." he said.
"How sick? Like pneumonia? Because I can handle pneumonia. You'll recover. It's not that-"
"I have Leukemia, Bre." he said, his voice shaky. I sat in a stupor for a moment while the news set in. Luke has cancer.
"That can't be right. You were fine yesterday." I started crying.
"I didn't want to tell you unless it came back positive, but I came in for a regular checkup last week, and they drew blood, like they always do. The nurse said something about my bruises." he had a few bruises from tripping in the hallway at school or hitting his arm on the doorknob. "They did a lab and it came back positive. I got the call about an hour ago, and when we were leaving the room, I passed out. They're keeping me here overnight to make sure I'm okay." Luke reached his arms out to hold me, and I noticed he looked a little pale. I laid my head on his chest, and I could feel it rise and fall as he breathed. He stroked my hair, and calmly reassured me every few minutes. Eventually, I fell asleep to the beat of his heart, which followed me into my dreams.
