Love, Drugs and Cancer

Chapter 2: Hair

I woke up in the morning with a sick feeling in my stomach, a bad headache and still feeling just as tired  as I was when I went to sleep. 

Chemo sucks.

I sat up and moaned as my head pounded harder. I don't remember headaches being on the side affect list. I took a small sip of the water on the bedside table and started to run my fingers through my hair, wishing that I had brought a hairbrush.

As I was brushing my hair with my fingers, I started to think about Cole. Has he texted me? I stopped running my fingers through my hair to get up and get my cell phone out of my bag, but was delayed by what I found in my fingers.

Hair.

My bright blonde hair that's always been long and wavy was now laying in clumps in my hands. I thought that I wasn't supposed to lose hair for two weeks after my first treatment. 

You're going to feel side affects a bit quicker than an average patient.

I ran into my personal bathroom that's attatched to my hospital room. In the mirror, I could already see clumps of my hair missing. Huge clumps! I never thought that this would happen to me, but I actually started to cry. I started to cry about losing my hair. I've never been obsessive about my hair. Maybe just because it's perfect all the time. I dug through some drawers and managed to find a small comb. I used to the small comb to brush my hair, horrified about how much of my hair came out. By the time I decided to stop, my hair was about half as think and I had some bald spots. 

I walked over to my bed and clicked on my broken nurse button. But, to my surprise, I actually heard the ding. They must've fixed it over night. 

Soon, a nurse walked into my room with some breakfast. Just the smell of it made me want to throw up. Instead of eating the meal, I actually just ate some of my leftover crackers from last night. 

Once I finally remembered that I was going to grab my phone before little hair meltdown, I went and got my phone out of my bag. One unread text message from someone who's not in my contacts.

Hi. It's Cole.

I smiled broadly at the text.

Hey. Sorry that I didn't text u back. I became a little preoccupied last night. I replied to him.

Don't worry bout it. I was pretty busy too 

I must've sat and stared at that text for ten minutes, trying to figure out what I could possibly say to him. I had lots of ideas, I was just so scared of saying the wrong thing.

But then my phone buzzed again. I opened up my cell phone to see another text from Cole.

Do you want to hang out sometime?

Ya, of course.

Tonight?

Tonight? I won't be in chemo anymore at about 5. I'll have to sneak out of the hospital. They'd never let me out of here.

Definetely. Meet outside the hospital? 7? I replied

I'll be there. 

Do I have a date? I've never been on a date before. I smiled and clutched the phone to my chest. Yes, this is a date. I have my first date with the first guy who's ever given me butterflies in my stomach.

But my excitement faded as soon as I looked up at the mirror.

Crap! What about my hair? I don't want to tell Cole about my cancer. Not only is it kind of embarassing, but I've already lied about it. I don't want him to think that I'm a liar.