All My Lasts

Chapter One

"Shhhh," I soothed, holding Callie's hair back and rubbing her back as she bent over the toilet bowl, getting sick violently. She finished for a moment and sat up. I dabbed a wet cloth around her mouth, then stood up and rinsed it off.

"You can go back to sleep," she murmured, turning her boney body so she was resting against the bathtub.

"I'm not going to leave you like this, Cal" I sighed, flushing the toilet and closing the lid before sitting on it. I dabbed at her face with the cool washcloth and she let out a whimper.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked, and she whimpered again. She waved her hand at me and I hopped up quickly.

She no sooner got the lid of the toilet up before she was heaving again. Quietly, I knelt down beside her again and held her hair, dabbing the cloth against the back of her neck. When she was finished, I helped her sit back, leaning against the bath tub.

"This is not how I imagined spending my junior year," she muttered, and I snorted. She gave me a weak smile.

"You're telling me. It's 3 a.m on Sunday night of my senior year. I'm supposed to be sleeping off a hangover," I teased, giving her a gentle nudge.

"Technically it's Monday morning," she pointed out, giggling.

"Okay smart ass," I rolled my eyes in mock-annoyance. She giggled some more before clutching her stomach, smile dropping.

"Don't make me laugh," she panted, breathing heavily. I sat down next to her, my back against the bathtub. She snuggled her tiny frame into my tall, lean one, and I wrapped my arms around her and continued dabbing at her face with the wash cloth.

Soon, her tense body relaxed a bit, and I knew she was asleep. Not wanting to wake her, I carefully reached my long arm out and grabbed a towel from the rack and the positioned it under my back and butt, which was long since numb from sitting on the tile floor.

I leaned my head down and peered at Callie's face, my mouth twitching with a small smile as I saw the smirk on her face that she always wore when she was sleeping. Our parents and I used to tease her about it, saying she was dreaming of dumping water on me while I slept, or placing live snakes in my pillowcase.

I sat there for hours, and a few times I felt myself dozing off, but then was quickly reawakened by Callie thrashing in her sleep, a side effect of the cancer apparently. She used to sleep like a log- dead weight that barely moved all night.

I must have finally fallen asleep, because I woke up to my mom stroking my arm gently. I groggily opened my eyes and lifted my head from the odd angle it had fallen into. I groaned quietly, stretching out my sore body.

I looked up at my mom's face, which was full of too many lines of worry for someone so young. She and my dad conceived me at age 21, and Callie at age 23, so they were much younger than most of my other classmates at age 39.

"Hey," my mom whispered, "it's almost 6:30. You've got school."

My parents, since Callie's diagnosis this August, have been adamant on both of us attending as much school as we possibly could. This meant that sometimes my parents and I butted heads on whether I could attend one of her doctors appointments or scans, or stay at school instead. And on days when Callie felt well enough to attend, the doctors had cleared her for half days as long as she wore a mask. Hiding the cancer hadn't hardly been an option, so the next best thing was making sure we told everyone before rumors could spread.

"How long have you been here?" My mom asked, glancing at Callie.

"I heard her in here around 3 a.m.," I grumbled sleepily.

"Why didn't you come get us?"

"You have work," my mom closed her eyes and sighed.

"You have school Logan. This isn't your responsibility," she said, her voice soft.

"Yes it is. I'm her brother. And someone has to pay the medical bills, and to do that, you both have to be fully awake," I pointed out. Both of my parents were well respected lawyers, and I didn't want them half asleep in court where they could possibly let their guards down and lose the case. Not only would that hurt them, but it would effect their clients as well.

Callie began stirring against me. I had placed a large, fluffy towel over her at some point during the night to keep her warm, and now she flipped it off.

"Good morning," I whispered, turned my head so that I could kiss her forehead as she looked up at me groggily.

She glanced around bathroom and sat up.

"Were we here all night?" She asked, turning to me.

"Yeah, you fell asleep and I didn't want to wake you."

"Logan..." she began, starting to stand up. She stopped and closed her eyes before sitting on the toilet.

"Honey, are you okay?" My mom asked, placing a hand on Callie's shoulder. Callie shrugged her off and kept her eyes shut and took a few deep breaths. After about six, she opened her eyes and looked at me.

"Light headed?" I asked and she nodded. I had mastered detecting almost all of her symptoms and the way she showed them, and I was getting better and better every day at how to help her through them.

Something I wish I didn't have to be good at.

"I'll go get your medicine. You go get in bed," my mom commanded, wiping her hands on her dress.

"Mom, I want to go to school," Callie said. "I'm actually feeling pretty good today. I just stood up too fast."

My mom looked hesitant. "Hon, I don't know. You were up for a while last night from the sounds of it, and you just had chemo the other day..."

"Mom, please. I'm so sick of sitting in bed every day. I feel good and I miss everyone," Callie had always been a people-person, so I couldn't possibly imagine how lonely she got staying home everyday with my grandma, who recently moved in with us to help my parents out with Callie.

"Okay... but you're to go to the nurse or find Logan if you begin to feel sick," my mom gave in.

"I will. And I promise as soon as I'm done, I will come home and take a nap," Callie promised. Since she had only been cleared for half days, the school had allowed her to reduce her schedule and only take core classes that were required for graduation.

"Good. Now, I'm going to go set your medicine out on the counter and head to the office. You two have a good day, okay?" I stood up and my mom kissed me on the cheek, then kissed Callie's forehead.

"Bye mom," we said in unison.

"Love you," she said.

"Love you more," Callie and I echoed, and our mom smiled before leaving.

"We'd better get ready if we want to make it to school on time," I said, glancing down at my pajamas.

"Can I borrow one of your sweatshirts?" Callie asked, grinning.

"As long as it's borrowing and not stealing," I teased. She giggled.

"No promises."