The Curves Ahead - Wattpad Award Winner

Chapter 15

That was a really mean cliffy.  Here's a new chapter, becuase I love you guys :)

Whenever I'd encountered stress with Matt, I'd always defaulted to one of two responses: fight, where I got unreasonably pissed and shouty, or flight, where I ran and ignored the situation. Neither had served me particularly well.

For something different, I tried freezing. I stood there on Matt's doorstep, my face set to neutral but my heart clenched in anguish. Perhaps if I don't move, someone will explain what the frack is going on here.

"Evianna, hey." Matt didn't seem to be acting guilty, but he certainly appeared uncomfortable with my unexpected drop-by. "Taylor and I, we are just chatting over some stuff. Uh... Tay, do you want me to step out with Evianna or...?"

WTF? I swallowed thickly, trying to restrain myself. Why are you asking her for permission for anything? What is going on here?

Taylor pressed her lower lip upwards; it was the first time I'd seen her without a ginormous smile plastered on her face. "It's okay. We can tell Evi what's going on. She'll have to know eventually."

Pregnant with Matt's baby. That was the only thought in my mind as Matt ushered me inside.

"So, can I get you a drink?" His voice was low and sweet, as if he could convey a secret message through his simple words, a plea to listen.

"No, thank you."

We settled on the couches, Matt and Taylor on the 3-seater as I sat across from them in a recliner. I studied them both carefully, analysing their body language. Matt's body was angled towards me but he was positioned close to Taylor, while her face bore the subtle signs of recent tears. Her jeans were so tight, they looked spray-painted on, but aside from that, she wasn't dressed as showily as usual, with just a simple white sweater clinging to her tiny frame.

"Um, Tay, do you want to me to start?"

She shook her head at Matt, adorable corkscrew curls swaying around her wan cheeks. "I can talk, it's okay." She looked at me and sighed. "I'm just a little delicate today, that's all. So, I found out last week that my breast cancer is back."

"Back?" I couldn't have been more shocked than if she'd announced she was being crowned the Mother of Dragons.

"Yeah, I got diagnosed the first time about three years ago. They removed the lump, I went through chemo, the whole shebang. I fought it really hard, in fact, I've done everything I could since that day to look after my body and live right. I changed to a vegan diet, read a ton of books, meditated, worked on a better, positive attitude, and I've been in remission for over two years now."

Taylor's almost sickly-sweet demeanour and opinions on overweight people suddenly made total sense; she'd been fighting demons I had no idea about. "Taylor, I'm so sorry."

"It's not something I normally tell people about." She leaned on Matt's shoulder. "This one knows, because we were together when it all happened."

Together? My eyebrows shot up so high, I could feel the skin stretching around my eyeballs.

Matt opened his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but he changed his mind, begging me with his eyes to not flip out. No promises, pretty boy...

Taylor was still talking. "My doctor called the other day, and she told me that my latest test results showed the masses were back, on both sides. They... they have to operate. A double-mastectomy."