Breviloquent // m.c

Day One

Day One

Her hands felt cold as they squeezed mine.

"Michael," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

"What's wrong?" I, too, was fighting to hold back the tears behind my eyes. The lump in my throat made it hard to swallow but I had to find some type of relief for my unbearably dry mouth.

"What if..." She began to speak but immediately stopped, clearly thinking about what she was about to say.

"No, don't. You're going to be just fine." I tried to reassure her, or maybe I was trying to reassure myself.

The doctor did not seem convincing by the way he searched for the right words to say and the nicest way to tell her she needed a blood test. Today had come slow, almost too slow. We had waited an entire month to find out her results, and here we sat in the doctors office, waiting to hear the news we have been dreading.

Suddenly the door pushed open and a man with a white coat came in and sat on the chair, not even attempting to make eye contact with either of us.

"Well, Jillian," the doctor began as he scribbled out something on his paper before finally meeting our hopeful eyes. "I told you that it was a 1 in 3 chance that this lump was cancerous... But, it seems as though you, unfortunately, have a cancer tumor."

My mouth fell as I felt the tears exploding in my eyes. Her hand squeezed mine even tighter than before, I was sure the blood was rushing out of it, but I didn't care. I couldn't think of the words to say, my mind fell blank and my heart fell short. It was like my entire body froze.

"What does this mean?" I finally choked out.

"Well..." He tapped his pen on his desk. "You only have two months to live, Jillian."