Just a Runaway // Niall Horan // Book 1

Destestation - Chapter 8

I couldn't believe how much the media was going to have fun with this. Everyone back home was going to have a ball. My parents on the other hand, hard to tell. I haven't even seen them since the day I left, which was a week ago. To make everything worse, my birthday is in 5 days. I turn 17, and I'm probably going to spend my only 17th birthday in a hospital, with a bald head, and being hooked up to machines.

 I heard a knock at the door. I look up to see 3 o the boys standing in the hallway. I nodded for them to come in and I looked down again. I didn't want them to see my new head, for it was bald. I've only know them for less than a week, and they have to see me bald.

I rubbed over my head. It was just a little bit prickly. I can say now, that I know what it feels to have hair like a guy. Your head gets colder than normal, and you feel bare. I always had a habit of always wanting to pull at my hair. That was no longer a possibility. All the boys quietly shuffled in. Niall sat at the edge of my bed, Harry was in the chair, and Liam was on the couch. Everyone kept quiet. What was there to talk about? I lifted my arm into view, and examined the blue and red bruises that were on my arm. We have to yet to find out or be told what I have been diagnosed with, but I knew it would soon be answered when I saw the doctor walk to the door.

He walked in, and everyone just stared at him.

“Miss Smith, there's no easy way for me to say this, but I'm just going to come out and say it.” Oh God. “We have come to the conclusion that you have been diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia.”

It literally felt as if someone had just taken their hand, and smacked all of the air out of my lungs. All the air in my lungs came out and a shaky sigh. I covered my mouth to keep myself from screaming. I closed my eyes and kept listening.

“The standard treatments for this, is chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. It will be difficult in the first few rounds, but it will get gradually easier.”

The first question that popped into my head is, 'How long do I have left?'. And before I knew it, it had escaped my mouth, resulting in everyone to focus their eyes on me.

He shifted in his seat. “Well, we don't exactly know. Usually, survival rates in children is 85%. But you're past a child. With your age, and the stage your body is at, we estimate the survival rate as 65%. But we have to look past this. It's only an average. For all we know, you could overcome this in a matter of months."

65%. That was it. Might as well call it 50 why don't you.

I looked down, not even noticing when the doctor spoke, and then left the room. Once he left, I closed my eyes. I bit my lip and I swear I could feel blood on my lips.

“Cole, what are you doing?”

I opened my eyes to see Niall giving me a concerned look. I licked my lips to find that the only thing I could taste was blood. I looked down and there were droplets of blood of my gown. I was biting my lip that hard, and I didn't even notice.

I couldn't take it anymore. I lost it. I pulled my knees up and started shaking. I didn't really have the tears anymore. I had cried so much in the past few days, that it seemed like my eyes were all dried out. I didn't want to die. Not yet. There were so many things I wanted to do. Yes, I know I was suicidal, but I never really thought about it for sure. Now, knowing that there is big chance that I may die, it wasn't going to sit well. Then it hit me.

“Liam, can you hand me my bag?” And I pointed to my backpack on the table.

Once he handed it to me, I unzipped it to find my box. I let a little smile on my face and I pulled it out. It was a little silver box that had my name on it. On the front, it had little things to twist, to enter in numbers, like a combination. Once I heard it click, I opened it to see my paper. I pulled it out, and unfolded it. On the top, it read “Bucket List”. I wrote it on the plane on the way to London. My very dry eyes, were now actually starting to get blurry, unexpectedly. I just sat there as I could see the boys surround me out of the corner of my eyes, and they read along with me in silence.