If I Die Young

08

"You're allowed to scream, you're allowed to cry, but do not give up."

Felicity's POV:

My mom woke me up and said, "The doctor called, Felicity. She has some news about your tests."

I yawned. "Do we need to go to the hospital?"

"Mm-hmm. Get dressed. I'll have breakfast and tea out for you, okay?"

"Thanks, Mom."

I threw on jeans and a royal blue three-quarter shirt.

As we made our way to the hospital, I ate my toast with strawberry jam and sipped my tea.

We made our way to Dr. Hudson's office and she smiled, seeing us. "Good morning, Felicity. Good morning, Mrs. Grace. How are you feeling, Felicity?"

I shrugged. "Okay. The pain's about a six, stretching a seven right now."

"Okay, we'll see if we can get you something in a little while. You let me know if it gets worse."

We sat down and Dr. Hudson folded her hands as she sat on her chair. "Unfortunately, the news isn't good. The T-cells in your brain aren't fighting off the cancerous cells as well as we'd hoped. Now, we can try chemo and radiation again, but it wasn't working well last time, and there are no promises that either will work this time. The tumor in your brain is inoperable due to the location of it. If we were to do another surgery to try to remove it, we may severely damage your brain, and we don't want to cause anymore damage if we can help it."

My mom frowned. "So what are her options, then?"

"Like I said, we can try chemo and radiation again, but there's no promise it would work. Our other option is to keep her on medicine, as we've been doing."

"How long do I have if I keep doing the medicine?" I asked.

Dr. Hudson looked at me sympathetically. "Three to six months."

Mom turned to me, tears stinging her eyes. "It's your body, dear. As much as I want to make that decision, it's up to you."

I swallowed heavily. "Can I have some time to think about it?"

Dr. Hudson nodded. "Of course. Do you need anything for the pain?"

"Uh, yeah. I think so."

"All right. Come with me."

I was led to a bed and sat on it. I was given an IV and medicine was soon entering my body thanks to the IV.

I sent a text to Colby. 'Can u come to the hospital? I need to talk face-to-face'

Not even 30 minutes later, Colby was at my bedside.

"What is it, Lissy?" He asked.

I bit my lip. "Um, well, it's not good news."

"Okay. Whatever it is, I'm here."

Tears stung my eyes and I tried to keep them from falling. "Dr. Hudson just told me that they can't do anything but the medicine I've been using. My tumor is in a bad location, so it's inoperable. The chemo and radiation didn't work last time, so, um..."

"What do you want to do?"

"I don't know. I was hoping you could help, maybe?"

He sighed. "Felicity, I can't make that decision for you. You need to decide what you want to do."

"I can't."

He took my hands. "Yes you can, Lissy. Whatever you choose, it's okay."

"But Dr. Hudson said I have three to six months to live on the medicine."

"Then we get to spend three to six months together. And those will be the best three to six months ever."

I turned to Dr. Hudson. "I'm going to remain on the medicine."

Dr. Hudson nodded. "Okay. Your mom sad you were running low, so I'll write you another prescription."

Colby kissed me and said softly, "Here's to the best three to six months ever."

[From here on out, if you get emotional easily, you're going to want tissues.]