The Fault In Our Stars

Chapter One

The white-on-white colour scheme of the hospital was giving me a bit of a headache; but after a month of non-stop visits to this damned place you'd think I'd have gotten used to it, yeah, guess not? 

After three weeks of testing, debating, scanning and experimenting the doctors had finally come up with an answer - or so they said - to why I had lost my appetite, lost some weight and was feeling quite emotionally unstable, oh and why I had started to cough up blood. They had done a biopsy a week ago and the results had come in so here we were - my mother and I - waiting patiently for my fate to be determined. 

I turned my head sideways and took in my extremely worried looking mother. It was as if she'd aged another ten years in just this past month. She had been so stressed out and worried and just thinking about it makes me feel so sad. I hope the biopsy's results are good, that what I'm thinking does not actually come true. 

"Miss Alice O' Conoly?" A nurse called from a clipboard.

My mum and I stood up and walked over to her and she directed us to room number 76 - not that we needed to be directed, like I said, we've been coming here for a month to the same doctor - I opened the door, my hands shaking a bit and sat down on one of the two chairs.

The first thing I noticed was a massive green file on my doctor's - Dr.Stevens - desk, it had my name in bold lettering on top and sweet baby jesus was it big! It probably held all of my reports from this past month. I ogled at its size but my attention was soon diverted as Dr.Stevens cleared his throat.

"As I mentioned to you earlier the biopsy results have come in and they show that Alice has stage 2 Thyroid cancer" he said matter-of-factly.

And that’s when my world came tumbling down. 

I looked around frantically, no, this could not be happening to me. My mum burst into tears and just sobbed into her hands. I, however, was at a loss for words. I just looked up at Dr.Stevens - my eyes wide.  A look of sorrow and sadness was etched onto his face but a look of horror and confusion was etched onto mine.

Me? Thyroid cancer? Cancer? No. 

Just two months ago I was sat on my bedroom floor with my best-friend Niall as we were planning out my eighteenth birthday. Oh god, Niall. How was I going to tell him?

Niall as in Niall Horan. Yes, THE Niall who is 1/5th of the world's biggest boyband at the moment - One Direction. I've known him for practically all my life so he is still just little old' Nialler to me. I wish I could see him more often that I do but he is just so busy. I don't want to let this - my cancer - derail him because I know how much One Direction, music, his fans and his career mean to him. 

 God, Help me. 

We sat there in Dr. Stevens' office for another hour and a half before my mum and I stood up and walked out. She wrapped an arm around my shoulder as if to say 'I'm here, I always have been and I always will be' and that comforted me a lot. We had decided that I was going to get chemotherapy done first and if that didn't work I'd be scheduled for an operation. Thankfully the cancer was localised just in my thyroid gland and hadn't spread to say, my lungs. Thankfully. 

I would be having out-patient treatment which meant that I wouldn't be staying in the hospital unless it got really out of hand, that I was glad about. I think i'd have gone mad if I had to actually live in the hospital. 

The gravel underneath my feet made a crunching sound as we walked over to the car. My mum and I sat down and contemplated on weather or not we should go home. 

"McDonalds?" she asked

"Yes please!" 

We drove to the closest McDonalds and ordered two hot fudge sundaes. Nothing like comfort food to, well, comfort you. 

"If it makes you any happier, Niall is supposed to come back in around a week or so" my mum informed me. We were sat in one of those couple booths that overlooked the miles and miles of green fields. This must be one of the prettiest McDonalds in the world. God, the things I think of. Really. 

"Oh yeah? How do you know?" I took a spoonful of my sundae

"I bumped into Maura at the grocers"

I nodded silently, well this was just great then wasn't it? I was scheduled to start treatment in a week and thats just when my best friend decides to grace us all with his presence. Well, it wasn't his fault. I shouldn't be even having this treatment in the first place. I should be excited about seeing him and telling him everything that has happened while he's been gone - not contemplating weather or not to tell him that i've got stage two thyroid cancer.