Our Little Secret | Sal Vulcano

Ch. 11

It was crazy how life worked. One minute you're happy, the next you're sad. One day you're healthy, the next you're sick. There's life and there's death. I've never tried to accept the fact that the world works how it does. I've always questioned everything since I was a little girl. The thing I am questioning now is why do I have to find out I have cancer at this time? Everything is going perfectly fine for me other than the fact that I have 2 years to live. That is, if chemo and radiation doesn't help.

I got up from the hospital bed. "I'm going for a walk." I've been in the hospital for 2 days because the doctors want to run more tests, just to be sure. Sounds unprofessional to me. If you aren't sure of something, don't say anything. The bright lights that were shown one after the other hurt my eyes. I looked down and followed the tiles with my feet. Heart monitors beeped as I walked past full rooms. Nurses passed with clipboards in their hands. Waiting rooms were full of people. Some who were bored, some who were anxious, some who had sad expressions on their face. I walked down the stairs and came to the cafeteria. I didn't have any money with me, so I sat down. I took my phone out and dialed Sal's number.

Ring, ring.
"Angela.." He had a worried voice. I was texting him non stop yesterday. It was incredible how sorry I felt for Sal more than my own parents, the people who raised me and watched me grow up. But it was different for Sal. He had already been through this, the love of his life dying because of cancer. Maybe "love of his life" might be an exaggerated label of me to Sal, but it doesn't matter.

"Sal, please don't worry about me. I will get through this." I lied. I knew I wasn't going to. Your daughter has cancer. A rare one, one that's hard to treat. The words replayed in my head like a broken record player.

"I can't lose you." You could hear by the tone of his voice he was trying not to cry, but he was.

"You won't. You never will. I'll always be here with you. Come to the hospital, please. At midnight, my parents won't be here because they can't skip another day of work."

He sniffed his nose. I would have never known how sensitive Sal was if I never met him. The other guys would make jokes about how sensitive he is, but I never thought like this. "I will. Angela, I love you so much." I love you so much. The words hit me and made me feel a way I haven't before. He never said the phrase like that, not in that tone. It hit me as if he really did love me. I was just a young fan at a meet and greet and now I'm something so much more than that to him. I started shaking. I felt my cheeks get red trying to hold the tears in.

Right there, in the middle of that food court, surrounded by families, friends, and doctors, I started to cry.

"Angela, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Sal's worried voice rang through my head. I calmed myself, wiping the tears off my wet cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm okay." There was a pause of silence for a minute. I looked down at my nails, picking at them. "Please, don't worry, Sal. I have to go now, they're probably worrying about me leaving the room."

He was talking in a subtle voice, "I'll see you tonight." I hung up without saying anything. I got up and started walking back to the room.

"What took you so long?" My mom asked, worried.

"I went down to the cafeteria." I laid down on the hospital bed, unlocking my phone and opened YouTube up. I decided to watch videos and interviews of the Tenderloins. It was sort of a way to have Sal with me. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.

Minutes later, my dad interrupted the videos. "We have to head home now. We'll see you tomorrow, pal." My dad rubbed my arm.

"Okay. Bye guys. Oh dad-"