Page Numbers

10- Colin

I sit there watching as the most gorgeous girl I've ever seen walks away from me, you idiot, now you've blown any chance with her. "Ergh" I sigh, falling backwards and lying down. I looked up at the clouds, watching, as they slowly passed by floating away without a care in the world. Avery was the first person I've ever been able to actually hold a conversation with, there was just... Something about her that made me want to get know her better. Why'd she leave anyway? Was it something I said? My age? Did I spit all over her while talking? Oh man I probably spit on her while I was talking. I'm such an idiot. I close my eyes and forget everything that's going on, focusing only on the blackness that is my eyelid. I try to stop, but before I know it, I'm lost in my past...

I can still remember my Mums face when they said it. I was 5 and for a couple of weeks I hadn't been feeling too well, having to stay at home vomiting my guts out for a 3 days straight. I had started walking all funny, getting dizzy spells and having to sit down a lot. We put it down as allergies because I seemed to be allergic to about EVERYTHING, so, we didn't take it as a very big deal.

I remember being at school (kindergarden) talking to my best friend back then, Jamie. He was the coolest five year old around, and his new light up sneakers made him the talk of the town. The teachers had sat us down in a circle and we were playing duck, duck, goose. Me and Jamie were sat next to each other, and being the rebels we were, we were talking while the kids went around. "Hey Jamie, do I look funny to you?"

"Coley, you look like poop." He burst into a fit of giggles and I frowned at him. "No, Jamie, I feel all funny, my tummy's hurting and everything looks all funny." He frowned at me, "Don't worry Coley, I'll make you feel better." He grabbed me and pulled me into a bear hug and we both thought it was the most hilarious thing ever, laughing our heads off.

Suddenly, there was a tap on my head and I looked up to see Charlotte standing above me smiling like a goof, "You're it silly, now you have to chase me." She said running around the circle. "Ew!" Jamie yelled getting off me, "Colin's got cooties!" Everyone started laughing and I blushed furiously, "I don't have cooties!" I yelled standing up. As I got up, the world seemed to fall apart, everything tilted to one side and I found myself falling to the ground. The last thing I could remember was someone yelling, "Ms. K!" in the distance, but I was too far gone.

When I came to, I was lying on a bed with all these doohickeys attached to me and my Mum was standing above me with tears in her eyes. "Honey, you're awake." I rubbed my eyes and Mum put her hand on my shoulder smiling down at me, "How are you feeling sweetie?"

I shook my head, "I don't fell good." Then I vomited all over the bed. Mum just smiled sweetly and left the room to get a nurse. Dad then walked over to me, "Hey sport, how are you holding up." I looked up at him and saw the paleness in his face, he had been so worried about me and it was showing, "It hurts papa." He smiled at me sadly, "We're gonna get you all better. Doctor Jones was here before and he said he's just getting the stuff back from the machines, then we'll know exactly how to make the hurt go away, okay?" I tried to smile but it looked horribly forced. Mum came back in with a nurse and they got me cleaned up, and then the doctor walked in.

"Afternoon, Mr and Mrs Evans." He nodded at them then motioned for them to sit down. Mum clasped Dad's hands and they looked up at the doctor, worried. "Well," he looked down at the files in his hands, "may I ask, has Colin been experiencing sickness of any kind over the past few weeks?" Mum and Dad looked at each other before Dad said, "Yes, he had to take a couple of days off school last week." The doctor looked down, "I see, and dizziness?" Dad started to look worried, "yes..."

The doctor looked up from his notes, "It's every parents hope that their child is fine, and it's just the flu, and for the majority that's true, but for a fair few, it's not. It's not confirmed yet, we'll need to run some tests yet, but from the information we have and what you've just told me, it's all pointing to..." Mum and Dad looked up expectantly.

"Colin has Cancer." Three words, all it took was those three little words to absolutely tear my family apart. I can't describe the emotions on my Mum's face, all I can say is that I never want to see her look like that again. Dad tried to stay strong, but I saw his facade crack and he put his head in his hands and sobbed. The despair, the sorrow; my parents were going through so much pain and it was all my fault.

I opened my eyes, I have to get this out of my head. You know what? Who needs school anyways, I think, getting up from my spot, grabbing my bag and marching across the courtyard to a fence separating it from the road. I look around me to make sure no ones watching then I quickly jump the fence and run.

***

"Hey Cole, what can I do ya' for today?"

I'm standing at the checkout desk of the second hand book store around the corner from my house and in front of me is Mark the checkout guy. I come here so often that the place is like a second home to me, I swear, Mark and the guys know me better than anyone else, even my parents.

"Just this one." I say handing over Page Numbers, this book I had found squished between the back of a bookshelf and a wall. I had seen it last time I was here but decided not to take it out in case there was a spider back there, yeesh I hate the things. Today I finally manned up and managed to squeeze it out.

Mark takes the book from me and runs the scanner over it to check the price. I hear a beep and look up to see mark Mark staring at the book puzzled, "Well that's strange," he looks up at me, "the machine says this book doesn't exist, or at least, we don't sell it in our store."

He goes over to the computer and tries searching it up manually, but with the same result, "Looks like one of the guys forgot to log the book in the archives." He looked at the book, sizing it up, then looked over at me and sighed. Look, I'll tell you what. How about you just pay me five bucks and I'll pretend the machine doohickey could find it. Deal?"

"Deal." I say handing over the money and grabbing my book. I head out of the store and down the street towards my regular reading spot, when suddenly "LOOK OUT!!!" I look up to see two girls riding a bike, one perched precariously on the handle bars and the other waving her arms furiously. My eyes widen in surprise as the bike and I collide in one big mess. I fall to the ground hard, the bike almost crushing me as I hear the screeches from the two girls now laying beside me.