Heartbreaker in Training

Chapter 14 - Getting Pretty Serious...

The doctor said that going out and doing stuff with Lesley, Garyn, Tyler, and Adem was improving my depression I had been diagnosed with about two weeks ago. We had been going a different place every day for the past four days, and I really do feel better. You know, besides the disease in my chest.

Monday we went to my house to just chill and so I could be back home for a little while, Tuesday we went to the mall, Wednesday we went to a pizza and ice cream parlor for lunch (hospital lunches are really gross), and yesterday, Thursday, we went to the zoo. I felt like I was a little kid but it was nice nonetheless. Today I decided we should go back to my house and hang out again since it was so much fun.

Currently, I was sitting on the living room couch with my legs swung over Garyn’s lap and was holding his hand. He was gripping mine a little more than usual, like I was going to slip away somehow, but I loved it.

No, we should watch The Exorcist!” Tyler yelled as Adem shook his head vigorously.

“Great idea!” Garyn yelled and pulled me carefully next to him. Guys, I shook my head. Garyn chuckled lowly next to me, and I figured he’d seen me.

“Last time I watched this, I shit my pants. I don’t want to watch it.” Lesley said from the kitchen. She was getting popcorn, but I don’t see how she can eat at ten o’clock at night.

“Then don’t sit by me.” Tyler called to her, scooting closer to Adem.

“Shut up.”

“Actually guys,” I said, looking at my heart monitor and then the time, “I have to get back to the hospital. I have a nightly routine that the nurses are very strict about and it starts at 8:45.” Everyone just kind of stared at me.

“When did you get a heart monitor?” Garyn asked. He looked sort of hurt which pissed me off a little.

Two days ago when I had a little mishap. My heart palpitations came back and it was a side effect from my meds, but I’ll be fine.” Answering these questions seemed make my anger grow, and I don’t know why. It was like they were wondering for their own curiosity, and not my health.

My mom took me back to the hospital and up to my room while the other four stayed at the house. I liked it better that way, when I could just go to my room and not be surrounded by people. I love my friends because they’re like my family, but they do hover quite a bit.

“Hi, sweety. I want to run over some things for tomorrow’s schedule for you.” Nurse Jackson said without looking up from her clipboard. She handed me my medication for my night and sat on the edge of my bed with me and my mom on the opposite side.

“Tomorrow we’re going to have to start another round of the chemo. With the last X-ray we took, it looks like there are no new tumors, and the ones that are there,” she paused, “won’t be.” She smiled big and so did I. This was a huge breakthrough for me, considering that my tumors were growing just a month ago.

“Now about the heart monitor.” She looked at me unreadably over her glasses. “It’s been showing us some things that we don’t want. The heart issues that you had when you were younger are coming back, and with the cancer, they won’t get any better. Now, we did see that they were a side effect of the medication, so we’re going to cut back a little bit on the dosage and see how that helps, if any. If you feel any different, bad wise, I want you to call the nurses immediately. We won’t start that until tomorrow, though.”

It was hard to process everything, so I just smiled softly and nodded. Nurse Jackson and my mom started a conversation and I tuned it out, instead I put my concentration on the empty bottle of Poxyplatin on the desk in front of me. I picked it up and studied the contents of the pill. There were a lot of cytotoxic chemicals in it, as expected because they contain parts that kill dividing cells, the ones that are made up of cancer cells. But it can also damage healthy cells, which is probably how my heart issues came back. The cells keeping that healthy most likely got damaged so there was no protection there.

When I turned my attention back to the people talking next to me, I realized how it wasn’t Nurse Jackson and my mother anymore, it was Les and Garyn.

“Hey guys,” I greeted them with a wave and a curt smile. Garyn bent down and hugged me tightly, and Les just went to sit on the colorful sofa after saying a hey, love. She’s been acting very different lately, distant and sad.

“Garyn,” I said looking up at him, getting his attention from his phone. He mumbled hm? and looked up.

“Is Lesley okay?” I asked, hoping she was too caught up in what was outside the window she was in front of on the sofa.

“That’s not my place to tell you. You really need to talk to her.” he said and I gasped back a little bit in my mind, and then recomposed myself.

Garyn left after that because he knew what I was going to do.

“Lesley?” I got up out of my bed and walked as far over to her as the machine wires would let me.

“What if you die? What then?” She splurted out over her shoulder, not really looking at me.

A/N - Sorry this took so long to update and it's not great but I just wanted to inform everyone about my new book coming after this one. It's called Chasing Raegan, just letting ya'll know.

Thanks for all the reads by the way! I hit 400!