Chapter 7

"Are you okay? Do you need some more water?" The nurse asks for the thousandth time in the last minute.

"I'm fine really, it was just a little migraine."

I'm medically fine if you put it that way, but my heart hasn't stopped beating fast since I saw that boy. I'm almost tempted to ask the nurse if she knows who he is but I stop myself. I don't want to come off as desperate.

"umm..do you know what the time is? Or when I get discharged from this place." I really don't like hospitals one bit.

The nurse stretches her hand towards me and I notice the digital wrist watch resting on her wrist. Reading the time on the watch, I discover the time is few minutes after 6 in the afternoon.

How the hell have I been in this hospital for this long?

"Answering your second question, I do not know when you're getting discharged. I'm on afternoon duty and I arrived her few minutes ago." She smiles before she continues."But tell you what, I'll take a look at your file and see when you get discharged okay?"

"yeah, sure.My name is Claire Moyers though...in case you need it or anything." I say with uncertainty.

She nods her head, still smiling before she finally walks off.

I think about going back to room but I really don't want to be stuck in that small space staring at white paint. I stretch out myself on the bench and keep on sipping the water in my hands.I don't feel comfortable in this hospital dress and I really need clothes.

Where the hell is my mom?

Just as I am about to go to the front desk to request for a phone, I see my mum walking up to me. She is still dressed in her doctor's uniform so my guess is she's just coming back from the hospital.

"What the hell, mom." I abruptly stand up from the bench and walk up to her. She is still fumbling with her purse and hasn't seen me yet. I keep on walking to her, and when I finally reach her, I stop in front of her, blocking her further movements.

"Oh my..." She finally looks up from her purse and sees me.

"Claire! You're awake. How are you? How long have you been up? Are you feeling okay? Does your head hurt?"

"Chill with all the questions mom, where the hell were you?" I realize we are standing in the middle of the hospital lobby so I start moving towards the bench, my mom follows behind.

When we get to the bench, my mum brings her phone out of her purse before she answers me. "I had to go the hospital." She says quietly, avoiding eye contact with me.

"You chose to go to your job rather than stay at the hospital with your daughter who just had a freaking brain surgery?" I raise my voice at her. She needs to see how angry I am. She doesn't glance up from her phone as she keeps on punching the keys on her keyboard.

"You're overreacting Claire." She finally says nonchalantly. I swear that this woman will be the death of me.

Just when I'm about to begin my second phase of ranting, the nurse returns to us. That same smile plastered on her face. When my mum notices her presence, she drops the phone back into her purse and gives the nurse her full attention.

So she can give the nurse her full attention but doesn't glance up at me when I speak to her?

"Well, it says here miss Claire that you're free to go once you sign the discharge papers. You have to come to the hospital at least twice a week for your chemotherapy since you have a stage three brain cancer. There are also various cancer support groups you could join in order to...deal with your situation better."

She closes the file and brings out another paper to give to my mum. It looks like a brochure or something like that.

"These brochures are for different cancer support groups you could join, just in case."

I immediately reply with a " no, thank you" the same time my mother replies with "sure, we'll check them out."

Umm.. no we won't.

"Mom, there's no way I'm signing up for some shitty support group that doesn't offer the cure to my freaking brain cancer."

My mum doesn't look at me as she signs the discharge papers.

She finishes with the papers before she says "we're not talking about this here Claire."

"Of course we're not, because I've made my decision and it's final."

The nurse excuses herself and leaves us alone."Give me my clothes. I can't go home looking like this."

She hands a bag to me containing my clothes without saying a word.

I stomp out of the lobby and make my way back to the hospital room to change. Trust my mum to bring me jeans and a tank top.

Where did she even get these clothes from?

The jeans look new and unworn so I grab a pair of scissors from the bathroom and make some holes in it just to annoy her.

"Let's go." I say when I get back to the lobby. My mum looks up at me and sees what I have done to the jeans. She tries to act neutral but I see a hint of surprise in her eyes.I smile triumphantly to myself.

Claire-1, mom- 0. We're not keeping score or anything but in case we were, I'm winning this thing.

There's nothing more irritating than being stuck in traffic.Crazy drivers weaving in and out of lanes, horns blaring from all directions. Drivers cursing at one another and a driver with a smoking exhaust relentlessly trying to over take our car.

All these reminding me why I really don't like Seattle. A drive from the hospital that's meant to take about 30 minutes finally ended after an hour and half.

My butt is sore when I get down from the car and I don't even bother to close the door. I stomp into my room ignoring everyone. I hear my mom telling Gabriel "she's just hurt and doesn't know how to deal with it."

Screw her, she doesn't know shit.

I flop down into my bed not bothering to take off my clothes. I try so hard not to cry. These last days have been spent by me crying myself sleep. I close my eyes and dream of the boy with sea green eyes and bird tattoo before I finally grip the hands of sleep.

** ** **

I open my eyes, still half asleep and look around my room. Everything is still the same as last night. I'm still wearing my jeans and the curtains are still wide open allowing the sun to pour in directly into the room.

Hating the ugly stare of the sun, I groan before I finally roll over and walk towards the curtains.I need to get ready for school.I groan again before sitting at the edge of my bed and checking my alarm clock. It's red lights flash 8:17a.m at me.

What the actual hell?

I rush downstairs to ask my mum why she didn't wake me but when I get there, I find out the house is empty. I'm actually home, all alone.Going to the fridge, I realize my mum stuck a note on it. She probably knows I will surely open the fridge.

"You don't need to go to school today if you don't feel like.Doctor Alexander says your Chemo is to start tommorow. There's Cereal in the cabinet or you can make what you want. I really don't know what you want to eat. I left a brochure on the counter. Please go.

.Mum."

She could have texted me this stuff. Seriously what century does this woman live in? I laugh at my thoughts while making myself a cereal. I don't know how to cook and I'll rather not burn down this house. I sit at the counter and notice my phone resting on the brochure.

Ignoring the brochure, I grab my phone and turn it on. I have about 20 texts and voicemails from Mia. She's literally my only friend.

Without glancing at them I quickly send her a text saying

"I'm fine, I got back from the hospital late last night. If you come over in the evening I'll give you the details."

I continue crunching my cereal knowing Mia will never text me back during classes. My eyes travel down to the blue paper of the brochure and I find myself grabbing it.

One glance wouldn't hurt.

The place isn't far from my house. You'd probably get there under 10 minutes if you're going by foot. No surprise my mum chose it. They hold meetings for 2 hours. From 2pm to 4pm in the afternoon.

I'm not going for this shit.

I down the last of my cereal and toss my bowl into the sink. I'll get to that later. I rush up the stairs, taking it two at a time, just because no one is here to tell me not to.

My room is a mess when I get there so I decide to kill time by cleaning it.

When did eat this burrito?

I toss the rotten half eaten burrito into the trash and I continue with my cleaning.

** ** **

The room is upside down when I open my eyes. I open my eyes fully and realize I'm the psychopath lying upside down. My phone beeps from my study table and I grab it. It's a text from my mom.

"Don't be late for your first meeting."

I don't answer her as I stumble into the bathroom. I brush my teeth and take a cold shower. Just to fully wake me up. I dress up in my father's old jeans. It's bigger than me so I roll it a couple of times at the legs while I use a belt to hold the waist. I put on a huge sweat shirt with nothing but a sports bra beneath it.

I go downstairs and walk around the living room for a while. I stare at the television for a while thinking of what to do. Before I realize what's going on, I'm grabbing my phone and sneakers and walking out of the door to get my bike and go to the damn support group.

It's barely five minutes before I'm stopping in front of the building. It's not so big and it's not small either. It's old brick walls share a building with a yoga class because once I enter I'm greeted with middle aged women in yoga clothes.

I walk up to the front desk and give the woman all my information. She directs me to the room for my support group and I thank her before finding my way to the room.

I'm on my way to the room when I hear sobbing. It's obvious the person is trying to conceal their pain because I also hear music playing. My mind is screaming at me to continue with my journey but my feet don't want to comply at all.

I've watched a ton of horror movies and I know moments like these always end up terrible, but those are movies and this is real life so I keep on moving my feet towards the sound of the sobbing.

The cry is coming from behind a storage door and I open the door and shut it back quietly trying not to scare the person crying. I'm immediately greeted with edge of desire by John Mayer. One thing's for sure, this person has great taste in music.

I move through cans of paint cans scattered across the floor. Their pungent smell filling my nostrils and making me cover my nose in disgust. This person better be worth it. As I keep on striding forward, the sobs become louder and closer.

I finally meet the source of the cry. The boy is hunched up on the ground. Back nestled against a can of paint, head bowed and chest heaving up and down due to the crying.

I tap my foot on the floor to get him to focus his attention on me. He doesn't look up at me but his sobs have dwindled. I shake his shoulders still wanting to get a reaction from him.

"What do you want",he says. His voice is hoarse and deep from crying. He doesn't look up at me as he answers me.

"Are you okay? Your voice

is pretty loud. I heard you from down the hall."

He finally stops shaking and raises his head to meet mine. The first thing I notice is those piercing sea green eyes; now red and glossy from all the crying. He drags his beanie from his head and uses it to wipe his eyes.

That's when I notice the hair, I can never mistake the source of such black curly hair.

My hand travels up to my mouth involuntarily as a gasp escapes my lips.

He finally dries up his eyes and drinks in my appearance. Eyes roaming around my body until he finally meets my eyes. His eyes widen in shock and recognition at the same time.

"You!" We both exclaim simultaneously.