(A/N) Back by popular demand, I give you this! It sucks! But why not :)
Tick, tock, tick, tock. The clock was slowly ticking away, echoing as it's hidden gears turned on through the plastic covering. The ever present white noise of a fan droned on, causing the open pages of a thick textbook to flap about on a bedside table, sitting with tragic silence.
Beside the sentry table was a bed. This bed was unlike most beds during the day though. Instead of a unique comforter with colored pillows and sheets to match, this one was white and soft as snow. The comfort was false though to those who had sat in this bed before. While most beds would be empty with people going about their daily dealings and problems, this one was occupied with a girl.
This girl was on a laptop bought for her by her best friend. She had told Pisti many of times though that she could buy her own, being an adult worthy age twenty five. But she had insisted due to her inability to work as much as she used to. The girl, or I suppose young woman, pushed back her sea blue-green hair, focusing on her final paper for biology. "Just because she was here, doesn't mean she could be useless!" one might say being an outsider looking from her point of view.
The college student's fingers flew across the keyboard at speeds unlike most others at her age and class. Many would argue that she had a magic touch when it came to her subject. Other's said she just used magic for real to do the tests and labs that their impossibly hardcore bio teacher assigned daily.
But if you asked the woman, she said it was simply her raw talent and stubborn nature that got her through her masters and Doctorate programs. Others would still disagree due to her going to college two years ahead and working through summer. It all just seemed super human the strain she had on her shoulders everyday of her life.
One might argue that's how she got cancer, the stress she thrusted on her brain spread to her legs, making the cancer grow to the size of a softball in both limbs. But she never once complained when they cut her legs from the knee down off. In fact, when she got into the hospital, she asked how long it was going to take. In her words "I have a test on Monday, so cop cop! Literally."
All jokes aside, she got released Sunday night and aced that mother trucker like a boss. What really made her doctor gape like a freshly killed cod was that she didn't even sleep that night. She was up all night studying. As a narrator, I won't even mention the wheelchair incident in the hall on the way to class. That first year might have to get his foot checked for breaks.
A knock at the door resounded on the white walls and ticking machines keeping the woman from leaving her spot at any point in the day. Her head didn't even flinch from it's position to acknowledge the white haired man standing at the doorway, hand raised with his knuckles rest on the door frame. He waited and waited for her to even glance up. It annoyed the man greatly at her lack of respect for him, but it was justified for the way he treated her in his biweekly visits to her room.
"Hello! Earth to nerd!" he called, stepping away from the door, it finally closing behind him fully. The nerd comment didn't even phase her in the least bit. It only made her type faster, if that was even logically possible. But somehow, her fingers did noticeably move at a faster speed than before. The man noted that fact as he leaned over to read what she had typed.
"What's a micro organism?" he asked, trying to make any reaction occur. Finally, she huffed and shoved the monitor of her laptop down with a unusual amount of force than previous visits. "It's a living animal and or plant that is so small, you can't see it with the naked eye. Like your puny brain for example." she spit out like a bad aftertaste, her words like venom as she spoke.
The man raised his hands up in defeat. "Alright! I get it! Jeez." He plopped down in the chair that was angled toward her bed, resting his arms behind his head. "So why are you Miss sour puss, Yumuraiha? Failed a test for the first time?"
Yumi snorted "You wish, Sharrkan." Her face dropped as she set the laptop to her table, closing her textbook in the process. "It's the tumour again." Sharrkan's smirk dropped as did his hands to his lap from his head. "Really? How bad is it?"
She pulled what was left of legs up to her busty chest, pulling the white cotton blanket along with them. "In my other kidney this time." Her chin rested on her hands that held her legs up, her blue eyes tinted with the distant look she had last time.
But Yamuraiha let her legs back down after a minute of silence. Her head went up and her legs returned to their original spot. "But other than that, my final paper is due and I can't print it here." Suddenly she made a 180 and stared with pure fury at the wall. "If I don't turn that in, I'm not going to graduate!"
Sharrkan scoffed, causing the blue haired patient to direct her anger towards him. "What's so funny you good for nothing cop!" He threw his hands up at the berating of his job performance. "Hey now! For your information, I stopped a robbery on my break yesterday!" He puffed his chest with cocky pride. "The poor idiot had a weapon, too! Give me some credit!"
Yumu just rolled her eyes and leaned back on the bed. "Maybe I should just get the chemo right now. At least I won't have to listen to your annoying boasting." The white haired man copied, slumping in the comfy visitor chair. "You started it."
The two went back and forth for hours on end. Even when nurses came to check on her, bring her lunch, and draw blood for tests. No one could stop the two as they threw snappy comments and quick retorts, neither gaining any ground. And when the two weren't fighting, they chatted about trivial things. About the family of one of Sharrkan's coworkers to Yumuraiha's plans to work as a high school biology teacher. There was no dull moment between the pair, and that was okay.
But time is short and soon, Sharrkan had to leave. He left the same way since the day he first walked in on accident, a backhanded wave and a swift "See ya nerd." In which Yuma would reply "Make sure the door hits you one the way out."
The white haired man walked to his car in the massive parking lot, only pausing to look at the rows of windows that reflected the red sunset. In one, he had yet to find it though from here, was a woman of stubborn enough to resist his charm. One that never failed to get his mind going harder than any other. One day he always told himself as he climbed in his jeep, he would ask her out.
Sharrkan could see it now. A fancy dinner, Yamuraiha wearing a hat to cover her scars of chemo. He would pull a chair out to make room for her one on wheels. They would drink and bicker their familiar fights in more hushed and playful tones, he mused as he turned the keys to the ignition. And as he pulled out of the parking lot to the highway, he thought of how it would feel to take her home and kiss her good night.
One day, but for now, he was okay with being her punching bag.
Yamuraiha sighed as she opened a book. It was an old one called "Atlas Shrugged", one of her favorites. She could pick it up and just read for hours, tucked away in the secrets and mysteries of the business and real world. She wondered if Sharrkan might consider reading it also, he might gain a brain cell or two. But he might have a little bit of unseen insight on the story, a new view. Maybe they could read it together when he came on Thursday after chemo?
He might be more interested in making fun of my shaved head, but it might be worth a try? And if she could leave and go home, she could invite him over to finish it over lunch? The thought was so strange, yet not so far fetched at second glance.
For the first time in years, the woman breathed and laughed. She wasn't falling, but she wasn't oblivious. It wasn't the drugs that kept the pain low and her senses from reacting properly. No, it was something more. A force that made her fight harder, to fight her more than a friend once again. She couldn't call it love just yet, it wasn't fully grown yet. But when this was all over, when they both they could truly use their time to figure it out.
When they both could feel whole again.