Chapter 2: Do I Tell Them?

"MAI!" Yasu yelled once he saw me. Osamu Yasuhara, a senior and my bestest friend. We've known each other since we were in the first grade together. Yes, Yasu is a 17 year old senior who will be graduating in May and going to university next fall. Believe it or not, we were in the same grade in elementary school. Until the end of fifth grade when the teacher advanced him to the seventh grade while everyone else went to sixth. We were also neighbors, until my parents passed away in 8th grade, just after I beat my cancer. I moved in with a teacher until I hit sophomore year, when I got a job and moved out on my own. Though, she still checks up on me from time to time.

"Hey Yasu," I said cheerfully.

"What's wrong?"

Damn. He knows me too well sometimes.

I look at Keiko and Michiru, who were talking with John a few feet away from us. "I'll tell you later."

Yasu was the first one to know about the cancer back in 8th grade. He was my biggest support outside my family. It wasn't until I started losing my hair and losing weight that my other friends caught on. Luckily, I was able to beat it back then. But, this time around it's hitting even harder. I won't be able to keep it from my friends for very long. I'm already starting chemo next week. I just found out a few weeks ago, December 25th to be exact, that it came back. But starting the chemo so quickly this time around doesn't surprise me. Kick it hard in the butt and beat it quickly. That's my goal.

John, Keiko and Michiru joined us and we made our way to the new tea shop that just opened last week. We've been dying to try it since it opened. Seeing as it's Friday, what better day to visit a tea shop when you don't have to worry about school in the morning?

After we ordered our drinks and sat down at a table, Keiko and Michiru stared at me before bombarding me with questions.

"What's he like?" "Is he all that scary?" "What were you guys talking about?" "What took you so long to join us?"

"GUYS! Slow down." I told them.

"Who's this guy, Mai?" Yasu asked me. Always being the protective older brother.

I sighed before starting. "In english class, Miss Matsuzaki paired us up for a novel project. Partners that she already chose. She paired me with Kazuya."

"Ooh!" Yasu's eyes grew wide with excitement as he propped his elbows on the table and placed his head in his palms. "Deets please!"

"Well…" Do I tell them about the Shakespeare thing? Might as well, right? "It started off kinda awkward. Then I saw a book sticking out of his backpack. I asked him what it was and he pulled it out to show me. It was Romeo and Juliet. He called it 'light reading during lunch'."

"Wait…" Keiko said, "he reads Shakespeare for fun?!"

"Is he in theatre?" Michiru asked.

"He never said," I told my captive audience. "Though, he did recite Romeo's monologue from the Capulet's Garden just before Juliet appears on the balcony by memory."

"WHAT!?" Keiko, Michiru, Yasu and even John exclaimed.

"Yeah. I was surprised, too."

"What happened next?" Yasu asked.

"We talked about the play until the bell rang."

Keiko eyed me. "So you guys got NO work done?"

I smiled a bit. "Yeah."

"PLEASE tell me you got his number!" Michiru said.

"No. But I gave him mine after you and Keiko left. We never discussed what novel we would do, so I told him to just text me and we would talk about it."

Yasu flung his arm around me. "Oh Mai! Sparks are flying! I can see it now! You two would be ADORABLE together!"

I glanced at Yasu and gave him a weird look. "Seriously? I'm the school's poster girl for good behavior. He's a goth boy. Which means, he's possibly a bad boy."

Yasu looks at me from the top of his glasses. "The good girl always falls for the bad boy Mai. Always does."

"Yasu, this isn't a high school romance movie!"

Michiru spoke up then. "He's right Mai. And besides, when we were in class, I looked over at you to see how you were doing and I definitely agree with Yasu. You two look perfect together. You really would make an amazing couple."

My eyes grew wide at her. Please tell me they are not planning what I think they're planning! "Guys, just forget about it alright. I know what you're thinking and I'm perfectly fine being single. I want to focus on school."

"Mai," Keiko sighed. "Sometimes you just have to forget about school sometimes and follow your heart!"

"My heart is saying NOTHING!" I tell her.

"Just wait," John chimes in. "Once you get to know Kazuya, your thought might change."

"Please tell me you're not on the bandwagon too, John."

He smiles at me. "I've seen Kazuya at lunch and in the halls during passing periods. He's always alone. I think you hanging out with him would do him some good. And being around him could, in the long run, do you some good as well, Mai."

I faceplant on the table. Great. All my friends are officially on this boat Keiko and Michiru built. I will seriously strangle them one day.

After an hour of trying to get them off my back about the Kazuya situation, John, Keiko and Michiru left. Yasu, however, stayed behind.

"Now that they're gone, what's going on?" Yasu said, entering big brother mode.

It took all I had to not burst into tears at that moment. "Yasu…. My cancer…. It's back."

"What?" He said softly. "But you've been in remission for…"

"Three years. My chances for it to come back decrease as time goes on. Usually once you hit five years, you've got an 85% of it not coming back. Guess I'm in that other 15%."

"When'd you find out?"

"Christmas day."

"Damn."

"Yeah. I start chemo next week."

"You gonna do the whole bald thing again? Or are you gonna get a wig?"

"I was thinking a wig. No one else at school, except for the nurse, knows that it's back. I'd like to keep it like that for a while."

Yasu nods.

"Can you go with me to get my wig? And to my first chemo session?"

Yasu pulls me into a hug. "Of course, Mai. Big brother Yasu will always be here for you."

A/N: Ah! Thank you all so much! I'm so glad you guys liked my first chapter and practically begged me to update! Now that HHNFLAWS is nearing it's end, I'll be posting chapters of that frequently. Plus this story just has me going right now. So I'm planning on alternating updates until HHNFLAWS is complete. One chapter for one story per day. HHNFLAWS has priority, so I won't update this until I have the next update for that story first. So if you're following both stories, expect an email at least once a day about an update! That's all for now! Next chapter I plan on flipping between Naru (or should I say Kazuya?) and Mai's POV.

Until then!