Chapter 4

Thursday couldn't have come soon enough. Josh had spent two whole days staring at her empty seat in math and checking the boy's bathroom just to make sure she wasn't there, even though he already knew that she wouldn't be. He wondered why she didn't want him visiting her for two days, but he didn't dwell on it. Instead, he spent most of his waking hours, and even some of his sleeping ones, thinking about her.

As soon as the bell rang, Josh raced out of his English class and bolted out of the building. He didn't even bother to stop at his locker to get any books he needed for homework. He didn't care.

Josh got to his car and began to rummage through his backpack for his keys.

"Where are they?" He grumbled to himself.

"You know, talking to yourself is a sign of insanity," Lori said as she walked up behind him.

"What do you want?" He asked, finally grabbing his keys out of his bag. He jammed the key into the lock and turned it.

"How about, Hi Lori, beloved sister of mine. How are you today?"

"What do you want?" He repeated, opening the creaky door.

"I need a ride home," she answered, walking around to the passenger side.

"No way," he said, placing his backpack onto the passenger seat and getting into the car.

"Josh! I'm your sister!"

"I've got somewhere to be."

"Ah…let's not forget who your chauffer was to and from school before you had this beat up piece of junk you call a car."

"Ah…mom. Besides, where's your car?"

"I let Kyle take it. He said he had somewhere he had to be."

"And you let him go with that lame excuse? You'd never let me take your car if I said that."

"That's because, unlike you, Kyle is responsible."

"Are you trying to tick me off or get me to give you a ride?"

"Josh, come on," Lori pleaded, pouting.

"Ask Declan."

"He's got the flu. He left school early. Josh, it'll take two minutes."

He sighed, leaned over, and unlocked her door.

"Get in."

Lori hopped in the car, pushing Josh's backpack on the floor.

"Hey, be careful with that!" He yelled.

"What's in there? A ton of bricks?"

Josh started the car.

"None of your business."

He pulled out of the parking spot and peeled out of the parking lot.

"Where are you going anyway?" Lori asked.

"What part of none of your business don't you understand?"

"God, PMS much?"

They drove the rest of the way to their house in silence. Josh barely stopped the car before he practically pushed Lori out. Once the car door had banged shut, he slammed his foot down on the gas.

As soon as he saw her, he smiled. She was lying in her bed, her head turned away from him and towards the window. He could tell that she was sleeping.

He walked as quietly as possible into the room, not wanting to wake her. He noticed the metal folding chair that he had sat in before had now been replaced by a plush, blue arm chair. He put his backpack down on the floor next to the chair and then placed the vase of wildflowers he had stopped to buy after dropping Lori off, on the shelf. The flowers that were there before had obviously been discarded and Josh smiled that his had now taken their spot. He took a step closer to her bed and saw that she looked paler than when he had seen her just two days ago, but watching her chest rise and fall comforted him.

He tucked a piece of hair that rested on her cheek behind her ear. Just looking at her made him smile. Hesitantly, he leaned over and kissed her lightly on the cheek. He wanted to talk to her, but he didn't have the heart to wake her. Instead, Josh dragged the chair closer to the bed and sat down, watching her sleep.

"Take a picture, it lasts longer," she muttered with her eyes still closed. He could see the smile forming on her lips.

"Hey," he said, also smiling.

She opened her eyes slowly and focused on him. He was closer to her than she realized he had been and it made her want to reach out to him and just touch him, but she didn't.

"I brought you something," he stated.

"You brought me flowers?" She asked, noticing the flowers on the shelf.

"Yeah," he replied, looking from the flowers to her.

"I'm impressed."

"Why's that?"

"I never taught you to bring a girl flowers."

"I'm not totally clueless, you know."

"I beg to differ, but they are beautiful," she complimented. "Wildflowers are my favorite."

"Yeah, well, I thought about roses, but wildflowers seemed more…Andy. But I brought you more than that."

He opened his bag and pulled out a bag of sour patch kids.

"You remembered."

"Of course I did. And wait, there's more."

He pulled out not only his laptop, but a second laptop as well.

"Where'd…how…how'd you get two laptops?" Andy asked as Josh plugged in one of the laptops into a wall socket and set it up on the end of the bed.

"I borrowed one from Kyle," Josh explained. "I figured you were probably going through G-Force withdrawal."

She smiled, her usual smile that told him that he did something right. As Josh began to plug in the second laptop, Nurse Linda walked into the room with a small cup in her hand.

"Hey there Andy. Just Josh," she said in her usual perky voice. "Glad to see you've returned to visit."

"Hi," Andy replied, her smile fading.

She put the small cup on the table next to Andy's bed.

"Just need a little more blood, Andy. And you've got to take your medication."

Andy put out her left arm as Nurse Linda prepared it to take blood. She wiped Andy's arm with an alcohol swab and then wrapped an elastic chord around Andy's upper arm.

"So, Josh, how did you and Andy meet?" Nurse Linda asked, getting a needle out of a nearby drawer.

"We…ah…we go to school together," Josh answered, not able to take his eyes off what Nurse Linda was doing. He wanted to know everything about what was going on with Andy even if he didn't know what it all meant. "Not to mention that Andy's all but addicted to The Rack's banana guavas."

"Hold the wheat grass," Andy added.

"So how long have you been dating?" Nurse Linda asked.

"We're not dating," Andy quickly answered, gritting her teeth as Nurse Linda plunged the needle into her skin.

"Yet," Nurse Linda added as the vile began to fill with blood. "Alright, all done." She pulled the needle out of Andy's arm and placed a small piece of gauze over the sore spot.

Nurse Linda went to the other side of her bed and placed her arms under Andy's arms. She helped sit her up and then propped her pillows up so that she could sit comfortably. Andy's head began to throb, but she tried to ignore it. She reached over to the pitcher of water by her bed and lifted it. She tipped it to pour it into an empty cup, but her muscles gave way and she dropped it. The plastic container banged loudly against the floor and the water splashed everywhere.

"I'm sorry," Andy apologized, beginning to feel the tears stinging at her eyes. She turned her head away, not wanting Josh to see her.

"It's okay, Andy," Nurse Linda said, much like the mother of a crying toddler.

Nurse Linda went into the attached bathroom and grabbed some paper towels. She quickly wiped up the mess and refilled the pitcher in the bathroom sink. She poured Andy a new glass of water and waited for her to take her pills.

"Let me guess, G-Force, right?" Nurse Linda asked, pointing to the laptop.

"How'd you know?" Josh asked.

"Andy talks about it more than anything else…well, except maybe you, Josh." She winked at him. "Don't let her beat you too badly."

She laughed before walking out of the room.

"I'm sorry you had to see all that," Andy apologized yet again, still unable to look at him. He noticed her wiping her eyes, obviously trying to make her tears disappear.

He wanted to comfort her, but he didn't quite know how. Instead, he said the only thing that came to his mind.

"Andy…why didn't you want me to visit you until today?"

"I thought you came here to play G-Force, not to interrogate me."

"I came here to be your friend." She didn't say anything. "Andy…"

"I don't want to talk about it," she insisted still not looking at him.

"Why?"

"Damn it, Josh!" She finally looked over at him. Tears stained her cheeks. "You think this is so easy. You think that talking about it will make it better, but it doesn't! Talking about chemo doesn't make it better! Nothing makes it better! I'm too weak to even sit up by myself! I can't even lift a pitcher of water! Yesterday I couldn't even pick up my fork to feed myself! I'm helpless!"

She buried her face in her hands. Josh stood, wrapped his fingers around her wrists, and slowly brought her hands away from her face.

"You're not helpless." He wiped a tear from her cheek with his thumb. "And I know this isn't easy. I'm not going to pretend that I know what you're going through, but I want to help you. Just tell me what I can do."

She paused and then smirked.

"You can set up G-Force and watch me kick your ass."

"That I can do."

Josh finished setting up the two laptops. He placed one on Andy's lap and then sat back down in the chair.

"Hey Josh."

"Yeah?"

"Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?"

"Don't let me win because I'm sick."

"You're on."

Author's Note:

This was one of my favorite chapters to write so far. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!