"Good news, baby," Mama wakes me up, "You can come home," She's grinning from ear to ear.
"Seriously?" I sit up, "Doctor Simons cleared me?" Mama nods and wraps her arms around me. A couple of weeks ago, the chemo made me too weak to move, but slowly I've been getting stronger. I have two weeks until my next cycle starts, so I get to enjoy being almost normal until then.
"Mom's pulling the car up out front. "Does that mean I can come to see Jesus on his home's family day?" It's next week.
"Well, we'll have to see how you're feeling, but hopefully," She brings over the wheelchair I've been using to get around the hospital and helps me into it. I can't believe it. I get to go home.
"Is Holly here? I want to say goodbye," Mama rolls me down the halls, "Or see you later, I guess,"
"It's her day off, I've left a bunch of flowers at the nurse's station for her, from all of us,"
"Hey, Gracie," Taylor's waiting at mama's car for us, holding a box of chocolates, "Miss me?"
"Oh my God!" I haven't seen Taylor in weeks because she's had the horrible chest infection, I wasn't allowed to be in the same room as her, "You didn't tell me you were better!" She takes my hands and I stand up and hug her tight, I want to kiss her but mama's standing right there and I'm not a huge fan of PDA.
"Okay, girls, Gracie, hop in, Taylor can you give me a hand getting the chair into the trunk please?" I have to use the wheelchair if I want to go out anywhere, which I doubt moms will let me do, I'm not even sure I'd want to go out in it, I don't want people staring at me like I'm a sad puppy.
As we pull up to the house, I see a huge banner strewn across the front porch with the words 'Welcome Home!' on it, as well as a bunch of balloons tied to the railings.
"Oh, god," I giggle, "Was this you too?" I turn to Taylor.
"I don't do things by halves, come on," She takes my hand and leads me inside, mama behind us, where my family are standing in the entryway. They all immediately start hugging me and fussing over me, exclaiming home good it is to have me home, I feel so loved, but it's all a little overwhelming.
"You're probably tired, come on, I'll take you to your bed," Taylor says, saving me.
"Thank you, I felt suffocated," She holds my hand as I lay back on my bed, "It's so good to see you and touch you again," I pull her hand onto my face.
"I've missed this," She lays back next to me, not moving her hand, she pulls the comforter up over us, "Just being next to you," She kisses my cheek.
"Me too," I roll onto my side to face her and rest my hand on her waist, she does the same, I kiss her, hard. She starts to put her hand up my shirt, "Wait," I get out of the bed.
"I'm sorry, is that too much?" I walk over to shut the door and I get back in the bed with her.
"Not at all," I kiss her again, and she picks up where she left off.
"I had a great night," Taylors fingers trace over my collar bone, as we stand on the porch.
"Really? Are you sure? I'm sorry that I didn't-,"
"Gracie, it's okay, I'll see you tomorrow?"
I smile, "See you," I give her a kiss goodnight. It was a great night. As soon as I close the door, I go into the living room where my family are sat, I ignore everyone and head right over to Callie and Mariana, I take their hands and yank them off of the couch and I pull them upstairs into our room.
"Gracie, what is it?" Callie asks, they look confused.
"Did you and Taylor fight? Did you break up?" Mariana questions me.
"No, uh," I hesitate, "Kind of the opposite, I guess," Mariana gasps and starts squealing and jumping up and down, "Calm down! I don't want moms to hear!"
"Wait so you had sex?" Callie asks. Callie's always been very blunt and to the point, but it makes me blush.
"Oh my God, this is so exciting!" Mariana tries to contain herself, but her enthusiasm is catching.
"I know! I can't believe it!"
"Mariana! Our baby sister just lost her virginity, this is not something to get excited about!" Here comes 'Conservative Callie'.
"Oh, come on, Callie, she's 16,"
"Yeah, I'm practically an adult,"
"Well, you are now," Mariana says, "So what was it like? Was it good? Were you nervous? Was she? Tell me everything!"
"Aren't you happy for me? I lost my virginity to the girl I love, it felt right, and I don't have any regrets, I need to talk to my sisters about this, I mean how old were you when you had sex for the first time?"
"Okay, fair enough, so go on, tell us all about it," She finally caves in.
"Okay, so it was good, like really good, I mean Taylor's got skills- "
"Too much information," Callie stops me.
"Sorry, okay so she did her… thing, you know like with her hand and then I did and then she did the thing with, you know her, whatever," I smile, trying to spare Callie of the details, "And yeah like I said, wow, but then it was my turn, for the, whatever,"
"And?" Mariana wants the details.
"I couldn't do it! I don't know, I got freaked out," Callie and Mariana cringe, "I know, I know, God, am I a terrible person?"
"No, not at all, just because you were ready for the other stuff doesn't mean you have to be ready for everything, and if Taylor's mad at you for that then honestly, then that's a problem," Callie says.
"She wasn't mad, actually she was pretty great about it, we just kind of moved on and then afterwards I told her I was sorry, and she didn't mind at all,"
"See it's fine! You decide when you're ready," Callie tells me.
"Okay good," I think for a moment, "It was so good!"
"Details!" Mariana says.
"My work here is done, I'm out," Callie leaves us, and I tell Mariana everything.
I texted Sophia and told her too, she was almost as excited as Mariana was. She's all settled in at her new school now, it's weird not having her around anymore, but we still talk all the time and I'm so happy for her.
My treatment is going well, my relationships are great, the only problem is Jesus. He's always in the back of my mind, I just hate the thought of him being in that horrible place with no family or friends around him. It's enough to drive you up the wall. But hopefully, I can go to family day with everyone tomorrow and see him, make sure he's not too messed up, and then after this weekend, he'll be coming home. Moms said that he would only have to stay in there for the duration of his community service, 2 weeks, which means Sunday night is his final night.
"Gracie, do you need anything?" Moms come into our room to say goodnight.
"No, I'm all good, just kind of tired," I blow out the candle on my nightstand.
"It's so good to have you home," Mama sits on my bed as mom takes my hand and kisses my head.
"Yeah it feels good, I've missed everything so much," I take a second to appreciate being in my own bed for a change, "When I go back for chemo, do I have to stay in the hospital?" I ask.
"We don't know, hopefully not, but it depends on how sick you get this time," Mom says.
"Goodnight sweetie," Mama kisses me.
"Night moms," I switch my lamp off drift off to sleep pretty quickly, I'm exhausted after my night with Taylor.