"I called your mom," Charlie said, lounging in the recliner. Casey didn't answer. "You have told them about this haven't you?" Lola, before she got married you promised Mary and me you'd tell her about the cancer in case something like this happened. What if this happened there, and no one knew? It could've gotten far worse than this." Charlie scoffed in frustration.
"I didn't want them feeling sorry for me." The nurses came and went, checking blood pressures, and temperatures to see if any medications have altered. Casey didn't feel any changes except her drowsiness. 'Why can't I fall asleep then?' she asked herself. There was a knock on the door, and Charlie gave a light, "Come in." Four Venturis and two Macdonalds came through. Nora went to hug her daughter, sobbing. "My poor baby." Casey closed her eyes, not hugging her back, but groping the covers.
Marti tugged at her hand, "Are you sick?" Casey nodded, "I'm afraid so sweetie." Casey smoothed the little girl's hair down with a forced smile, "I'll be better in no time though." "How serious is it?" asked George. "The doctors think they can stopper it with a stem cell transplant," said Charlie. "They just have to find a donor." Casey piped up, "With only a 25 recovery with or without the treatment." Everyone stared at her as if she were an outsider trying to probe inside their little world. Which coincidently was pretty much what she was trying to do.
But she didn't want Charlie only giving them good news, this was happening to her. And if they wanted to be part of it then they were going to have to know the good and the bad as well.
"Who's going to call the school?" asked Casey, trying to change the subject. "I already did, so don't even worry about it," Charlie said patting Casey's side. She watched Edwin and Lizzie fighting over the recliner, but enjoying themselves at the same time. Casey smiled to herself, remembering her and Troy Allen's fights like that when they were young.
She stopped listening to the adults entirely, only listening to the dripping of her I.V. "What do you think of that Lola?" Charlie asked. "What?" Casey snapped, displeased about being thrown out of her daydreams. Charlie frowned slightly at her tone.
"Would you just like to take your treatment at your house?" Casey locked eyes with Charlie. 'He knows damn well that's not what I want.' She sighed, "Do I have a choice in any of this?" "It'd be easier, mostly everyone has to go to school over here. And your dad has to go to Tokyo on business." "I could stay with Sandra." Charlie coughed, disbelieving Casey's lack of respect. But not really blaming her. "I'm sure she'd like that," Derek said. "Unlike the company of you, I'm sure," Casey jeered back.
Derek sunk down in his chair, sulking silently. "How long will the treatment take?" Nora asked. "About twelve weeks, give or take a few days," Charlie replied.
"You know I've been thinking, Sandra shouldn't be the only one helping with Casey during the day. Maybe we can arrange the teachers to give us homework for a few weeks at a time, so that would be able to have Derek down there to help. Neither one of them will fall behind, and Casey can help tutor Derek when she's bored. That way everyone's happy," suggested George. "That actually might be a good idea," Charlie thought out loud. "So it's settled?" asked Nora. Casey sat up, "Don't I get a say in all this?" "Yep, you can say thank you to Sandra for helping out," said Charlie.
Near six Casey was already tucked into a plush couch, her arms crossed, still peeved with Charlie. She could tell Derek wasn't quite happy with the arrangements either. For he was sitting opposite her, and hadn't said a word since they had all loaded into the car.
It was weird, nothing had really changed. Everyone acted as if she wasn't going to die. Except when her mother had to pull a sob-fest. Casey didn't know whether to be glad that they were acting normal around her, or to be enraged, because yet again she was the nobody of her mediocre family. What the hell was George thinking? Derek wasn't going to help her, and even in the short day she spent at the hospital. She could feel her first doses of the chemo already weakening her.
The walk to the car was torturous enough, the mere marrow in her bones were throbbing when she sat down. It felt as though she were going to break apart. 'How am I suppose to get to the bathroom?' she asked herself in annoyance. Did everyone actually believe that Derek was going to take her? Her face turned red at the thought of it. She looked over at him, who was looking over the TV and not at it. "You okay?" she asked, surprised by her actions. Apparently so was he, because he jumped from the couch a little bit. "What?" he monotonely snapped.
"I just wanted to know if you were okay, you seemed out of it. Sorry." She turned over on the couch, so Derek couldn't see how upset he made her. He left her like that for awhile, then slowly and silently got up. He approached her and kneeled beside her. He was close enough to smell her pungent sweetness. Over the last year the details in her defined, each curvature of her was deafening. After finding these recent things out about her, he realized he didn't know as much about her as he thought he did.
That's what was so great about his arrangement, now he had the chance to get to know her better. He leaned over her. Seeing that she was in a slumber. He touched her arm, sensing how cold her skin had become. He blew on it, trying to warm her. He leaned in even closer to her, and achieved the bravery of licking the underside of her ear. Casey bolted upright, nearly smacking Derek in the forehead. "What're you doing?" Derek stood, humiliated, "I'm sorry." He left the room, leaving Casey to ponder the entire situation.