Ashley
It was the middle of the day. Dad, Kate and I were the only ones home. Marie was downtown, Mom was at work, Evan was at his place and my sisters were at school. I was walking down the hall on my way to get something to eat from the kitchen, when I heard something from the bathroom. I immediatly knew it was Kate.
Of course Mom wasn't home. She was never home when Kate was sick.
Because Kate had been sick on and off for the past week, she'd lost more weight. This was partially due to the fact that somehow, because of her leukemia, her spleen was enlarged causing her to feel full. And, she'd been so sick she hadn't been able to keep a thing down. She'd lost quite a bit of weight due to this and had been bleeding a lot, which meant that at any given moment either Evan or Dad drove Kate and Anna to the hospital so Anna could give her more platelets in order to make up for what she'd lost. Mom hadn't told Anna what was really going on each time they went to the hospital, just that we were going to help Kate. Along with being sick and bleeding, she'd also been tired lately and more bruises had appeared. Because of her leukemia, her body didn't work the way it was supposed to. Bruises were formed by bleeding under the skin; Kate's blood didn't clot which meant her bruises didn't go away.
When I got to the bathroom door I knocked on it and put my ear to it.
"Kate?" I asked: "honey? It's Ashley. Can I come in?"
Inside I heard vomiting.
I turned the knob, opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind me.