Chapter Three.
I rushed, combing my hair up into a loose ponytail then running out of the tour bus to my mom who had a taxi waiting. We were going back to LA for the day off, which I'd normally be happy about, but this was going to be my first appointment of chemotherapy. That always puts a downer on the visit.
Normally we'd go to a hospital near us and just get the papers transferred over, but considering this was my first time I was nervous enough. Adding the fact that I wouldn't know the doctor performing the task would only make me more nervous.
"I'm not ready," I spoke so softly, so afraid, that it even scared me.
The cab kept moving even when I wanted it to stop so badly. A part of my wanted to crawl back in bed. The part of me that knew I had to face this wanted to go grab Nick's hand. I guess both of those options weren't available anymore.
"I'm here, you know that right?"
I nodded, turning up the volume to my iPod. My mom was definitely more nervous than I was. If anything, I wanted to trade her for Nick. At least he could make me feel better about all of this.
"Miley," the regular doctor I'd seen a total of three times gave me a soft smile as me and my mom walked over. I wanted to know how he could do this. How he could save and ruin peoples lives at the same time.
"What's up, Doc?" I forced out a joke.
He shook his head, leading us to the room. "You're one of a kind... Nothing, you?"
"Oh, nothing."
"How's tour?"
"Sharing a bus with two people who hate each other is just dandy, already," I told him sarcastically. "Throw your ex-boyfriend into the mix and it's just great. Fantastic. Enchanting."
"Sounds like a blast."
I laughed a little. "I actually, somehow, still love it."
"Do they know where you are?"
"Nope, I just left. I walked out of the bus."
My mom's head snapped over to me, her eyes wide. "You didn't, did you?"
"Yeah. I got up and left."
"They're gonna have a heart attack when they wake up," she hissed. I never thought of that part. Oh, well. "Right now, text them where you are."
I rolled my eyes at how dramatic she was being before pulling out my phone.
Hey, sorry I left. It was just really early. Family emergency. Explain later. Love youu.
There. That should buy me some times to think of a legit excuse. Except for the fact that Noah was still on the bus... Too bad. No time to think it over now.
"Ready?" He explained the procedure.
"No."
"Miley, you can do this, okay?" He was lying to me. I could feel it. I couldn't do this at all. Ask me to go perform for a million people, fine, no problem. Ask me to go through chemo, ha, funny.
I closed my eyes, wincing as the needle skimmed my skin. I wasn't ready for this.
:::
"What the hell, where were you this morning?" Demi snapped as I walked in.
"Chill out, I told you, family emergency."
"No, you didn't. You texted fucking Nick, while I'm sitting here worry my ass off about you just to-"
"Demi! I'm not in the mood," I whispered, going to my bunk. Thank God we had today off.
She followed me, still fuming as she yelled some more. "What could be so damn important that you forgot to text me."
"I'm not in the mood, Demi," I told her firmly. "Now go pretend not to like Joe or something, because all I want to do is sleep, alright?"
"You're such a fucking asshole," she muttered before turning to leave. I glanced at Selena as I waved at her. She eyed my hand carefully before smiling back a little. I could see the look in her eyes as she analyzed Demi and I. She thought we could be the two worst best-friends ever. But underneath all the fighting, we really did love each other.
"Nick was freaking out," she told me.
I looked up at her surprised that she said anything about Nick. He was kind of in the off-topic list between us. Better yet, he was the off-topic list between us. She stared at me, a small smile on her face.
"Why?"
"You know he cares about you more than anyone. He was worried something was wrong."
I slowly nodded, looking away. No, he didn't care about me more than everyone. He certainly didn't care about me more than her. "Everything's fine."
"Doesn't seem like it. Cancer?"
"What?" I spat, my entire mood darkening as I took three swift steps so I was standing straight in front of her. Who the hell did she think she was? And how the hell did she know?
She shook her head. "You're being stupid. This is putting your health at risk and you know it. You can't do a tour with-"
"Don't say it," I snapped, glaring at her. "I don't have it, alright? Set your facts straight."
"Oh," She rose her eyebrows, grabbing my wrist and holding it up for me to see. "I'm pretty sure they are. But let's double check," she pulled my wrist closer, reading the small font. "Cancer outpatient center. Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's cancer."
I stared at the hospital band and knew that any excuse I might have wasn't good enough this time. Shit. How could I forget about that?
"I'd take that off before you perform."
I didn't say anything, simply looking down. The person I wanted to find out first wasn't Selena. Actually, I didn't want her to find out at all.
"Miley," she called back to me. I glanced up, her eyes begging me to listen to this one statement. "Tell Demi. Please. She's gonna break down soon. She's really worried about you."
"Selena, come here," I finally mustered out, walking over to the couch. She actually listened to me for once, sitting beside me as I really looked into her eyes for the first time. She really was a normal person. "You can't tell anyone, alright?"
"I figured."
"And you can't make it obvious. No clues."
"I know, Miley." I caught her almost roll her eyes at me. "Still, I really think you should tell Demi."
"I'll tell Demi eventually. Chill out," she smiled.
"But-"
"Hey, this is my decision, okay? Why do you even care so much about Demi, anyways? Didn't you push her away?" I knew it was low and I was acting immature by trying to make her feel bad in order to back down, but I couldn't help it. She was trying to get involved in business that wasn't hers.
To my surprise, she didn't back down, though. She sat there, shaking her head as if I didn't understand the simplest thing in the world. "She's mad at me. I'm not mad at her," she told me softly before pausing for a few seconds. "Besides, I'll always care."
"Why?"
"You still care about Nick after five years," she pointed out. "Me and Demi not only had two years of being best-friends, but ten. Ten years is too long to let something slip away."
"Me and Nick have absolutely nothing going on," I fought. "We're so 2006."
She rose her eyebrows before scoffing a little. "Yeah. Right."
"We-"
"Miley, shut up," she laughed a little. Maybe it was wrong to hate her. "We both know you two always have something going on."
"Yeah, a good friendship," I smiled. But the word felt so odd coming out of my mouth. Friendship.
:::
"Noah, stop it!" I scolded as she ran around my dressing room again with her stupid toy. I really wasn't in the mood today. I don't think the chemo had worn off yet and I was just a tad irritable.
"I can do what I want," she shot back as I rolled my eyes at her immaturity.
"I'll tell mom," I threatened as she paused, hesitating to think. "And you know who's side she'll take."
"Who could forget?" She mumbled, beginning to walk out of the room.
I stepped in front of her. That wasn't fair. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Everyone always take your side. You always steal the attention," she glared at me. I bit my lip. I didn't mean to make Noah so mad, so hurt, but I couldn't help it. I didn't ask for the attention.
"It's just lately with the-"
"No. Not lately. You've always gotten the attention!" She suddenly screamed at me. "I can't do anything good enough to outshine Miley. Miley this, Miley that. You aren't the only person in the world!"
"I-I'm sorry, Noah," I whispered softly. "I swear, I didn't-"
"I get it, okay? You don't mean to, you never mean to. I get that. But it doesn't make it any easier!"
"Noah-"
"Your famous, that's great! But what makes you anymore special than the rest of us?" She continued her rant. "Why do you get so much more attention?"
"This isn't a competition!"
"It is to me! Because the past five years I put up with you stealing it all, then this tour comes along and it's finally my turn to get the spotlight in the family, then we need to go with you! It isn't fair!" She threw her hands up.
"Do you even care that I have cancer?" I shot at her. "I could fucking die, but – wait – as long as Noah gets her attention it's okay!"
Noah went to say something just as my mom stepped between us. I don't think either of us noticed how close we were together or how intense our stares were until my mom came and broke it up. If she didn't I honestly thought I would have hit her. I would have never been able to forgive myself, but I would have slapped her with a few more comments like the ones she'd been giving.
"What is going on?" My mom hissed as Noah and I just glared at each other. She shook her head. "Alright, Noah, c'mon. Nick! Demi!" She yelled walking out the door. "I want you guys to talk to her. I don't know what just went down."
Demi glared at me a little, obviously still mad, but then she sighed, giving me a hug.
"I don't mean to steal her attention."
"We know," Nick promised me.
I leaned in towards him, wrapping my arms around him while Demi rubbed my back.
"What happened?" Demi asked me softly.
"She hates me," I shook my head, leaning in farther to Nick, the only one who had been there since before I was so famous. "I can't believe I let it get this far. She hates me."
"She could never hate you, Sweetie," he murmured, kissing the top of my head gently. Now wasn't the time for one of those looks Demi was giving me.
"She does, though," I stood up, needing to get away from them. Nothing they could say would make me change my mind. This was my fault. Everything was. I walked away to the one person that I knew they wouldn't follow me to. Nick would be too stunned and Demi didn't go within hearing distance of her. I didn't want to hear how Noah didn't know what she was talking about. No, it wasn't Noah's fault this time. It was mine.
"Hey, Sel," I murmured, not bothering to look behind me.
"Hey," she forced out a smile. I knew she was curious as to why I was there, why Demi and Nick looked so shocked behind me. "You alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just had to get away from them."
She nodded, accepting that answer. "I was actually just about to go to my dressing room for awhile, but if you wanna come with that'd be cool."
"Sure," I followed her, not even wanting to see the glare that was on Demi's face right now. She'd be pissed. No, she'd be more than pissed. She'd be ready to bury my ass into the ground.
Once we were in there I sat down on the couch as she put on some music before turning to look at me again. "Why are you so pissed off?"
I sighed. I don't know what possessed me to tell her, but something did. "You know Noah?"
"Your little sister?"
I nodded. "Well, this tour was supposed to be her time with my mom and dad. They were both just gonna stay home and be with her. But, because of the cancer, I needed someone with me. So, she never got that quality time and she hates me so much right now, and all Demi and Nick are saying is that she doesn't hate me."
"Well does she honestly hate you?"
"Yes!" I snapped.
"Then fix it," she shrugged. I stared at Selena as she shrugged as if that was the simplest damn thing to do.
"How?"
"Take her up on stage with you. That will give her attention, and I'm sure your mom will easily praise her more than you if you explain it all. It's not that hard," she smiled.
I nodded. "That's a really good idea. Thanks, Selena."
"No problem, cancer girl."
"Selena."
"Too soon for jokes, huh?"
"Yeah."
She smiled, standing up. "Let's go make some people happy, yeah?"
I grinned back, following her out only to meet Demi. She grabbed my arm and I grabbed Selena's to make sure she stopped too.
"Can we talk?" she asked through clench teeth, a dark glare shooting at me.
"I-I'm kinda with Selena right now," I stuttered.
"Selena, come to the stage, please. On in five." Damn it. Stupid management. This wasn't the time to call her to the stage.
"Good, then you can talk," Demi hissed.
I closed my eyes, letting Selena go and following Demi to a corner.
"Dem-"
"Shut up," she spat out right away. You'd think I just killed her dog. "What the hell was that?"
this is for Bec:) this story my updated again... shortly. hmm. (: tell me what you think? who's your favorite character so far?
twitter/xwalkingonstars