-eight-

"I'll see if I can get my dance teacher to give me the day off tomorrow and I'll get on the train tonight…" Bex said on the phone as she stood outside the dance room. "Finn trust me, if I explain the situation, guaranteed I'll get the day off."

"Did you know…? Is that why you never said anything Saturday…? Did you know?" Finn asked, trying to keep it together.

"I knew she had it yeah… she hasn't told me the results yet… please don't be angry with her, she made me promise not to say… anyway I thought it would be better coming from her anyway." Bex said quietly.

"Yeah well she's not gonna get better." He said, his voice cracking.

"Wh-what do you mean…?" Bex said as she felt her heart and stomach drop. She knew this was an inevitability, but Sam, her friend of only recent months, she was just a kid, she didn't deserve to have her life cut short.

She felt tears come to her eyes as Finn said; "She's dying."

She instantly felt three different pairs of arms wrap around her and she looked into the faces of her friends Hannah, Lucy and Jade.

Jade tried to take the phone but Bex wouldn't let her. "Where is she now…?"

"Probably still at home… I ran like the bloody coward I am…"

"Listen… you're not a coward alright…? I…it's a lot to take in…"

"She didn't even tell me she had it!"

"Finn… it's not your fault or hers… she was scared… Where are you..?"

"Home…"

"Stay there… I'll be back in Rochdale in an hour."

"Only takes you half an hour…"

"I need to get things sorted. Stay there and don't... for god's sake, don't do anything stupid."

Finn stayed quiet, looking around the room.

"Swear to me!"

"Yeah fine… I swear…" he muttered. What he wanted to do was trash the room, or do something to himself.

Bex nodded and hung up, put her phone in her pocket and then she wiped her eyes.

"What's going on? Why do you need to go back?" Jade asked.

"My friends there need me…" Bex said, composing herself and she managed to hold back the tears.

"Why? What's happening? We'll come with you if they need someone to kick someone's ass." Hannah said.

Bex smiled a little and shook her head. "It's not that… It's something personal… I just need to be there. Tell Michelle that regardless of what she says I ain't gonna be here tomorrow." She said, knowing Michelle, the dance teacher wasn't going to be pleased without a reason.

"She'll go mad." Lucy said.

Bex started walking towards the rooms they shared with other students. "If I get hell from her so be it. I don't really care. She ain't getting the reason out of me, not until I can be absolutely sure." She said, walking into her own room and she grabbed an overnight bag, shoving clothes in it, not bothering with make up or anything. She grabbed her handbag and walked back out again, her 3 friends following her.

"Who was that on the phone and what did he say?" Hannah asked.

"It was one of my friends… you know Finn? The one I always said I was close to…? Well it's not my place to say right now…. But he needs me… and so does Sam…" Bex sighed.

The three girls nodded and walked with her toward the train station. The girls hugged each other and Bex stood back, walking on to the train and she took her seat by the window, waving at her friends as the train departed minutes later.

Bex sat in silence, Finn's words going round in circles inside her brain, she couldn't take it in, didn't want to believe that Sam was being cruelly taken from them when she had so much to live for. She fumbled in her pockets for her phone and she sent a message to Finn, saying she'd just got on to the train.

Within minutes of the message being sent, he called her.

"Hey…" she said quietly as she answered it.

"Hey…" He sounded defeated, which worried Bex. Nothing ever got him that low… not even when he and Sam split for those brief couple of days last term.

"Where do you want me to meet you…?" she asked quietly, not letting her worry show in her voice.

"Just come straight to mine…" he muttered. "I ain't going out there not now."

"Yes you are… Sam needs you right now more than ever."

"What if I can't stand by her? I'm gonna have to sit back, do nothing and watch while my girlfriend slowly dies in front of me." He said harshly.

Bex closed her eyes as more tears came to her eyes. It reminded her of how helpless she felt watching as her grandfather went through the same thing when she was aged just fifteen, and then watched the horror of the stroke that finally took his life. "I know that feeling…" she muttered after a few moments' silence. "Having to watch somebody you love go through that… not knowing what to do, how to help them, also knowing there's nothing you can do to stop it from happening…"

Finn nodded, then realised she couldn't see him. "Yeah… How do you know?"

"Cause about three or four years ago I watched the same illness claim my granddad… I was 15 when he died… The tumours were killing him anyway but it was a stroke that killed him in the end…" Bex muttered, wiping her eyes when she realised her tears had started falling again.

"Sorry…" he muttered.

"It's fine… he's not in pain anymore and he's with my nan… so I know he's not alone up there now…" she said shakily.

The pair talked for the rest of the train journey until the train arrived into Rochdale train station and Bex got off, carrying her bag with her. "I'm here now… so I'll see you in a bit..." she said, walking out of the train station.

"Okay…" Finn said, even though he didn't want her to go yet.

"I'll be with you in about 15 minutes okay…" Bex said, running across the road to the bus that had stopped to let people off.

Finn said nothing.

"Finn..?" Bex said, showing her bus pass to the driver as she got onto the bus and quickly took her seat.

"Yeah okay.." Finn muttered.

Neither of them knew what else to say. And neither would be able to until they saw each other again.

Bex sighed quietly and she hung up, putting her phone in her pocket. She stared out of the window at the scenery passing, people taking, children laughing and playing, yet all she could think about was the pain her friends were going through, and she didn't feel much like smiling.

Bex got off at her stop and she made her way down the street. She took her phone from her pocket once more and texted Finn saying; "I'm almost there, come let me in x" and then put the phone away again.

Finn looked as he heard his phone on the table. He picked it up and read the message, sighing heavily. He got up and walked out of the room, down the stairs and to the front door, opening it and standing in the door way.

When Bex got there she saw him. He was stood there looking so lost, so scared; she'd never seen him like that before. She had never seen him look like the little boy he so obviously was behind all the front. She quickly walked over to him and hugged him tightly.

Finn watched her, and clung to her once she hugged him. He clung to her as though afraid she would disappear if he so much as thought of letting go.

No words were needed between them; the pair stood in the doorway, in each other's arms and cried.