(Oh goodness, thank you again for all the new comments and nice words. It means a lot. And thank you all for being patient with me; I'm finally out of school but moving out takes a lot of time. Plus generally trying to enjoy myself before I get into full-timework again... Well anyways, I'm rambling so basically just thanks everyone :D )

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Despite having already resigned yourself to give clear indifference to your unwelcome roommate, John's smile is strangely dazzling. You feel as though you could get lost in the blue of his eyes, and a smirk is threatening to grace your lips but you quickly cut it off. All he sees is your emotionless face.

"Nice to meet ya John," you give a sharp nod of acknowledgement and then pick up your abandoned iPod, wondering what tunes you should listen to. You see him shift a bit in your peripheral, idly tracing his fingers on the spine of the book. He finally looks back up, smiling again, his nose crinkling up. "Well Dave, I hope we can be good friends while we stay here."

You nod again, not turning your face towards him. You don't want to be captured in those bright blue eyes again. You screw your eyes shut. 'What is wrong with me?'

John coughs a little bit nervously. "So…uh…can I ask you kind of a personal question?" he ask, turning his eyes onto his book, like it is suddenly very interesting and wrapping his feet together nervously.

You mull it over for a second and decide to indulge him. He wasn't as annoying as you thought a roommate would be. "Shoot for it."

"Well, obviously this is kind of the, uh…long time resident section of the hospital. I was just …curious as to what you are in here for?" he mutters, the end of the sentence harder to hear than the rest.

"Stomach cancer…" you think for a second, looking up at the ceiling, "It's like gastric cancer I think that's the more technical term…and if you want to get more technical it's some bigass fancy word that begins with an a…aden…oma…Fuck I don't care. It's probably from never using the fridge growing up and eatin shitty food. I'll be fine though, the tumor just doesn't want to leave this fine Strider body," you waggle your eyebrows a bit, which is lost in the coverage of your shades.

"That's good," he smiles brightly and then turns red, "I mean it's good that you will be fine! I didn't mean it is good you are here in the first place, I jus-" "Chill dude," you interrupt him. He's emitting a red just a shade lighter than your eyes, and making his blue eyes stand out even more against his scrawny face.

"So whatcha in here for?" You ask, wincing inwardly as your drawl starts coming out more. John calms down a bit and then sighs and flings himself back onto his pillows, staring up at the ceiling. "Cancer as well, though mine is a bit more serious. It's acute myelogenous leukemia. It affects my blood cells at a rapid rate. Sooo. I'm not sure how I will end up," he adds lightly sort of wiggling his feet back and forth.

Your stomach plummets and guilt creeping up on you for the way you blew off your cancer earlier. "Dude. What the fuck. What is the…survival rate for that kind of thing?" you ask seriously, swiveling your head so you can stare at his stretched out figure.

He shrugs "I mean, it dwindles with time and I didn't discover mine until it was already sort of progressed so I guess it's up in the air."

You purse your lips and look back at your iPod, suddenly not very interested in jams.

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You wake up violently and practically fall out of your bed in your scramble for the bathroom. You had your weekly chemo therapy earlier that day and even though you had tried not to eat much, something was still finding its way out of your stomach. You slam the door open, having completely forgotten you were sharing the room now and shove the lid up on the toilet, heaving violently.

"Dave…" you hear a groggy voice ask, effectively scaring you. You quickly forget that though as you start heaving some more. "Oh..Oh god, Dave are you alright?" John asks, waking up quickly and quickly coming to your side. He flutters his hands around uselessly before deciding to gather some of your hair up to make sure it doesn't make it's way into possible vomit. You feel your stomach flutter lightly as his hands brush against your neck but you figure that's just because your stomach is basically turning itself inside out currently.

After a while, you finally do vomit what little contents of your stomach you have. You suck in a shaky breath, wiping at your mouth with the sleeve of your pajamas. "Thanks," you say gruffly, pushing yourself up. John stands up besides you and looks into your eyes. You realize you don't have your shades on and feel naked. You shift nervously.

'He must think I am a freak'

John stares at you for a moment. "Your eyes are amazing, why do you hide them?" he asks seriously. You notice that he's shorter than you, by a few inches, making it easier for him to look up into your downcast face.

"Most people would not agree with you John," you lightly say, looking down. He looks down as well, your attitude clearly making him nervous. "Let's just go back to bed, sorry for waking you up."

You both start walking towards your respective beds when you hear John's footsteps stop suddenly. "Dave…" you hear something wrong in his voice and you spin around. "What is it?" you inquire nervously. John raises up his hands "Uh…" But you see what he's noticed.

Some of your blonde hair is splayed across his pale, slender hands.

(So I had originally planned for this to be a chapter long thing or two chapter thing but I guess that's out of the question now. Hope you enjoy. It's shorter than I wanted it to be, but I had to get into the groove of writing again. )