Noah's Winter

Chapter Six

"I'm not hungry." I stated stubbornly. I was sitting up in bed in my blue hospital gown. My mom was trying to get me to eat some soup.

 "Winter you have not eaten in three days. You need to eat." 

"If I eat I'll throw up again." I shuddered at the thought. I had been throwing up left and right in the past week since the treatment. It seemed it was only making me worse. I ran a hand through my, now thin, red hair and I gritted my teeth at the handful of hair I was holding. My hair had been falling out in clumps since yesterday, another side affect. My other hand went to my almost bald head and I fought back the stinging in my eyes. My mom let out a frustrated sigh just as there was a light tap on the door. My mother averted her gaze from my hand to the door. She furrowed her eye brows in confusion. I looked up to see Ben standing in the door way. My boyfriend.

All my friends from school had visited me already and I had asked about Ben. Sarah, one of my closest friends, just shook her head, saying something about how I deserved better. She wouldn't explain what she meant, but I had a feeling it meant he didn't want anything to do with a cancer patient. I couldn't blame him though. Why would he want a girlfriend that was going to die soon?

 "Ben?" I asked. Maybe he decided he wanted to be with me after all. His gaze went from my hand full of hair, to my bald head, then back to my hand. I blushed in embarrassment. "Winter" he barley whispered. He began to back up slowly, shaking his head.

 "I-I c-can't. I'm sorry." and with that he sprinted out of the room.

After staring at the door in shock for about five minutes I just stood up and walked to the hallway. I thought I heard my mother call out my name, but I couldn't be sure. As I walked by a sign that said 'Cancer Ward' anger shot through me. I pulled the sign out of the slot and snapped it in half. I let it fall to the ground. I smiled but it didn't reach my tired eyes. It felt good to do that though, as if I were slapping cancer in the face, like it did to me.

"Ah, you must be new to cancer" I spun around only to see a girl around my age. She had light brown hair that looked like it was just growing back. She was skinny and her dark skin had a pasty color to it. You could tell that if she was healthy she'd be really pretty. Her green eyes looked up from the broken sign to mine, a smile on her face.

 "That's funny, because I did that exact same thing when I first found out. They are going to get tired of replacing those." She mused. She walked up to me and stuck out her hand for me to shake. 

"I'm Riley"

 "Winter" I smiled at her, and to my surprise, this smile did reach my eyes. I had a feeling I was going to like this girl. "C'mon Winter, I would like you to meet some friends of mine"