Surviving Cancer

Monday, October 30

LEVI POV

"Hey." I said as I wrapped my arm around Emma's waist while she put her books in her locker.  I kissed her on the cheek settling against the locker beside hers.

"Hey what you doing here?" She asked, flashing a smile at me.  Coming to Emma's locker was not my normal morning routine. 

"Maci's not in school today." I answered.

I had fought like hell this morning to get my mom to change her mind.  I had a feeling Maci had said something to make her be so stubborn.  She had a point but I still wanted to be there.  I didn't care about attendance, I'd make it up some how or do summer classes or something.  School wasn't really that important to me at the moment. 

"Is everything alright?" Emma asked as she slammed her locker.  I took her books from her, linking hands as we headed down the hallway together.

"Yeah, I mean as alright as things can be.  They're just seeing if it's spread." I said. 

"Why didn't you go with her?"

"My mom thinks I'm going to miss too much school if I keep going to all her appointments." We stopped outside Emma's class.

"How many does she have normally?" Emma took her books from me, staring up at me with her green eyes.

"Appointments?" I asked, Emma nodded.  "I don't know, a lot."

I had never taken the time to count.  I just knew the amount of time we spent in the hospital had been close to the amount of time we had spent outside of the hospital.  At least that's how it seemed.

"What are they going to do?" Emma asked.

I let out a sigh, running my hand through my hair.  "Emma can we not talk about this?"  She dropped her head and nodded slowly.  I instantly felt bad, she was just trying to be there for me after all I had done to her.  "I'm sorry baby, I'm just stressed and tired.  This isn't really something I like to talk about but I promise if I want to you'll be the first person I go to."  I took her hand in mine and kissed it, holding it to my lips as I watched her.  "Em."  Emma's green eyes shot up to mine; she opened her mouth but didn't say anything.  "What?"

"Nobody's called me Em since Matt..." She trailed off, her eyes watering up just slightly.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." My heart was beating through my chest as I stood there waiting for the full force of her reaction.

She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and when she reopened them she smiled.  "It's fine.  So there's probably no chance of seeing you after school then?"

And just like that my unintentional crisis was diverted.  I shrugged my shoulders, relieved that I hadn't caused some scene in the middle of the hallway because I called her Em.  I would have felt like even more of a dick had she cried.  "I don't know."

"I mean we can just hang out at your house, I don't mind really."  She asked, her face was so full of hope.  "I just miss you."

This was one of the moments where I needed to step up and actually be a boyfriend.  "Let me make sure she's okay and if she is we can definitely do something, okay?" 

So it wasn't exactly a yes but it wasn't a no.  Emma pushed up on her tip-toes and gave me a kiss.  "Okay, see you after class?"

"Yes ma'am." I said, pulling her back into another kiss. 

When we pulled away she had a smile ear to ear.  A smirk pulled at the corner of my mouth, pleased with myself that I had made her smile for a change.  I handed her, her books and we headed into class.  We walked in a few minutes before class but one of the last few to get there.  The talking quieted and I could feel everyone staring at me as I made my way to my seat next to Greg.  I sat down, leaning over toward him.