Memorıes Lıke These

Chapter Seventeen

It was late morning when I woke up, still in my position on the hill. The grass was now covered in dew and dampened my clothes and the sun shone down on me, creating a pleasant feeling of warmth. I sat up and stretched and took a few seconds to process being awake before standing up. I knew I needed to go home, get changed and get something to eat and see my mum who is probably worried sick about me, but instead I walked to the hospital. Once I arrived, I walked up the usual flight of stairs I take to get to Lorna’s room and then jump into the elevator. It’s only 11:30 am so the hospital is pretty quiet as visitors are allowed to come after lunch, but the doctors have allowed me to come when I please, as long as I don’t interrupt anything important between them and Lorna and I don’t come at crazy times.

I walked down the hallway, passing Mrs Bailey’s room, and finally came to a halt outside Lorna and Rosie’s room. I pushed open the door quietly and saw that both girls were asleep.

I walked in and sat down next to Lorna’s bed, grabbing her hand. I squeezed it, but she didn’t squeeze back, because she was obviously asleep, but I kept holding it anyway. For a while I just sat there, looking at her. Her hair was becoming so limp and patchy that I predicted next time I saw her, it would be gone completely. Her face was becoming more thin and pale and her lips were still very cracked. I used the time to carefully lift off her blanket and lift up her gown to look at her stomach. Last time I had seen it was before she came in here and she was taking her sweater off and she accidentally lifted up her shirt as she did so. And I saw all the bruises on her stomach. Big purple and blue bruises, covering her stomach like she had been repeatedly hit but she hadn’t. It was just the cancer battling it’s way from the inside out.

I lifted up her hospital gown carefully and took a glance at her stomach. She had always been thin, but not that thin. I could almost see her ribs and hip bones and as I had suspected, more bruises had appeared and were now covering the entire space of her stomach in their big circles. I bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from screaming in horror and covered her back up with her gown and blanket. I tried to ignore her appearance, but her condition was showing itself right in front of me, reminding me that she’s never going to be okay.

"Niall?"

I looked up at Lorna but saw she was still fast asleep. Her hand was on her chest with a tube leading to her IV bag attached to her middle finger. I just stared at her in confusion and the voice came again.

"Over here."

I then looked over at Rosie, who was now sitting up in her bed. “Hi!”

I smiled. “Sorry, did I wake you?”

She shook her head. “Nope. How long have you been here for?”

"Just got here actually."

She just nodded. Her eyes were brighter today, but like Lorna, her condition was starting to show itself on her body. Her infectious smile continued to shine though.

I looked back down at Lorna, wondering how it was possible for someone to look so beautiful when they slept, when Rosie spoke again.

"You two are really cute."

I gave a light laugh. “Thanks.”

"You remind me of a Disney movie. You’re the prince and she’s the princess." Rosie grinned.

"Really? How so?" I asked in a bright way.

Rosie giggled and turned to fully face me. “Well, she’s so pretty and you’re so…..so handsome…” Then she blushed and looked away.

I laughed, taking her comment lightly. “But then what does that make you?”

Rosie looked back up. “Huh?”