From The Start (1st Draft)

Chapter 24

"Alright, cool. Thank you," he said, her touching his shoulder and gently answering him.

"You are so welcome." And then she turned to me. "It was nice meeting you sweetie, you better come next time!"

"Oh I definitely will," I promised. "I always will."

"Always?" Alex groaned, me slapping his arm.

"Yes, always," I whispered.

She smiled and we both silently walked out of the outpatient IV room.

I walked down the hallway with him, knowing I had just successfully survived watching my boyfriend get his treatment, chemotherapy that would hopefully end up saving his life. I was actually kind of proud with myself, and happy that I made it through the whole four hours without breaking down. Alexander was such a strong person, and I admired him so much for going through this with a smile across his face almost the whole time.

We got to the desk and he signed out, and the lady gave him a date for his next treatment appointment. He pulled out his cell phone and called his mother, telling her we were ready to get picked up. It was twenty minutes of us sitting in the waiting room, watching all of the other kids his age or younger walking through the doors and into the hospital. I had my eyes on him for a majority of the time, even though he was looking down at the floor. He had his eyes closed when we saw Stephanie cautiously entered the lobby, and I grabbed his hand, not wanting to ever let go.

When she reached our side he looked up at her in a daze. "How was it," she asked him softly.

He shrugged, standing up and beginning to walk towards the door. "Great," he muttered.

She looked at me and frowned. "What happened?" she whispered.

"Nothing," I stated. "He's just, a little quiet, that's all."

"Quiet?" she repeated, shaking her head. "Something's bothering him."

"Of course something is bothering him, Steph. He just had his first chemo treatment, after like, ten years of being in remission," I anxiously let out, her jaw tightly snapping shut.

"You're right," she told me.

"I'm sorry," I told her, knowing I was a tiny bit too harsh with her. "I'm just sort of uptight, I guess."

"I would be too, if I spent four hours of watching such a horrid scary thing," she said, us both following behind him.

"It wasn't that bad," I admitted. "I'll get used to it."

We drove back to Manchester and back to his house, after the long and perfectly silent car ride. It was cloudy outside and looked as if it was going to start pouring at any second. We got inside and Darlene didn't say anything to Alex, which kind of made me angry but I couldn't let her attitude ruin his day.

Stephanie walked into the kitchen with Nancy and Peter, while Alexander took my hand and led me up the stairs. He stopped at his door and turned to face me, looking as if a disturbing thought crossed his mind. I didn't know what to say until he spoke to me.

"I'll be right back, I need to use the bathroom," he explained, quietly.

"Okay," I said. And then he walked down the hall, closing the door behind him.

After about ten long seconds I decided I was just going to step into his room, so I carefully opened his door and looked around. It was a rather big room, and it was really nice looking. He had light red walls, with blue carpet, and a wooden bed set, along with two dressers. I noticed a blue lava lamp, and laughed quietly to myself, and then I stepped further inside and noticed the glass doors that led out onto a small balcony. He wasn't kidding. There was a bookshelf on the other side of the room, and I ran my fingers onto all of the big, hard covered books, realizing how smart this boy really was.