Pink Haired Triplets

PHT 16: It Wasn't

Pink Haired Triplets - Chapter 16
Normal? 

The next few days were pretty normal. Sure, normal with cancer was a lot different than normal without it, but Cal felt relaxed in the non-eventfulness of her life.

Now that she and Matt had acknowledged their feelings, Cal no longer felt a need to push him away. She trusted him when he said that he liked her, so she allowed herself to like him back. They texted back and forth constantly, only stopping when Matt was at school and told by a teacher to put his phone away. Cal even returned to school herself Tuesday and Wednesday, after taking a sick day for her second chemo treatment.

It was Wednesday after school and Cal was hanging out in “Rob’s Used Bookstore.” She wasn’t looking for new reading material, though that’s what she pretended to do each time Rob Martin, owner, dictator, and book extraordinaire walked out of the back room. As soon as he returned to his cave she plopped back down on the couch, free to chat with her favorite book salesman.

“So, Matt, you’re telling me that you had no idea that I was going to that park that morning?”

“Yep, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it,” Matt answered, fiddling with a stack of books. Currently Cal was the only customer, real or pretend, in the shop.

“You’re sure Allie didn’t somehow find out your phone number and plan the whole thing?” Matt only shook his head. “I wouldn’t put something like that past her..”

“Nope, my buddy just called me up and asked if I wanted to play some ball and suggested the park as a good place to play.”

Cal didn’t get to question the coincidence any longer, as then she heard bells jingling, which meant Matt had to help a customer who was there to find more than just conversation.

“How may I help you?” Matt asked, causing Cal to hide her face in order to hide the chuckle that his false polite tone evoked.

“Uh, I’m just looking.” Cal suddenly looked up; she knew that she recognized that voice from somewhere.

However, raising her head did not help at all; the customer had disappeared among a cluster of bookshelves.

She stared, hardly blinking, until a familiar head emerged. The bald head was unmistakable when paired with blue eyes that lit up when they saw Cal.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Cal, what are you doing here? Are you better? You really shouldn’t be around germs like the ones in stores; you really scared me last Sunday.”

“I would have taken a simple ‘Hi, Cal,’ but whatever.” She smiled; her life seemed to be full of coincidences lately, running into people at random places. She didn’t quite process all his questions until a moment later. “Wait what? Sunday? This Sunday or the one before? I didn’t see you this Sunday; actually, I didn’t see you either Sunday.”

“I saw you the Sunday before, and you didn’t look good. You really should be taking precautions so that it doesn’t happen again.”

“Are you talking about when I was in the hospital?” Cal asked, standing up and walking over to where Alex stood. This conversation was too complicated to have across the room.

“Yeah, with a really high fever.”

“How did you know about that? I didn’t tell you…”

“Your brother texted me and I came to see you.” Cal didn’t even bother to ask which brother; either one still made no sense. Besides, Alex had probably been unable to tell them apart at the hospital anyways.