Not Sarah's Number

Chapter 37: Cash's Secret

"Hi son. Are these your friends?" She asked her son, who nodded. "Oh I remember you three! You play on the soccer team with Cash."

Ace supplied her with a warm smile. "Yes we do. We've all been together since freshman year."

His mom moved her curious eyes slowly to me. "And who is this?"

"This is my friend Jessica. She's in my trig class together and she's best friends with Ace here." Cash patted Ace's shoulder so his mother could know who it was.

"Oh that's nice. I would stand up and give you all hugs, but I'm not feeling well today."

The smile came to my face as I tried to bite back any pity I felt. I knew she didn't want my pity, and it probably made her feel worse when people looked at her with a sorry expression for being in this situation.

"It's okay. You're welcome to rest if you need it."

She sent me a grateful gaze. "Thank you.  My head just really feels heavy today. I can barely keep it up. I appreciate you all for stopping by. I love meeting Cash's friends. You can come by to visit more often too."

We all nodded, and Cash went to kiss his mom on the forehead before leading us all back out. We said nothing as we walked down the halls, just taking in the scene that was in front of us only moments ago. Chandler seemed unusually quiet. Once we got back to the front, Cash turned around and faced us.

"Yeah, so that's what I wanted to show y'all." Jeremiah gave him a glare and softly punched his arm, which caused Cash to yelp. "Ow! What was that for?"

"Why haven't you told us sooner? How long has this been going on?"

Cash dropped his gaze to the ground as he rubbed his arm. "Well we found out in October, like right before homecoming. They said it had already started to spread, and needed to start chemo as soon as possible. At first she was driving herself to her appointments, and then I was driving her, but then she started getting really weak, and she was in extreme pain from treatment. She didn't want me to have to drive her anymore, so she agreed with the doctors to stay as a long term patient until she gathers some strength."

"What does she have exactly?" I asked.

"Breast cancer." The words came out softly and hesitantly, like saying them made them true. A range of emotions swept through Cash's eyes after, sadness, anger, fear. I felt like suddenly Cash was very far away, even though he was only standing a few feet from us.

My feet were moving before I could stop them. Cash looked surprised as I wrapped my arms around him and pulled him into a hug, but he didn't protest. Slowly his arms came around me too, and he let out a long breath. The other boys quickly came and surrounded us with a group hug, and I could hear Cash sniffling in my ear, trying hard not to cry.

"Thank you for trusting us enough to tell us. This must've been so hard for you to deal with all by yourself," I said.

"Yeah, never again though," Jeremiah said. "What are friends for if not to help you through hard times? We're always here for you, no matter what. Don't always try to go through things alone."

Cash tried to steady his breathing before he spoke. "Actually I told Jessica a while ago when she was really drunk, because I knew she wouldn't remember. I just didn't know how to tell anyone else quite yet. I didn't want to make it more real than it already was. I just wanted school to feel kind of normal."

My mouth flew open, and we all separated as I pushed myself from Cash. "You told me? You're right, I really don't remember."

"Yeah, it was one of the homecoming parties. I can't remember if it was Friday or Saturday. No wait, you didn't go on Friday, right?"