Life as We Know It

chapter five: friends

A/N the picture above is Phillip, her roommate.

My friends were the worse. They found out a year after I was diagnosed, because my sister had told them. They never ask how I'm doing nor do they come in see me, in or out of the hospital.

Most of my "friends" lied and spread rumors about me. They called me "fat" and "ugly" and made fun of me. When I left school, they replaced me with a "prettier version", who was mean and hurtful.

They were never the people that I could call early in the morning crying and broken. My hospital friends, were more of a friend than the "friends" that I had known for ten years. They appreciated my bad jokes and didn't call me "fat" or "ugly". Tabatha was the closest to me than all of my friends, real or not.

Phillip was my roommate in the hospital, and was one year older than me. We'd often have Supernatural binge marathons during our off days with no treatment. Kenzie, or Mckenzie, was the kindest and most caring person on the planet. She was, before her heart started failing and she came to the hospital, abused by her father who was an alcoholic.

She once told me that she didn't grow up with kind words or feelings and she didn't ever want someone else to feel that way. On the day I got to go home because my lungs were stabled enough, she gave me a stuffed bear to remember her by, although I could never forget her, and made everyone sign a card, and gave it to me.

That night, I slept with that bear and slept peacefully, instead of waking up constantly because of my lungs.

I visit the hospital whenever I can and whenever I have a doctors appointment to check up on my nutrition and lungs and see them. I also visit the children in our ward and see how they are doing.

I decided, if I get well enough to be able to survive this, then I was going to become an oncologist, a cancer doctor, and treat people like Phillip and Malcolm.

Phillip got out of the hospital two weeks before I did. They gave his bed to a short, skinny ten year old with lung cancer. His name was Caleb, and he didn't like to follow the hospital rules. Caleb quickly became the troublemaker of the ward and his antics, although amusing to us, annoying by doctors and nurses.

Sometime after I left, Tabatha was able to see me at home. We watched The Hulk, The Winter Solider, and The Hunger Games, played games on wii, and ate roasted garlic chicken with potatoes for dinner. My mother was delighted to have one of my hospital friends over, so she cooked an extra special dinner. Her and my father, made an effort in being nice and presentable, seeing as I'd never had anyone over before.