"Uh...Cory?" I asked.
He turned around so fast; it was like he hadn't noticed my appearance. "Calli...I'm...uh-"
I laughed. "It's okay."
Cory nodded once and put the picture down on my desk. "I was just looking."
"Yeah," I said, walking over to my desk to see what picture he had taken down. "I noticed."
Once I looked at the picture, I stopped. I forgot I had that picture. It was of me, Cory and his mom. We were just kids, maybe seven or eight, and Charlie was baking us chocolate chip cookies. I had melted chocolate all over my mouth and Cory was the definition of clean. The picture caught the scene right before I had kissed his cheeks and covered him with chocolate.
Breaking off the memory, I looked back at Cory. "I'm so sorry about Charlie."
Cory had a sad smile on his lips. He didn't look at all surprised that I already knew about his mom's death. "Yeah. I'll be seeing her again though."
"Won't we all?"
At my comment, Cory looked away from me. Then he walked over to my bed. He reached out and picked up a stuffed animal. This time when he smiled, it actually reached his eyes. "I remember Prince Charming," he said, a laugh trailing quickly behind.
Prince Charming was my stuffed penguin Cory had won for me at a fair when we were little. I loved it some much-still do.
"Yeah. I also remember you dumping chili fries on me right before you won him for me."
Cory looked appropriately chastised. "Why do you think I won him for you?"
"Yeah," I said, snatching Prince Charming out of his hands.
"I can't believe you kept him all this time..." Cory finally said in awe. "I would have thought you'd get rid of him after..." he didn't finish, but I knew what he meant.
"Just because you didn't want to have anything to do with me didn't mean I needed to get rid of my favorite stuffed animal."
Cory took a seat at the edge of my bed before he said, "About that... I'm sorry. I just..."
He ran both his hands through his hair and then down his face. Then, he blew out a great breath. "I was going through a lot."
"Was it your mom?" I asked, taking a seat beside him.
He looked up quickly. "Kind of...well, most of it was."
I thought about what I should say. What I could say. "I don't-"
"Wait...I need to tell you something first."
He sounded so serious that I knew it was important. "Okay."
"Summer before sixth grade...my mom was diagnosed with leukemia."
"Cory-"
He cut me off again. "No. I'm not finished."
I nodded for him to continue. He looked away and looked at a corner. When he spoke, it was soft and almost a whisper.
"When she told me and dad we didn't know how to respond. She was always so strong, so healthy...I wasn't sure what to do. I kept asking myself 'Why her? Why my mom?' I never thought that I'd lose her like that. Anyway, after she discussed her options, she decided to take the chemo. Day after day I watched her puke everything out of her system-even when there was nothing to puke out. I watched her get weaker and weaker. And...there was nothing I could do about it.
"Then one day, she decided that she didn't want the chemo anymore. She said it was making her too weak and she didn't want to die weak. She wanted to live the rest of her days at home, with her family. At first I didn't like the idea. I wanted her to fight for her life. But when she spoke to me, I could tell that she already knew that she was going to die.
My Gay Best Friend's Brother [6]
Start from the beginning
