Cancer. Adelaide couldn't quite get her head around the term. Cancer, such an odd word, an odd disease. It didn't scare her as much as she thought it would, she had cancer now, she already accepted it. The type of cancer she had isn't any one's fault, it wasn't from smoking, because she hadn't, or second hand smoke, because she was not exposed to that often. It was only a brain tumor, something she could handle. Her mother on the other hand would never be able to handle it, she wouldn't be able to lose her daughter, but the doctor had explained that it was already too late. Not much could be done, she would be dead within a year.They could try chemo, but there is a low possibility that she will survive, and it would be very expensive. A year, now, seemed so short, it felt more like a week. Her head rested on her pillow, no symptoms, nothing. It was rare that this kind of thing came without symptoms, usually there's a headache, vomiting, anything. But Adelaide didn't have the most normal life when she really thought about it. Cancer finds it's way into people's life and tears everything good apart. Though, Adelaide, had nothing good left. Her mother would move on, she would have family to fall back on and she would get better after. She had already done it once before. Adelaide's mind began to walk, stepping on new thoughts every once in a while. Dylan, her new friend, he would have to deal with it too. Jax, the boy who won't give up, will have to as well. Cancer isn't just a one person thing, it doesn't fester only in its host, everyone has it. Every single person that knows someone with cancer has it living inside them without a choice.
She would have to tell Dylan. In that moment, she thanked God, a God she didn't know, that she had only one friend. That no one else would have to deal with this but him. Indeed it was unfortunate that anyone would have to deal with it, but at least it was only one person. Her 'fans' would get over it, she didn't have that many in the first place. They would be sad for a while, but she would soon only be a sad memory of theirs.
11:00, Dylan met Adelaide in her back yard, after she had snuck out. The two of them walked down the hill that her house rest on and made their way to the walk way that connected the street to the beach. The walk had been silent for the most part, until they set foot on the beach.
"So, what do you like to do for fun?" Adelaide asked the boy, her eyes on her feet with every step.
"Oh, I like to play the drums, hang out with a few buddies, eat, watch baseball." Dylan walked awkwardly, a bit lanky.
"So you're a sports boy are you?" She smiled at him giving him a little nudge, cancer in the back of her mind, no pun intended.
"Eh, baseball mostly." He nudged her back.
"So... What's your favorite team?" she asked thoughtfully.
"The New York Mets." he laughed when Adelaide was silent.
"I don't watch baseball..." The girl sighed, "I don't know the teams, or how the game works."
They walked in silence for a while.
"You know what I just realized?" He exclaimed, "We both forgot about your birthday!"
"We did didn't we?" She felt the news scratching it's way up her throat.
"Well we are just going to have to have a huge party for you next year than." He smiled at her.
"I have cancer." she blurted out and continued to walk while he stopped. When she had realized that he had stopped she did the same and turned to look at him. "I have a brain tumor..." She sounded oddly content. He stayed silent, "Doctor says I have a year, maybe more, maybe less. But they can't do much about it at this point. The tumor is too deep inside of my brain that if they tried to take it out I would have some kind of disability. I could do chemo and try to shrink it, but I'm not sure how this sort of thing works. And I'm not sure I want to do chemo, I wouldn't be myself, and I'm already going to have a prescription for PTSD. I'll be like some bed ridden robot. We don't even have that kind of money laying around either. So I just have to live a good life before I have to give it up to death." she gave a small laugh.
"Why are you laughing? When did you find out about this?" He stepped forward.
"I found out about it today, hours before now. I am laughing because its funny to me. My life was pathetic in the first place. It just seems so cliché to me now. My life is one big book, a very unrealistic book." She began to walk back toward the walk way.
"And you have the choice of chemo but aren't doing it?" he scoffed, "I can help your mother... I have money" he followed her.
"I'm fine really, I'll just be at home in a bed with tubes and needles stuck to me." she sighed, not wanting his money.
"Please do chemo. You can't leave your mother like this." he continued after her.
The girl ignored him, reaching the walkway then she turned to him. "Fine. You can come to my doctors appointment tomorrow, and I will choose if I want chemo or not, if I do, you can ask about paying for it and discuss that with my mother." she was done arguing. The two walked more silence once again toward her house. She realized in this walk that Dylan wasn't someone she veiwed romantically, she was just too young. He was but another father figure, more like a brother. He may not have felt the same, but he would have to face reality soon enough, that she had a rare possibility of living, and that she wasn't old enough for him.
