Handle With Clare

Chapter 22: Like Backup Vocals?

Sorry this is late!!!!! I have been busy and traveling like crazy! I added a photo of Anna. Now I know she is supposed to be bald but I thought she looked so much like Anna, I just had to use it. Anyhow I hope this chapter makes up for being late! Also look out for the <> :)

Enjoy,
Darla H

"This will sting," a nurse warned as she poked me with a needle the next day. I felt the sting of the needle get pushed into my arm, but I didn't flinch since I was so used to having many needles in my arm. It really didn't bother me anymore.

Plus, my mind was somewhere else that was more important. I saw Peter get into a fight yesterday, and I hadn't really talked to him since he dropped me off last night. The events from yesterday replayed in my mind on repeat, making me wonder if he had acted out like that before to others.

"So how's that boy of yours doing?" she asked me as she got my treatment set up, trying to make conversation with me.

I'm convinced that I was their only form of gossip on this floor. I shrugged at her as I tried to be calm about it. "He's doing well." Except he got into a nasty fight last night and scared the crap out of me...

She smiled at me. "Good to hear."

As she walked out of the room, I turned on my phone and flipped through social media, where I quickly posted an old photo of Farrah and me, hoping that she would see it and feel guilty that she had spent little time with me. Ever since she got her new boyfriend, she had been distant from me; I kept on giving hints to her I missed her, but she was catching on. I hoped she would realize on her own that I might not much have much more time left on this earth. If she thought her boyfriend was more important than me, it hurt, but what could I do about that?

<>

Breaking me from my thoughts was Anna, when she popped her head into my room. She gave a smile at me but as I looked at her; I realized she looked different from the last time I saw her a few days ago. Under the florescent lighting, it was clear that she had lost all of her summer golden skin tone and instead, replaced by a sickly pale tone more so than I had.

"Hey Bud," she said with a small smile as she walked over to an empty chair next to me. "Care for some company?"

"Hey bud," I said to her. "No, please, entertain me," I smiled.

"I liked your post," she said and held up her phone to show the photo I just posted.

"You're too kind."

"I hadn't seen Farrah in a while. How has she been?"

I frowned, not knowing the answer to that question. Her boyfriend and her were spending a lot of time together, which made me feel like I had lost my best friend, replaced by a man that she barely knew. The Rugby match was the first time that we did something together in a bit, but even then she met up with that boy and left me within minutes. "She got a boyfriend, that's why."

"And you don't like him?" she asked me, as if she could read my mind.

I shrugged at her. That wasn't 100% of the reason. I didn't have a problem with her dating; I wanted her to be happy, but what I had a problem with she always leaving me or too busy to hang out with me, her only sister. "He seems nice, but I feel like he's taking Farrah away from me. I want her to be my best friend but often I find her absent when I need her most."

"I'm sorry."

"Me too," I mumbled.

There were a few minutes of silence since I killed the mood. I did that often, but Anna didn't seem to mind it, she either brushed it off or found something to be positive about. She opened her phone again and showed an old Instagram post of Peter and me. "I can't get over this photo of you two!" she gushed, changing the subject.