Pink Haired Triplets

PHT 9: First Chemo

“Calliden Richards,” Cal said calmly to the woman at the desk when asked for her name. She had waved goodbye to her dad in front of the big sliding glass doors of Northside General Hospital and gotten into the elevator to travel to level 4, Oncology.

The woman at the desk was having trouble finding Cal’s records in the computer, and Cal wasn’t sure what to do. It didn’t seem to help that the woman kept looking up to stare at Cal’s hair. She Cal knew her hair was weird and different, but she hadn’t thought it would slow things down.

“Here it is, sorry about that.” The woman finally announced, and Cal sighed in relief, as well as in anxiety. “I’m still getting used to this computer,” she explained, and Cal gave a friendly smile in return. The nurse was young, and Cal guessed that she had just started recently, seeing as she still couldn’t look up a name.

“Are you here alone?” The young woman questioned, looking around for someone to appear, accompanying Cal. When no one appeared, she looked… sad?

“Yeah,” Cal said, trying to use a positive tone so that she wouldn’t get another one of those looks filled with pity. 

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 For 4 hours and 7 minutes and 18 seconds Cal sat hooked up to an IV; she timed it. She listened to music for some of the time, slept for a little while, and people watched some too. However, a room full of people sitting in chairs, hooked up to IVs did not make for very entertaining people watching, so she quickly moved on from that activity.

Once her treatment time was up, Cal rejoiced inside, seeing no need to cause a scene with her excitement on the first day. After a nurse had unhooked Cal from the IVs, she went to one last doctor’s appointment and then she was free! When she called her dad, her dad was just about to leave for his lunch break and to pick her up, so she had time to go see Alex as planned.  

“You must be feeling petty good,” Cal observed, walking into Alex’s room.  “No pajamas?” She asked. He was waiting for her, sitting up in bed wearing a black t-shirt and jeans.

“Nope,” he smiled proudly; Cal smiled back. “Are you feeling okay?” He asked, seriously.

“Yeah… I’m fine.” She said, a little confused. She had just walked in the door; why would he think that she wasn’t feeling well?

“Are you sure?” He asked, still serious, before breaking into a grin moments later. “Cause your hair is looking a little… pink,” he said.

“Ah, ha ha.” She said sarcastically. He had fooled her; he was really good at holding a straight face. “You like it?” She asked, turning around in a circle so that he could get the entire view. She had straightened it again, so it looked even more different.

“Sure,” he said, in an almost hesitant voice.

“What?” Cal asked, anxious to know why he didn’t seem to like it. It might be obnoxious, strange, and look totally out of place but was it really that bad? 

“It’s just… different. I just saw you a few days ago, but now you have pink hair? It’s just… different.”

“Well, I’m sorry if it’s too different for you, but I like it. My brothers seemed to like it too; they dyed the hair too.” Cal responded, her tone getting more bitter as she became irritated with Alex.

“Look, I didn’t mean it like that!” Alex tried to apologize, but Cal didn’t acknowledge him. “Anyways, where are your brothers?” He asked, attempting to change the subject.

“My dad made them go to school.” Cal muttered bitterly.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” Alex said, quietly. His subject change hadn’t done anything to cheer her up.

At that point, Cal heard her phone ring from somewhere in the depths of her bag. “Dang, that’s probably my dad saying he’s here.” She said, thinking about how inconvenient dresses were with their lack of pockets.

Finally, she found the cell phone that was no longer ringing. She quickly set her bag down on the bed so that she could flip open her phone. After a quick glance at the screen she realized that it wasn’t a phone call and it wasn’t from her dad.

“He’s not here yet, it’s just a text from Cam.” Cal said, letting Alex know that he wasn’t getting rid of her that quickly.

‘How’s it going. You’re tough; keep it up,’ read the message from her brother. Cal replied to her brother’s message, ‘Done w/ chemo & doctors. Hanging w/ Alex until dad comes.’

As she was putting her phone away, Cal was reminded of what she was going to tell Alex earlier. “Oh yeah, again I forgot to tell you when I’d be back. I’m sorry I didn’t text you my chemo schedule; I forgot I guess. And I'm sorry I forgot the balloons; I'm sure they would have been fun…”

“I know how you can make it up to me,” Alex said, waggling his eyebrows. Well, where his eyebrows would have been if it weren’t for chemo.

“Yeah?” Cal asked warily, unsure of what Alex was thinking. “How?”

“Go to homecoming with me.”