Three days were left of the big day - of celebration and of revelation.
The tension around the house was palpable, and each passing day became more and more painful for Elli's family as they watched her suffer through the deadly disease. Oliver was hanging by a thread, restraining himself from breaking down entirely in front of the woman he loved - who was fighting so bravely and alone. His respect grew for her.
Everyone was at Elli's beck and call. They made sure she ate healthy food, didn't hit the floor while walking, was covered properly with warm clothes in cold evenings and never let her leave home alone. No matter how much Elli fumed at them for their border-line psychotic ways of taking care of her, none of them ever faltered or got annoyed.
Right at the moment Elli was brushing her hair sitting at the edge of her bed. She groaned and held the hair brush up in front of her face. It was full of hair.
"At this rate I'm going to go bald very soon." This pregnancy hormones sucked. Not only mood swings, fatigue and vomiting... she also had to have the unique hair loss along the way!
Oliver had just stepped foot into Elli's room, his foot pushing open the slightly ajar door and hands holding a tray that was filled with some light soup and a carrot - cucumber salad. He halted dead on his track the moment he heard Elli. It took him a few moments to gather himself and process what she had said, and when he did - he began walking in again pulling a normal expression. However, his mind was now on full alert mode.
His footsteps made Elli look up. She grunted.
"I don't understand why you guys are after me this days?! What has gotten into you all?" She threw up her hands, the hair from the brush fell down to join her other fallen bunch of hair on the bed. Oliver's eyes discreetly followed them, quietly putting the tray on the bedside table.
"Especially you," Elli sprung up to her feet and pointed an accusing finger at Oliver. "Why the fish are you behaving like a lap dog all of the sudden? Now, what game is this? It's you, isn't it... you must have said or done something that my dad and my brothers are behaving so psychotic out of nowhere. Answer me what's going on, you BISCUIT ! Answer me this instant!" And she felt proud that she had quite soon adapted to moving out slangs from her dictionary and replacing them with these extremely interesting words.
Not budging even an inch Oliver concentrated on her bed where there were an impressive amount of fallen hair spread out on the white covers, and even on her pillow too.
"What are you looking at?" Elli spat, placing her fists angrily on her hips. "Thinking of throwing a party now that I'll go bald with all the hair-loss."
Suddenly as if Oliver was slapped on the face, he stumbled back. His expression pained as he lifted his eyes and stared at Elli.
Elli frowned. "What! Are you mental?" she pressed her lips into a thin line of fury. "Why are you looking at me like a crazy monkey?" Monkey was not a slang, children love seeing monkeys.
Oliver parted his lips as if to say something but then he just puffed out a long breath. His feet slowly made their way near her.
Elli's angered expression fell away to be replaced with confusion. She took a step back when Oliver came to stand too close, but behind her was the bed. She gasped when the back of her knees hit it and she sat back down on the bed rather unceremoniously. When she looked up, her heart stopped beating for a second and then began galloping at a furious speed. His intense gaze mixed with so many emotions caught her off guard, especially that one emotion that stood out like a sore thumb. It gave her hope, made her dream and she dreamed.
"Yes, I'm crazy, Elli. Can't you see, I'm bloody hell crazy for you," Oliver murmured, leaning down as her lips parted a bit in breathlessness - in desire - in passion, his hands rested on her both sides on the bed. "And I'm here, I'll always be here no matter what. I'll make everything alright."
Eh...! What did he mean by that?
As quick as a fiery gust of wind, Oliver suddenly backed off and stood up straight. Leaving Elli to catch her breath and figure a head or tail out of what all that was said, Oliver was storming out the door.
Oliver came back soon though, sooner than she expected. And he came back with her entire family on tow.
Elli's brows scrunched up in confusion. WTF! The F was for a fish!
Stepping ahead she crossed her arms. She peeked over at her whole family who were all teary eyed looking back and forth from Oliver and her. "Errr... What's going on, guys?" she asked nervously.
Oliver had that look on his face, the look that said - suicide bomb attack.
"Why...," Elli's lips tilted in puzzlement. "...do you have a electric shaver in you hand?"
Oliver's adam's apple bobbed up and down as if gulping his own saliva had become difficult to him.
"Elli," he lifted up the shaver with a determined look and turned it on, his hand holding the device way too tightly. "I'm sorry, baby. But this needs to be done."
Elli suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. "Ah... what needs to be done?"
Oliver was now taking slow, predatory steps towards her and Elli instinctively began backing off as well.
"It's better to let all the hair go in one go than suffering through the pain of seeing them fall bit by bit every single day," Oliver's voice shook by the end.
"What!" Elli's mouth fell open in shock. "Are you freaking insane, you psychotic moron!" suddenly she forgot all about not using slangs, there was far more dire situation in hand.
But Oliver was still approaching with the shaver buzzing brutally in his hand - ready to begin it's job. "I can't explain how much it's hurting me to do this. But some one has to be the brave one here, and in the future you will only thank me for saving you from the trauma of slowly loosing all your hair."
"What kind of sick joke is this!" Elli yelled. "Who the f*** goes bald because they're loosing some hair!"
"No! Move that crap out of my way and get your shitty a** out of my room this instant!" she tried kicking Oliver's hand when he was a foot away from her and she had no place to back off, the bed behind her blocked any escape.
She glared at her family still standing by the door being the pathetic fools the were. "And why are you just standing there doing nothing at all! Do something!"
Oliver ducked in time to dodge that super kick Elli threw, he was panting for breath now and gestured Misha, John and Jim. The bothers wiped their eyes with their shirt sleeves and marched forward in determination as well. They all were to keep their words, come hell or high water they will do only what's the best for their little sister.
Soon Elli was tackled to a sitting position on the bed, her sniffling brothers - two of them holding her shoulders from both sides and the other holding her head steady.
"Not you guys too!" Elli screamed in anger and shock. Her face was red in fury. "This is abuse! That's it, I'm calling the cops!"
Daniel who was now crying hysterically by the door slid down to the floor covering his eyes, he couldn't see this anymore.
"Stop fighting, Elli, please, I beg you!" Oliver wiped his eyes on his forearm and steadied the shaver again. "This will only make the therapies more bearable in the future, I've talked about it all to a professional. Trust me."
"Hold... hold on a sec. What therapies?" Elli panted, she was panicked and now was absolutely confused than ever before in her life.
"We..., we know you have cancer," Misha mumbled from behind her. The dreaded words made her brothers' grips slacken a bit around her. "And these... these - all that you're going through - the vomiting, fatigue, hallucination and now this hair loss, they're all side effects of the chemo therapies. How could you, Elli, how could not tell us?"
Elli's jaw hit the floor.
Oliver cleared his throat from the awful lump of pain."And, that's why just let me do it..."
"Who the f*** told you this bullshit?" Elli screamed violently and shook out of her brothers' hands. She stumbled to get away from all the craziness of it all. "I don't have cancer! I don't...!"
"Elli, please, there's no need to lie anymore. Sooner or later, everyone is bound to go through the pain of knowing it," Oliver indulged.
"I - DO - NOT - HAVE - CANCER." Elli said slowly, furiously and coldly through gritted teeth.
And within the next long moment the seriousness of her words finally sunk into everyone's brain.
It looked like Oliver had gotten hit by a thunder, the shaver from his hand fell off to the ground with a loud thud. And then there was absolute silence in the room, mouths fell open, hearts stopped beating and widened were eyes as far as they could get.
Daniel sat straight against the door frame.
Oliver was continuously opening and closing his mouth, as if he was trying to say something but didn't know what. "Oh..., thank f***!" he huffed out a relieved breath.
Relief was what washed over Elli's entire family too, however that was short lived. It was another emotion that quickly gripped the major parts of their minds as understanding of the situation slowly dawned in on them. Rage. Unbounded amount of rage. All their eyes focused on Oliver - who shook his head, his lips easing into a massive smile.
And then at last, before the smile could turn into a full-fledged grin, Oliver took notice of the murderous glares being thrown his way. It was a surprise he wasn't turned into a toast yet just by their eyes only.
"My sons," Daniel's voice roared from behind him, "It's time we finally bring out my shotgun."
Oliver bit the inside of his cheek. Someone's seriously going to die! And here he was just planning to throw a party to celebrate the good news of - Elli not having cancer and all that. Whatever.Their loss.
~~
Pulpify chapter next and then the bombastic secret will be out in the open. ;) No more secrecy from here on, there can only be sounds of beating that you'll hear - sometimes of a person, sometimes of a couple of hearts'.
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Love you all,
Lara.