Love, Cancer & Me ✓ [Original]

Prologue

A/N :: This is the original version. It is currently unedited.

~ Prologue ~

The worst day of my life, I awoke to my mother standing beside me bed screaming over the phone. I could hear the anger in her voice and see the tears on her face. "My daughter has a huge bruise on her back, and I don't know how she got it! I don't know what to do." There was a pause a long one. "Her fever is at 101.7 degrees Fahrenheit, she's really fatigued, and she won't eat."

I looked up at the clock to see 3:20 written in bright red numbers. I wondered why we were up so early, and I saw my brother sitting in the corner of the room with his head in his hands. Then the realization hit me, I was the one my mother was talking about. I reached and felt my back, but nothing was there. My mom finished her phone call.

"Ok thank you we'll be there as soon as we can, bye." She turned to me. "We're going to go somewhere that's going to make you feel all better, ok sweetheart? Hurry up get your coat and boots on now." I was tired and confused but did as any other little girl would do and listened to my mommy.

Sitting in that chair waiting for someone to say something felt like an eternity. Finally, the doctor spoke. "We would like to do a bone marrow biopsy and a blood test." The doctor had me change into a gown and laid down on the bed on my side. A nurse came in and gave me an IV and the next thing I knew I was falling asleep.

I woke up feeling drowsy and the doctor had me change into my clothes. Mom wheeled me out of the hospital, and we went home only to wait for results. Results I was dreading.

I tried to fall asleep, but I couldn't, so I rolled out of bed and knocked on my brother's door after wrapping my blanket around my shoulders. There was no answer, so I opened it and whispered his name. "Matty?" I saw his eyes open, and I walked further into the room.

"Are you ok Darc?" When he noticed the tears dripping down my cheeks, he made room for me in his bed. I slouched into the mattress and buried my hands into my face feeling the wet drops coming from my eyes ooze their way from between my fingers. I felt an assuring arm wrap around my shoulders and pull me closer. I looked up at my brother. He was and had always been my hero.

"Am I going to die?" I squeaked. Matt only looked at me with no response. The tears welled up in his eyes and he dug his face into the crane of my neck as he started to sob. My hero for my entire life; I always looked up to my brother. He was the good boy in the house and my parents would always boast about him any time they could. It hurt more then it should of, but I didn't say anything. I looked at him wanted to say the words I had been thinking ever since we left the hospital. I knew he would give me a truthful answer. I was only hoping.

"No." He stated into my neck. "You're not going to die Darc." He laid me down on my side and put an arm around me. "Go to sleep sis." I closed my eyes and felt Matty place a kiss on my head.

I woke up in the same place I fell asleep, with Matty and I was glad, I didn't want to be alone. I was only seven, but I knew what cancer was, how sever leukemia was. We walked down the stairs together and ate breakfast together. I didn't want to eat but the look on Matty's face each time I took a bite looked like hope. Then Mom entered the room, her hair was up, and she wasn't dressed for work like she usually was every Wednesday morning. Matty noticed it too, the way she never sat down, she was keeping herself busy, trying not to think.

Mom knelt beside my chair and put her hand on my arm. "Eat up and then go get dressed, you have a doctor's appointment at 10." I didn't eat anymore; I just pushed the bowl into the center of the table. Upstairs I got dressed and when I was done, I saw Matty sitting against the wall outside my door. He looked scared and I sat down beside him and leaned against him.

In all the years I had never seen my brother cry, not once. Even when he fell out of a tree and broke his arm he did not cry. Although, I could see the small drops of tears running down his face. "You can't leave me Darc." He held onto me like I was the only thing holding him on the ground.

He made a puddle on my shirt, and I made a puddle on his. "I won't I promise." I made that promise, it seemed like a small one at the time, but it took a lot of effort to keep. We went to the doctor's office, and I held onto Matty just wanting the doctor to give the news and get to the point.

"... It is Leukemia..." That's all Iheard and at the time I didn't know that one word was to haunt me for years tocome.