Seth felt like he was going to puke up the whole box of cornflakes he had just consumed.
“They’re sure?” He stammered.
“They’re sure.” Jack confirmed.
“Well.” Seth stammered once again.
“Well.” Jack repeated, biting the inside of his cheek as was his anxious habit.
“Well, fuck.” Seth finally found another word to use.
“Pretty much.” Jack agreed once again.
The two best mates continued playing Assassin’s Creed and the silence was broken only by the incessant clicking of Playstation controllers.
“So what happens now?” Seth asked.
“Now? Now I gotta go. Dad just texted me. Another appointment with the oncologist. I’ve opted out of treatment. Oh, and can you not tell anyone? I mean, apart from Garland and your mum of course. Laters, dude.” Abruptly Jack stood and dropped his remote onto Seth’s suspiciously stained loveseat, walking out the shed door stiffly.
“What?” Seth asked the empty air. Jack had already gone.
Message To: Garland The Greatest And Hottest Ever XOXO
Come over now. Urgent.
Seth brushed back his scraggly blonde hair behind his ears and sent the message. Garland was Seth’s long – term girlfriend. They even had guinea pigs together, two grumpy little creatures that ate and pooped and didn’t do much else. Kind of like human children; although Garland didn’t agree with this particular opinion.
The teenage boy stood and hobbled up his garden path on legs stiff from inactivity, squinting in the morning sunlight. Or was it even morning? Seth looked at his phone. 11:28 AM. He groaned and let himself in the back door.
“The hermit emerges! Why didn’t Jack come up and say hi?” The cheery voice of his foster mother Cathy greeted him. Seth stood in the doorway for a moment until his blinded eyes adjusted to the dimness of the lounge room, rocking on his heels slightly. Once he could see again he wandered into the room and sat on the couch beside his portly mum of ten years, a short woman with a warm childish heart and a body that was almost old enough to make her his grandma.
“Morning, Cathy. He’s sick.” Seth mumbled and pulled a shirt over his head from where it hung off the side of the couch arm.
“Not like that’s stopped him before. Remember the time he gave us all swine flu on your birthday? Ah, but he’s a good kid. What’s he been up to?” Cathy smiled and continued knitting yet another scarf for the neighbour’s baby. At this rate they would almost be able to make it a cocoon of cotton. Maybe it would emerge as a beautiful knitted butterfly. With great effort he pushed away the irrelevant inner rambling.
“He’s got cancer.” Seth stated blankly and stared at the consistent movement of her wrinkled fingers as she moved the needles together and apart and back together again. They froze.
“Oh, Jesus. He’s so young, too. So he’s sick from the treatment?” She put the knitting down and wrapped her arms around Seth’s skinny waist. No matter how much he ate, he would only get taller. ‘Teenage boy syndrome’, as the curvy Garland called it.
“I don’t think he’s going to be getting any treatment.”
The tears came to Seth’s eyes. Jack Summer, his best mate since kindy. Cancer at the age of eighteen. The final week of HSC testing, too. This week should be spent completing final exams and then partying with friends. Freedom. He slumped against Cathy.
A light knock at the front door made Seth jump. Garland.
“Fuckin’ Prius drivers. Can’t hear em until they’re on top of you.” He sniffled.
“Language!” Cathy scolded quietly. “Come in, Garland!”
The wooden door creaked open to admit a tall girl with long blonde hair and concerned blue eyes. She was a typical hot blonde, with the whole big boobs and tiny waist package; not that Garland took advantage of that very often. Today she wore a light sundress covered in flowery patterns. The loose elbow length sleeves ensured that the watercolour tattoos on her forearms were perfectly visible. She had finished her HSC examinations already and was definitely enjoying her freedom; albeit in a flower-child, environmentally conscious way.
“Hi Cathy. Seth!” Garland set down the wooden box in her arms. A muffled thump and squeak echoed from air vents cut into the sides. She hurried over and kneeled on the couch beside her boyfriend, looking at Cathy worriedly. “Seth, what’s wrong?”
“I’m fine, Garland. Come upstairs.” He rubbed his face on his forearm and picked up the box, starting up the stairwell to his second floor bedroom.
Garland directed a concerned smile towards Cathy before following after Seth.
“What’s happened?” Garland caught Seth’s hand once they reached his bedroom. He shut the door behind her and flopped onto the bed.
“Jack’s sick.” He grunted and tucked the guinea pig box under his bed.
“What kind of sick?” Garland furrowed her brow.
“Cancer-sick.”
A phone buzzed, the generic Apple text tonetinkling cheerily from Jack’s jean pocket. He groaned and unlocked his phone with a swipe and a click.
(1) Message Received from: Jack
To Seth, Garland, Matilda and Kyle.
As you might have already heard, I’ve gotten myself cancer somehow. Knew that Chernobyl holiday would come back to bite me one day. Anyways, you’re almost done with school and obviously I won’t be needing to finish my HSC so I want to invite you all to my uncle’s place up the coast. It’s right on the beach and a five minute drive from the hospital and only ten minutes from the local cemetery. Yay! I’ve been given two months because I declined treatment to keep these luscious locks. In all seriousness, I want to spend the last weeks of my life with my best friends. RSVP to my pre- death festivities in a week because this party bus is leaving in a fortnight from today with or without you losers.
P.S. Kyle you can bring your new girl if you think she’s got what it takes to be one of the cool kids. xoxoxo
The forced crude humour made the bright letters swirl in front of Seth’s eyes.
“He made jokes about his own death.” Seth choked and stared at the screen numbly.
Garland wrapped her thin arms around his torso and pressed her soft face into his chest, her body beginning to wrack with sobs. Seth returned the embrace shakily.
YOU ARE READING
Jack's Last Summer
Teen Fiction"I guess that's the thing about time. It might not heal wounds; but it does smooth them over." When Jack Summers is diagnosed with terminal cancer, he chooses quality over quantity and refuses therapy. He instead decides to invite four of his best f...
