Euphoria - E.D.

8

"So, how has it been going with Alex?" Grayson asked. We stood in the backyard together, doing our chores of cleaning up.

He stood beside me, picking up random pieces of trash and throwing them away, while I trimmed the bush in front of me. "Good. Really good actually. We've slowly made progress in becoming better friends and her becoming more comfortable around me," I cheerily responded.

I loved spending time with Alex. She's still a little shy around me at times, but she's slowly opened up, and shows who she really is.

I've learned a few things about her during our time of being friends. She loves listening to music and reading books. Whenever I go visit her, there's always music playing in the background, because she said it helps keep her calm, especially during chemotherapy. If she's feeling good enough and can keep her food down, she loves eating ice cream. Chocolate ice cream to be exact. Going outside is something she thoroughly enjoys doing, just going outdoors and being surrounded by nature puts her soul at ease.

It's the little things like that which make someone special.

"I'm glad to hear that E," he smiled, "I never got to ask you this, but how did she responds when you told her about your cancer?"

"Um, she was shocked to say the least. I don't blame her though, it's not obvious to someone who doesn't know me. I think it was good for her to hear though. It changed her perspective of how I view her and why I even spend time with her in the first place."

"What did she think of you before?"

"She thought that I saw her as a charity profit, and that I was only there to because I felt pity for her. After telling her what happened to me, I think she had this 'eye opening moment' that I knew what she was going through and I really want to be there with her."

"It must be hard for her having to live life like that and miss out on so much. Especially since she's our age. She must not be able to experience all that we do," he stated, picking up the trash bag and throwing it away. We walked inside, and cooled off after being out in the sun for so long.

"No kidding," I replied, wiping the sweat off my forehead, "I mean seriously, she hasn't been able to go live life and experience all the new things that happen when you grow up. She said so herself that she hasn't gone out and done anything adventurous in a while."

"Well, that's what you're there for right?"

"Yeah, I am. It'll take some time before I take her out on any adventures though. She's been having her next rounds of chemo recently."

"I bet she's exhausted," he said, then looked up at me with a questioning look on his face, "Ethan...what would you do if your cancer ever came back?"

I looked up from my phone, blinking my eyes as I let his question sink in. "I...I don't know. I guess the same thing I did before, just fight it. I've thought about that before too."

There has always been a tingling fear inside me that one day, my cancer will return. I go through my days always wondering, am I healthy? Or has my illness struck once again? I have frequent check ups to ensure there's no tumors inside of me, but in reality, there's no telling that it won't return one day.

"I don't want to see you go through that again E," he quietly said.

I sighed, looking at him sadly, "Me either Gray. We just have to hope for the best. And if it does come back, I'll be okay."