Rosephanie, a barista from New Jersey, had seen many odd men in her young life, but none were quite as strange as a young man named Colin Albernon. Once he starts attempting to talk to her and seemingly get closer, she begins to wonder what his reas...
As the shaking in my hands increased, Colin noticed what was happening.
"Rose..? Rose!" His words seemed to jump at me as my vision tried to fail, "Stay awake, Rose. You're going to be fine. I promise. Calm down."
"I...can't..." I choked out breathlessly, my voice cracking immediately.
"Rose, please..." Colin pleaded, gently taking hold of my shaking hands.
A tear slipped down the side of my face as my breathing became even worse still.
"What's wrong...with me...?" I asked between uneven intake of air.
Colin looked into my eyes, his mouth in a thin, worried line.
Without another word, he gently wrapped his arms around me, holding me close to his chest, instantly calming me down. I closed my eyes and rested my head on his shoulder, inhaling the scent of his cologne.
As my sight came back into focus, I noticed something different about Colin.
"Did you shave?"
"Maybe." He said, letting me go, "Is it that awful?"
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"Not at all." I answered, "I actually prefer it."
He smiled slightly.
"Well then, I suppose something good happened this morning." He said hesitantly, "I should have come to you earlier to see if you were alright."
"Please don't feel bad about this, Colin, it's not your fault."
Before he could answer, the doctor reentered, this time, he carried a single piece of paper instead of his clipboard.
"Well, Miss Fermin," he started, "I am afraid that my suspicion of your diagnosis will not be ready to be proven for another few days.
"I believe this to be a rare form of cancer known as Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. When under the influence of AMPL, the victim will wake up covered in painful, dark bruises without having a reasonable explanation as to how they got there. Now, treatments include chemotherapeutic processes or a drug we call 'all-trans-retinoic acid', or ATRA. You may return home for now if you have supervision accompanying you, but we will need you to come back into our care in about three or four days for our final diagnosis."
I nodded slowly. I was hoping I hadn't really heard the word "cancer", but it seemed likely that I had.
I agreed to the doctor's conditions, also accepting Colin's offer to drive me home.
The ride back to my apartment was blurry before I fell asleep in the passenger seat of Colin's car.
