We

seven

I woke up the next morning, still feeling hungover. Most of the guys had gone home by that point, except Evan, of course, so I spent my day on WebMD. Extremely stupid, I know. I justified it by saying I had already done my homework on Friday, I couldn't go grocery shopping until Axel was ready to, and my room was cleaner than it had ever been. I first chose the cancer tab, a good place to start. I saw a link to Understanding Leukemia. I didn't understand my own yet, so I thought that would be a good topic to read on next.

Two hours of reading horror stories and success stories, I shut my computer in shock. I knew it was bad and that it progressed faster than the chronic kind, but I didn't know all that was going to happen.

I heard Axel coming down the hall. I took a deep breath and pretended like I was fine my favorite charade.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" He asked.

I nodded. "Let me just get dressed." I ran around my room and managed to pull on a black tank and some shorts. A classic. Axel was already down in his car so I ran downstairs with my phone and wallet.

"Whole Foods?" He suggested.

"Yup, I'll find more of our regulars there," I replied. The ride was short, so all we listened to was something on the Alt Rock station. I immediately sprinted up the stairs into the store, beating Axel. "Ha, I have cancer and I still beat you. You gotta push the cart, grandpa."

"Fine. I'll get the produce and fish. Can you go get the other stuff?" Axel relayed, not waiting for my reply before walking into the deli section.

"That's literally more than half the list, dick," I muttered to myself. I started on the pet care aisle, getting some stuff for Lenni and then I progressed deeper into the grocery aisles, grabbing a plethora of organic versions of everyone's favorite snacks, the guys could never tell the difference. I kept dropping stuff off with Axel, who was making slow work on his part. After getting all of the groceries, I went and got ice cream, a pizza, and some of the vitamins I take. I got sick of taking my stuff back to Axel, so I stole the cart. On the way to grab the last of our items, I ran into, literally, someone.

"Oh, god, I'm so sorry!" I apologized.

The mystery man looked up from his phone, "No, I should be- Emily?"

"Hi, William!" I replied, instantly feeling a wave of awkwardness engulfing me. William was one of the first guys I kind liked after I decided I would drown my feelings for Nate. We talked a lot back in eighth grade but nothing ever panned out. I knew he was on the baseball team at Rockwell, but the school is massive, almost 3,000 students, so I never see him. He was really nice, and I never felt about him the way I felt about Nate, but I did like him at one point.

"How are you Em?" He asked with a lazy grin covering his face.

I smiled at him. "I'm doing okay? I haven't been to any games this season, how are you guys doing?"

"We're number one in the conference, so pretty good. Hey, I was just thinking about you the other day."

I felt confused and looked it too. "You were?"

"Yeah, are you going to the school carnival this weekend," William asked.

"I am. Why do you ask?" I replied. It's not like I see a romantic future with him, but I could at least have some fun.

"Would you want to go together?" He offered. I nodded in response. "Then it's a date. I'll pick you up at five next Saturday."

"­I'll see you then," I said, biting my lip. He chuckled in response and continued his grocery shopping. I walked over to where Axel was glaring at me. "What's wrong with you?"

"I saw you doing your weird lip thing," he started. "Did Will ask you on a date?"

"Yes, and I said yes. Why are you mad that I'm trying to be happy?" I growled.

"I'm not mad at you, I just don't think he's who you should be with," he suggested.

I glared back at him, "For the last time, I'm one hundred percent over Nate, I'm fine. I can totally have a casual relationship. And if you say something about my cancer, I just want to say that whoever I'm with, I'll keep it casual enough so I can break it off before I start treatment, happy?"

"You deserve someone amazing," he trailed off.

I rolled my eyes, "Last time you said that I was crying over not getting Panic! tickets, not exactly that way, but still."

"Whatever nerd. Did you get everything?" He asked. I nodded and we walked up to the register and paid for our overflowing cart of food. Who says you need to workout if you're carrying ten bags of food for your friends down a flight of stairs? Once we got home, I devoured three slices of pizza, showered, frantically did the biology assignment I completely forgot about, and then passed out. 

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