You Plus Me

Chapter Twenty-Four

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Song in the sidebar is the song that is playing in the Seth/Ariel scene.

Enjoy!

 The day went on as normally as a day for me can go. After speaking with Leno, I then went back in my hospital room to prepare for my second session of chemo. It went rather well; besides for me feeling tired and nauseous during the round and afterwards.

  The chemotherapy took a few hours, and it was finished by around early afternoon. Once it was done, Seth was sent to come pick me up from the hospital and bring me home.

  It didn’t take him long to get there. Within twenty minutes, I was in the front seat of his Jeep, already prepared to head to sleep for the day.

  “How’d it go?” My brother asked me as he started up his precious vehicle.

  I shrugged my shoulders and looked out at the hospital as it got smaller and smaller the farther we went. It was another scorching summer’s day; the sun beating against my bald head warmly.

  “I’ve surely had better days,” I admitted to him.

  “What happened?” He wondered, concern in his voice. He had always been so protective, it had become cliché.

  “Caleb happened,” I replied. I turned back towards my brother, to see that he had a confused look on his face. “I found out something about Caleb this morning that wasn’t really that reassuring.”

  “This being?”

  I told my brother the whole story of what happened this morning. About Isabelle, her being in Washington, and just the fact that I was a replacement for her while she was away. I explained Caleb’s plan on how by the time Isabelle was back in Pennsylvania, I would most likely be gone. My used-to-existence no longer mattering to him.

  This earned me the most shocked look from Seth, which soon transformed into anger. I just knew that the man who he once thought of as his friend definitely didn’t have that spot in my brother’s life anymore.

  The story was pretty long, so by the time that I was finished, we were driving onto our street. Seth pulled into our driveway and parked the car, yet he didn’t get out right away. He just slammed his hands on the wheel and said angrily, “So he had a girlfriend, but he pretended as if he didn’t when he was on that date with you?”

  “If you want to make a short synopsis of it, yes,” I confirmed, nodding my head sadly.

  I could tell that my brother wanted to continue talking about this; make me feel better and such. I, on the other hand, just wanted to go inside and climb into the comfort of my bed. I unbuckled my seatbelt and said, “I’m sorry, but I just want to forget about it for now. Chemo really knocked the energy out of me and I really want to just sleep.”

  He nodded understandingly and got out of the car as well. We both made our way to the front door of the house and Seth unlocked it with his key. The moment the door opened, I stepped in, eager to feel at ease by my home. I guess I felt a slight bit of relaxation already, but the biggest thing I was feeling was hunger as I hadn’t eaten all day. I made my way into the kitchen, went to the pantry and grabbed a granola bar. It wasn’t much, but it would fill me up for now.

 I passed Seth as I made my way to the stairs, making sure to give him a little hug. I then climbed up the staircase and I basically dragged myself to my bedroom. Not even bothering to change into pajamas, I hopped into my bed. Relief flooded over me as my head hit the pillow.