Noah

"Doctor appointment at twelve o'clock? Got it," Veronica repeated, "Go to school, I'll send you a message with what the doctor said."

"Thank you." She smiled and closed the door behind her. Zoey was making a lot of progress, so hopefully the doctor will let her go back to school in a few weeks, I know how terribly she misses her friends. They stop by a lot on weekends, I hear them giggling on Zoey's room all the time. God, how innocent we all were in middle school.

* & *

The bell rang and I sighed. Mr. Karte, my science teacher, had decided to surprise us with a surprise test, to see if we had learned anything in the first week or if we were still clinging onto summer. I'm sure that I'll have a D with good luck. Yeah, it was that bad.

As I walked down the hall, I passed Amanda talking to her multicolored haired friend by her locker, who looked up and nudged her in the ribs when she saw me, murmuring into her ear. Amanda whispered something in return, obviously embarrassed since her cheeks turned into a bright, pink shade. Her friend giggled as Amanda adjusted her red bomber jacket with white sleeves and started playing with one of the rips of her blue jeans. Today she was wearing a pair of white converse and had changed all of the hoops in her ears to little white, pink and red different sized fake pearls. Her hair was tied up into a dutch braid and she was not wearing makeup.

I just shot her a smirk and made my way towards the cafeteria. I didn't really like eating here, but Jack wanted me to eat with him today, and I was not in the mood to fight with him, so I agreed. I bought a simple sandwich that didn't even look like one and a bottle of water. Jack was sitting on a table near the microwaves with Caleb, Alex, and Shane, the guys from the diner. I walked over to them and sat down.

"Um, what is that?" Jack asked, looking at my food.

"That," I stated, "Is supposed to be a sandwich."

"That's disgusting," Caleb said, adjusting his black glasses on top of his nose.

"Are we still talking about the lame sandwich that isn't even a sandwich?" Shane asked, totally bored about this conversation.

"I don't know," Jack said. Suddenly, a loud ringing interrupted us. Alex jumped and took out his phone from his pocket.

"Shit, it's Kayla," he said.

"You two broke up again?" Shane asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure she wants to make up," he said, "I better take this." He stood up and went outside into the hall as he answered the call.

"Anyway," Caleb said, "How did you do on the science test, Noah?" I had forgotten he was in my science class, I'm sure he aced it, he liked science. Or that's what I thought because he participated a lot.

"Horrible, I'm sure of it," I replied as I opened the sandwich that didn't look like a sandwich and took a bite.

"I think I did pretty well." I quickly grabbed a napkin from the dispenser and spit the sandwich out of my mouth without anyone seeing me do it.

"Ew," Shane said.

"That doesn't even taste like a sandwich!" I stated, still gagging.

"It doesn't even look like a sandwich," Jack reminded me.

"I'm never eating cafeteria food again," I said, "What is this made of anyway?" Caleb grabbed the sandwich with the wrap still around it and looked inside.

"Dude, that cheese looks like it's thirty years old," he said, tossing the sandwich into a nearby bin.

"Disgusting," Shane said. Thanks for your one-word opinions, I thought. That's when Alex came back and sat down, face in his hands.

"What?" Jack asked.

"It's over," Alex replied, "Kayla said that she doesn't need a break, she wants to break up for real."

"Oh man, it's okay," Caleb said, patting him in the back awkwardly. I just nodded, I don't know what to say in these relationship situations.

The bell rang right after we finished eating, so I headed towards my locker, grabbed my books and went to class. In my way, I checked my phone for messages, and I had one.

*•*
To: Noah.
From: Veronica.

Went to the doctor's appointment. Everything's perfect, Zoey might be able to go back to school in a few weeks, they want to run some more tests just to make sure she's ready.

Great news, thx!
*•*

I grinned to no one in particular and entered my Math class, Jack already there.

"Dude, how did you even get here so fast?" I asked him as I sat down, "I literally just saw you in the cafeteria two minutes ago."

"I'm secretly Flash," he replied.

"Nope, he is better than you, sorry to crash your dreams," a voice behind us said. We both turned around and sitting there, was Amanda's friend.

"I suppose you don't remember my name," she said before introducing herself, "I'm Hailey, nice to meet you."

"Oh, you're the one who left her without a ride home last week?" I asked.

"Yep," she replied, "You should thank me." I looked at her with a questioning look, and so did Jack. She rolled her eyes and dropped the conversation.

"Anyway," Hailey said and turned to Jack, "You took her out on a date." It was just a statement but Jack replied as if it was a question.

"Yes..."

"Listen up," she said, leaning in closer until her face was inches away from Jack's, "You break her heart and you're dead. Hope you understand we're talking about my best friend here, she might look tough, but her inside is broken, so treat her well and delicately." She made a pause and sat back down on her seat before looking at both of us.

"Tell anyone about this conversation, and you're dead anyway." She stood up. "Including you, Noah." I just looked at Jack and back at Hailey. We both nodded awkwardly.

"Well, have a nice day," she cheerfully said and went to sit down next to a girl in the second row of desks.

"What did just happen?" Jack asked.

"I seriously don't know," I replied.

* & *

She might look tough, but her inside is broken.

I couldn't stop thinking about Hailey's words. What did she mean? I shrugged the words out of my mind. It's none of my business, so I should stop thinking about it.

I parked my motorcycle in the parking lot and rushed upstairs. When I opened the door, Zoey was on the couch with Veronica watching TV. Her eyes lit up when she saw me and I smiled.

"I'm going back to school!" she squealed, "The doctor said I'm ready!"

"I know, it's amazing news!" I replied, going over to hug her. She hugged me tighter than she ever did before, meaning her strength was coming back.

"Thank you, Veronica," I said after releasing Zoey and looking at her.

"No problem!" she replied, but something was not right. She motioned with her head to the kitchen, and I nodded slightly.

"I'm going to go make you some snacks," I said to Zoey, she grinned and nodded.

"I'll help you," Veronica said immediately. We headed towards the kitchen and I closed the door behind me.

"What's wrong?" I whisper-asked.

"Remember that I told you that the doctor wants to run a few tests?" I nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"Well, he wants to make sure that Zoey doesn't have any other disease."

"What kind of disease?"

"Like," she made a pause, "Cancer." My heart dropped.

"And why is he letting her go back to school, then?" I asked, trying to not lose control.

"He thinks that it will help Zoey with her recovery," she whispered, "And get her body ready in case of another disease."

"What kind of cancer?" I asked.

"Lung cancer," she said, "I know the doctors don't know what Zoey really has, but she is showing every sign and symptom of it. Losing weight without trying, chest pains, headaches, coughing strangely. The doctors are waiting for Zoey to show any more symptoms to be sure, but since they don't know how much time that will take, they want to run the tests I told you about." I just nodded, not believing anything, I was in complete shock.

"She has to recover," I said, "It was my fault she ended getting hurt when Dad died."

"Noah, don't blame yourself," Veronica said, "We talked about this already, it was that jerk's fault, he should've stopped."

"Let's just drop the subject," I said, "I can't handle this with the news." She nodded.

"Let's make those snacks we promised Zoey," she said smiling. I always was jealous of that part of Veronica, she always found the positivity to the situation, no matter what. She was in her early forties, already married and she had a pair of twins, who had inherited her auburn hair and her green eyes. She was a teacher at a local university, but she teaches only in the afternoon, which meant she could help Zoey in the morning until she had to go to work. Zoey loved her, she thinks of her a role model.

After taking the snacks to Zoey and saying goodbye to Veronica, I scrolled through my phone on the couch when I received a message.

*•*
To: Noah.
From: Aubrey.

hey

hey

wanna come over?

can't, i'm busy

k, another time then

*•*

I would have gone over, but I wasn't going to leave Zoey alone. I usually go out when she's at a sleepover or Veronica insists I have a night to myself.

"Who's Aubrey?" I heard someone ask. I turned around to find Zoey watching over my shoulder. "Is she your girlfriend?"

"Girlfriend?" I repeated, "God, no."

"Then, who is she?"

"A girl from school," I said bitterly.

"You don't like her, right?"

"Not that much."

"And who's Amanda?" she suddenly asked. I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"How do you know about her?" I didn't have her number, so it was impossible for her to have gotten her name from my phone.

"People talk," she replied.

"What do they talk about?"

"About how she literally beat you at basketball," Zoey said.

"How do you even know about that?" I asked.

"People talk," she whispered