I lean over the plastic trash can.

I throw up.

My body rejects almost everything I eat.

I can't even drink a bit of water without throwing up. My parents say I'm skinnier than ever before, even when I was a baby with cancer. I can see the bones in my wrist sticking out under my skin. It's a scary sight, to be honest.

I decide to get up and walk over to the bathroom. I have to grab the pole with the chemo on it so the IV won't come out of my body.

Honestly, I wish it would.

I walk over and look into the mirror. Looking at myself, I don't look good at all. There are bags under my eyes, my cheeks seem to be sucked in, even though they're not. My cap feels like it's too big for my head. God, I just need to get this cancer done with.

If I can get rid of it, it'll go away forever, right?

~•~

The children's cancer ward has activities for the kids to do so we aren't bored all day. I haven't been to one yet, but my parents are making me go today. They're probably going to make me eat and then I'll throw up.

"Okay, Garroth, are you ready for the activity?" My mom asks. She has her keys and purse with her.

"Why do you have those?" I ask. She can't be leaving.

"I'm going to go see your brothers and-"

"But then I won't have anyone here!" I complain, tears welling up in my eyes.

"You'll be fine," she walks over and kisses my head. "The doctors will take care of you, and you can make friends."

"But what if they make me eat?" I try to come up with reasons to make her stay.

"They won't, Garroth. I promise," she stands up completely. "Hannah will be here in a few minutes. I'm going to leave, okay?"

"Okay..." I mutter looking down.

"I love you." She kisses my head once more. "I'll be back soon."

She walks out the door slowly. Then, I'm alone in the dead silence of the hospital room. I shift uncomfortably waiting for Hannah to come. I wish my dad didn't have to work, and I wish my mom didn't have to see my brothers. What? I'm scared! You can't expect an eight year old to be fine in a hospital alone.

"Hi, Garroth!" Hannah's cheerful voice breaks the ghostly silence. I look up and give a sad wave.

"What's wrong?" She comes over to me. I don't make eye contact.

"My mom left," is all I mutter.

"And why would she do that?"

"Because she needs to see my brothers," I sigh and look her straight into the eyes.

"Well, you understand your mom loves your brothers, too, right?" She explains.

"Yeah."

"And you wouldn't like it if either of them were in the hospital and your parents didn't pay attention to you, would you?"

"No."

"Right. We need to remember that we need to not only share things, but people, too."

I don't get why she talks to me like I'm four or five. I'm eight years old and have been told I am mature for my age. It annoys me when people talk to me like that. That's how they should talk to Zane and Vylad, not me.

"Do you want to go to the activity now?" She asks. I nod and look around awkwardly.

"Good!" She stands up. "I'm going to need you to wear this." She hands me a mask with what seems to be ducks or something on it. The material on the mask makes it faded, so I can't tell.

"Why?" Though it's kind of cool, it seems useless to me.

"So you don't get sicker. Do you need help getting it on?"

"No, I got it." I reply and put the mask on. I hop of the bed and we leave the room.

The hospital has long hallways. They seem to be never ending if you look at them a different way. They're all white with grey doors. I want to go home. I'd give anything to go home.

"Here we go, Garroth," Hannah says. I walk into what looks like to be a play room.

Kids are sitting at a table playing board games. The table has a pile of board games in the middle. I notice the girl I saw the other day sitting at the far end of the table. She seems to be waiting for a person to go up to her. I decide I will, considering my parents said I have to be nice. Even to a girl.

I sit down in the blue plastic chair in front of her. Startled, she looks up and I can tell she immediately recognizes me. I smile under my mask.

"Hi," is the only thing I say.

"Hey, um... Garroth?" She guesses.

I nod my head, "Aphmau?" I ask. She nods, too.

"Wanna play a game?" She asks. I smile and nod again. "How about... Candy land?"

I shake my head, "No, I've played it about a hundred times with my brothers. Ever played Battleship?"

"No. Can you teach me?" Her brown eyes are happy and sparkling.

"Sure!"

I walk over to the pile of games that was on the table. After a couple seconds of digging, I find Battleship. I pick it up and walk over to the excited Aphmau. I open it and take the pieces out. She helps me set up the game. Once it's all set up, I teach her how to play it.

"You put a red peg on every ship I guess that's correctly in the squares I ask." I explain.

"So, if I say J7, and your's is there, you put a red peg on it?"

"Exactly."

"Okay. What about the white pegs?"

"You put those where you don't guess correctly on the piece in front of your face," I look down at all my ships. They're well placed.

"Okay, let's play!" She exclaims. I nod.

"You start," I offer. Being a gentleman isn't easy.

"Hm... A...5. A5." She repeats herself to make sure I can hear her.

My eyes may be funny, but not my ears.

I look down at the biggest ship. She got one correct on the first try! I look up with wide eyes, that though they can't see that well, they can see her expression. She's smiling wide.

"You got it, on your first try!" I say, putting a red peg on my ship.

She smiles at me. I smile back and we keep playing.

She's not too bad, she's actually pretty good.

~•~

We eventually get tired of playing and put it away. The two of us played seven games, and she won six. I think she let me win the last one, though I told her not to.

"Aphmau, can I ask you a question?" I adjust my mask that was falling down.

"Hm?" She perks up. I look her straight in the eye.

"Why are you here?" Once I say it, I immediately regret it.

"Well, um, the doctor said I have cancer in my blood. What about you?"

"Cancer in the brain." I reply. It sounds scarier than it actually feels.

"Woah..." She looks down, "I'm sorry..."

"Hey, we both have cancer, right?" I shrug. She nods.

She looks over to the middle of the table, "You see that boy right there?" She points to a boy with tanned skin and light brown hair.

"Yeah." I nod. He doesn't seem weird to me.

"His name's Laurance. He has cancer in his neck, I think. He told me his sister thought she was growing a second head from the lump that was growing in his neck!" She giggles. I smile but try not to make it obvious.

"Are you two close?" I ask. She seems like the girl who would be close with everyone.

"We went to school together and we were in the same class," she explains.

He looks over and looks at us weird. Aphmau smiles and waves him over. He slowly walks over to our table, eyeing me the whole way.

"Who are you?" He sits down next to Aphmau and looks at me.

"I'm Garroth Ro'Maeve." I stick my hand out for him to shake. He accepts it with a firm grip.

"Laurance Zvahl. Why are you here, Garroth?" He asks. I sigh.

"Brain cancer. You?" I know already, but it's just polite.

"Hodgkins Lym... Lym... Lymphoma." He stutters with his words. I look down.

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, it's cool," he seems to be pretty chill. "Hey, are you gonna be here tomorrow? Maybe we could do the next activity together." He suggests.

"I'll try and make it," I say quietly. "Yeah, I think I can." I say louder.

"Good! We'll all be here tomorrow!" Aphmau exclaims.

I guess the hospital isn't so bad, after all.

••••••••
Hey everyone! Glad this is back? The qod is:
How has MCD changed your life?
Thanks for reading! Bai!
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