[ - ]
Table of Contents [Report This]
Printer Chapter or Story Microsoft Word Chapter or Story
- Text Size +
**Chapter Thirteen**

Anita stared longingly out of her hospital rooms window. A hard rain was falling, the sky a gloomy grey. Branches of the trees below were whipping around in the strong wind, their leaves occasionally falling to the sopping wet ground below them. Another week had passed and Kevin’s condition still hadn’t improved. If anything, he was worse off than ever. He was almost always asleep, awakening for no more than an hour a day total. If he was coincidentally awake while he had visitors, he didn’t have enough energy to speak. He would just stare through squinted, green eyes for a few minutes, his breaths delayed and raspy before losing his battle to stay awake, falling back into another deep sleep until who knew when. The way he stared was eerie, as if he was lost, unaware of who he was, who they were or where he was. It was almost as if he wasn’t there at all, Kevin leaving the body behind completely.

The Boys had pretty much moved in to the hospital to be there for their friend until what was seeming to be the end. Things had gotten so bad, in fact, that they’d taken Kevin’s doctors advice and had already started to make minor funeral arrangements, not thinking that Kevin would live to see the next week They still hadn’t however, made an announcement to the public, feeling it would be best to wait until everything was over. It would be easiest that way to keep the frenzy and panic down that they knew would come.

Their visits were still limited, however the time span had been increased because his condition was so discouraging and it was felt that there really was no need any longer to keep them away due to health reasons to him, for Kevin was not going to get better.

A tear fell down Anita’s cheek to start off, followed by a rain fall of others matching the rain just outside the window. The one time she saw Kevin with him telling her that he simply couldn’t go on any longer had pretty much been the last time she’d spoken to him. After that, things had gone downhill even further day after day. His pulse went from dangerously high to unsafe lows from the infection, his breathing raspy and forced, delayed and even stopping for seconds at a time all together. Things were not looking to be encouraging.


Days were filled with many fallen tears and a lot of sleep to block out the depressing events all together. Even when asleep though, all had nightmarish dreams of what was happening. No matter what, they couldn’t escape what was happening. That was the hardest part of all because for one single moment, forgetting would relieve more stress than any of them could even ever begin to imagine. That alleviated tension would not be known though, for forgetting was impossible for all of them. This was something they’d all have to deal with and go through together, being there for one another as best they could until the end. That would be hard, but it had to be done. They’d all given up on being strong for one another, but they could be, if nothing else, just there when one of the others needed a crying shoulder to lean on.

Anita never knew that this kind of emotional pain was possible, nor had she imagined it could be. The raw feeling inside of her stung like the salty water of the Atlantic on a fresh, open wound. Her heart felt heavy and as if a hole had been shot through it dead in the center. She felt as if she’d been put through war, and her body was weakly fighting to repair itself from the blows, but just wasn’t recovering. Anita felt as if she were slowly dying too, and as silly as it sounded, she sort of wished that she was, for she didn’t want to live without Kevin there with her. She’d only known him for a couple of short months, but felt as if she had for an entire lifetime.

To make things worse, Anita had found out the day before that her chemotherapy treatments weren’t helping her. She wasn’t worsening, however her counts were still way off of where they should be. This news scared Anita, wondering what they would do now for her. The doctors told her that they would be trying out a different drug on her, a stronger one. All in all, she was pretty much starting back from square one, only this time, there would be nobody there to talk to her in a soft, comforting voice while holding her hand, telling her that everything was going to be okay. They were going to start the new treatment in five days to give the old round time to go through her system. She had to wonder if the reason the drugs weren’t working was because she’d been up and around, visiting with Kevin. If that was the case, she didn’t care because she couldn’t just sit back and wait and wonder.

As much as Anita hated to admit it, she missed Juanita, Madison and Kimberly too...and even Taylor, who hadn’t kept his word on visiting or calling either. At least the others hadn’t promised her anything. Taylor had, which almost made it worse with that part of the situation. She had a feeling that her lovely, backstabbing ‘friend’, Madison, had something to do with that. She growled in anger at the thought of the betrayal she’d been put through. What kind of friend dated your ex, anyways? Either way, she wished that they were there so she’d at least have some form of human contact. Something familiar. It hurt her that they’d pretty much forgotten all about her existence since she’d become sick. It made her wonder if the group she’d thought to be so tight wasn’t anything more than acquaintances...people who spoke and hung out, but didn’t really mean anything to one another. The thought of that sucked, for she’d spent most of her life with those people.

“This isn’t fair!” she cried out in frustration, wishing that there was something she could do to make both her and Kevin better. Or maybe it was their fate to come together and die together. She had a feeling that she would never know.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Any new word on Kev?”

Brian had just come from the doctors personal office, inquiring about their friend for the second time that day. The rest of the gang had had to stay behind yet again, counting on being told second-hand what was happening. Brian was their only life-line for that, because he was the only one related through ‘real’ family. The others were left in the dark suddenly, their closeness to Kevin not meaning a thing. They knew that they were all family as well, but the thing that separated them from Brian and Kevin was blood, which was enough to make the doctors decision that they couldn’t be let in on his information. As infuriating as it was, they couldn’t do a thing about it.

“No, Anita,” he replied to the anxious girl, “Nothing new this time. He’s staying stable for now.”

The faces of everyone fell. As nearly impossible as it was, they’d all been holding on to the slight promise that Kevin would be the slightest bit better, his deteriorating health doing a turn around for good. But as much as they’d been expecting the still bad news, it had still nonetheless come as a large blow to them. This proved true that they could never be too prepared for anything to happen.

“That’s good, at least, dontcha think” Nick offered hopefully after a long silence, “I mean...he’s the same. He hasn’t de-proved any more like he has been for the past weeks every single day.” his gaze held on each member in the group for a few seconds each as if trying to read in to their thoughts.

“I don’t know, Nick,” Howie stated, seeing that Nick was waiting for a verbal response, “None of us do. He may just stay like this until...”

“He’s gone.” Brian finished off sullenly, wishing he could cry just a few simple tears more. He’d cried so much though that no matter how much he tried, nothing more would come. He was dry.

“But it could be a good sign, right?” Nick pressed again, just wanting to hear what he wanted, not necessarily the truth.

Nobody really said anything more. As much as they wanted to see Nick’s point as valid, they just couldn’t. There really wasn’t any way Kevin could get any more unsound. Not unless he died all together. But on the other hand, the fact that he was still alive and holding on was good enough for them. It still gave hope.

“As much as it kills me to say this,” AJ said softly, “He’s obviously suffering...greatly. I mean, he’s in pain, right?” he got several nods, all already knowing where AJ was going with this one, “It would be better off for him if he would just...pass on.” he choked on the last of the words, “He wouldn’t be suffering and hurting any longer.”a tear slid down his cheek, feeling like the biggest asshole saying that, when Kevin had been the one there for him most when he’d had his own ordeal. It would be selfish of them though to want to keep their friend alive just for the sake of him living. It would be selfish of them to want him so suffer just to have him there when he could be in a better place, a place of comfort.

“Maybe that’s true,” Brian drawled, “But they can’t just kill him...well, they could, but he would have to want that assisted suicide crap, and he can’t exactly make that choice for himself either...and he isn’t on life support or anything, so they can’t just pull the plug and end everything there..” he sighed a deep, troubled sigh, “I’d like to think that just possibly God is keeping him alive for a reason.”


Even as Brian said this though, he didn’t look so convinced himself of his own encouraging words. The others weren’t even positive that Brian’s attempt to be affirmative held true. None of them believed it for a second. They knew what they’d seen with their very own eyes, and that in itself was negative.