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Anita stood outside of the small room Kevin was stationed in. She stood up on her toes and pressed her hands and nose against the small glass window that was high up on the doorway. She wanted to get a glimpse of her boyfriend. He lay in the room alone, just as she’d already predicted he would, hence the isolation part. He was hooked up to more machinery than he had before, and she could see that one of them was to help him breathe, which told her the infection had been worse than she’d thought. He looked to be asleep, but for all she knew, he was unconscious from all the infection had taken out of his already weak body. He was pale, ashen pale. He looked worse than he had when she’d been so concerned in the first place.

Letting herself down onto her feet, Anita could no longer see in to the room because of her short stature of being only five feet tall, even. She wished that she could go in, however one needed a pin code or a key to get in to the room. It was so that Authorized Personel could enter only, which counted her out until she was permitted to enter under doctor supervision. This wasn’t fair to Anita, and she sighed. She’d even wear the hideously goofy suit, which she considered a major fashion statement, in to the room to see Kevin, which was to keep all of her ‘bad germs’ out of his way. They had to take every precaution possible to ensure that she would get better.He was very vulnerable at this point. Anything could make him worse.

Looking behind her, Anita saw Nick leaning against a wall, his knees brought up to his chest, him hugging them. He’d fallen sullenly quiet since he’d figured everything out, and hadn’t said a word since his fit of tears. Tears that Anita had never seen fall from any man, and for some reason, it had looked natural. Not stupid like she’d thought it would look for a man to cry. She’d never seen one do it before, but when Nick had, she hadn’t thought anything of it. He was rocking himself back and forth no, his eyes looking straight ahead, right past her, seeming to be in a daze. He reminded Anita of a small child, and in a way, he was still because of his naivety towards some aspects of the world, although she could tell he really wasn’t a dumb person. He just lacked some common sense. And he was learning a lot rather quickly and catching up with the way thinks worked in the last few hours.

Anita sighed again, turning back to Kevin. Being close to him, even if it was on the other side of a door, made her believe that she was somehow helping him survive. That if she left, his heart monitor would go flat line. With that thought in mind, it had made her decision for her several times to stay where she was. She wondered if he could sense her presence through the door. That thought would bring her some piece at mind as well¼him knowing that he had two people who cared a lot about him not more than ten feet from him, the only thing dividing them being a wall and door.

Anita was startled when the silence was suddenly broken by Nick’s soft voice muttering heart-wrenching words that she wished weren’t coming out so clearly. She wished that he’d been murmuring the words to himself that only he knew what he was saying. That wasn’t the case though. Not at all. It was making her cold heart soften towards him more than she would have liked.

“Please be okay Kev,” he muttered, still rocking himself back and forth, “Please don’t die. Please beat this. We all need you...” his voice trailed off before he added softly, “I need you.”

Anita brought a hand to her mouth, clasping it tightly against it to stifle the chocking sob she could feel coming. She kept her back turned to Nick so he wouldn’t see her reaction. He sounded so pathetic and needy. She realized then just how much of a role model Kevin probably was to Nick. How Kevin had more than likely been there for Nick through thick and thin of his adolescence, helping him grow, almost raising him until he’d reached the point of being a young man, and now, an adult. At that moment though, as Anita turned around and looked into his transparent blue eyes, she saw a terrified child in him, making him appear at least a decade younger. Anita could only imagine what she must look like at that moment. More than likely it wasn’t much better than Nick looked.

Nothing more was said. The only sound was their breathing, Nick’s body shaking where he sat. Anita knew that she should be going then, but couldn’t bring herself to leave. She had to be near Kevin, and she knew that Nick felt the same need too. It saddened her to see how harshly Nick had taken the blow as to the seriousness Kevin’s status, but at least he knew the truth instead of not knowing what was going on.

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Anita awoke slowly, finding herself laying of the floor, her head next to the long legs of someone. She raised her head and looked up, seeing Nick sitting there, tearing the edges off of a Styrofoam cup, letting the pieces fall to the floor as he flicked them from his hand. She lazily sat up, looking around, wondering why she was on the floor in the hallway. Then it all came back to her as her eyes focused on the door with the pin code lock on it. She sighed, slumping down. The noise of her breath took Nick out of his thoughts as he looked over at her.

“Wish I could sleep,” he mentioned, his voice weak and hardly audible, “You’ve been out for a good six hours.”

Anita looked at him and could see dark circles clinging to the underneaths of his eyes. His eyes were squinted shut to slits due to the tiredness that consumed them, and they also appeared to be bloodshot, letting her know he’d probably cried some too. Yet she understood what he meant. For a while, she too, had had a hideous time falling into the slumber she had needed. She hadn’t wanted to, but unwillingly peace became her for a short while, making her know that she must’ve needed it. Letting her know that her body needed the rest for what was probably about to come. She needed her strength, as did Nick, if they were going to be there to support Kevin with all they had.

“I bought you a cup of coffee,” Nick mentioned, pointing to a small cup no more than a foot in front of her. It appeared to be the same size as what had been his cup before it become confetti. Anita’s stomach growled, and her mouth was dry, probably from all of the crying. She picked the cup of, holding it for a second. Something cold would’ve been refreshing right then, however the caffeine was what she needed to get her going. Anita realized that she couldn’t afford to be picky at that moment.

“Thank you,” she softly replied, taking a sip. The liquid was now room temperature, the taste bland, letting her know that the coffee was a few hours old, but she continued to drink it anyways, “Any word on Kevin?” she asked, unable to keep the words from popping out of her mouth. She realized she’d been thinking out loud, but maybe there would be an answer anyways.

“He’s stable,” Nick responded, “He hasn’t woken up yet, but at least he isn’t getting any worse off.” He forced a weak smile that came off looking rather pathetic, “That’s a good sign, right?” He asked, doing it again. Giving her that look of hope. A look that pleaded for a good answer. One that his ears wanted to take in, weather it be the truth or not. Anita wanted to say the best possible thing, because she knew if she said it enough, she too would start to believe it herself. Anita nodded, figuring in all reality that it really was a good sign, truthfully and honestly. Kevin improving would be a great sign. Him becoming worse would be devastating. Him at least staying the same was an all right sign, but close enough to being good. She hoped that there was room for improvement because she honestly didn’t want to live without him. She knew that this was stupid, for they’d only been together for not that long of a time, but she felt they had a connection, despite their rocky start. She felt that if he woke up and hit remission point, they could have something very special between them.

“I never thought something like this would ever happen to Kevin,” Nick said out of nowhere, distracting Anita from her thoughts, “He’s always been so strong and healthy. Always took such good care of himself, bitching at the rest of us to do the same. Then this happens to him. He starts to feel sick all of the time, and gets it checked out. BAM. Cancer. Just like that, and now he is taking a turn for the worse. Of all people, I thought that he’d be safe from such things. I guess this proves that nobody is. That it can happen to anybody at any time at any age.”

“True,” Anita agreed softly, staring blankly in to space, “I used to be a cheerleader. Was elected homecoming queen at my schools formal and prom queen senior year, and now at the age of nineteen, I have leukemia. Life just sucks sometimes.” She laughed bitterly, “Go figure I fall for a guy who’s also got cancer. Way to pick em” her voice trailed off. She looked over and saw the odd look that Nick was giving her, making her realize what she’d just said, adding quickly, “I wouldn’t change any of it for anything¼meeting Kevin. I just wish that one of us was strong at least¼so we could be there for the other. With both of us sick, it is hard to do that. It makes things so much more complicated than they should have to be for any one person.”

Nick understood where she was coming from. Anita still had her own treatments to worry about. Her own health to improve. If she was making herself sick over Kevin, it would delay or possible worsen her own progression. He at least knew that much and it worried him to a point. He was beside himself at the thought of losing Kevin, whom was like an older brother as well as a father figure to him. True, he purposely aggravated the man just to get a rise out of him, but he needed him more than he needed anybody else in the world. He felt that way about the others too, but there was something about Kevin that made him feel safe and like no matter what happened, everything would turn out alright in the end. The thought of Kevin never waking up and being there again was a thought that Nick refused to accept as a possibility.

“He has to get better,” Nick said aloud, “He has to so we can go on like nothing ever happened.” Beings they were keeping everything quiet, Nick didn’t want to think about having to explain to everyone, including the general public, that Kevin Richardson had been in the hospital for cancer all this time and had died. That was the least of his worries though. He just wished that he could see his best friend awake and alert. That would be enough in itself to convince him that things would turn out the way he hoped.

“He will,” Anita stated, convincing even herself for a moment, “He is strong. He’ll get over this infection and go on with treatments and hit remission leaving all of this behind him like none of it ever happened.” Anita gulped though as worry came back to the pit of her stomach. She wished that she could fully believe the words that she’d just spoken, but at least Nick seemed to buy in to them. At least one of them did. Hours later Anita was told that she had to return to her room for the night. She left with hesitation and Nick followed her to her room to spend the night on the couch that lined the wall against the window. Neither wanted to be so far from Kevin, but it was the closet they could be for the night, and for Nick the closest without leaving the hospital completely.

That night, Anita had a nightmare. One in which she’d been at a viewing for a funeral, but something wasn’t right. She was watching from a distance, and Kevin was there right up front. He had tears in his eyes, crying over whoever he was looking at. She gulped as he placed a single flower in to the casket, a red rose. Her favorite flower. She wondered whose funeral was about to take place. Anita had gotten in line at the end , her heart pounding. As Kevin made his way back to his seat in the pews, Anita tried to hug him in comfort, but he ignored her. She was hurt, but moved forward in the line anyways. Thoughts consumed her the whole way up to the open casket. She wondered if she’d met this person in the hospital, or if she knew them at all. Possibly family of Kevin’s? But why had he ignored her? Were they still dating? Many questions continued to swim through her thoughts up until it was her turn in line to see. What she did see was the last thing she’d ever expected. The person laying there in death was none other than herself.

Anita had woken up screaming, breathing heavily after this, panicking until she realized that she was still alive and this had only been a night vision. It had frightened her though and caused her a hard time falling back asleep. She eventually did though and dreamt no more afterwards. The next time she awoke, it was just past noon and by a doctor and Nick both, telling her that it was okay for them to go see Kevin now. She took no time getting out of bed, following them down. This was what she’d been waiting for, assuming that it meant everything was going back in the right direction once again.