Gwendalynn: The Girl With Cancer

Gwendalynn | 23

When your parents weren't home...

SEPTEMBER - 2011

Kory stayed for about a week. It was awesome seeing him. Gwen had a great time at Chinatown and I think my parents were starting to accept the fact that no matter what, I wasn't going to lose her.

It was the week before school. Ryan and I were sitting in my room. I was texting Gwen while Ryan was sitting on Facebook with my laptop.

"Hey, Kyle?" Ryan turned to me, spinning on my swivel chair.

I glanced at him, lifting my head slightly from my phone. "Yeah?"

"Remember, a long time ago, when we saw each other at the hospital?"

I stiffened. I never told Ryan about my graffiti. Surely, the rumors had reached to him by now... or I guess they haven't.

"Um, yeah."

"Why were you there?" his voice with genuine curiosity.

"Uh, well..." I was struggling to answer him. "F-for Gwen."

He shrugged then looked at the ceiling. "Let's see," he began, twiddling his apparently invisible mustache, "who should I believe, the super nice meal lady that's been working at the hospital for years or the guy I took in as a friend and thought I could trust since last year."

I huffed, running a hand through my hair. "Misty told you?"

"Yeah, Misty told me." he said hurt audible in his voice. "Why didn't you tell me, man?"

I shrugged, throwing the phone across the bed and sat up. "I dunno, dude. I just didn't want you to look at me like I was some criminal."

"You know, if you didn't lie to me for such a long time, I would be tellin' you that getting locked up once is freakin' bad ass, but three times, Kyle?"

"I was kind of messed up."

He gave me a flat look. "Well, obviously." 

I glared at him.

"Look, bro, I wouldn't have judged you."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Really, because it seems like you are right now." I gestured toward him.

"Well I am now because you lied to me. I thought we were bros, man?"

"We are! Just... I don't know. People look at me like I'm a freak. A freak that likes to spray paint and gets in trouble and doesn't care what happens to him."

It was quiet for a while until Ryan sat by me on the bed. "We're cool, bro."

"I'm sorry, Ryan."

"We're cool." he repeated, patting me on the back.

"I just didn't want to lose a friend when I finally had one."

"I get it, I do. I just wanted an explanation."

I nodded. "C'mon, let's go play ball. Tryouts are the first week of school."

I nodded again, heading out of my room.

...

The guys and I were practicing to get on the school soccer team. I hadn't realized how good I really was until the guys and I started playing one on one. One of us would be refereeing the game whilst the other two struggled to get a goal. Noah was abnormally good as well. Ryan played on the freshman team at the school he used to go to, not making one of the sophomore spots. This year, he was planning on getting a higher team.