Memorıes Lıke These

Chapter Fifteen

"Hey, how are you feeling?" I asked Lorna as I entered her room. Other the past few days I had been visiting her, with the pass I was now given, and the doctors and nurses had gotten used to my visits. On some nights I was allowed to say later, until Lorna fell asleep.

Lorna looked up at me from the book she was reading. She had read five in total since she had been in here. “Niall! Hey! I’m feeling good.”

I ignored the huge bags under her eyes and how limp her hair looked and how cracked her lips were and handed her the bouquet of flowers I had stopped to get for her. She grinned at me and sniffed them in delight.

"Well aren’t they pretty?" She smiled.

"I figured I would get something that describes you." I smiled back.

Lorna just shook her head and laughed. Then she placed the flowers on her little side table and looked up at me. “How are you?”

I sat down on the chair beside the bed and grabbed her hand, like I always did. It was my way of letting her know I was still here and I would squeeze it reassuringly and she would squeeze it back, telling me that she was okay. 

"I’m fine. You’re looking better." I said cheerfully. And I wasn’t lying either. The bruises on her face were starting to fade and even though her hair was starting to fall out in huge clumps and her face was still pale and thin, she did look better. Better than before anyway.

Her eyes lit up. “Really? Oh, that’s so good! Mum said the medicine was helping.”

"What are they giving you?"

"Some pill that is supposed to help. I don’t know though. My surgery is next week."

I rubbed her hand with my other hand. “I know.”

She looked at me with dull eyes. Her eyes had completely lost their sparkle and were just plain and dark and somewhat sad. But her smile was still bright.

"What if it fails? Like the Chemo?" She asked warily.

"What if it doesn’t? And you get all better?"

She smiled. “That would be nice.”

At that very moment, the door burst open and several doctors ran in holding a bed. They rolled it to the other side of the room and one of the doctors came over to Lorna and I.

"You have a new room mate." He said happily.

Lorna sat up. “Really?” She asked in awe. “Who?”

I felt so happy for her. Whenever I left her to go home, the look she gave me was heartbreaking. She would watch me walk out the door and shut it, leaving her in the empty darkness and she would pick up her book again. She must get so lonely so having a room mate would be really nice for her.

"Her name is Rosie and she has lung cancer."

"Oh dear." Lorna said. "How old?"

"11." 

Lorna and I frowned, obviously both feeling the same thing. We felt sympathy for the poor girl who would never get to live to be an adult. It crushed me inside.

"She’s just come out of surgery and is sleeping right now, but when she wakes up you may talk to her. Make her feel welcome." The doctor said.

Lorna nodded and the smile returned to her face. “I will!”

"How are you feeling?" He asked her. 

"Good."

"I’ll come back in half an hour to give you your medication."