Page 64 of Write Me For You
“Great,” she said, and I reached for her hand.
She was scalding to the touch. “Are you okay?”
“You know the drill, June. Meds and sleep and I’ll be back tomorrow forReturn of the King. Sorry I’m missing our BFF time.” I waved her off and smiled supportively as Bailey helped her to her feet. We watched her walk back to her room. Fevers were just another side effect of the treatment.
“We’ll check on her later, when she’s settled,” Chris said. He rubbed his head. None of us were feeling great today.
I was calling it. “We need to break up Chemo Club for today,” I said, just as Jesse began to wretch again.
Chris looked at Jesse worriedly but then nodded. “I’ll see you both later. We can regroup and see Emma in a few hours, yeah?”
“Sounds like a plan,” I said, as Jesse gave Chris another thumbs-up. Putting his bucket down, Jesse shifted off his recliner. I joined him, and slowly and painfully, we made our way down the hallway, hand in sweaty hand. But Jesse didn’t stop at his room; instead, he followed me into mine. I raised a playful brow at him.
“Your mom and dad are away tonight…” He trailed off.
I squeezed his hand, and we walked into my room. We laid on my bed.
“Junebug, I think this is the kinkiest thing we’ve ever done,” Jesse joked, pointing to our bedside sick buckets. I wanted to laugh, but as soon as my head hit the pillow, my eyelids dragged down, and I fell asleep.
Suddenly, I woke with a start. The room was pitch-black. My heart was beating fast, and I quickly leaned over to turn on the lamp. Jesse was beside me, and he blinked awake with the glare of the light.
When I heard footsteps running along the hallway outside, I knew that must have been what had awoken me. Jesse sat up in alarm. We could hear the muffled sounds of people frantically shouting orders. As quickly as I could, I threw the blanket off me and got to my feet. Jesse did the same and rushed for the door.
As we popped our heads into the hallway to see what was happening, we saw Chris rushing toward us. One look at his face had my heart dropping.
“It’s Emma,” he said, and I felt like the world came to a halt. Just those two words were filled with dread and fear and apprehension all rolled into one.
I couldn’t speak, fear wrapping around me. We all began walking as fast as we could down the hallway toward her room.
“I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, so went to see if she was okay,” Chris said. “But when I got there, it was mayhem.” He swallowed, gasping for a steadying breath, and I felt like my heart was being crushed in a vise. “There were doctors and nurses, and then…” Chris choked on his words, and I tried to stop him from spiraling with my hand on his arm.
“They called her parents, June. The doctors. And they were…distraught.”
I wrapped my arms around Chris, and he collapsed into my arms.
A heartbreaking wail echoed down the hallway…from Emma’s room. I felt like my heart stopped beating when anothersounded, and I walked, a boulder in my throat, to Emma’s room. The wail came again, and when I looked inside, it was to see Emma’s parents standing over her on the bed. Her mama was screaming, and her dad had his forehead pressed to the back of her hand…a hand that was limp.
My vision blurred. Emma had a tube down her throat and IV wires coming from her arms that must have been filled with fluids to help her. Dr. Duncan was in the corner of the room, hand on his forehead as he stared at a chart. Susan and Bailey saw us in the doorway, and one look at their faces told me everything I needed to know.
She had died—Emma, my best friend…was dead.
“No,” I whispered, shaking my head, refusing to believe the truth before me.
Emma’s mama lifted her head, and her devastated expression would live in my mind for eternity. “She’s gone, June. My baby hasgone.” I shook my head over and over in. Just hours ago, we had been joking and watching movies. I’d told her I’d see her later. We’d missed out on our BFF time.
“No,” I said again, then fell backward just as someone caught me. I knew it was Jesse. I would recognize the comfort of his arms anywhere.
“Junebug,” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion. I turned to him to see him crying too. Then I turned to Chris. He was still, locked in the nightmare before us.
“Chris,” I said, but he couldn’t hear me. He was just staring at our friend, unmoving on the bed.
“I came to make sure she was okay,” he said numbly. “To sit with her some while she got over her fever.” Chris turned to me, desolation in his expression. “She wanted to watchReturn of the Kingtomorrow. She was looking forward to it. She’d never seen it before.”
A pained cry ripped from my throat, and I felt my knees give out beneath me. Bailey and Susan rushed toward us and helped Jesse get me to the nearby living room. Bailey placed me on a chair, and Jesse sat beside me.
Chris was still in the doorway, staring at Emma on the bed.
“She isn’t gone,” I whispered, denial coming in thick and strong. “It’s a mistake. She can’t be gone. She was getting better. Her treatment was working. She’s my best friend.”
