Page 111 of We Finished Here

“Mom?”

“I’m sorry, Taylor. I didn’t want to worry you going into the finals… I almost had a blackout in the early hours. So I went to the hospital.”

“You should have called me!”

“I didn’t want to worry you. I thought they’d just give me something for my migraine and send me home again. Besides, I saw Emmerson’s Mom yesterday and she said you two were catching up. I didn’t want to disturb that.”

I squeeze my hand against my thigh in a fist. That really pisses me off that neither of my parents told me. “What did they say?” I ask her, searching her face for any kind of sign.

“Come sit,” she tells me.

“Mom, I don’t want to sit… I want to know what’s happening.”

“It’s a brain tumor,” she sighs.

“What?” I’m trying not to yell.

“It’s what’s been causing the migraines.”

“They know that already, in just a few hours?”

“I’ve been there since the crack of dawn.”

“Mom, you should have called me!”

“I wanted to find out what was wrong first, Taylor. There was so much going on, I wasn’t even able to call anyone until my tests were done.”

I glance at my dad. “So, you called Dad?” I can’t hide my confusion over that part.

She laughs softly. “It seemed better somehow, coming from him.”

I shake my head, and I’m not upset that he did.

“It was hard to talk at the time. I was quite upset. Then calling you like that, crying and hysterical… you would have driven over there like a bat out of hell.”

She’s right about that.

“What does this mean?” I ask, getting past the technicalities for a moment.

“They have to operate.”

“And it’s cancer?”

“They don’t know if it’s malignant yet, so I need to wait on those results.”

“Fuck.” I don’t even try to hide the fact I’m swearing left, right, and center.

“The doctors said they will schedule the surgery in two weeks’ time.”

“Two weeks!” I run my hands through my hair. “This is serious, Mom.”

I don’t even want to ask what the survival rate is.

“The good part is, they have found it early,” she explains. “So, the chance of survival is a lot better earlier on.”

It’s like she can read my fucking mind.

I take a breath. “What are the chances?” I ask.

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