Rolling over onto his left side, Brian punched the pillows and tried to adjust them into a better spot. He laid his head back down and his eyes wandered to the digital clock on the nightstand.
5:43 a.m.
“Dammit, I might as well give up on sleeping,” Brian sighed as he tossed the comforter off his body and slowly sat up. As he sleepily stumbled into the bathroom, his eyes protested the invasion of the florescent lights when he flipped the switch. Quickly splashing cold water onto his face, Brian got a good look in the mirror. His unshaven face gave him a haggared appearance, but Brian quickly dismissed that to jet lag and the time change. Afterall, he theorized, it was only 2:30 in California. The dark circles under his eyes added to the disheveled appearance.
After brushing his teeth, he padded down the stairs quietly only to be met by a series of yaps from the pugs waiting by the fenched off area in the back of the kitchen.
“Sh-h-h-h, fellas, you’re gonna get me busted,” Brian whispered sternly with his index finger pressed on his lips. Stepping gingerly over the barricaide, he unlocked the door and held it open for the dogs to go out into the fenced in area of the back yard.
Yesterday’s paper was laying on the kitchen table, neatly folded, waiting to be read. Brian glanced at the front page and shrugged his shoulders.
“Old news is better than no news I guess.” He grabbed the coffee pot and filled it with water. “Hmmm, wonder where Nick keeps the coffee at?”
Brian started opening cupboard doors and was soon rewarded with a bag of Starbuck’s coffee. He grinned as he pulled it off the shelf. “Way to go Nick, good choice!” When he realized that there wasn’t any measuring cup or spoons in the bag, he started opening drawers, looking for something to spoon the grounds with. His heart sank when he pulled open the third drawer and found some pamplets that were evidentally from Nick’s cancer doctor.
Seeing the papers was a grim reality that what Nick was saying was in fact true - that he had cancer. Tears started to form in Brian’s eyes. He blinked them away and quickly made the coffee and then returned to the drawer and pulled out the booklets.
Taking a seat at the table, he hesitantly picked up the first booklet and started to read.
“Mornin’ Bri, did you sleep good?”
Startled, Brian jumped. “Huh?”
Nick grinned at his best friend. “Dude, I think you were nodding off, I just asked you if you slept well last night.”
Brian ran a hand through his hair. “Wha, what time is it?”
Nick took a cautious sip from his coffee mug. “Um, it’s 7:25. We don’t have to leave until eight so you’ve got plenty of time. Did you eat breakfast?”
Brian took a good look at Nick. He was leaning against the kitchen counter, coffee mug in hand. His features were still pale and his stomach was slightly distended, poking out against the untucked black tee shirt. His eyes appeared glassy, almost lifeless and his cheeks had an unhealthy flush to them, no doubt another fever was with Nick again.
“Brian? Hey, you keep zoning out on me, something wrong?”
“Um, no,” his eyes trailed down towards the pamplets that were laying on the table. As he looked over to the booklets, Nick’s eyes followed his.
“Oh, I see you’ve been doing some reading. Pretty boring stuff isn’t it?”
Brian narrowed his eyes at the booklets. He couldn’t understand how Nick was acting like this was no big deal. He had cancer. Cancer kills people.
“No, I’d say it was pretty interesting stuff. Which kind of Hodskins did you say you had?”
“I didn’t,” Nick replied and took a quick sip from the coffee mug and poured the contents into the sink.
Brian watched him as he rinsed the cup out and placed it in the dishwasher. “You don’t know what kind you have?”
Nick sighed and Brian could see his shoulders sag before he turned to face him. “I know what kind I have, it’s irrelevant. I’m going to beat this so what difference does the stage I have make?”
Brian shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno.”
“Exactly! I have to get my jeans out of the dryer and get these sweats off, so I guess we’ll leave in about twenty minutes, okay?”
Brian nodded. As he got up from the table, he couldn’t help but think about how Nick was acting like he was sick with a common cold. He was acting like this wasn’t as serious as it is. The pamplets that he had read told him otherwise. It told him what the mortality rates were and the success rates. Nick had one hellofa fight against him.
He entered the living room in time to see Nick at the bottom of the stairs, jeans in his hands, staring upwards. Nick wasn’t aware of Brian and he sighed deeply as he looked at the flight of stairs he had to climb. Instead of bounding up the stairs, Nick took them one slow step at a time, pausing after three or four steps.
When Nick had reached the top, he noticed Brian standing in the living room. He pasted on a grin. “Hey, better hurry up, we don’t want to be late.”
After seeing what he just saw, Brian literally wanted to break down and cry. He was scared for Nick.
The odds weren’t in his favor.
