He hates it here. He hates how the wall is plastered in motivational posters, attempting to lighten the dreadful, thick air within the room. He hates the chairs, how the leather arm rests have claw marks from years of anxious patients. This is his first day here, and he hates it already.
The worn-out chair is uncomfortable beneath him, the needle in his arm not helping his mood. As his eyes search the room, he sees other patients—an older man with decades beneath his eyes, his once muscular build now frail after a lifetime of his body fighting this war. A small child with a life yet lived, crying from the pain of the treatment. That is when he sees her. Sitting across the room, in the chair opposite his, a girl waits. He can tell that she is about his age—23—, but the wrinkles of stress and depression aged her years forward. A red beanie covers her head where her hair would be, and her eyes are now tinted thunderclouds from despair. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.
Nurse Lee, the same nurse who has been treating him since his diagnosis, finishes with the adjustments for his treatment. “Alright, Spencer. It might feel uncomfortable, but that’s normal. Let me know if you need anything, bud.”
Spencer has always liked Lee. During his first few visits, Lee would have lunch with Spencer, discussing the newest action blockbuster or the most recent episode of their favorite show. Why Lee liked him so much, Spencer did not know. Not that it mattered—having a friend in the hospital was much needed while Spencer spent long nights alone.
“Alright, Casey. Your turn.” Lee’s fingers grip the needle, pricking the girl’s forearm ever so gently.
“Ah, that hurts, jerk.” Feeling the metal inside her arm, she flinches at the pain.
“Only a few more treatments and then you’re free.”
“6 more months.”
A firework, exploding into a million different colors and shapes, goes off in Spencer’s chest at the sound of Lee’s conversation. A warmth overtakes his face, forcing a smile upon his lips. “Hey, congratulations! Only 6 more months until you’re outta here!” Spencer brushes a hand through his hair, pushing the long strands out of his face.
Casey’s eyes follow the sound of the voice, staring into Spencer’s soul once they meet his. Blank expressions cover her face—the emotionless girl reminds him of one of those masks used in Phantom of the Opera.
“Shut up, kid.” Casey’s hand reaches into her jacket pocket and pulls out a pair of headphones. Once connected to her phone, she shoves them under her beanie, her thumb smashing the phone screen so hard that Spencer is surprised the glass did not crack under the pressure. The music is so loud that Spencer can hear it across the room, over the child crying—Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me”.
I do belong with you. Accurate song. Spencer thinks to himself.
As Lee walks over, the words are already leaving Spencer’s tongue. “What’s her problem?”
“She’s… she’s been here a while.”
-----
Four weeks pass. Four weeks of dealing with the side effects of treatment. Four. Hell. Weeks. Spencer arrives for his second treatment, looking like a soldier with his hair cut down to a buzz. The smell of rubbing alcohol clogs his nostrils, destroying any muck in his sinuses. Inhaling deeply, his lungs fill with the cold air of the hospital like a ventilator for a sick patient. The armrest of the seat is worse off since the last time he was here, the wood beneath the cushion beginning to show. With his fingertip, he knocks on the wood to distract his mind as Nurse Lee stuck him with the needle.
The other patients—the old man and the little boy, are back too. Spencer soon learns that their names are Henry and Alonso. This time, Henry flips through a maroon colored, age ridden scrapbook filled with, from what Spencer can see from his seat, pictures of Henry and his wife. Alonso throws a paper airplane through the air, the sound whistling at the surprising speed of it. The plane lands near Spencer, so he throws it back at the boy, pulling a laugh from his chest.
Even Henry smiles at Alonso’s laughter—something this room has been void of for who knows how long. The laugh echoed throughout the entirety of the hospital, for another nurse peeked her head through the door in curiosity.
As the two of them play with the airplane and with Henry’s eyes following the paper back and forth through the room, the door creaks open eerily. Behind the glass pane, Casey stands with her red beanie. Lee follows her in and begins to hook her up to the dreaded needles and monitors.
“Hey, you’re back.” Casey says out loud, her eyes fixated on Spencer.
He freezes. His heart does not know whether to fall into his chest or explode at the fact that she is talking to him. “What, me?”
“Yeah, you.”
“I—I literally have to be here.”
‘Nah, no you don’t. Stuff’s bullshit anyway. Go live your life, dude.”
Spencer’s eyebrows raise. “What about you? Aren’t you out in six months?”
“Five. And I’m not out.”
The despair in her eyes tells Spencer everything he needs to know. There is a silence in the room, broken only by Henry’s scrapbook pages as he flips through. Even Alonso is quiet, a rare occurrence for the six-year-old child.
“Hey. I’m sorry about last month.” Casey’s words finally slice through the awkwardness.
“It’s all good, I understand.”
She stares at him even longer, studying everything she can about Spencer. His brown eyes, his tan skin, the way he carries himself as he sits--lazily slouched in the chair instead of stiff backed like a professional CEO. “Number one place.” Spencer makes the same, confused face as before. “Number one place you’d want to travel before you die.”
His mind travels to all of the destinations he can think of—the Colosseum in Rome, the Pyramids of Egypt—none of the landscapes stand out to him. “I—I think I would just go home.” Home. Home where his loving mother was, his passionate father, his pain in the ass older sister. If he could be anywhere right now, it would be home.
“Home? That’s lame.” Casey already has her mind made up. “The Bahamas. 100% the Bahamas.” Her voice silent, her mind thinking about the pictures of the beautiful beaches. “I went as a kid once. Before… all this. Best week of my life. Before this is all over… I want to go back. Sip a glass of my favorite wine, feet in the sand, listening to the waves crash. Paradise, man.”
------
The next four months, Spencer and Casey grew closer and closer each day—even on days they did not have the privilege of seeing each other. Although her condition was slowly worsening, they still exchanged numbers, staying up on the phone until the sun painted the night sky a vibrant orange hue. Spencer even asked her out on a date, to which she said yes—but had to rain check due to a sick family member. A rain check that has not been used… not until their fifth month together.
An energy fills the room—an energy that has not been present in the treatment center in years: Happiness. The emotion seeps into the patients; Henry’s smile is the biggest it has been since his wedding day, 43 years ago. Spencer does not think Alonso has ever been this happy, certainly not with the cards he has been dealt. The four of them, now friends, bond over one of Henry’s stories from a lifetime ago—about how Alonso reminds him of his youngest son. Even Nurse Lee joins in, occasionally coming to check in on the patients.
Around 11:00 AM, when Henry and Alonso have left for the month, Spencer and Casey stay behind for a few minutes. They still sit in their chairs, across the room from each other, in silence for a moment. The air thick with the stingy scent of rubbing alcohol, Spencer looks at Casey with those googly eyes, the ones from all the romance movies that Casey, surprisingly, made him watch. She does not seem like the girl to like romance, but she never failed to surprise him. Spencer’s heart skips a beat when he realizes that she is looking back at him with the same love in her stare.
“Spencer, I—”
He cuts her off. “I have an idea. For the rain check.” Casey’s eyebrows rise, twitching ever so slightly in suspense. “The Bahamas. Round trip, everything on me.”
At the jaw dropping suggestion, Casey’s laughter fills the air. “You’re kidding, right? Right? Don’t mess with me like this, Spence.”
“Not kidding. I know it’s the one place you want to go before…” The words trail off into a different sentence “I already looked up resorts.”
“Spencer, it’s not the best idea…”
“Listen, last time I checked, you owe me a date.” His smile twists into a smirk, knowing that his words would get her.
“Alright, alright… you got me. Let’s go to the Bahamas.”
-----
The squawking of seagulls pierce their eardrums as they march through the sand, both wearing their favorite bathing suits—Casey’s is an orange one piece with lace outlining, Spencer’s is a dark grey pair of trunks that resemble suit slacks. He carries two beach chairs in either hand, the hot metal of the seats burning his palms. He ignores it. The backpack slung over his shoulder slowly gets heavier as they trek, but he knows the pain is worth it.
Once they get to a secluded spot, away from any other tourists, he sets up the seats in the sand. In the bag, he has her favorite bottle of wine—Merlot. He fills two glasses with the red liquid, swirling his glass and sniffing the component inside.
They clink their wine glasses together, the Merlot inside swishing around the rim of the cup. As Spencer takes a sip, he hears Casey’s voice over the gulping of the wine.
“Thank you, Spence. For bringing me here.”
“You deserve it, Case. More than anyone I know.”
The briny air of the ocean wafts over them, the sun burning their open skin. Neither of them mind—this is the freest they have been in months. The twine-sewn seat beneath them leaves marks on their thighs, the sand between their toes makes Spencer feel safe. He begins to drift off, the crashing of waves acting as a lullaby.
Hours later, when awoken by a seagull, he realizes that the worst has come. In the beach chair, just a foot away from his, Casey’s chest has fallen flat, a smile still painted on the lifeless lips.
A multitude of emotions, like the waves, crash onto his chest. The most powerful one, though, is relief. Not for him, but for her. Finally away from the pain of this world, finally being able to visit the one place she vowed to go before she had died. Spencer was relieved, mostly, because he knew... she loved it here.
About the Creator
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