Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95421 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 477(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 318(@300wpm)
Oh God. When he’d mentioned her, he said she’d died. I looked over at the photo before turning back to Dawson. “How old was she when she passed away?”
“Sixteen. She died the day before her seventeenth birthday.”
“I’m so sorry.”
He nodded.
“Do you mind if I asked what happened?”
“Cancer.”
His answers were short and very matter-of-fact. Bailey might’ve died a long time ago, but clearly it still wasn’t an easy subject. So I let it be. Sometimes it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie. “Thank you for sharing.”
Chapter 25
* * *
DAWSON
14 years ago
“What does it feel like?”
After knowing each other a year, Bailey and I had become inseparable. I even went with her to the hospital for her treatments when I didn’t have football practice, which was where we were currently. An IV dripped into her chest as we sat side by side on plush reclining seats.
“What? Chemo?”
I shook my head. “No, the thing that’s under your skin. The port. Does it hurt?”
Bailey had a rubber tube attached to her chest where her medicines were delivered. Supposedly it was easier than sticking her with needles all the time.
She shrugged. “It hurt for a few days after they put it in. It was sore like a cut. But I don’t feel it anymore really. Just a little pressure when they connect the IV to put medicine and stuff in.”
I grinned and lifted my drink. “What do you think would happen if we put this coconut milk in?”
Bailey chuckled. “I don’t know, but I think I’ll pass on trying.”
“Boring.”
“Do you want to touch it?”
“What? The port?”
She rolled her eyes. “No, my left knee, Dawson. Of course I meant the port.”
I’d been slouching in the chair next to her, but jumped up at the opportunity. “Hell yeah.”
Bailey leaned forward and tugged her blue hospital gown down a bit. Chemo was one of the few times she didn’t wear a hat and sweatshirt, and I noticed her collarbone jutting out. She’d definitely lost some weight, and her patchy hair was all gone now. It made her look more like ten than fourteen.
“Go for it,” she said.
The port was implanted under her skin, with clear tape all around it and a lone tube that stuck out. I ran my fingers around the raised bump, feeling where it started and ended. “It’s a triangle?”
“Yep.”
Bailey watched me as I felt around. When my eyes lifted to meet hers, the moment turned weird. At least it did for me. She looked down at my lips, and I pulled back sort of abruptly.
“It’s pretty cool,” I said. “Thanks for letting me touch it.”
Bailey nodded and picked up her phone, but the awkwardness continued for the next few minutes while she scrolled—or at least in my head it did.
Eventually, Mrs. Anderson walked in with two shopping bags. Bailey’s mom usually left to run errands whenever I came to a treatment.
She smiled. “How are you feeling?”
“Fine.” Bailey didn’t look up from her phone. “Dawson just felt me up.”
My eyes bulged. “I didn’t… I felt her port.”
Bailey pointed to my face. “Why should you be the only one to make things awkward, you weirdo?” She laughed. “You are so red right now.”
“And you’re freaking evil.”
Mrs. Anderson chuckled. “You two are worse than brother and sister.”
“If we were brother and sister, it would be even weirder that he felt me up.”
I held out my hands. “I didn’t feel her up. I swear.”
Bailey’s mom set down the shopping bags and rummaged through one. “I was in Macy’s and saw the cutest dress. I thought you could wear it to the ninth-grade spring dance at school.”
“I’m not going to the dance, Mom.”
Mrs. Anderson sighed. “You don’t need a boy to go to the dance. Plenty of girls will go with their friends. I spoke to Katie Arnold, and she said Elaina is going with Laura and Penny.”
“Good for them. But I hope the dress is returnable, because I’m not going.”
Mrs. Anderson frowned and looked at me. “Are you going, Dawson?”
I nodded. “Yeah, I think so.”
Bailey’s head whipped up. “You are?”
I hadn’t mentioned that I’d planned to ask someone to the dance. Allie Papadopoulos had pretty much told me that she wanted to go with me already. She was the prettiest girl in school and wasn’t shy about saying she liked me. Bailey and I usually talked about everything, but for some reason bringing up asking out another girl had felt weird. I figured it would probably come out at some point, but now I wished I’d said something because that awkwardness was back again.
I nodded. “I’m going to ask Allie Papadopoulos.”
Bailey’s lips pressed together. “Oh.”
Shit. Now I felt bad. I had someone to go with, but Bailey didn’t. Though plenty of my buddies were going stag. “You should totally go. Like your mom said, a lot of kids are just going with their friends. Ben is going with the guys.”