Slammed

anything like that to him. There’s no one else.”
     
    She's being sincere.
     
    “ Then why did we move here, Mom? Why did you make us move here?”
     
    She takes a deep breath and grabs my hands. The look in her eyes makes my heart sink. It’s the same look she had in the hallway earlier this year when she came to tell me the news about my dad. She takes another deep breath and squeezes my hands.
     
    “ Lake, I have cancer.”
     
    ***
     
    Denial. I’m definitely in denial. And anger. Bargaining? Yes, that too. I’m in all three. All five, maybe. I can’t breathe.
     
    “ Your father and I were going to tell you. After he died, y’all were so devastated. I couldn’t bring myself to talk to you about it. When I started getting worse, I wanted to move back here. Brenda begged me to, said she’d help take care of me. She’s the one I’ve been talking to on the phone. There’s a doctor in Detroit that specializes in lung cancer. That’s where I’ve been going.”
     
    Lung cancer. It has a name. That makes it even more real.
     
    “ I was going to tell you and Kel tomorrow. It’s time you guys know, so we can all prepare.”
     
    I pull my hands away from her.
     
    “ Prepare...for what , Mom?”
     
    She wraps her arms around me and starts crying again. I push her back.
     
    “ Prepare for what , Mom?”
     
    Just like plump Principal Bass, she can’t look me in the eyes. She feels sorry for me.
     
    I don’t remember walking out of the house, and I don’t remember going across the street. The only thing I know is that it’s midnight and I’m beating on Will’s door.
     
    When he opens it he doesn’t ask any questions. He can see on my face that I just need him to be Will. Just for a little while. He puts his arm around me shoulders and ushers me inside as he shuts the door behind him.
     
    “ Lake, what’s wrong?”
     
    I can’t respond. I can’t breathe. Will wraps his arms around me just as I start to collapse to the floor and cry. And just like in the school hallway with my mother, he melts to the floor with me. He puts my head under his chin as he rubs my hair and lets me cry.
     
    “ Tell me what happened,” he finally whispers.
     
    I don’t want to say it. If I say it out loud, that means it’s real. It is real.
     
    “ She’s dying, Will,” I say between sobs. “She has cancer.” He squeezes me tighter, then picks me up and carries me to his bedroom. He lays me on the bed and pulls the covers over me when the doorbell rings. He kisses me on the forehead as he leaves the room.
     
    I can hear her speak when he answers the door, but I can’t hear what she says. His voice is low but I'm able to make out what Will says.
     
    “ Let her stay, Julia. She needs me right now.”
     
    A few more things are spoken that I can’t make out. I hear him eventually shut the door and he comes back to the bedroom. He crawls into the bed, puts his arms around me and holds me while I cry.
     

 
     
    Part Two
     
    11.
     
    “ Who cares about tomorrow?
    What more is tomorrow,
    Than another Day?”
    -The Avett Brothers, Swept Away
     

 
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
    The window is on the wrong side of the room. What time is it? I throw my arm across the bed and reach for the phone on my nightstand. My phone’s not there. Neither is the nightstand. I sit up in the bed and rub my eyes. This isn’t my room. When it all comes flooding back to me, I lie back down and pull the blanket over my head, wishing it all away.
     
    ***
     
    “ Lake.”
     
    I wake up again. The sun isn’t as bright, but it’s still not my room. I pull the covers tighter over my head.
     
    “ Lake, wake up.”
     
    Someone is pulling the covers back off of my head. I groan and grip them even tighter. I try to wish it all away again, but my bladder is screaming at me. I throw the covers off and see Will sitting on the edge of the bed.
     
    “ You really aren’t a morning person,” he says.
     
    “ Bathroom. Where’s your bathroom?”
     
    He points across the hall. I jump out of the bed and hope I can make it. I run to the toilet and sit, but nearly fall in. The seat’s up.
     
    “ Boys,” I mutter as I let the seat down.
     
    When I emerge from the bathroom, Will is at the bar in the kitchen. He smiles and scoots a cup of coffee to the empty seat next to him. I take the seat, and the coffee.
     
    “ What time is it?” I say.
     
    “ One-thirty.”
     
    “ Oh. Your bed’s really