Till We Meet Again

Chapter Eight

A gasp escaped my lips, my hand flying over my mouth.  The coaches came rushing out onto the court, both from our team and the other team.  

"Aubrey?" Kimberly asked me, grabbing my arm.

"Breathe."  I watched as one of the coaches from our team slowly helped Collin sit up.  

"Aubrey?" Dennis asked, coming up to the fence.

"Where's his mom?"  

"Work."

"You drive him here?"

I nodded, and he motioned for me to come onto the court. 

I hopped the fence, hurrying to the center of the court.  

"Your name?" the coach asked Collin.  

"I know my name," Collin said, irritably.  

"I asked you to get his mom," the coach said to Dennis.  

"His mom isn't here."  

"Did you drive him here?" the coach asked me.  

"Yes sir."  

"I need you to drive him to the hospital. I'll get ahold of his mom and have her meet you there."  

"I am fine!" Collin protested.  

"We'll see about that," the coach said to him. 

Collin went to stand up, and all the coaches, from both teams, rushed to keep him sitting.  

"Well, I can't leave if I can't stand," Collin huffed.  

"Cut the attitude," his coach snapped at him. 

He pressed his lips together and gave him a sharp nod.  His coach stood up and extended his hand down towards Collin. Collin let out a frustrated sigh, but clasped the coach's hand and pulled himself up, a scowl on his face.  

"Are you alright to stand?" the coach asked Collin.  

"Yes."

The coach let go of him, and I took Collin's arm and guided him through the crowd and to my car.

"That was the most embarrassing moment of my life," Collin muttered, as I pulled out of the parking lot.

"Just take me home."  

"I am not taking you home."  

"Don't start with me Aubrey. I honestly just don't have it in me for a fight today."  

"Then you might as well give up, because I am taking you to the hospital."  

Collin let out a groan.

"This is so f*****g stupid."  

I knew him better than he was giving me credit for, and I reached over gave his hand a tight squeeze, keeping my eyes on the road.  Collin pressed his forehead to my hand, letting out a sigh.  

"You know that I love you," I said, turning to face him at a red light.

"And that you don't have to be strong for me."  

He slowly sat up, closing his eyes.

"It's hard not to fall apart," he said, his voice thick.

"That was the scariest moment of my life."

I slowly eased on the gas as the light turned green.

"Trust me, alright? We're going to figure this out."  

He gripped my hand tighter, leaning back in his seat.

"I have got a killer headache."  

"We're almost there," I promised.

"Let me know if you start to feel like you are going to pass out again."  

Silence elapsed. I did not want to push a conversation with him, knowing for him to admit he had a headache meant that his head must really be hurting.  

"Is my mom going to meet us there?" he asked, after a couple minutes of silence.  

"They said they'd call her. If she's not there when we get there, I'll give her a call."  

"She's going to kill me."  

I could not help but laugh.

"Your mother while shower you in kisses and love."

"That's probably true."  

We pulled into the Emergency Parking Lot, and Collin slowly got out of the car.

"I feel like my head is going to explode."  

I took his arm and guided him into the Emergency Room.  

"May I help you?" the nurse asked behind the desk, popping her gum.

"He's been having really bad headaches, and he just passed out," I informed her.  

"His name?"  

"Collin Langford."

 "And you are?"  

"Aubrey Allen, I am his girlfriend."

We went through a list of questions, and she handed me some paperwork for me to fill out for him.

"Get that done and we'll get him back as soon as we can."  

"Thank you."  

Five minutes into the paperwork, Ms. Langford came into the Emergency Room waiting room, a frazzled look on her face.  I waved her down, and she hurried over to us, throwing her arms around Collin. 

He practically melted into her arms; his eyes still closed because of his headache. Ms. Langford held Collin in her arms, tears in her eyes, even though she was a good foot shorter than him.

"My poor baby," she whispered, after hugging him for a little over a minute.

She gave him a tight squeeze before sitting him back down.

"Thank you Aubrey," she said, turning to face me, her eyes bright with tears.  

"No problem," I said, with a soft smile.  

"I'll finish the paperwork honey."

She took the clipboard from me, scanning over what I'd completed so far.

"You are such a sweetheart."  

I put my arm around Collin, letting his head droop onto my shoulder.

"That's what I am here for."  

"How long are they going to keep him here?" I asked Ms. Langford, as Collin peacefully slept in the hospital bed.

"As long as it takes for them to find out what's wrong."  

I let out an impatient sigh.

"Can't they just hurry it up?"  

"I wish."  

Collin let out a groan in his sleep, flipping his arm over his eyes.  

"I wonder if he can feel that headache in his sleep," Ms. Langford said, her eyes full of concern.

"He always just blew these headaches off; told me they were a part of his rehab. I just wonder how much he's been keeping from me."

I could not help but wonder the same thing too. How many times has he had a headache so bad that he just wanted to curl up and sleep? How many times has he put on that joking exterior, when inside he was slowly dying from the pain? And most importantly, why did not he talk to me about it? Why did he wait until we were headed to the hospital to finally open up to me? 

Collin stirred and slowly blinked awake.

Ms. Langford immediately dimmed the lights so as not to disturb his headache.  

"Good morning honey," Ms. Langford said, cheerfully.  

"I had the worst dream," he moaned, his arm still over his eyes. 

Ms. Langford looked over at me, concern written across her face.

"What about sweetie?"

"I was playing in the game against our rivals and I, like, blacked out. And then I had to be rushed to the hospital and undergo all of these tests..." he trailed off as he opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings.  

"It wasn't a dream honey," Ms. Langford whispered, taking his hand in hers. 

His entire body deflated.

"Oh."

She kissed his forehead.

"I'll go and let the nurse know you are awake so we can get you some breakfast."  

He gave her a smile and nod.  She squeezed my shoulder on the way out, giving me a soft smile.  

"Did you go home last night?" Collin asked, as I sat down on the edge of his hospital bed.  

"Of course not," I answered, as I played with his fingers.  

"I don't deserve you," he whispered, a smile playing on his lips.

"It's true."

I leaned over and gave him a kiss.

"But I still stick around."  

"What if I have Mono, you know, the kissing disease? And by that kiss you might have just gotten it too."  

I could not help but laugh.

"I think if you had Mono that kiss wouldn't have been the one to bring me down."

"You are right," he mused, a smile playing on his lips.

"It was probably one of the ones from yesterday, or the day before, or the day before..."

"What are you trying to say?" I asked, laughing.

"That I love you. And I am glad you stuck around here with me, even though I am sure it's a drag."  

"I'd do anything for you," I promised.  

"They're bringing in your breakfast," Ms. Langford said, coming back into the room.

"And the doctor's going to come to see us in a minute."

"What does the doctor want?" Collin asked, gripping my hand with his.  

"I don't know honey."  

The door opened and the nurse came in with Collin's breakfast, a perky smile on her face.

"Good morning!"  

"Morning," he answered, eyeing the breakfast she'd brought in. 

I hopped up off of Collin's bed, heading over to Ms. Langford.

"Want some Pop-Tarts out of the vending machine?" I asked her. 

She handed me a couple of dollar bills.

"And a cherry coke."

I went out and bought two packages of Pop-Tarts, a cherry coke, and a Mountain Dew for me.  I leaned against the vending machines for a few moments, staring down the hallway at Collin's room. I had a feeling that I could not shake in the pit of my stomach, a feeling that something was terribly wrong. Collin's headaches and behavior lately struck a nerve, and I could not help but think those two things were key to whatever was wrong.

"Thanks honey," Ms. Langford said, as I came back.

"No problem."

 I offered Collin some of my Mountain Dew, his favorite drink, which he declined with a tight smile.

"What's the matter?" I asked, setting my breakfast off to the side.

"I can't shake this feeling that something's wrong," he whispered. 

Before I could answer, the door opened, and the doctor came in.  

"Good morning," she said, extending her hand towards Ms. Langford.

"Doctor Wilson."

"Melissa Langford."  

They shook hands and the doctor came over to us.  

"Good morning Collin."

"Morning," he mumbled.  

“And you must be Aubrey."

I looked over at Collin.

"Yeah?"  

"He talked about you a lot of last night during the tests."  

I could not help but laugh, Collin's face flushing bright red.

"I spent the majority of the night going over your MRI and CT scan results with a team of specialists here at the hospital," Doctor Wilson explained, as she pulled up the images on the desktop in the hospital room.

"And I am afraid I have some bad news."  

Collin gripped my hand, a grim look on his face.  

"You have a tumor."

She blew up the image and pointed to a gray blob in the corner of his brain.

"Oh," Ms. Langford breathed, tears in her eyes.  

"At this point we don't believe it to be cancerous," she explained. "But we'll know more once your blood work comes back."

"And if it is?" Ms. Langford asked, tears rolling down her face.  

"We'll have to being treatment to fight the cancer off," Doctor Wilson said, gravely.

"But as I said, at this time we just don't know."

She clicked on another image of the tumor.

"What we do know, however, is that the tumor is obviously affecting him in his daily life. So, I am going to recommend surgery."  

"Brain surgery?" Ms. Langford asked, her eyes wide.  

"Yes. We'll remove the tumor and biopsy it. The biopsy will also be able to tell us if it's cancerous or not."  

"And if it's not?" Ms. Langford asked, his voice thick.  

"Then we'll just remove the tumor and you'll be good to go."  

Ms. Langford wiped a tear off her face, taking a moment to recompose herself.

"So how does the surgery work exactly?"

"We'll have to cut open the skull because we need the biopsy. We'll remove all of the tumor that we can and take a biopsy."  

"You'll have to cut my skull open?" Collin asked, the first words he's spoken since the doctor announced he had a brain tumor.  

"Yes. We'll create a hole in your skull and remove what's known as the bone flap. We'll remove the tumor, and then replace the bone flap with small metal plates."

"And when should we schedule this for?" Ms. Langford asked.  

"A nurse will come in here and discuss that with you just as soon as I am finished here." She looked around at the three of us.

"Any more questions?"  

"No," Ms. Langford and I whispered in unison. 

Collin remained silent.  

"Always feel free to come and ask me any questions," Doctor Wilson said, with a small smile on her face.

"And remember, we don't know if it's cancerous or not, so don't worry too much about that at this point and time."

She gave us all one last smile before leaving the room. 

Ms. Langford and I looked at each other, speechless. What words could you say to make this better? How can you console others when you are broken yourself?  And then I heard a sound I'd never heard before.

I turned to see Collin silently crying, his remaining composure gone.  I laid my head on his chest, and Ms. Langford took his hands in hers, but there wasn't much we could do to console him, to make the situation any better. 

So, we all cried together.