Chapter 21
“Hello?” Olivia said through a yawn, as she picked up the ringing
phone in her kitchen.
“Olivia?” Olivia
recognized Nick’s voice on the other end.
“Oh, hey, Nick,” she said, trying to disguise her elation.
Nick had been gone for only a day, but it was the first time he
had called since he left, and she had been anxious to talk to him. Not just because she missed him, but because
of what had happened right before he left.
“Something wrong? You sound
weird,” Nick said.
“No, I was just yawning,” she replied.
“Oh. Well, if you’re tired,
I won’t keep you on too long. I would
have called earlier, but we’ve been in rehearsals all day and just got back
from a late dinner,” Nick said apologetically. It was about eight thirty.
“No, it’s fine,” she replied.
“I’m just a little tired from the radiation. It does that. But I’ve been wanting to talk to you.”
“Me too.”
Olivia smiled and sank down at the kitchen table to talk. “So… uh… how did the rehearsal go?” she
asked casually, not quite ready to bring up the kiss yet.
“Pretty good,” replied Nick.
“And how’s everything there?”
“Same as always. I miss
our late night talks on the beach though,” she said.
“Me too,” Nick agreed. “But
don’t worry, soon we’ll be having late night talks on the tour bus.” He chuckled, and Olivia laughed with
him. “I can’t wait to have you here
with me,” Nick said, his tone turning more serious.
“I know. I can’t wait to be
there,” Olivia replied. She knew then
that it was the perfect time to ask him about what had happened. “Um… Nick… about this morning, I-“
“Oh, hang on, just a minute, Liv,” Nick
said suddenly, cutting her off.
Olivia frowned and listened impatiently. She could hear someone’s voice in the
background, and then everything became muffled, probably by Nick’s hand over
the receiver. Finally, Nick got back on
the phone.
“Hey, Liv, I’m sorry, but I gotta go
now. Management’s on the phone and need
to talk to us about something. I’ll
call you later, okay?”
“Okay,” she replied, trying not to sound too disappointed. “Bye, Nick.”
“Bye, Liv,” Nick said and hung up.
Sighing, Olivia pulled herself up, hung up the phone, and left the
room.
***
Nick never called back later that night, at least, not that Olivia
knew of. She fell asleep shortly after
he had caused and didn’t wake up until her alarm went off at eight the next
morning.
It was a Wednesday, and that meant she had to get up and get ready
to go to her radiation session at the hospital at
Olivia felt a wave of depression rush over her as she pulled
herself into a sitting position. It
seemed that this tumor had begun to take over her life. She had her radiation treatments three
mornings a week, she was too exhausted the rest of the time to do anything, and
she had had to give up going on tour with Nick then because of them. And even though she was going through
treatment, there was always a scary thought in the back of her mind – that the
radiation wouldn’t help.
I can’t spend all day worrying about that, Olivia told
herself, groaning as she climbed out of bed.
There’s tons of people in the
world with worse problems than mine. And
it’s not like I can change it anyway, so why stress out about it? Whatever happens is what God intended to
happen, and there’s always a reason for it.
Olivia padded into the bathroom and grimaced at her disheveled
self in the mirror. She raked one hand
through her head of curly black hair and cranked the shower water on full
blast.
When the water was hot, she climbed into the shower and sighed
blissfully, as the warm water splashed onto her body. She took her time shampooing her hair and
washing her body, and finally, when she decided she had wasted enough water,
she turned off the shower and carefully stepped out.
As she wrapped a towel around herself, Olivia suddenly felt sick
to her stomach. Her knees went weak,
and the room began to spin around her.
Her vision started to darken, and suddenly, everything went black. The last thing she remembered was the sound
of her head cracking against the floor, as she collapsed.
***
When Olivia awoke, she became aware of her surroundings
slowly. She had expected to be in her
own bed, but instead, she found herself lying on the bathroom floor, a towel
half draped around her body.
What the…? she wondered, bewildered. What was she doing on the bathroom floor?
Olivia suddenly became aware of the bad taste in her mouth. It wasn’t just that stale, morning-breath
taste. It was bitter and metallic. Blood.
Horrified, Olivia quickly moved her tongue around the inside of
her mouth. To her surprise, it hurt!
Olivia tried to reach her hand up to her face and was surprised by
how weak she felt. It was painfully
hard to even lift her arm.
She managed though and tentatively put her finger in her mouth to
feel. She stuck her tongue out a little
and gently touched it. She could feel
the slit in it and the warm blood oozing out.
She had cut her tongue somehow.
That how was what she couldn’t figure out. She didn’t remember anything from that
morning.
Olivia then became aware of the phone ringing in her bedroom. She tried to get up to go get it, but she
could barely move. Her arms were too
weak to push herself up, and she doubted her legs would even support her.
Something was very wrong.
***
