Nurse Kelly
The truth is, I’m sick. I’m also sick and tired of sitting in a bed all day. It sucks. I just sit there. I’m 14 and I’m going to die with experiencing my first kiss, first boyfriend, the first day of high school and so many more things. I’ll be sitting in bed when all of those things could be happening to me. I have made up a game to save me from boredom while my friends are at school and my parents are at work. I make the nurses turn my bed to face the window. I watch all of the people running to work, making sure they aren’t late. I make up stories about the people that run by the busy streets that surround the hospital. My favorite person is named Izzy, she is in her 20s and works at a busy company. I don’t know this for sure but that is what I decided for her. She runs by the window every day, I am sure late to work, with her crazy half brushed hairs flying in the wind every day. I am sure to impress a co-worker. I have a feeling that she has a crush on one of them. My friends are confused about why I don’t just watch tv. That is what they would do if they were sick. But when you are stuck in bed all the time, you have lots of time. A lot of time that you can binge watch tv. I watched greys anatomy is less than a month. My friends try to visit me as much as they can, but sometimes life gets in the way. I understand that but its always the best when they come.
My favorite nurse comes into my room, ready to turn my bed to face the window.
“How’s it going?” Nurse Kelly says.
“Good.”
“April, its time to take your meds.”
I groan, to get to the best part of my day, I have to get through the worst. I take the meds from her hands and quickly take them. I feel the pills going down my throat.
“Time to turn the bed!” I say cheerfully.
“Right on” Nurse Kelly turns my bed just in time to see Izzy.
“Who is that again?” She says pointing to Izzy.
“That is Izzy. I named her after Izzy from greys.” Nurse Kelly is well aware of my greys anatomy obsession.
“She is in her 20s and she has a crush on this cute guy from her office. I think that she is going to ask him out soon. She has been dressing up lately, probably trying to impress him.”
“When I was your age, men asked the girls out. I like how it has changed, oh how the times have changed!”
“Have you asked a guy out before?” I said curiously.
“Well, not really. I, um, don’t like guys. I like girls.”
“Oh, that's cool,” I said surprised. I could see the worry in Nurse Kelly’s eyes, worried that I wouldn't accept her for who she is. “Don’t worry, that doesn’t change how I like you.”
“Oh, thank the genies. I didn’t want anything to change between us.” I giggled. Instead of saying thank god, Kelly would say thank the genies.
“Yeah, that would be really awkward.”
We both laugh.
“Okay, your pills are down, time for your stories.” Nurse Kelly said after we could control our laughs. It was also her favorite part of her work day. We both look at the window.
“Hey look, that person is new.” I point to a boy that is walking by the hospital.
“Hey, he is kind of cute.” Nurse Kelly replies. I look at her confused.
“Just because I like girls more doesn’t mean that I can’t tell if a boy is cute or not.”
“Oh, okay. I guess he is cute.” I looked at him, taking in how cute he is before he turned the corner disappearing from eyesight.
We could talk for hours, but Kelly has a life and I, unfortunately, don’t have one. I just sit in bed. The only time I am myself is when I’m with Nurse Kelly. She acts like a girl my age. We gossip about the other nurses and their outside lives.
After Nurse Kelly leaves, I wait. I wait for my friends when they are able to come which is starting to get less and less. Sure, it is sad, my friends don’t care about me as much. They thought that I was going to die, that I wasn’t going to live for very long. But I’m alive and living. Its been 7 months since my diagnosis. I was supposed to die 3 months ago. Right now, I am doing right. My chemo is going good and I feel great. But, my cancer is not very nice to me and it is very unpredictable so I have been having to stay in the hospital for all 7 months. They shouldn't have to come to visit me until I’m about to die, right. You know, use me from popularity, when I die, they will be famous in the school. Everyone will feel sorry for them. They aren’t really my friends but I just pretend because hey entertainment, you know.
They are coming today. They are going to sit on my legs and tell me all about the things that they are doing that I can’t do. They come in and tell me about their boyfriends. They complain about all the homework that they have in high school. Lucky them, they have something to do. They don’t have to spend 24 hours in a bed, thinking about all of the things that they could be doing at that moment.
“Hey girl,” Taylor says as she walks through the door.
“Oh hey. Where is everyone else?” I ask.
“They went to the cafe to get some jello.”
“Oh.” They really like the jello here. I forgot about that since it has been such a long time since they have been here to visit me.
“So any gossip you got on any of them before they get here?” Taylor is the most real one with me. She visits me sometimes without the rest of the group. She always remembers when a new round of chemo starts or when I have my diagnosis anniversary.
"Well, Anne broke up with Louis and got a new boyfriend within 3 days. Not surprising though."
"Yeah, typical Anne." Anne always has a boyfriend and she has had like 15 boyfriends. I forgot most of the names of her exes. They walk in after Taylor and I try to name all the boys that she has been with.
"Hi, guys." I greet them with.
"Hey." they all reply.
"I am dying for some gossip, like seriously I'm dying." I joke. "It is really boring here so fill me up with all of it."
They rambled on and on for hours. It is better than sitting and watching re-runs of shows but it was also sad to hear all the things that I could be doing.
