Daimhin reached for her. He pushed his index finger under the silicone bracelet on her arm. He read the words: No one fights alone.
Taylor looked down at his finger touching her.
Softly he asked, "What did your parent's do?"
" My mother was devastated, but she has been so strong for me. I don't think I would have been able to do any of this if not for her. I couldn't have asked for more and she never ever left me once." She wiped her hand across her eye quickly to wipe away a stray tear. Now was not the time to get emotional. "She nags me to get out of bed, and after each operation she pushed me to take those first steps again. Other times though, she would just sit with me when I cried. I would have liked to get better, not just for me, but mostly for her."
" And your dad?"
" Left before I was born," she said dismissively. The bitterness she felt at his betrayal of her and her mother had faded over the years, but she could not suppress it completely. "I have never heard from him."
For an instant Daimhin flashed back to the day his own mother died, a scared, grieving little boy left with the cold, mean piece of work that was his father. Acid burned in the pit of his stomach as he squelched the memory. "We have that in common. Absent parents." Quickly he changed the subject, "What about your friends?"
She laughed nervously. "That was the most difficult thing to do - telling my friends I had cancer. Now I have a hard time relating to people my age because I am going through something that has changed the way I look at life. I'm not as light-hearted and cheerful as they are. Also, I don't go to school anymore, so I hardly ever see them anymore."
" Why did you never get Chemotherapy?"
Dismissively she replied, "It does not work on Chordomas and I do not have a lot of options."
" And? How are you feeling now?"
She smiled. He loved her smile, because her whole face smiled with her, even though she was so sick. Her eyes looked a little hollow, as if she had to endure too much in her short life.
" Up until a few months ago, I was so busy with hospital appointments, surgeries, a million different test, that at the moment I do not really know what to do with myself." She looked away from him and stared at a couple walking by. They were holding hands and laughing. Wistfully she said, "Everybody has somebody, but me." She glanced up at him embarrassed. "What I mean to say is that everyone else's life goes on as normal and I feel as if I am nowhere. I am not sure how to explain where I am, but sometimes it feels pretty cold and lonely. My mom wants me to go to a support group for people my age, but I have never been ready to talk to people about what I have gone through." She laughed ironically. "And here I am telling you everything." She stood up quickly. "I have to go."