Page 127 of Never Stop

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Easton

Icouldn’t believe how quickly Brooke agreed to have another surgery. She didn’t think, she just reacted. Brooke was going back under the knife and chances were she’d come out with a claw hand. She shrugged it off like she was going in for a teeth cleaning or some shit. I didn’t say anything, but I knew she was scared. I was scared. Hell, our whole group was scared.

After they had wheeled Brooke out of the room, all the women started crying. It was like a chain reaction, and I was doing everything in my power not to.

“She’ll be okay,” my mother said and hugged me.

I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Life was fucking unfair.

I cried for a few minutes, and then excused myself to take a shower. I knew I wasn’t supposed to use Brooke’s bathroom, but it wasn’t as if she was going to use it. The water beat down on my back as I leaned against my arm on the shower wall, allowing the tears to go down the drain with the water. Now I had to start counting the number of times I cried on two hands.

When I got out of the shower, everyone but my parents and Cheyenne were gone. I sat next to Cheyenne on the hard as fuck couch. “Can I have forty dollars?” she whispered into my ear.

“Forty dollars! For what?” I asked, not whispering.

“Shh!” she scolded. “I want to get Brooke flowers now.”

“Why are you whispering?”

“I want people to think it was my idea.”

“Itwasyour idea, Peanut.”

“Yeah, so can I have the money?”

I smiled at my girl and dug into my back pocket for my wallet. “Get someone to take you.”

Cheyenne snatched the two twenty dollar bills from my hand and rushed off toward my dad who was sitting in a chair and watching some cooking shit. He looked at me and I nodded slightly. Once they left, I turned to my mom.

“Dr. Simon told us he considers Brooke’s tumor cancer.”

My mom gasped and turned to me. “No.” She shook her head as if she couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t either. I explained Dr. Simon’s logic and she was silent for a few seconds.

“He’ll get it all and she’ll be okay.”

“How can you say that?”

She grabbed my hands between hers. “Because she’s a fighter.”

I took a deep breath. “What if the tumor keeps coming back?”

“Then we’ll all be here fighting with her.”

A lump started to form in my throat. “We want to have a baby.”

My mother’s eyes became huge, and she leaped up and threw her arms around me. “Brooke will make a fantastic mother.”

“She already is,” I admitted.