Home after another horrible day |Megan Taylor|

[khorne]

Gwendolyn Taylor sat on the sofa, watching something on the T.V. It was the last recorded message from her father and brother and tears slid down her cheeks, it was thursday evening, after another day of school, now her wrist was in a light cast as she had sprained it when the jocks and pushed her off the balance beam in P.E, she watched the message from two week previous with emotions roiling inside of her. She missed her father dearly and her brother had always protected her from all the hurts she dealt with now much better than her sister who had always been her companion and confident, even though she had always grassed Gwen up to their brother.

Today Gwen had been to the doctors in the morning to discover something she was keeping from her sister and everyone else. She had Leukemia and it would cost $7,000 to extend her life by three years at the most and triple that to try and cure it. The doctor had never seen Leukemia so advanced yet still curable, with the right funds. Her dad had taken life insurance out on his children but it didn't cover the cost to try and cure Gwen. She knew she might never see her dad again, the doctor predicted at the current rate she had maybe 3 months to live and her father came on leave in 6 months while her brother was due home next week, she couldn't tell them. Not yet.

Gwen couldn't help but worry, she was resigned to dying, it was going to happen so soon and she knew it but she didn't think she had done anything ever to deserve it but maybe she was wrong. She was more concerned about how her family would take it, even Carla who stood in the kitchen cooking now loved Gwen, she was at the heart of the family as scattered as it was, the sweet and innocent one who was broken at heart.

She looked at the screen again as Carla walked in and handed Gwen a bowl of home made chicken soup and wiped away her step daughters tears, Gwen smiled sadly up at her. As she left Gwen reflected on how her loving family had no idea of what was going to happen, that was for the best. They would realize something was up when Gwen kept getting weaker and weaker. She had to speak to her da, he could solve this all. It would obviously be his desire to spend that money but Gwen didn't want him to waste it and she would tell him so. he wanted her family to have a better home and to be able to get a court order against their mother and for her father and brother to retire from the armed forces and live out their lives happy and well off. She knew she would tell her sister straight after, she had to. She and her sister though so different were closer than normal siblings because Megan always saved Gwen from bullies, very rarely did she not get to Gwen in time to spare her the worst.

Gwen was always ruining her sisters life, she knew that. Whenever her sister got something gwen always got bullied or hurt and that made her sister drop everything to comfort or save her. Soon that would all end, gwen would be gone ... her tears flowed freely like a river rushing to flood.

[megan]

she'd gone to school, but once she got there, she realized how sick and tired she was of the dump of a school and decided to skip it all together. she couldn't care less when it came to grades and all that. she was smart, socially speaking, and she had opinions. just because she didn't ace maths or geography didn't make her stupid.

Megan had spent most of her sunny day in port angeles, driving about, shopping a new pair of jeans and a couple of t-shirts and a pair of cute flats. it was by far the best day in a long time. she worried, of course, how her sister was doing, and she hoped that she hadn't been bullied today. she felt guilty for not being there, but she kind of hoped that Gwen had found the strenght to stand up for herself once she realized that Megan wasn't going to save her this time. she doubted it, though. cruel thinking, huh?

she parked the car in the driveway and made her way inside. the house smelled familiar of flowers and Carla cooking in the kitchen. she dropped her keys on the table in the hall and took her bag into the living room where Gwen was sitting with a bowl of soup in her lap. "Hey, Sis! look what I bought today. it's fab." she said and held up a T- shirt. it was white and baggy, and the whole front was decorated in black and white sculls. "This would look good on you." she mused.

she looked at the TV then. Gwen was watching the tape that Their father and brother had sent them. Megan had only watched it once, and only to be polite to Carla and Gwen. she didn't want a tape. seeing them on the screen did nothing good for her when she couldn't talk to them, smell them, touch them. it meant nothing to her. she walked over to the TV and turned it of. "I don't know why you guys keep watching that. it's something they filmed long ago. snap out of it." she said and snatched her clothes lying on the couch on display for her sister,went to her room and slammed her door shut. she put on lady gaga's monster so loud she couldn't think and lay on her bed, her good mood ruined.

[khorne]

Gwen looked up when her sister walked in, Megan hadn't saved her today. Gwen had been pinned against the wall by the cheer leaders and slapped repeatedly just for looking at their precious captain then they locked her in her locker and filled it with water and some foul smelling chemical, sulfur probably, from the science lab. Her skin still itched slightly but that was from paranoia.

Gwen looked at the top and smiled slightly, her sister always seemed to worry about what Gwen was wearing. She shook her head and whispered shakily
"N-naah suits yo-" but before she could finish her sister became a whirl of action, turning the tape off. Lecturing Gwen. Storming off and turning on her infernal racket that she called music. Urgh great, what was it about Megan and her reaction to this tape? it was just a tape. A tape, a memory.

Gwen sighed and stood up, maybe it was time to tell her sister right now to break her out of this, yes it ... no she couldn't. She would just hint and try and prepare Megan. she walked up the stairs slowly, a spiral of emotions in her mind like the spiral she walked up now.

Gwen slowly slipped inside her sisters room and tapped the button on the stereo, silencing lady bloody gaga and then Gwen looked at her sister and sighed softly. She spoke quietly then
"I watch the tape because ... I may not see them ever again ... I have as much ... chance of something happening to me as them at ... at the moment." she had .. hairy cell Leukemia. She knew it was a very rare type and she was worried but she suppressed it until she felt something wet beneath her nose, blood.

[megan]

She looked up at her sister, her eyebrows furrowed in anger. She didn’t know why she’d gotten so upset all of a sudden. Maybe she was crazy. Hah, maybe she would start seeing ghosts and unicorns. That would be something. “Ey! You can’t just come barging in here! What if I was in the middle of a hot make out session with someone!’ she glared at her sister, and then some, when she turned down the music.

she could see that something was wrong, but she was tired of everyone’s problems. She just wanted to be left alone, in her room, where she could write blood dripping emo poems and songs or whatever crazy kids did these days. She buried her head in her pillow, “go away.” She mumbled, her voice muffled by the soft material of the pillow.

“Oh, stop talking like that. Don’t be so bloody emotional for once.” She said her head still in her pillow. She’d never talked to her sister like that before, even though she thought about it often enough. The headache was coming back and she groaned and sat up. “All I’m trying to say is that if you want to mop, you can do it in your own room. Sorry, but I can’t deal with your problems now.” She didn’t say it harshly, but as if it was a simple fact, which it was. She would feel bad later, but didn't care at the moment.
“Hey, your nose is bleeding. I get that sometimes, too. just press a tissue to it and bend your head forwards, not backwards.” She instructed and shrugged it off as something normal.

[khorne]

Gwen resolved herself to telling her sister, it was time. She had noticed the blood and ... Gwen couldn't finish that thought but she just looked down before she steeled her resolve and whispered
"Megan I am dying ... Chronic Hairy cell leukemia ... it has had 4 years to develop ... I would of been diagnosed sooner but well ... I never really went to the doctors much did I?" then she paused to take a breath and continued "I have maybe three months to live ... the treatment is expensive, very expensive ... I ... we can't afford it and the health insurance doesn't cover it Megan. Now do you understand why I was watching that tape? It is the last thing I will see of Dad ..."

[megan]

Megan couldn’t quite wrap her head around what her sister had just said. She stared at her blankly, hoping she would break out in laughter and say ‘just kidding!’, but no matter how long Megan waited, she never did. “What?” she whispered stunned. “You’re dying?” she knew leukemia was deadly, and she tried to imagine a world without Gwen, but couldn’t. It was all so hopeless. So impossible. She would not cry, she would not break.

“ Damnit, Gwen! You can’t give up now! Dad won’t care, Carla won’t care, and I definitely don’t give a fuck about how expensive it is. If there is a cure, we’ll walk the earth to get it, okay?” she got up and hugged her sister and kissed the top of her head. “You hear me, stupid girl, we’ll fix you.” She said, more to herself than to Gwen.

[khorne]

Gwen looked at Megan when she said she didn't give a fuck how much it would cost to cure Gwen and she smiled sadly whispering
"Even with everything ... can we honestly afford something in the region of $100,000 ... without the potential need for Chemotherapy ... that is just interferon and surgery. I don't want to take everyone's lives away ... what about the mortgage or your college ... I won't let you all throw that away for me ..." she bit the inside of her lip as a tear slid down her cheek as she shakily whispered
"Not .. not for me, I just cause trouble."