Young Writers Society

Dillon Baker

"Hey my man, how's it going?" Scott gave me his usual greeting as he walked in to produce me my shots for the morning.

"You know, the usual, dying. Oh, but I got an awesome new roommate though." I grinned towards Wias who was still sleeping.

"Figured you'd like some company. Here you go." He handed me the injection and I started prodding myself with it.

"Do you think that you could somehow get me out of here? I need to prove to those doctors that I'm not a twig. Anyways, I'm not gonna bleed just by socializing."

"Don't be too sure, there are some tough people out there." I gave him a look and he raised his hands in self-defense. "I'm serious, okay." I jabbed myself the last time and handed him the injection.

"Come on, Scott, twenty minutes. Then I'll come back." Scott looked like he was thinking about it.

"Ten minutes?" Scott scratched his chin, and I scoffed.

"Twenty minutes, with the wheelchair."

"You're kidding, right? I'm struggling from a blood problem I'm not paralyzed."

"We're still running some tests on you, and we can't risk any accidents. What if someone bumps into you? What if you decide to take the stairs? What if you trip and fall? Look, if I let you go and anything happens, it falls on me. I have total responsibility. So, you either take the twenty minute deal, or sit here for the morning." He grinned at me. I wanted to smack him. I sighed.

"Fine." Scott laughed.

"Awesome! I'll wheel you in myself." He said jovially before leaving.

Wias yawned and stretched.

"Hey man, we're going to this welcoming morning thing."

"You're going too?" Wias sounded quite excited.

"Yeah, but don't wait up, Scott's bringing me in a wheelchair." I rolled my eyes to show him how dumb the whole thing was. He nodded sure, and went on to get ready.

***

For some reason as I got wheeled out of my room, I was nervous. I hadn't interacted with people much since coming to the hospital despite the fact that this hospital was made for interaction. It's built so that the patients didn't feel alone, but I did. I was locked up in the room most of the time, and when I did go out it was under the watchful eye of every single person there. It was really starting to get on my nerves so sometimes I didn't go out on purpose. I just hung out in my room and played video games, enjoying the fact that I could be something, and do something in a screen.

It's depressing to think about but most of my memories of this place was filled with video game wins, or moments. Nothing extraordinary. The dance? Forget about it, even if I wanted to ask anyone I wasn't sure I'd be allowed to go. Somehow the previous year I managed to go. I just stood by the side watching all the couples dancing. Before I knew it I was literally the only person not on the dance floor. Even the other's with no dates were at least dancing with friends, but I just stood by the side. Alone. It wasn't all bad though, someone spiked the punch so I got my first taste of alcohol.

There are moments that I've lost forever, moments that I would have loved to have but will never get to. I'm seventeen and I still don't know how to drive. I haven't really lived. As I was wheeled down by Scott I realized how much I wanted to. I just wanted to be able to walk out of that stifling room and do things, break a few rules.

"Hey Scott, pull a wheelie." I asked, as if I was five. Scott laughed.

"Dill, I think you're a little old for that." I turned and looked at him like I was appalled.

"No one's too old for a wheelie!" Scott lifted my wheelchair off the ground for a second and landed it in a jolt. I laughed.

"Wasn't that freeing, Scott?"

"If you start bleeding, it's on me. So, no." But he was grinning.

"Who's she?" I asked, a light brown skinned girl just passed us, who had the biggest brown eyes I'd ever seen. She also looked kind of sad, like she wished she could be anywhere but here. I could understand that feeling. She was also gorgeous.

"One of the newbies, she came literally about a day ago."

"So like, on my birthday? Hmm." I was smiling. Scott laughed.

"I don't even want to know what you're implying." He replied.

"I don't think I'd stand a chance." I told him, and turned to see him shrug.

"You never know." He said. I just shook my head. We finally arrived at the elevator, and one just left so we had to wait a bit. I noticed that there was a huge group of people coming right after us. Welcoming morning is bound to be a success. The nervousness came back as people started to surround us, talking and chatting about mundane things. Life isn't normal, they shouldn't act like it is. But that was unfair, they were doing what we all do, hiding from reality.

The elevator bell rang and I got crammed in with the wheelchair and all of the people. I noticed before the door closed more people lining up. How many people were coming?

When I arrived, I noticed that it was quite a number, it seemed like almost every teenager, and every nurse was brought into the gym/cafeteria space. I scanned the place for a good spot for Scott and I to chill, but Scott was way ahead of me. He suddenly starting wheeling me off to a certain direction.

"Woah, where're we going?"

"You're welcome." He simply told me, and that's when I saw her, she was sitting by herself staring at the block game. I really didn't want to be on the wheel chair at that moment. She was watching Scott, and I was trying to look anywhere but at her. That is, until Scott left me next to her without any food, or anything to distract myself with. I would've been happier if I didn't feel like such an idiot. I was surprised though to find that she was looking at me, and even more surprised to find she looked absolutely exhausted. She had that sad look about her, and she was incredibly tiny, and by tiny I mean like she hasn't eaten a thing. That's when it hit me. I look down for a moment trying to gain some composure to say something to her. Then I looked back at her,

"I, um, I'm sorry about him. He's very... uh, well, excited is the best word, to get me out of my room." My words were tripping. I wanted to ask her what her name was, but the words wouldn't come. Eventually I figured I should just tell her my name.

"I'm Dillion."

"I'm Rhae." I smile as I try not to look at her, the stupid fact that my face is so easily susceptible to red blood cells. I wanted to ask her so many different things, but I couldn't. I just ended up trying to look around and I noticed the block pieces she'd been staring at. She then asked me,

"Do you want to play? I'm really good at Jenga, I'm just warning you."

I smile, "Yeah I guess it won't hurt," I meant it too.

We played the game, and in my opinion I find it a game of luck and chance. She was looking at it as if it's chess, as if every move matters in some significant way. I was just pulling whichever block I needed to pull and stealing glimpses of her when I could. I felt I should ask something to keep conversation going, something simple, not personable, anything.

"Have you been here long?" I asked. I realized how much of a stupid question it was as soon as I said it because I knew she had just come, though she didn't know that.

"Are you trying to distract me?" She looked at me when she said that with a small smirk and I felt a wave of feeling come through me, damn she was hot.

"Well, no, not... that's not..." I stammered trying to hide the face, but I knew she saw it. I stayed behind the blocks gaining composure and quickly pulled a random piece, causing everything to fall all over. Some on her hand.

"Ah! I'm sorry!" I grabbed pieces, quickly, hoping none of them fell on the floor. She was grabbing most of them as well smiling.

"Don't be. It means that I just won." She almost grinned at me. I grinned.

"Do you want to play again?" I asked her. "I mean, now that I have some experience I just might win this time." I got a little close and gave a coy smile. She laughed at me. It was awfully cute.

"I don't think you can, honestly, but sure." She looked so determined as we started again, unfortunately there was a clock ticking on my time here so I couldn't enjoy our second game as much as I wanted to. She won again, despite the fact that I actually concentrated and tried that time, even trying to stare at the blocks as intently as she did.

"Told you." She said smiling with pride and I just shook my head.

"How'd you get so good at this?" It was a harmless question, but it was a memory attached response; she must have played it with someone before, and her face showed me that. I sighed and was about to say something when Scott suddenly appeared.

"We should be heading out now." I turned to him with dismay, but tried to keep my face as neutral as possible.

"Well, uh, see ya later, maybe?" I gave her a cheesy grin.

She sort of smiles. "Yeah. Yeah, I hope so."

Scott started to wheel me out and we passed by a table with three girls and two guys, they seemed to be having fun. When we passed though I noticed them looking at me, and I saw the look, the look of pity. I stared at my hands as Scott wheeled me all the way out. As he was rolling me down the hall, there was a guy my age walking quickly towards us, he looked absolutely enraged, and we had eye contact. I wasn't the least bit afraid of him, I was more fascinated by the anger I saw, it wasn't a morbid anger, it was a sad anger, a deep frustration with stagnant life anger.

Scott stopped us in front of the kid and was trying to talk to him.

"Rally! What are you doing roaming the hallways?"

Wias Harrisone

Wias was sitting on one of the chairs at the welcoming morning that was for the new patients that arrived in the hospital. All he did was stare at the other patients who were communicating with one another. He sat there, thinking about his mother, which he heard many stories from his grandmother. He used to wonder what his mother was like when he used to be younger. How she looked, how she dressed, her personality, and her care for his father. After hearing many tales of his mother, he felt a bond between him and her, something that has never felt before with his father. Even though he has never met his mother, he can feel the closeness he had with her.

"Ah! Wias!" Wias turned to the direction of the voice, seeing Scott walking up to him. Scott got on one of his knees, staring at Wias then turned to look at the other children. "You should go socialize. They're friendly."

All Wias could do was stay silent. He never knew how to make real friends, or even socialize properly for that matter. Scott stood up from the floor, heading over to associate with the other nurses. Wias stood up from his seat, thinking of how he should approach the other patients without making a bad impression.

He noticed Dillon getting wheeled out of the area, which made him feel lonely, after the meeting of his first acquaintance.

Wias sat back down again, waiting for someone to come to him to socialize, but no one came. He sighed softly, taking out his violin case that he brought with him. He thought about how he and his grandmother used to play their violins together. They used to play from Beethoven to their own compositions.

He took out his violin from its case, placing the bottom of it on his chin, and extended his arm out to place his bow on the strings of his favorite instrument. He started to move the bow slowly, playing a composition made by Bela Bartok: Sonata for Solo Violin. He closed his eyes, imagining his grandmother playing right beside him. The music flowed throughout the room, leaving the patients in awe.

The music made the patients feel calm, also making Wias feeling happy about his love for the classical music he plays.

As he reached the end of the sonata, he opened his eyes slowly, surprised to see the patients and nurses staring right at him.

The patients all applaud at his calming performance. Wias then smiled, feeling like he had just made the right impression in this hospital.

Ralier Fisher

He'd been in that bed for years, it seemed. The chemo made him weaker than he'd ever wanted to be, and he was told to expect that much, but it didn't make the coping any easier. The week passed in a haze of medicine and visits from nurses whose faces or names he couldn't be bothered to remember. He vaguely recalled Ms. Emilie, a blur of flower-perfume and soft words. As he lay in bed, even that fragile image was fading away. Evan and the new kid had left already, off to some event that he wasn't allowed to visit anyway so he didn't care, and he was left to his own thoughts. His last day of chemo for the week was yesterday, and while he didn't have to get chemo for another two weeks, he was still on bed rest for at least the next five days. That, paired with him being grounded to his room because of his “anger management problems”, he wasn't going anywhere for a long time.

Slowly, Rally reached over and grabbed his book from his bedside table. He'd been reading it ever since his first day of chemo, but couldn't tell you the main character's name if you'd asked. He forgot the words almost immediately as he read them, but it was something to do since he didn't even have the energy these days to pick up a pencil or a crayon. However, this time, he couldn't get more than a paragraph in before tossing the book to the ground in a fit of anger. He was sick of laying in that bed like some broken plaything.

Rally carefully sat up, every joint in his body seemed to pop, and swung his legs over the edge of the bed. The carpet felt nice underneath his feet. Usually he was wheel-chaired everywhere he needed to go – the metal contraption was parked at the end of his bed and he glared at it as he hobbled past. When he pushed past the door he was expecting to be stopped by his body guard/babysitter, but there was no one there. Deciding not to test his luck, he left the area at as fast a pace as he could muster and went off in search for anything to do.

--

Seeing that boy stuck in that chair nearly sapped all the anger out of Rally, leaving only sadness so pure it scared him when he felt it. Thankfully, Scott's voice ignited again that rage that had become so familiar to him. He stopped and crossed his arms, looking up at the nurse with narrowed eyes.

"Rally! What are you doing roaming the halls?"

"None of your damn business."

"I don't want to have to call Ruta."

Rally just waved a hand to shush Scoot and focused his attention on the slightly frightened looking ginger in front of him.

"Hey, what's your name?"

"This is Dillon-"

"I didn't ask you, Scott!"

"Okay, that's it, Ralier. I'm calling Ruta."

"I don't give a shit. Hey, Dillon, what are you... uh..."

He'd never found himself at such a lost of words before. The boy seemed to adopt what Rally thought was a sympathetic look - or embarrassment, most likely - but the expression shocked Rally back to his normal self. He huffed and feigned uninterest by rolling his eyes.

"What's wrong with you anyway, kid?"

"Haemophilia. You?"

"Pancreatic cancer."

They both nodded in a silent sort of respect. He wanted to know how long the guy had left, but wasn't that rude yet to ask. Scott was blabbing off about something or another, threatening to call the higher-ups but not reaching for his radio, so Rally just passed him by. He followed the noise until emerging into what he figured was the Meet and Greet. Kids huddled around tables, playing various games and laughing. His face contorted into a sneer almost immediately and he promptly turned back around.

Instead, he headed to the gym. He had only a few minutes of freedom before someone went to retrieve him. He'd at least have a little fun.