65. I have Brain tumor.

Mia.

I awake with a dull pain underlying the numbness in my right arm, and am enveloped by the stench of drugs, antiseptics and what not. Even before I open my eyes, I already think that I'm not at home. The air is heavy and damp, pressing against my skin like a clammy shroud. Where am I?

When I do decide to open my eyes, my vision is sleep-blurred and untrustworthy. All I see are moving shapes of light and dark, of color and shadow-- an indistinct, alien, jig-saw puzzle. I try to rub away the sleep fogging my vision with the fingers of my left hand, the right still feels dead and will not obey my directions. Like a fish of the deep rising to the surface of bright air and sun, I swim up to consciousness out of a dead blank into a whiter world than I have ever seen. The daylight is blinding. I can hear voices very near at hand, as if just behind my ear, talking together quietly in a sorrowful way.

Beeping sounds battles with faint chatter as I try to gather my senses. The gray canvas that is previously before me turns into a rock-walled ceiling as my vision becomes clear. The blanket is warm under my skin, lying ramrod-straight on my back. Stretching my sore body, I turn my head to examine my surroundings. My vision is still blurry, as the two vague shapes moving in the corner attests to that fact.

“Mia! She is awake, She is awake!” A familiar masculine voice yelps with joy.

My eyes finally starts to clear out and I can now make each figures before me out, “dad? What happened?” I ask but instead of getting a reply, my dad hugs me so tight that I almost think he is trying to take my breathe away and I mean that in the literal sense.

“You... are... cho... choking me, dad. I can’t breathe.” I choked out and he quickly realize it and release me. “I am so sorry, princess. How are you feeling right now, are you okay? Can you see me properly? Does you head hurt anywhere? Can you move every part of your body by yourself?” Dad proceeds to bombard me with questions as he inspects my body over and over.

Most of the household rushes in too and they all started to bombard me with hugs and kisses.

Diego runs up to me on the bed and engulfed me in a hug of his own too and I hold him tight. “I am so sorry for the way I treated you yesterday, baby brother, you know I love you so much. I would never do that to you again.” I say to him as we share a sweet brother and sister moment at the same time that a lot of throat clearing starts.

“Did you all eat something that needs your throats to be cleared at the same time?” I ask and they all laugh.

“Oh dear, the last time you spoke to Diego was not yesterday.” Mrs. Cali says and I raise a brow, confused. “Was I not just asleep for a day? I ask.

“You have been unconscious for almost a week, Mia. Six and a half to be precise, that is literally a week even.” Dad says and I am shocked but before I can say anything, the pack doctor speaks.

“Now that she is awake, I sternly advice that we visit the hospital because she had hit her head so hard and we need to be very certain that nothing was damaged in there, whether temporarily or permanently. The hospital is the best bet for this.” He says and my mood immediately goes low.

I have hospital anxiety. I hate hospitals with every fibre in me, they remind me of mom’s death and now I am of the mentality that people who go in there die.

“I am fine, doctor, dad. Look, I can even walk and jump up properly even though I just woke up barely minutes ago, I do not think that I need to visit the hospital for any reason, you have done a good job by treating me here in the first place. I think it is unnecessary, I don’t even have an headache, migraine neither do I feel any pain at all.” I say as I demonstrate my healthiness and good health to everyone in the room like they had asked for a show.

“You have to go, princess. It is all for your own good, we don’t want to end up discovering something big at a later stage when it can be discovered early and get treated. remember that prevention is better than cure.” Dad says to me and my shoulders instantly slumps.

I ended up going with them even though I did not want to and I shed tears all the way to the hospital. I know that dad himself does not like any of us going to the hospitals for any reason unless highly necessary which is why he pays the pack doctor so well and even hires extra medical professionals.

I thought I would simply have to take a few tests at the hospital but matters were worsened when the attending doctor notices something slightly off in my MRI results and then insists taht I should be hospitalized so that periodic scans can be taken, while that is done, they would be able to carefully monitor what he thinks is a minor swelling in my brain.

I hate the idea and so does dad as he knows that he does not have a full control of this place which is a bit far away from our safe abode, I can tell that he is very scared of the rival pack finding out about this and deciding to work on their cruelty as usual. Those dreadful people are always looking for ways to hurt us for no reason at all and even I know that.

The neurologist however is not a pushover and he sternly scolds him even, telling him that this is his daughter’s health that he is talking about not some random person. He insisted and stood his grounds stating that I had to be hospitalized.

“Even though I admire your superior strength as the alpha, you need yo know I am not a pushover and I am doing this to protect my patient who is your own daughter, this is all for her good because it is better to get it over with right now than have it become something worse. If you are so scared of her security, I would advice that you just provide enough of that for her, she will be fine, I promise you that.” The neurologist says and even my dad looks impressed at his courage and how he did not back down just because he said something.

Dad ends up booking the entire private floor for me and he still had his gamma’s guarding my room. I am a bit annoyed by his fussiness and that is also contributed by the way the nurses and even the female doctors keep giggling and fawning over how handsome he is. Ugh!

Get a grip, girls! He is old! HE literally has two kids, one of which is already a teenager, he is also cold as ice and will never treat you right, you all can do better!

Ms. Elena remains glued to my side at the hospital, “Mia, is the bullying at school still going on?” She asks after we have gone around a lot of other girl talks.

“Well, not really, I put them in their place already, they have not dared to cross my path since then, they can only keep gossiping about me and giggling like idiots, other than that, they have got no game.” I respond to her and she smiles, “that’s my girl, even the gossiping about you, do not care about it. They are just jealous!” She says and I laugh.

“Uhm... hello!’ A familiar male voice greets in a timid tone and I am shocked when I lok up to see who it is.

Andrew!

“Wow, Andrew, how? Why? What are you doing here?” I stutter in shock.

“Uhm... your dad let me in when I told him that I am your friend from school, although not without searching and asking me a lot of questions first.” He says awkwardly and we both chuckle.

“Dad can be so extra, I am so sorry about that.” I say to him and then Ms. Elena stands up from the chair she is on, “I am going to leave you guys alone, I need to get some junks to eat.” She says as she outs on her face mask as usual. She then walks out after giving me a playful wink, thus causing me to blush profusely.

Andrew takes his seat and then starts to bring out some notes form his bag pack. “ I brought you some of my notes because I thought that you might want to catch up on things you have missed in school, I don’t mind getting yours and helping you write some of them too.” He says as he hands over three notes to me.

I collected them while mouthing a timid thank you.

The atmosphere became a bit awkward and tense, I felt like I have to apologize for how I had behaved the last time but my pride just will not let me.

I cannot help but feel like Andrew might like me or something but at the same time, I can not scratch the feeling that this might just be a prank or something or that I could be getting ahead of myself.

“So, uhm... how are you doing now, better, I suppose, your face looks so bright and beautiful for someone who is sick.” He says and I giggle, “I am better now, I feel so energetic even.”

“Really, so what is the hospital for? I was told that you were being treated at home before now.”

“Well, it was discovered that I have a brain tumor and I only have one week to live.” I joke and I am amused at the way blood drains from his face, rendering him very pale.

“Uh... What.. how...” He starts to stutter and stumble on his words, but my laughter tells him that I am joking and he bursts into a hearty laughter too.

The tension soon fizzles away and it becomes so easy for the two of us to talk so much about school and ourselves, I am surprised at how we continue to have more and more things to talk about without the conversation going south or getting boring and awkward for even a second.