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12
MEGAN
The words of my book swim in front of me as I lose focus of the plot. My brain is still continuing to swirl from the test results, even though it’s been days. Despite any and all attempts to distract myself, I can’t seem to slow them down.
How do you continue on as if something major hasn’t happened in your life? I haven’t quite figured out the best way to handle this situation and have been holed up in my room since the appointment. I’m already struggling with the pitying looks my family has been giving me, I don’t want to see them on anyone else’s face.
Mom’s knock on my open door interrupts my thoughts, a gentle smile on her face as she takes in my disheveled state. Between my unshowered body and ratty T-shirt, I’m looking a little worse for wear.
“Hey, you should invite the girls over for dinner. You could order a pizza, or have a movie night.”
I sigh, knowing she’s right. It would do me some good to have the girls around. The only reason I haven’t hung out with them is because I’ll have to tell them what’s going on. Even though I know they’ll be there for me, I’m not ready to see the pity in their eyes. It’s already too much from my family, getting it from my friends, too, will push me over the edge.
I also know I’m not being fair in my assumptions. Hanging out with them will probably be the only thing to keep my mind from continuing to spin.
“That’s a good idea, Mom. I’ll give them a call.”
“You should shower first, though. I can smell you from here,” Mom teases, a cheeky grin on her face. It makes me laugh for the first time in days.
I get up from my chair, quickly run towards her, and wrap my smelly body around hers. “You don’t think I’m pretty?” I joke.
“Get off me, stink bug!” she yells, tickling my sides to get me to let go. It works like a charm, and I let go of her in order to save my sides from her probing fingers. We both are smiling like loons, laughing hysterically. It’s like a dam has broken on the seriousness of the last few days, giving me some semblance of normalcy.
“Don’t be mad, but your friends are already on their way, so you better hurry up,” she informs me. “They’ll be here in thirty minutes.”
“Mom!” I cry out, running back into my bedroom to clean up. Not only am I gross, but my bedroom is also a disaster. I frantically start cleaning things up, throwing clothes into my hamper and snack wrappers into the trash. I stop in my tracks when the realization of what Mom did dawns on me.
Her scheming got me out of my head and focused on something else. It was exactly what I needed to break the endless loop of negativity.
“Thank you,” I say quietly. She smiles at me, then walks back down the hallway, more than likely to order the pizza since the girls will be here soon.
Once my room is slightly cleaner, I quickly shower, throwing on fresh clothes when I’m done. As I’m picking up a few last-minute things, I hear the girls chattering away as they walk toward my room. The sound of their voices has me smiling already. I’m grateful Mom had the insight to do this for me. It was exactly what I needed to get out of my head.
“Meg!” Natalie says, pulling me into a tight hug. If she didn’t normally greet me this way, I’d wonder if she already knew what was going on.
“Hi, guys.” I hug Sara and Lucy after Natalie lets me go. We land in our usual spots in my room, Nat in my reading chair, Sara on the end of my bed, and me and Lucy sitting against my headboard.
As usual, we chat about everything, which is fantastic for me because I can avoid the bad news for a little while longer. We eat pizza in the basement while watching movies until everyone in the house is asleep. We’d decided a sleepover was the next course of action, so we made a huge pallet on the floor and are all cozy while finishing our latest romantic comedy.
These girls have done wonders for my mood without even knowing it was needed. They’ve put my situation into perspective, allowing me to see what’s important instead of dwelling on the negative.
Natalie turns off the movie when the ending credits start scrolling on the screen. When she looks at the other girls, I know exactly what’s coming. Despite knowing they’d figure out something was up with me, I hoped they wouldn’t push me to talk about it. I should’ve known that wouldn’t be the case since our policy is openness and honesty no matter how happy, sad, or bad the news.
“Okay, Meg. Time to spill,” Natalie says while the girls all turn toward me, forming a circle on our bed of blankets.
I have to close my eyes when emotion floods my throat. How do you tell your friends your body is turning against you? That there’s a chance things could go south at any moment?
A hand grabs my shoulder while another wraps around my intertwined fingers. When I open my eyes, I take in my best friends, each of them with a patient and loving expression on their face. None of them are pitying. Maybe a little worry but not pity.
“Um…” I clear my throat of the emotions welling up and try again. “The bloodwork I had done at the gynecologist came back weird, so I had to have some more tests done to figure out why… They found a tumor in one of my ovaries.”
“Like, cancer?” Sara cautiously asks.
“They aren’t sure if it’s cancerous. Based on my bloodwork, it could be, so I’ll have surgery soon to remove my ovary. Then they’ll test the tumor for any cancerous cells.”
“Oh, my God, Megan,” Lucy whispers, reaching out to squeeze my hand. Each of my best friends has tears in their eyes and worry lining their faces.
“So, you’ll have surgery, and then what?” Natalie asks.
“Um, hopefully, that will be the end of it. They said it’s only in the one ovary, so once it’s gone, I should be okay. If the tumor is cancerous, I’ll have to go back for regular scans.”
“Well then, that’s what’s going to happen,” Natalie says determinedly. “You will be fine, and after the surgery, we won’t have anything to worry about.” She nods as if believing the words wholeheartedly will make it become reality.
“Absolutely. You’re going to be fine. There won’t be anything to worry about,” Sara agrees. I can only smile at these girls who would do whatever it takes to make their words true.
“We need a distraction,” Lucy suggests.
“Yes! Hmm…” Natalie says, obviously trying to come up with an idea. She’s our resident wild child. Any crazy scheme we’ve cooked up is usually planned by her. “Oh, I’ve got it!”
When she stands, we all blindly follow her with no idea what we’re doing. At this point in our friendship, we just go with it, knowing we’re going to have a blast no matter what we do.
We sneak out of the house—in our PJs—and get into Natalie’s car. After driving for a few minutes, we pull up to the small pond near Cooper’s house. I have a feeling I know exactly what’s about to happen.
We get out of the car, still blindly following Natalie, giggling the entire time, which was the goal of our outing in the first place. Once we’re at the dock of the pond, Natalie turns towards the rest of us, grinning like a maniac.
The moon’s reflection off of the water brightens the area. Trees surround the medium-sized pond, making it feel isolated from the outside world. It’s beautiful out here.
“We’re going skinny dipping, girls,” Natalie says triumphantly. Sara laughs while Lucy and I shake our heads as if we have a choice in this adventure.
“No way. What if someone sees us?” Lucy asks, continuing to shake her head.
“It’s super late, and no one is around.” Natalie, walking backward down the dock, starts stripping off her pajamas. Sara follows behind her, shedding her clothes as well. I look at Lucy to see if she’s going to do it, too. She looks back at me, then around the area to make sure no one is nearby.
I shrug my shoulders and strip down as I hear a splash of water. Natalie and Sara are in the pond now, and after I get rid of my clothes, I take off at a sprint, jumping into the dark water. The echoes of the girls’ shouts of approval fade as my head goes under.
That was even more invigorating than I anticipated it would be. Being naked in the water feels super naughty and taboo and fantastic.
I break the surface to more shouting and a splash to my left. I guess Lucy decided to go for it, too. I laugh as the four of us all swim closer to each other, treading water because we’re all too afraid to put our feet down on the bottom of the pond.
How Natalie comes up with these ideas, I’ll never know. It was the perfect thing to get our minds off of the heavy topic we had been discussing. I don’t want to dwell on all of the potential negatives anymore. It’s no way to live. With the possibility of my life changing drastically, I don’t want to waste a single moment.
A noise at the dock has all of us turning quickly.
“What do we have here?” Cooper calls down to us. We look at each other with wide eyes, unprepared for this situation.
“Seems like some trespassers are on our property, Coop,” Levi teases. My eyes land on Todd as he quietly stands next to Cooper and Levi. His eyes never stray from mine, and the heat in his gaze tells me he likes that I’m naked under the water. Luckily, it’s dark enough none of them can see anything. Talk about embarrassing.
I see Levi slap Cooper’s shoulder, then he nods his head toward our clothes.
“Oh, shit,” Sara whispers.
Understanding dons on each of us as we watch them gather our clothes, moving them much too far away to retrieve without needing to fully get out of the water.
The three boys laugh as if their prank is the best idea they’ve had in ages. What one of those idiots doesn’t grasp is all three of them will see my goods if I get out.
“I got this,” I mouth to the girls. Being the intelligent women they are, they already know what’s about to happen.
I swim toward the shore, the girls following slowly behind me until I can touch the bottom of the pond. Distracted by my plan, I no longer care about what’s underneath the surface of the water.
“Hey, Todd,” I call out.
“Yeah, babe?” He grins, still believing he’s got the upper hand.
“I’m going to get out and get my clothes right now since I’m guessing you won’t give them back.”
“Okay.” He chuckles.
I slowly walk closer to the shore, making sure I don’t get too far out of the water. “So, you’re okay if Cooper and Levi see me when I get out?” I ask innocently, watching as his slow man brain finally catches up to the situation.
“Stop right there!” he shouts, his finger pointed at me. I hear the girls behind me laugh. “Don’t you dare get out. Cooper, Levi, you need to give her clothes back and turn around. Right now.”
“For all of the girls, not just me,” I reiterate. I watch Todd shove Cooper and Levi away from the pond as the guys laugh at Todd’s over-the-top reaction to them potentially seeing me naked.
“Close your eyes right now, or swear to God, I will punch you so hard they’ll swell closed,” Todd threatens, which only makes us laugh harder.
Once our clothes are returned and the guys have their backs turned, we get out of the pond. We use the guys’ T-shirts to dry off—payment for stealing our clothes—and get dressed. When we’re decent, we tell the boys they can turn around.
Todd comes directly toward me and wraps his arms around my waist, picking me up from the ground. “That was stressful,” he says against my lips before kissing me soundly.
“Maybe next time, you’ll think through the consequences,” I tease.
“What are you guys doing here?” Cooper asks. Natalie looks at me, gauging to see if I want to tell the boys what's going on. I shake my head, indicating I want the news to stay secret for a bit longer. I need to tell Todd first before the rest of the boys learn what’s going on.
“I thought it would be fun to go swimming tonight,” she says with a grin. “How did you know we were here?”
“We didn’t. We were hanging out in my backyard when we saw your headlights through the trees and decided to investigate who was on the property,” Cooper explains. We hang out for a little while before deciding to head back home. None of us wants to get caught out this late.
Todd kisses me goodbye, creating a need in my body only he’s able to satiate. “I’ll see you tomorrow?” he asks after he pulls away.
I nod my head. “See you tomorrow.”
A knowing smirk pulls at his lips like he can read just how turned on I am with only one look. He probably can, the jerk. I blow him a kiss as I walk toward Natalie’s car. He sends me a wink back.
God, I love that boy.
