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“It’s not bad. It’s just…” I shake my head, still unable to wrap my mind around it. “Why would you do that?”
“Because we want to,” Yasmin shrugs.
“You want to have pink hair?” I ask, not trying to hide the skepticism in my tone. “Since when?”
Grace rolls her eyes. “Since now.”
I turn to her. “Pink? With your red hair? Seriously?”
“Yes. I looked it up online. I got a shade called candy for myself, and the rest of the girls have magenta.”
Candy and magenta?! They can’t be serious.
But even as the thought crosses my mind, I know they can and are. Hell, Penny’s hair is already done.
“Why would you do that?”
Grace takes my hands in hers. “Because we see you, and we love you, and we never want you to feel like you’re doing this alone.”
My throat tightens at her words, making it hard to breathe.
Yasmin comes behind me, her hand slipping around my shoulders. “Grace is right. You’re not alone. You have us. You have Nixon and Prescott and…”
“You haven’t told her?”
I glare at my best friend, but it’s already too late.
Yasmin looks from Grace to me. “Told me what?”
“Seriously?”
“What’s going on?”
“Prescott and I broke up.”
My statement is met with absolute silence, but it only lasts a few seconds before I’m bombarded with questions.
Yasmin’s mouth falls open. “You what?”
“Are you shitting me?” This comes from Callie. “That little, sleazy—”
“When did this happen?”
“It’s not his fault,” I slip out of Yasmin’s hands and go to the coffee machine. I’d much rather drink alcohol, but as I’ve learned the hard way alcohol and chemo do not mix. I figured I’d have a few drinks after I was done shaving my head, but I barely finished one shot before I was back in the bathroom, throwing up. Just one more thing that was stolen from me.
“How is it exactly not his fault?” Yasmin asks. “Like, for real, breaking up with your girlfriend who has—”
Her words trail off as if she just realized what she was about to say. Pressing the button on the coffee machine, I turn around and lean against the counter. “Who has cancer. It’s fine. You can say it.”
“Jade, I didn’t mean it like that.”
My throat bobs as I swallow. “While I’m grateful that you want to be here regardless of cancer, I don’t expect it.” I scan the room, meeting the eyes of every one of my friends. “From any of you.”
“Jade…” Rei tries to chime in, but I shake my head.
“I mean it. I don’t expect anybody to stand by and watch me go through it. I was that person. Two years ago, I was in your shoes, and I hated every second of standing by my mother’s bed and watching her die. I hated watching this disease chip away piece by broken piece of her until there was nothing else left.”
“This is different.”
