Conquering Despair
#2 of Conquering
A clock's alarm went off in Jeremiah's room, telling him to get up. Jeremiah opened his eyes, yawned and tried to move his feet off of the bed.
"What the?" Jeremiah said out loud. His legs wouldn't move. He immediately tried again, but still to no avail. Tears started welling up in his eyes, as he tried reaching for his cell phone so he could call his parents, since they were always at the office this early. Unfortunately, the cell phone was on his dresser, which was on the other side of the room. As he started to cry, he heard Dr Perrile enter the room.
"Jeremiah, why aren't you ready for school yet?" Dr Perrile asked.
"Dr Perrile," Jeremiah started to say while crying, "I can't move my legs."
"Oh my god," Dr Perrile said. She then pulled out her cell phone, and dialed 911.
After several minutes, Jeremiah heard an ambulance siren getting closer, and started to cry harder.
Dr Perrile saw this, and said, "It'll be alright, I promise."
Jeremiah still cried, but was nodding his head. He then saw the people from EMS enter the room with a stretcher. As they picked him up and pulled him on the stretcher, he saw Dr Perrile calling somebody again, but this time she put it on speaker phone, so he could hear the ringing.
"Who are you calling," Jeremiah asked, while still crying.
"Your mother, since I need to inform her immediately," Dr Perrile said.
They were almost out the front door when somebody finally picked up on the other end.
"Hey Diane, it's Paula," Dr Perrile said.
"Oh hi Paula, it's not like you to call my cell phone. What's wrong?" Jeremiah heard his mom, Diane, ask.
"Jeremiah can't move his legs."
"WHAT!?"
"Calm down, Diane. EMS is already here, and we're going to take him to the hospital."
"Can I speak to Jeremiah real quick?"
"Alright, I'll put him on," Dr Perrile said, as she held the phone near Jeremiah, while getting into the ambulance after they put Jeremiah in it.
"Mom, I'm scared," Jeremiah said, while still crying.
"It'll be alright honey, I will meet you at the hospital, after calling and telling Pete and his parents," Diane said.
"NO! Don't tell Pete. He's taking the final exam for gym today, and I don't want him to be distracted."
"Alright dear, but I will still tell his parents. I'll also tell them not to pick up or tell Pete about this until after he's done with his final exam."
"Thanks mom."
"I'll see you soon, honey."
Jeremiah saw Dr Perrile close the phone and then put it back in her pocket.
"Dr Perrile? Could you do something for me?" Jeremiah asked.
"Yes, what would you like me to do?" Dr Perrile responded.
"Could you send a text message to Pete telling him that you found me asleep, and wanted to keep me home for the day so I could rest? I'm sure he'd feel better if you did."
"Alright, I'll do that."
"Where is he?" Pete thought to himself. It was almost time for the final exam for gym, which was their' first class they had to take the final exam for. Pete hadn't heard or seen Jeremiah at school yet, so he was starting to worry. Just then he felt his cell phone vibrate once in his pocket. He pulled it out and saw that somebody had sent him a text.
The text was from Dr Perrile, and it said, "I found Jeremiah fast asleep this morning, and I've decided not to wake him up so he could sleep more. So he will not be joining you at school today."
"At least I know where he is now," Pete thought. "I'm sure he'll ask me how the final exam went later."
It had been 1 hour since Jeremiah had been brought into the hospital. They had already taken some X-rays on his legs and back, as well as done a MRI. Jeremiah's parents had yelled at him when they found out that his back and legs had been acting up for the past month. Then Dr Perrile entered the room. She was red on the face and around the eyes, making it look like she had been crying.
She said, "I got them to let me tell you the news. We got back the results of the tests."
Dr Perrile then hugged Jeremiah and started crying as she said, "You have a tumor in your spinal cord. That's why you can't move your legs, and why your back has been hurting."
"Will they be able to take it out?" Diane asked, while starting to cry.
"Yes, but the spine is a difficult place to operate on." Dr Perrile said. She then turned to Jeremiah and said, "Also, it has been there so long, that even if they take it out, there's a chance that you'll never be able to use your legs again." Dr Perrile started crying harder, and said "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
"I'm surprised I can swim that fast," Pete thought as he headed into the locker room after showering to change back to his regular clothes. Pete was shocked when he was told that he beat the previous school record by 1 second. The previous school record had been made by Jeremiah the year before. "Won't Jeremiah be surprised once I tell him," Pete thought as he walked to his locker. As he opened it, he felt something big touching his butt. He then thought, "Here we go again."
"Hey Pete, you're looking sexier today. You need to wear speedos more often," a voice said from behind him.
Pete recognized the voice immediately. It was a senior rat classman named Lazlo. Everybody in the school knew that he was gay, since he never tried to hide it. For some reason, ever since Pete and Jeremiah started going to high school, Lazlo had his eyes set on Pete. But due to a previous encounter with Jeremiah, Lazlo kept away from Pete whenever Jeremiah was around.
"Dammit Lazlo, I'm not in the mood," Pete said.
"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that. You know how much I like you, and it looks like Jeremiah isn't here today to stop me," Lazlo said with a smirk, as he put his left hand on Pete's chest. He then started to move his right hand down towards the bulge in Pete's speedos. The second he tried to touch it, Pete elbowed Lazlo in the stomach and punched him in the face.
Pete then said, "NOBODY will ever get to touch there except for Jeremiah." Having then realized what he did and said, Pete immediately blushed, and said, "I-I'm sorry."
"It's alright," Lazlo said. "You've got a pretty hard punch there. This was my final day to try and get close to you anyway. Too bad I never got anywhere." He then started walking to the showers and said, "Jeremiah's a lucky guy for having you love him."
Pete then changed back into his T-shirt and shorts, and started walking out the door when the coach stopped him.
"Pete, I just got a call from the office. Your parents are there to pick you up," the coach said.
"That's weird, they weren't supposed to pick me up today," Pete thought, as he started to walk towards the office from the locker room.
When he reached the office, he saw his parents outside of it waiting for him.
"Why are you two picking me up?" Pete asked.
"Pete, Jeremiah's in the hospital," his mother said.
"WHAT!?"
It had been an hour since Jeremiah had been told that he had a tumor. His initial response had been a mix of sadness and anger. He had calmed down by now, but he was still crying. His surgery to remove the tumor was to start in 20 minutes. Dr Perrile told him that they won't know if it's benign or malignant until after they remove it. She also told him that if it's malignant, it means that he will have cancer. His mother and Dr Perrile were off talking with the doctor, and he was left alone in the dark hospital room.
He saw the light of the hallway as the door to the room opened.
Pete walked into the dark room, and closed the door behind him. "Hey Jeremiah," Pete said.
"Hey," Jeremiah said with a depressing tone of voice.
"I heard what was going on from my parents."
"..."
"Oh, and I ended up breaking your record during the swimming part of the final exam, as well as finally standing up to Lazlo."
"..."
"Please say something, Jeremiah."
"There's no point in me living."
"What!? Why would you say that?"
"Odds are I'm not going to be able to use my legs anymore, and I'll probably have cancer. If I can't do what I love to do, I don't see the point in living."
"Don't say that!"
"Besides, nobody would care if I died," Jeremiah said. The second he did so, Pete slapped him hard, leaving a red imprint on Jeremiah's face.
"Don't EVER say that!" Pete yelled, while starting to cry.
"Your mom would be sad, my parents would be sad, Dr Perrile would be sad, and most of all, I would be sad. So don't give up before anything has been determined!"
"Pete..." Jeremiah said, awestruck.
"Besides, even if that happens, I'll be at your side from today on, so we'll fight it together," Pete said. He then moved in close to Jeremiah's face and said, "I'll be with you because...I love you. He then immediately kissed Jeremiah on the lips.
Jeremiah immediately blushed. He didn't expect hearing that from Pete.
Pete backed away from Jeremiah, and then the door opened and the lights were turned on.
Dr Perrile walked in and said, "Jeremiah, it's time for your surgery."
Pete said, "I'll see you afterwards then." He then watched the nurses take Jeremiah out of the room and thought, "I finally told him how I feel, after so long. It...feels good to have my feelings out in the open like this."
Jeremiah opened his eyes. He saw that he was back in his hospital room, and that Dr Perrile was in the corner, and Pete was sitting in the chair next to Jeremiah.
"You had a nice sleep, didn't you?" Dr Perrile asked.
"How long was I out?" Jeremiah asked.
"You were out for 5 hours," Pete said.
"Damn. How did the surgery go?" Jeremiah asked.
"They were able to get all of the tumor out. It was benign, so it didn't spread to anywhere else," Dr Perrile said.
Jeremiah sighed in relief and said, "That's good."
"But there is bad news," Pete said. "They said that some of your nerves were partially damaged."
"Ugh. How damaged are we talking?" Jeremiah asked.
"You would need a wheelchair, but you would still be able to walk a certain distance by yourself," Dr Perrile said.
"Would I still be able to swim?"
"Yes, but for how long at a time we don't know. That's why you're going to spend the next month here for physical therapy," Dr Perrile said.
"Shit. There go my plans for the first month of summer," Jeremiah said.
Dr Perrile laughed and said, "I'm going to have to go now. I'm still on duty. I'll be checking up on you every once in a while." Dr Perrile then walked out of the door and closed it behind her.
"I guess you're going to be having fun this first month without me," Jeremiah said, while looking at Pete.
"No, I'm not going to be doing anything without you this month," Pete responded.
"But I'm not going to be out of here for a month."
"Did you forget what I said earlier? I said that I'd be by your side from now on, and I meant it. I'll just be coming in every other day," Pete said with a smile. "Also, I'm glad that you'll still be able to walk," Pete said, and then proceeded to give Jeremiah a big hug.
While Jeremiah was being hugged, he felt safe in those arms, and wanted to stay in them forever. At that moment, a feeling long unknown to him finally registered in his mind. He was in love with Pete.