We've Got This

As soon as he said the words I had been dreading, I felt faint, and I knew all the color had drained from my face. “Is she home?” I asked, nearly choking on air and barely breathing.

Dad nodded. “Yes. She came home this morning, and she’s okay. I promise; this is not the end of the world. Now, let’s get you in the car and go home,” he said, taking our bags from us.

Through all of this Tyler had been silent, and I didn’t blame him. What do you say when you hear that your new girlfriend’s mom has cancer at the same time she does? As he started opening the back door of the car, I stopped him. “Can you sit in front? I would, but I can’t really bend my knee, so I need to sit with my leg across the back seat,” I asked.

“Sure,” he replied, kissing my head before helping me climb into the back seat, only getting into the front passenger seat once I was completely situated and as comfortable as I was going to get.

“And we need to get your leg taken care of as soon as we can, too,” Dad said as he drove off for home. I simply nodded. “So Tyler, obviously Jean has told us a little bit about you, but tell me more. What does your family situation look like?” he asked. I blushed, embarrassed; he went straight for the more serious stuff.

I was relieved when Tyler answered like he wasn’t even phased by the question. “Well,” he started, “My parents’ names are Jackie and Paul, and they’re divorced, and I have two younger sisters; Candace and Cassidy,” he continued, and my dad nodded.

“Oh my god, I’m more surrounded by Paul’s than usual,” I chuckled.

“What do you mean?” Tyler asked, chuckling as well.

“Well, my dad’s name is Paul, my Grandpa’s name is Paul, your dad’s name is Paul, and isn’t your middle name Paul?” I finished with a question.

“Yeah, you really are surrounded by Paul’s” Tyler laughed, and Dad laughed a little as well.

The drive home from the airport was only twenty minutes, so we made it in no time. It was interesting getting out of the car, to say the least. While Dad got out bags out of the trunk, Tyler came up behind me and basically pulled me out of the car; I was sitting on the right side of the car, with my left leg stretched across the back seat and my back against the door. He only had to pull me until I could get my right foot on the ground, and then he just had to keep me balanced while I carefully pulled my left leg out of the car. “How does it feel?” he asked as I steadied myself.

I shrugged. “Alright,” I replied. “Not great. It’s starting to bend again, which is good; still hurts a bit though,” I added as Dad approached us with our bags.

“Well, go on inside. Your mom’s waiting for you,” he said. I nodded and looked at Tyler before leading them both into the house.

I was only a little on edge as we went into the house, but when we got to the living room and I saw Mom sitting on the couch watching TV, I lost it. As soon as she turned to look at us as we walked in, the floodgates opened, I dropped my crutches, and just hobbled over to her, throwing my arms around her neck and sobbing like a baby. “Oh, sweetheart, it’s okay,” she said, trying to comfort me. “Come here,” she added, guiding me over to the couch, where we sat down and I snuggled into her side, still crying hysterically.

Through my crying I barely heard Dad tell Tyler, “Let them have a minute,” before hearing the door to the garage open and close.

“Come on honey, stop crying,” she said as she rubbed my back a few minutes later. “Look at me,” she continued, pulling my chin away from her chest and making me look at her. “It’s going to be okay. We have a plan, and we’re getting started on treatments right away. It’s going to be fine,” she tried to reassure me as I wiped tears and snot off of my face, taking off my glasses because they were covered in tears. “I’m just going to need your help around the house, okay? My boss is allowing me to work from home, but I’m not going to have the energy to do everything I usually do, okay? Come on now, stop crying,” she said again, because I was still tearing. “And you can’t bottle this up, okay? I know that’s what you love to do, but you need to talk about how you’re feeling. And if you ever have any questions about what’s going to happen please, please ask them, okay?” she asked.

I just nodded and hugged her tight again. At that point Dad and Tyler had come inside, and I was super embarrassed at how red and awful my face looked.

I saw the hurt in Tyler’s eyes when he saw me, and he didn’t say anything as he came over to my other side on the couch. Mom let me let go of her, and I shifted and wrapped my arms around Tyler’s waist as he kissed my temple. “And you must be Tyler,” Mom said, reaching over me to shake his hand.

He nodded, letting go of my partially to shake her hand. “Yes, it’s nice to meet you, Mrs. Kitsalis, though I now wish it were under better circumstances,” he chuckled, and Mom and Dad chuckled a little as well. “And I’m sure you’re figuring out now, but yes, I’m her boyfriend,” he added.

Mom chuckled and nudged my thigh. “Can’t let you go anywhere; you always manage to come home with something,” she laughed. I just rolled my eyes and nudged her back. “And please, call me Nancy, Tyler,” she added, and Tyler nodded. “So, why are you hobbling? Your knee was okay when you left,” she continued.

I sighed. “I guess I was in my heels too long last night; I just couldn’t bend it or walk by the end of the night. But it’s starting to feel better again,” I replied, gingerly trying to bend my knee to prove it.

“We still need to get you in to have it fixed,” Dad said. “And we should probably have it checked out again first to make sure you didn’t do anything else to it,” he added. “We can probably get you in tomorrow or this weekend.”

I shrugged. “I’ll go have it checked out again, but I don’t want to have surgery just yet. I was planning on going to Six Flags on Sunday,” I replied. They both just gave me crooked looks at my excuse for not wanting to have surgery yet, and Tyler just had a blank look on his face, taking everything in. “What? The tickets are discounted the private event for Kohl’s,” I added.

“You don’t even work there anymore,” Mom argued.

“They’re not gonna know that. Besides, all you have to do is type in a promo code online and it takes you to the tickets. A friend from the store told me what the code is this year, so I’m golden. Want to go to Six Flags on Sunday, Tyler? Or do you need to head back to Dallas by then?” I asked.

“I’d love to. I’ve never been to the one in Chicago,” he replied with a smile.

“Well technically….or not even technically, it’s not Chicago. It’s super close to the Wisconsin border,” I chuckled.

“Alright, well, I’ll call the doctor and see when we can get you in for another MRI. Why don’t you and Tyler take your stuff upstairs and relax for a while. We’ll order a pizza in a little while. Are you okay with pizza for dinner, Tyler?” Mom asked, reaching for her phone on the table. Tyler nodded with a smile.

I nodded and pushed myself off of Tyler so he could stand up, and he offered me his hands. I gladly took them and he hoisted me to my feet easily before going over and getting my crutches and our bags. “Lead the way,” he said as he approached me again and I led him around the corner of the living room and over to the stairs.

I nodded and slowly hobbled over to the stairs. “You might as well go first. This is going to take me a while,” I chuckled, nodding toward the top of the stairs.

“I got a better idea, wait right here,” he said with a smirk before running up the stairs. I just stood there with a confused look on my face as I watched him drop all of our stuff at the top of the stairs before coming back down. “Ready?” he asked.

I rolled my eyes. “I’m sure that’s a rhetorical question,” I replied and he nodded, gently wrapping one arm under my knees and the other around my back. “Careful,” I said as I took a deep breath and he gently lifted me easily and carried me up the stairs.

“Where’s your room?” he asked once we reached the foot of the stairs.

“Last door on the right,” I replied, and he nodded and headed in that direction. When he walked into my room he went straight to my bed, gently putting me down. “Thank you,” I said with a smile. He then leaned down and gave me a kiss before heading back out to grab our stuff.

After he came back with our stuff he joined me on my bed. “So…” he started, and I giggled.

“So… Obviously this is my room, where all the magic happens. And of course, by magic I mean nothing,” I chuckled. “What do you want to do until dinner?” I asked.

He shrugged. “Maybe I’ll just go through all your stuff,” he replied, a straight look on his face. Once I looked at him in horror he started laughing. “I’m just kidding,” he said, shoving me gently. “But seriously, your room is nice; it seems very you,” he added.

I then remembered that Patrick had asked me to let him know when I got home. “Oh shit,” I said sitting up. Tyler gave me a confused look. “I forgot to let Patrick know when I got home,” I continued, pulling out my phone. “Come here,” I said, turning on the camera.

“What?” he asked, leaning closer to me.

“Seeing as he’s the one that encouraged me to talk to you Wednesday night, I think he should see the result,” I replied, holding to camera up between us. “Smile,” I added, getting ready to push the button. At the last second Tyler turned his head, kissing my cheek. I then went into the camera roll and smiled widely. “That’s a cute picture,” I said. “But I have a better idea.”

He gave me a knowing look and helped me position the camera so all I had to do was hit the button. We then turned our heads toward each other and kissed as I snapped the picture. “I like this one even better,” he said with a smile as we looked at it. “Send it to me after you send it to Kaner.”

I nodded and sent it to Patrick with the caption “Made it home safe and sound…with a little something extra!!” and then I sent it to Tyler.

Before anything else could be said about the picture, we heard Dad shout, “Come on guys! Pizza’s here!”

“Dinner time!” I shouted, carefully jumping off my bed before hobbling toward the door. “Oh,” I said, stopping and turning around to face Tyler. “I know those pictures are cute and all, but I still want to take this slow; not so much PDA or anything like that right away,” I said.

He nodded. “You’re right; I’m sorry. I just can’t really help myself,” he replied.

“It’s okay,” I said. “Please don’t feel like I’m mad, because I’m not. You just need to remember that you’re only here for a few days, and then you go back to Dallas; I don’t know when the next time I’m gonna see you is gonna be. This is going to sound really bad, but I’m trying to stay as detached as possible for the time being; at least until we know what this is going to be,” I continued, motioning between the two of us.

“Don’t worry about it, I understand. You made that pretty clear when we decided to do this. But in the meantime, let’s go eat; I’m starving,” he replied making me chuckle, and he led me out of the room.

Notes

I'm really sorry, this chapter probably sucks. I've been really distracted lately, obviously with what's been going on with my Mom, and then more recently with baseball. MY CUBBIES WON THE WORLD SERIES!!!!! Sorry, I'm on cloud nine right now haha
Anyway, I'm also really sorry I took so long to update. Please feel free to drop a comment, I'm a little torn as to where I want to go next. I have a decent idea, but I'd love to hear some suggestions.