seventeen
"How is she doing?" I whispered as I walked into the room. Ashton was sitting beside her bed as she slept.
It had been about a week since Jenna's accident. I had been stopping by every day after school to check up on the two of them and bring Ashton's homework. He had been skipping school every day to be with her. It made me sad to see her in so much pain. My dad had been running constant tests on her throughout the week and he still couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. The last thing he hasn't resorted to is a CT scan.
"She's doing really good today," He mumbled with a smile on his face. I took the work I brought him and set it onto the large stack that had been forming on the counter. I looked at him as he watched her, his eyes were growing tired and his skin seemed pale.
"When was the last time you slept?" I asked him softly.
"I don't know, a day or so?" he mumbled. I took a seat next to him on her bed.
"You should really get some sleep," I nodded my head towards the cot the nurses set up for him in the corner. "And when you wake up, I have great news for you," He nodded his head and walked over to the cot and laid down. I watched as his eyes fluttered shut before I got up and left the room.
I walked down the hall for a while until I saw my father examining some scans. I walked inside and watched. I noticed the name in the bottom right-hand corner. Jennifer Irwin.
"These are Jennifer's?" I questioned. I stood next to my father and took a look at the scans. I sighed when I saw what he was looking at.
"Can you tell me what this is Shannon?" He said. I took a look at some of the papers he handed me and looked at the tests. After about five minutes, I answered.
"She has a benign brain tumor in her frontal lobe."
"And what does that mean?" he asked. I smiled and looked at him.
"She has a noncancerous, operable brain tumor," I sighed in relief. "You can fix it," I smiled.
"You have to run a CT scan to find out more about this tumor and then you can operate," I said. He nodded his head and pulled the scans from the wall. I quickly hugged my father and thanked him.
-
I was gonna wait to tell Ashton and his Aunt until my father got a chance to. I had been back in Jennifer's room for about an hour now, I was sitting on a chair beside her bed, waiting for Ashton to wake up.
After another hour or so, My eyes rose from the paper I was reading to find Ashton sitting on the cot with his head in his hands.
"Hey," I whispered. He looked at me for a moment. I looked at Jenna who was still sleeping, I stood up and I gestured for him to follow me. We walked a little farther down the hall until we reached a conference room. I pulled him inside and set my bag down.
"So I'm hoping this will cheer you up. I know this whole situation with your Aunt is hard." I grabbed a few papers from the backpack and handed them to Ashton. He read through them and smiled.
"We got an A!" He laughed.
"Read further," I chuckled. He gripped my shoulders with his hand.
"Dear Ms. Montgomery and Mr. Irwin, we are happy to be featuring your artwork in our aspiring teen's exhibit." He read.
"We won the contest! Our work is going to be at the Seattle Museum of Art!" I smiled.
"I can't believe this," He pulled me in and quickly kissed my lips in excitement. I placed one of my small hands on his chest and pushed him away for a moment I looked into his eyes with a confusing look.
The two of us shared a brief moment of silence, we seemed to share glances between our eyes, and lips. He looked into my eyes one last time until the two of us slowly touched lips again. My hand was firmly placed on his muscular chest while his hands had moved from my shoulders to my waist. Our lips moved in perfect synchronization with each other. I backed up slowly as he gently pushed me up against the wall. He placed one hand on the wall and turned his head to the side to deepen the kiss.
I was confused and excited at the same time. Part of me wanted to push away, but at the same time, I couldn't seem to end it.
After a few seconds, Ashton did. He slowly pulled away and looked into my eyes as if he had been wanting to do that for a while. I smiled when he spoke up.
"Shannon, we won."
-
"So what's wrong with her?" Ashton asked as he sat on the cot in the corner of the room. Jennifer looked at my father and me.
"You're Aunt has a benign tumor in her frontal lobe. Which is why she had her incident at work and why she was seizing excessively." My father said clearly. "I should be able to easily remove it in surgery."
"We don't have money for surgery," Ashton groaned.
"Your health insurance should be able to cover the cost," My dad explained.
"Sir, we don't have health insurance. I'm gonna have to give up a month's worth of work just to pay off these hospital bills," Jenna said. "There's no way. I refuse to have a surgery I can't pay for." Ashton rolled his eyes and sighed. My father respectfully left the room when he realized the two needed some time together to talk.
I turned around to leave but I was interrupted when Jenna spoke up.
"You're his daughter, can't you figure out a way to get him to do the surgery for free?" She whispered.
"I can try, but even if I convince him, it's up to the Hospital's Board to decide whether or not he can perform the surgery for free." I sighed.
"Please, you have to find a way."