Chapter Text
“Andy!” Eddie shouts, jumping up onto his bed. Andy pulls the blanket up over his head, only for Eddie to pull it back down. “Wake up!”
“Not today, Eddie.” Andy grumbles, rolling to face the wall.
“Andy, it’s me, Eddie, I want to play today.” Eddie whines. Andy is usually excited to play with Eddie. Eddie is five years old, three years younger than Andy, but they were still close friends.
Andy was the first kid to be nice to Eddie when he moved to town. Everyone had seen his family and heard his accent and pushed him to the side, choosing to ignore him instead of inviting him to play. That was until Andy had something to say. All the other kids on the street looked up to him, as he was a few years older.
“Come on, please!” Eddie begs, shaking Andy’s shoulder.
“Eddie, stop! I’m sick!” Andy yells, shoving him off the bed in a fit of anger.
Eddie falls to the ground, landing awkwardly on his ankle. He shouts out in pain and grabs his leg.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to actually hurt you.” Andy says, sliding out of bed and onto the floor next to Eddie. He takes his ankle and examines it to make sure it's okay.
“What do you mean you’re sick?” Eddie questions. “Do you have the flu?”
“No, not the flu. I have… cancer”
Eddie sits in silence for a minute before responding “My grandpa had cancer… What is cancer?”
“It’s like a sickness where your body destroys itself. That's what my mom told me. I have it in my lungs. The doctors said they spotted it pretty early, but I will have to go through treatment.” Andy explains.
“Does it… hurt you?” Eddie asks.
“It hurts to breathe a little bit, but I’m mostly just scared.” Andy says, biting his lip.
“Don’t be scared, Andy!” Eddie says, crawling to him and wrapping his arms around Andy in a bear hug. “You’ll be okay.”
--
“Why are you wearing that hat?” Eddie questions, making a face at the beanie placed awkwardly on Andy’s head. The only hat he ever wears is his baseball caps and even then he doesn't wear them often. Eddie couldn’t help but thinking it lookes misplaced.
“It’s cold out here.” Andy shrugs. They were sitting on a bench outside of the hospital Andy was staying at for the time being, watching the nearby river flowing. Their moms were chatting at the entrance way of the hospital, letting the boys have some space to themselves.
“You were wearing inside, too.” Eddie points out.
“It was cold inside, too.” Andy says with a snap, obviously getting annoyed by Eddie’s questions. He didn’t want to be mean to him, but the whole situation just made him uncomfortable and irritable. He’s spent a week at the hospital so far getting poked, prodded and injected by various doctors. Andy wasn’t sure when he was going to be able to go home, but he hopes it's soon.
“Okay… Wanna play tag?” Eddie offers, hoping that will brighten his mood.
Andy isn’t sure if he would be able to handle all the running. Physical activity stressed his lungs and he knew he wasn’t supposed to be doing that. He offers to play hide and seek instead and Eddie quickly agrees.
Andy counts first, going up to 50 and then searching for Sebastian. There aren't very many places to hide at the little park outside the hospital, so Andy finds him quickly.
It’s Eddie’s turn to count and Andy looks around, deciding the only possible place to hide was in a tree. He chose the easiest tree to climb, but he is still exhausted and weak from treatments.
“...48, 49, 50! Ready or not here I come!”
Andy is in the tree and is panting pretty heavily, but with the wind, he doubts Eddie will hear him. Eddie looks around for a couple minutes before sighing. "Give me a hint!"
Andy scoffs at how quickly the younger boy gave up but yells his name anyways to give him a hint. Eddie runs over to the tree, looking in the bushes around it before looking up.
“Haha, got you!” He yells.
Andy chuckles and starts to climb down, when his hat gets snagged on a branch and pulled off his head. He yells out and reaches to grab the hat but ends up losing his balance. He falls to the ground with a thump, his hat landing next to him.
"Andy... your hair." Eddie whispers. Andy can feel tears well up in his eyes. He isn't normally insecure about his appearance, but when he lost his hair because of the chemotherapy, all that changed. He even wore hats around his parents and doctors.
"Your hair... is awesome!" Eddie yells, helping Andy stand up. "It's so cool! You look like a soldier or something."
“You really like it?” Andy asks.
“I really do.”
--
“Andy.” His mother, Deborah, whispers, rubbing his head and combing the little bit of hair that has grown back on his head with her fingers.
“Yes, mama?” Andy asks, keeping his eyes closed. He was so tired he didn't know if he could open them. They felt heavy, like his body was being held to the hospital bed by some invisible force.
"How are you doing? Do you feel well enough to see Eddie?" She asks.
Andy nods, trying his best to sit up in bed. "Yeah, I wanna see Eddie." It's been too long since he's seen his best friend. Now Andy has been battling cancer for almost a year, with lots of chemotherapy and treatments. He even had to celebrate his ninth birthday in the hospital. His parents and the nurses did their best to make it fun, but there is only so much fun one can have in a hospital room.
Deborah nods and goes out the door, coming back with Eddie a minute later. "I'll give you guys some time. We have a meeting with the doctors and then we will see you after that." She smiles, closing the door behind her.
"Your mom says you're close to getting out of the hospital." Eddie says, sitting down on the bed next to Andy. "She said you might be able to come to my birthday party."
"I hope so.I'm so sick of being in here. I feel trapped." Andy sighs.
"It's just not fun. We have to find something fun to do. Like... playing cards!" Eddie says, grabbing the deck of cards off the bedside table.
The boys play various card games for almost an hour until Andy's mom comes back into the room, this time accompanied by Andy’s father as well.
"Kimi, we have news... Do you want Eddie to stay?" She asks.
Andy nods, feeling himself get shaky at whatever his mom was going to say.
"We just got done talking with your doctors. We have good news." She is smiling, coming and taking a seat next to the bed. "Your cancer is gone. We're leaving the hospital in a couple days." His mom starts to cry, giving Andy a big hug. Andy looks relieved to finally be leaving. He hugs his mother, then father, then looks to Eddie.
"Does that mean you can come to my birthday party?" Eddie asks.