just visiting

                                    

                                          
"who needs men when i have my trusty IV?"





I wonder how other people are spending their Monday. School? Work? Chilling on the couch with their cats? I'd much prefer any of those things over the way I'm spending my Monday.
I am sitting in a big, somewhat uncomfortable chair in a hospital room with an IV in my arm, feeding me a ridiculous amount of drugs to try to kill the life threatening cancer in my blood.
Fun, right?
I was feeling nothing but boredom. I had my laptop, which I'd only just purchased solely because of how much class I know I'm going to have to miss these next few... weeks? Months? Who knows? Another purchase that has taken yet another huge chunk out of my wallet. But right now, for whatever reason, I had no interest in doing any of my school work. 
Luke had convinced me to talk to the Dean (Yale's Dean, not Rory's Dean), and explain to him my situation. He assured me that I could get extensions from all of my professors, and pulled the classic, 'If you need absolutely anything at all, please let us know if there's anything we can do... Your Yale family is here for you.' 
Even though it took him a good five minutes to figure out who I was when I sat down in his office. I get it, though. Yale has thousands of students. Odds that he would remember some random English major on a scholarship? Slim.
I was typing complete gibberish as I attempted to write a paper for my Modern Poetry class, which was pretty hard considering I'd missed the last three classes because of doctors appointments, weddings and umbrella jumps with rich kids. 
There was one other chemo chair in the room I was in, but the elderly woman I was sharing it with had just finished her treatment as mine had started fifteen minutes ago, leaving me alone in the dull, cold hospital room with dumb picture frames on the wall saying things like, 'stay strong!' and 'you're never alone!'
I still had two hours and forty-five minutes of sitting in this chair. Bored. Alone. 
Or so I thought. 
"Knock, knock!" A voice said as they opened the door. I smiled as Mom, Luke and TJ came through.
"Hey, kid!" Luke beamed, a Luke's paper bag in his hand and a coffee cup in the other.
"Hey, guys," I gave a confused smile as I shut my laptop. "How'd you know I was here?"
"Squeezed it out of Jess," Uncle Luke shrugged sheepishly.
"How are you feeling, Babydoll?" Mom asked with a tight lipped smile as TJ kind of just stood there awkwardly, looking around the room and mumbling something about how cold it was. 
"Fine," I replied with a laugh as she smothered my face in kisses. She pulled away and I looked at Luke with a serious expression. "Luke. Give me the bag."
"I know hospital food sucks... From when I had my tonsils out when I was a kid. All they fed me was gross Jell-O and mashed potatoes." He let out an airy chuckle and handed me the bag and the coffee cup, which I scrunched my brows at. He knows I hate hot coffee. "It's hot chocolate. From the cafeteria here, so it's probably not great. Didn't wanna bring you one from Luke's and have it be cold by the time we got here."
I sipped on the drink, which tasted like dirt water with a smidge of cocoa powder and grimaced as I sat it down on the side table beside my chair. Hospital food did suck. Luke's food, however, did not. He bought me a turkey sandwich with lots of veggies. My favourite. 
"Thanks, Uncle Luke," I smiled, unwrapping the sandwich and taking a bite. "You hate hospitals. What are you doing here?"
He shrugged. "Just wanted to check in. And bring you something actually edible."