Page 151 of Missed Notes (Rixon High 5)

Cole murmured. “It’ll be okay, Sofe.”

But it wasn’t.

Nothing about this was okay.

“We need to tell them, sweetheart.” Mom came to my side.

“I… I can’t.” I squeezed my eyes shut, wanting nothing more than for this to be a bad dream.

But when I opened them again, Aaron was standing at the end of the stretcher, confusion and worry bleeding into his expression.

“Sofe?”

“I’m sorry,” I cried. “I’m so sorry.” Tears slid down my face.

“What is it? What’s wrong?” He’d gone pale, as if he knew. Knew that whatever I was about to say would change everything.

I inhaled a shuddering breath, trying to find the words.

“I… I don’t just have anemia, Aaron.”

“You don’t?”

Dad stepped up behind him, laying a hand on his shoulder. A silent offer of support. Because we were a family. We were in this together, whether I wanted to protect Aaron or not.

“It’s…” Another shudder went through me. “It’s leukemia,” I said. The words detonating between us, and I knew no amount of hand holding or hugs or platitudes would prevent the fall out of this bombshell.

“Leukemia. What are you talking about? You don’t have leukemia. That’s not… no. No fucking way.”

Cole gripped my hand tighter.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered, my heart cracking, another piece fractured.

“Mom? Dad?” The blood drained from his face. “She’s lying, right? She has to be lying.”

“She’s not lying, Son.”

“You know?” He pinned Cole with a dark look.

“Yeah, I—”

“You fucking knew, and you didn’t tell me?”

“Aaron, you need to calm down.”

“Don’t tell me what I need to do, Dad. Not when you kept this from me. She’s my sister, my goddamn twin and you all lied. You—”

“It was my decision,” I said. “I didn’t want to ruin your season. I didn’t want—”

“You didn’t trust me with it.”

“Aaron, that’s not… It’s senior year. You have so much to look forward to. I didn’t want to take that away from you.”

“So you lied to me. That’s some bullshit right there, Sofe. And you,” he spat at Cole. “We’re done. We are so fucking done.”

“Okay, that’s it. You and me.” Dad grabbed him by the shoulder. “Let’s take a walk.”

Aaron barely looked at me as he let Dad usher him out of the room.

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