A gasp escaped my lips, my hand flying over my mouth.

The coaches came rushing out onto the field, both from our team and the other team.

"Sophie?" Kylie asked me, grabbing my arm. "Breathe."

I watched as one of the coaches from our team slowly helped Bryce sit up.

"Sophie?" Clayton asked, coming up to the fence. "Where's his mom?"

"Work."

"You drive him here?"

I nodded, and he motioned for me to come onto the field.

I hopped the fence, hurrying to the center of the field.

"Your name?" the coach asked Bryce.

"I know my name," Bryce said, irritably.

"I asked you to get his mom," the coach said to Clayton.

"His mom isn't here."

"Did you drive him here?" the coach asked me.

"Yes sir."

"I need you to drive him to the hospital. I'll get ahold of his mom and have her meet you there."

"I'm fine!" Bryce protested.

"We'll see about that," the coach said to him.

Bryce went to stand up, and all the coaches, from both teams, rushed to keep him sitting.

"Well I can't leave if I can't stand," Bryce huffed.

"Cut the attitude," his coach snapped at him.

He pressed his lips together and gave him a sharp nod.

His coach stood up and extended his hand down towards Bryce. Bryce let out a frustrated sigh, but clasped the coach's hand and pulled himself up, a scowl on his face.

"Are you alright to stand?" the coach asked Bryce.

"Yes."

The coach let go of him, and I took Bryce's arm and guided him through the crowd and to my car.

"That was the most embarrassing moment of my life," Bryce muttered, as I pulled out of the parking lot. "Just take me home."

"I'm not taking you home."

"Don't start with me Sophie. I honestly just don't have it in me for a fight today."

"Then you might as well give up, because I'm taking you to the hospital."

Bryce let out a groan. "This is so fucking stupid."

I knew him better than he was giving me credit for, and I reached over gave his hand a tight squeeze, keeping my eyes on the road.

Bryce pressed his forehead to my hand, letting out a sigh.

"You know that I love you," I said, turning to face him at a red light. "And that you don't have to be strong for me."

He slowly sat up, closing his eyes. "It's hard not to fall apart," he said, his voice thick. "That was the scariest moment of my life."

I slowly eased on the gas as the light turned green. "Trust me, alright? We're going to figure this out."

He gripped my hand tighter, leaning back in his seat. "I've got a killer headache."

"We're almost there," I promised. "Let me know if you start to feel like you're going to pass out again."

Silence elapsed. I didn't want to push a conversation with him, knowing for him to admit he had a headache meant that his head must really be hurting.

"Is my mom going to meet us there?" he asked, after a couple minutes of silence.

"They said they'd call her. If she's not there when we get there, I'll give her a call."

"She's going to kill me."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Your mother while shower you in kisses and love."

"That's probably true."

We pulled into the Emergency Parking Lot, and Bryce slowly got out of the car. "I feel like my head is going to explode."

I took his arm and guided him into the Emergency Room.

"May I help you?" the nurse asked behind the desk, popping her gum.

"He's been having really bad headaches, and he just passed out," I informed her.

"His name?"

"Bryce Harrison."

"And you are?"

"Sophie Allen, I'm his girlfriend."

We went through a list of questions, and she handed me some paperwork for me to fill out for him. "Get that done and we'll get him back as soon as we can."

"Thank you."

Five minutes into the paperwork, Ms. Harrison came into the Emergency Room waiting room, a frazzled look on her face.

I waved her down, and she hurried over to us, throwing her arms around Bryce.

He practically melted into her arms, his eyes still closed because of his headache. Ms. Harrison held Bryce in her arms, tears in her eyes, even though she was a good foot shorter than him.

"My poor baby," she whispered, after hugging him for a little over a minute. She gave him a tight squeeze before sitting him back down. "Thank you Sophie," she said, turning to face me, her eyes bright with tears.

"No problem," I said, with a soft smile.

"I'll finish the paperwork honey." She took the clipboard from me, scanning over what I'd completed so far. "You're such a sweetheart."

I put my arm around Bryce, letting his head droop onto my shoulder. "That's what I'm here for."

~*~

"How long are they going to keep him here?" I asked Ms. Harrison, as Bryce peacefully slept in the hospital bed.

"As long as it takes for them to find out what's wrong."

I let out an impatient sigh. "Can't they just hurry it up?"

"I wish."

Bryce let out a groan in his sleep, flipping his arm over his eyes.

"I wonder if he can feel that headache in his sleep," Ms. Harrison said, her eyes full of concern. "He always just blew these headaches off, told me they were a part of his rehab. I just wonder how much he's been keeping from me."

I couldn't help but wonder the same thing too. How many times has he had a headache so bad that he just wanted to curl up and sleep? How many times has he put on that joking exterior, when inside he was slowly dying from the pain? And most importantly, why didn't he talk to me about it? Why did he wait until we were headed to the hospital to finally open up to me?

Bryce stirred and slowly blinked awake. Ms. Harrison immediately dimmed the lights so as not to disturb his headache.

"Good morning honey," Ms. Harrison said, cheerfully.

"I had the worst dream," he moaned, his arm still over his eyes.

Ms. Harrison looked over at me, concern written across her face. "What about sweetie?"

"I was playing in the game against our rivals and I, like, blacked out. And then I had to be rushed to the hospital and undergo all of these tests..." he trailed off as he opened his eyes, taking in his surroundings.

"It wasn't a dream honey," Ms. Harrison whispered, taking his hand in hers.

His entire body deflated. "Oh."

She kissed his forehead. "I'll go and let the nurse know you're awake so we can get you some breakfast."

He gave her a smile and nod.

She squeezed my shoulder on the way out, giving me a soft smile.

"Did you go home last night?" Bryce asked, as I sat down on the edge of his hospital bed.

"Of course not," I answered, as I played with his fingers.

"I don't deserve you," he whispered, a smile playing on his lips.

"It's true." I leaned over and gave him a kiss. "But I still stick around."

"What if I have Mono, you know, the kissing disease? And by that kiss you might have just gotten it too."

I couldn't help but laugh. "I think if you had Mono that kiss wouldn't have been the one to bring me down."

"You're right," he mused, a smile playing on his lips. "It was probably one of the ones from yesterday, or the day before, or the day before..."

"What are you trying to say?" I asked, laughing.

"That I love you. And I'm glad you stuck around here with me, even though I'm sure it's a drag."

"I'd do anything for you," I promised.

"They're bringing in your breakfast," Ms. Harrison said, coming back into the room. "And the doctor's going to come to see us in a minute."

"What does the doctor want?" Bryce asked, gripping my hand with his.

"I don't know honey."

The door opened and the nurse came in with Bryce's breakfast, a perky smile on her face. "Good morning!"

"Morning," he answered, eyeing the breakfast she'd brought in.

I hopped up off of Bryce's bed, heading over to Ms. Harrison. "Want some Pop-Tarts out of the vending machine?" I asked her.

She handed me a couple of dollar bills. "And a cherry coke."

I went out and bought two packages of Pop-Tarts, a cherry coke, and a Mountain Dew for me.

I leaned against the vending machines for a few moments, staring down the hallway at Bryce's room. I had a feeling that I couldn't shake in the pit of my stomach, a feeling that something was terribly wrong. Bryce's headaches and behavior lately struck a nerve, and I couldn't help but think those two things were key to whatever was wrong.

"Thanks honey," Ms. Harrison said, as I came back.

"No problem."

I offered Bryce some of my Mountain Dew, his favorite drink, which he declined with a tight smile.

"What's the matter?" I asked, setting my breakfast off to the side.

"I can't shake this feeling that something's wrong," he whispered.

Before I could answer, the door opened, and the doctor came in.

"Good morning," she said, extending her hand towards Ms. Harrison. "Doctor Wilson."

"Regina Harrison."

They shook hands and the doctor came over to us.

"Good morning Bryce."

"Morning," he mumbled.

"And you must be Sophie."

I looked over at Bryce. "Yeah?"

"He talked about you a lot last night during the tests."

I couldn't help but laugh, Bryce's face flushing bright red.

"I spent the majority of the night going over your MRI and CT scan results with a team of specialists here at the hospital," Doctor Wilson explained, as she pulled up the images on the desktop in the hospital room. "And I'm afraid I have some bad news."

Bryce gripped my hand, a grim look on his face.

"You have a tumor." She blew up the image and pointed to a gray blob in the corner of his brain.

"Oh," Ms. Harrison breathed, tears in her eyes.

"At this point we don't believe it to be cancerous," she explained. "But we'll know more once your blood work comes back."

"And if it is?" Ms. Harrison asked, tears rolling down her face.

"We'll have to being treatment to fight the cancer off," Doctor Wilson said, gravely. "But as I said, at this time we just don't know." She clicked on another image of the tumor. "What we do know, however, is that the tumor is obviously affecting him in his daily life. So I'm going to recommend surgery."

"Brain surgery?" Ms. Harrison asked, her eyes wide.

"Yes. We'll remove the tumor and biopsy it. The biopsy will also be able to tell us if it's cancerous or not."

"And if it's not?" Ms. Harrison asked, his voice thick.

"Then we'll just remove the tumor and you'll be good to go."

Ms. Harrison wiped a tear off her face, taking a moment to recompose herself. "So how does the surgery work exactly?"

"We'll have to cut open the skull, because we need the biopsy. We'll remove all of the tumor that we can and take a biopsy."

"You'll have to cut my skull open?" Bryce asked, the first words he's spoken since the doctor announced he had a brain tumor.

"Yes. We'll create a hole in your skull and remove what's known as the bone flap. We'll remove the tumor, and then replace the bone flap with small metal plates."

"And when should we schedule this for?" Ms. Harrison asked.

"A nurse will come in here and discuss that with you just as soon as I'm finished here." She looked around at the three of us. "Anymore questions?"

"No," Ms. Harrison and I whispered in unison.

Bryce remained silent.

"Always feel free to come and ask me any questions," Doctor Wilson said, with a small smile on her face. "And remember, we don't know if it's cancerous or not, so don't worry too much about that at this point and time." She gave us all one last smile before leaving the room.

Ms. Harrison and I looked at each other, speechless. What words could you say to make this better? How can you console others when you're broken yourself?

And then I heard a sound I'd never heard before. I turned to see Bryce silently crying, his remaining composure gone.

I laid my head on his chest, and Ms. Harrison took his hands in hers, but there wasn't much we could do to console him, to make the situation any better.

So we all cried together.

So what did you guys think of Bryce's diagnosis? That's pretty much what the entire chapter was about. I know you guys are immediately going to jump to conclusions, but try not to okay?

Teaser: Sophie returns to school without Bryce and has to face all the questions and all the people.