Ryan

A group of friends come together to help their friend through the biggest fight of his life. can they stick together for him or will old wounds come back to haunt them.

I just got back from the doctor the other day, and doc told me that I have lung cancer.”

“Ryan, we are going to fight this first with surgery and then from there we might have to do chemotherapy” he said.

“Surgery?”

“Yes, we need to start off that why, so that we can see what we are dealing with. We go this way first, so that we can try and cut out as much of the cancer as we can, and from there we go onto chemo or even radiation.”

“How long have I got Doc?”

“You have stage 2 lung cancer, and there is a forty percent chance that you can live longer than 5 years after we get it out of you. but I might stress, lets first try and concentrate on the surgery and take things from there. ok? We will know what we are dealing with once we open you up”

“Doc, when are we doing this then?”

“As soon as possible. I would like to get started on Friday?”

“Friday?”

“We need to get ahead of this before the tumor grow’s even bigger. Don’t worry son, lets take this one step at a time.”

I was scared, no doubt about it. I mean, a forty percent chance of survival. The odds don’t look great. But I’ll take them alright. I have never smoked in my life, not even a drag, no weed. I was a fit man, I exercised daily. Eating right. Why me? What did I do to deserve this? You have people that don’t take care of themselves, smoke like two packs of cigarettes a day and do they get cancer?

Doc was a good man, I trusted him, well I had to I guess. He said I could get a second opinion, but after talking to a friend who got treated by doc before. I believed what he said, and if he said that surgery is the way, then surgery is what we are going to do.

I wasn’t expecting everyone to feel sorry for me, or to always be there for me. I just wanted everyone to be there for me when things get bad, to support me when I was feeling down. I knew things would get worse before they got better. So invited my closest friends over for dinner at my place before my surgery on Friday. I wanted to tell them now before I went under and before things could get worse. I was thinking of calling them one by one and telling them the news. But after speaking to Peter, it didn’t feel right. I had to tell them in person, I needed to let them know that even with cancer, I would be alight. Not sure for how long, but for now, I would be.

Jill was the first to arrive, she was a short girl, in her late twenties, she had a roundish face, with short red hair and green eyes. Jill liked to be different, she wanted everyone’s eyes to be on her when she entered the room. And tonight was no different, she had a short black skirt on with a white shirt.

“Hey Ryan, what’s up? Dinner on a Wednesday night? You alright?”

“I’m alright, just wanted to see everyone tonight, that’s all. I mean when last were we all together? It’s been over two months I think”

“Shit, two months. We have to do this more often”

“We sure do, girl, do you always have to wear the shortest skirt that you can find?”

“I’m going out with Sarah and the girls after this. There’s a new club that just opened and we wanna try it out. and maybe meet a guy or two. Who knows”

Jill never quite grew up, the rest of our had grown out of getting drunk during the week. Not that going out is a bad idea, but going to work with a hangover, really ruins your day. You can never really get anything done. Its like the day is a total write off. And the thing is Jill would do it all over again the next day, and then when Friday comes around, she’s repeating that same story all over again. How she actually got any work done was beyond me, she was in sales, and would outperform every one at work without fail. Just wish she would see that she could do more than sales if she spent less time out partying.

“Jill, there is some wine on the table, red. Take it easy yea.”

“Yes dad”

James was next to arrive, he owned a tech company and had done really well for himself. Both in business and in his personal life. His wife Brea wasn’t with him tonight, guess she was on another business trip. James had short brown hair, he had a scar on the left side of his face, which he got from when he got into a fight when he was a teenager. Fighting over some girl.

“Ryan, what’s up? Been a while hey? How you been?”

“Alright and you man”

“Yea, good. just picked up another project off from our competitors this week. They messed up some millionaires shit and now he wants us to fix it. He is paying us almost double than what he paid them. you know me”

“I do, where is Brea, thought she would be coming as well, she in Dubai again?”

“No, not this time. they sent her to Cape Town, she should be back later this week. Don’t know why she still works for them. it’s not like we are struggling here”

“You know her, she’s been like that since I’ve known her. You want a beer?”

“Thought you’d never ask’

We both made our way to the kitchen, I gave him a Don Lite.

“And yours?”

“Maybe later” I said

Carissa, came about 10 minutes later, she apologized for being so late.

“Sorry Ryan, Tony took the kids to the mall today and they had way too much sugar. It was a battle just to get them to bath tonight.”

“Don’t worry, I will be fine. can I pour you a glass of red? The other two are already here”

“I’d love that, thank you”

Carissa, was an accountant, she had loved working with numbers, even from a small age. It was all she could talk about. She was a beautiful woman to. Long black hair, brown eyes, tonight she was wearing a blue dress. With matching shoes.

We had a thing back when we were in high school, we dated on and off for about 2 years or so. Once we broke up towards the end of our final year, we just stayed friends. Everyone thought that we would get back together and get married. But we never did. I kind of wish I did, she just got more beautiful as each year passed.

We both made our way outside onto the deck, that looked out towards the ocean.

“So, um Ryan, why are we all here” Jill said.

“Well, I have some news to share with you and I just felt that it would be better to do it in person. Its not the sort of thing that you want to hear over the phone. I have told Peter already, since he is still on holiday with Pam and the kids. He promised not to say anything until I have told all of you.”

“Ryan you are scaring me, what is it?”

“I have cancer”