Nothing Personal

“Hey Zo!” A voice said as Zooey looked up from her book and saw Penny come rushing into Do’s hospital room. She instantly caught the excited look on her best friends face and sighed as she set her book down and gave her best friend her full attention. “Ok, so there’s this new sale going on at the mall and I’ve come to tell you that you have no choice in coming with me. We need to get you out of this hospital room.”

Zooey sighed as she looked next to her where Do sat on his bed listening happily to them. It was nearly a month now that they found out that the treatments weren’t working and Do was still hanging on. She couldn’t help but feel proud for him. He had his good days and bad days but today was a good day and he wasn’t in as much pain as he usually would be in.

“I agree with Penny,” Zo’s mom said as Zo glanced over to where her mom sat on the other side of Do’s bed. It was a weekend so she didn’t have to work and usually spent the whole day at the hospital with Zo when she was off.

She gave another sigh as she saw where this was going. Whenever her mother and best friend teamed up together against her, it was never a pretty picture. They were both stubborn and head strong on their own and when they teamed up, it was even worse than usual.

“But I just want to stay with Do and read,” Zo said when she finally had room to speak between her mother and friend.

Penny rolled her eyes, “You’ve read that book a million times already. I mean seriously, look at the cover, that’s proof enough that you need to get some fresh air.”

Zo looked down to her book that rest in her lap and smiled. Sure it was worn and falling apart, but she took that as a good thing. A sign that the book was being put to good use. Her mother had told her countless times to get a new copy and even had offered to buy it for her, but she was attached to that copy.

“Zooey, I insist. You need to get out for a while. Do’s going to be fine while you’re gone for a few hours.” Her mother continued as she turned to her youngest son. “Won’t you baby?”

The little boy smiled and nodded and Zo smiled. She stood and kissed the top of his head and pushed a few strands of hair away from his eyes. “Are you sure buddy?” She asked and he nodded again. “Fine, but call me if you need anything.”

She made eye contact with her mother and her mom just smiled sadly and nodded understanding what she meant. Call if something happens. At this point, they were all on edge waiting for the worst to happen. It was already a month and the doctors hadn’t given the boy more than three and anything could happen at this point.

Penny cheered as Zo grabbed her bag and gave Do one last hug and told him she loved him before heading out of the room with Penny chatting excitedly. They made their way down the hall toward the parking structure and went to Penny’s car. The drive only took five minutes at the most since the hospital was smack dab in the center of the small town so it would be easy to find.

They passed by the thrift store where they worked and to the mall that was down the street and headed toward the huge building. They had just got the building less than five years ago and it was still a huge thing in their small town. It was the first actual mall with popular stores in it instead of the family owned small businesses in the main part of the town.

Penny was still obsessed with it and Zo had got bored easily. She didn’t shop a lot but she had to admit they had an amazing bookstore there that she could spend hours in. It was even better than her favorite used bookstore that was right next to the store she worked at.

When they walked in, Zo wasn’t surprised to see how busy it was. It was a weekend after all and everyone loved to do anything but think about the week ahead. So that’s where the mall came in as a distraction, and Zo couldn’t help but admit that she was using it as a distraction too.

“So where should we start first?” Penny asked as she linked arms with Zo as they walked farther in. Zo really didn’t care just as long as at some point they stopped at the bookstore. Penny just rolled her eyes when Zooey told her this and began to drag her into one of the stores close by.

*Wow, Penny actually got you out of the hospital.* Alex said as Zo went through the sales rack.

*Good morning sleepy head,* she replied ignoring his previous comment. *What are you doing up anyway? Isn’t it too early to be awake on a day off?*

He sighed, *you think it would be but no. I have to go meet my parents. They have this family thing we’re doing tonight.*

She picked up a random shirt and started to look at it so she didn’t look weird just standing there staring as she continued. *Oh fun, a Gaskarth family outing.*

*Gaskarth/Barakat,* he muttered in reply as she started to laugh.

*Oh, lovely. Is Jack over there now?* He mumbled a yes in reply and she rolled her eyes. *Does he ever leave your apartment?*

Alex actually paused a moment to think that over like it was an important question. *Whenever he runs out of clothes here. But besides that no, we basically live at each other’s places. If we’re not here, everyone knows to go to Jack’s.*

*Jalex lives!*

*Good God Zo, do not start that again!* She giggled as she turned when she felt someone come up beside her and saw that it was Penny.

“Good Lord Pen, this is our second store and you already have four bags. Are you kidding me?” Zo asked as she heard Alex laughing in the background.

Penny shrugged, “what can I say, I love clothes.”

“That’s an understatement,” Zo mumbled as she followed Penny out of that store and onto the next.

She kept up a small conversation with Alex as she looked around the shops and tried to entertain herself. Even though she wasn’t really looking at the things, she was having fun. It was a chance to get her mind off of things and that’s what she really needed at that moment. Besides it’s not like she wanted to try things on since Alex was still talking to her and didn’t want to have to change in front of him.

Her phone buzzed as she was waiting in line for coffee with Penny a while later and she grabbed her phone. Finding she had a new text, she opened it up and laughed when she found that it was from Jack.

I miiiiiiiss yoooou!

She rolled her eyes as she pressed reply, I miss you too Jacky, what’s up?

Alex is being a dick and won’t entertain me. So I came to you. His reply came soon after.

*I’m going to kick his ass,* Alex muttered as Zo laughed and hit reply again.

Uh-oh, he read that, I would go and hide.

SAVE ME

She laughed again and Penny gave her a weird look. She just shrugged it off and went to grab her coffee and took a sip to distract herself.

*Could you please tell the one we call Jack to get ready? We have to leave soon and I don’t want to be late. Our mom’s are going to be mad at us.* Alex asked.

Jacky, Alex told me to tell you to get ready. You don’t want to get spanked by your mommy do you?

It would be ok if it was Alex’s dad…

*Good God, he is so dead!* Alex said as she just rolled her eyes. He was about to continue when Zo’s phone began to ring and she told Alex to hold on a minute so she could answer it.

“Hey mom what’s up?” She asked as they wandered into the bookstore. Zo was already heading toward her favorite section when she stopped dead in her step when she heard her mom sniffle. “Mom? What’s wrong? What’s going on?”

“I-it’s your b-brother,” Her mom managed to say as Zo felt a chill go down her spin. Please don’t let it be what she’s thinking. Please let it be Colter and not Do. Please let everything be ok.

Zo took a deep breath, she didn’t even know what it was yet and was already jumping to conclusions. She needed to calm down. It was probably nothing. “M-mom, what is it? Is Do ok?”

“N-no, Zooey please get to the hospital as soon as you can.”

“Mom, tell me what’s going on.” She demanded. She needed to know now. She needed to know what the hell was going on.

“I-it’s Do, Zooey, h-he’s gone.” Her mother said quietly and Zo dropped the phone. It fell to the floor with a bang but Zo barely heard it. She was too shocked to even care.

She felt a hand fall on her shoulder and she jumped slightly and turned to see Penny standing there with a worried look. “Zo what’s going on? Are you ok?” All she could do was shake her head. “What’s going on? Is Do ok?”

She shook her head again and Penny was about to snap when she cut her off. “Do, h-he’s gone.”

“What? What happened?” Penny asked as Zo just shrugged. “Ok c’mon we need to go now.”

Penny took her hand and lead her to the doors of the store and headed out to her car. Zooey could hear Alex saying something to her but she didn’t pay attention. She didn’t care. All she care about was getting to the bottom of this. She wasn’t even sure if she believed it or not. How could he be gone? He was fine this morning.

Penny drove as fast as she could and Zo just stayed silent as they headed toward the hospital to find out what was going on. When they got there, they rushed upstairs to Do’s floor and to his room. When Zo walked in, she stopped short when she saw the bed with a sheet covering a small lump in the bed. That’s when the tears finally hit.

She hadn’t even known her mother was in the room until she heard her say something and familiar arms wrapped protectively around her. Her legs almost gave out as she broke down into sobs and buried her face in her mom’s shirt. This was not happening. She was just waiting to wake up from this nightmare and see the smiling face of her baby brother when he made fun of her for talking in her sleep. But it wasn’t happening.

“Wh-what happened?” Zo managed to ask as she looked up to see her mom crying also.

“He was fine, he was totally fine. Then suddenly while we were watching tv he couldn’t breathe. I got the n-nurses as fast as they could and they tried to h-help him but nothing worked. He was just gone in a matter of minutes.” Her mother explained as she cried harder. “He’s gone, my baby boy’s gone.”

Zo didn’t say anything, she didn’t even know what to say. She didn’t know what to think. All she could do was repeat what her mother had said to her over and over in her head. Do was gone. Do was gone. He was never coming back. The cancer had finally taken him and he was never going to wake up again….