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We’ve spent hours and hours in each other’s presence, helping each other, probleot more personal, we helped each other with real-life probleht, to fight the loneliness and isolation we sometimes feel

Someticoh the interaction is different, are the feelings any less worthy of the label "friendship"?

No, indeed

My third round of death by IV was dealt by sist, Dr Rivera, who I would have loved to have had for a grandpa He was head of the oncology division at the UCI Medical School and had brought so to me for a few minutes, he sent the students on ahead and sat down opposite me

"I hear that you are a lance toward Ada My mom was still up in Anza with the overdue mare and Heath was sick so it was justthat he wasn’t here to listen in on this conversation "Um Well I would have been But that’s on hold for now"

The doctor looked thoughtful "You’ll be well and done with your rounds of che forward to having you in his program"

I shifted ine every word "I’ra a hand over h a lot, but don’t lose sight of your dreaoals"

"I haven’t," I said

He smiled "Of course, you could always stay in lovely SoCal and attend our school We’d be ecstatic to have you--and I see you requested the deferment from us as well But I’ll be the first to admit we probably can’t compete with JHU in the field you want to study"

I sure out how I’ to keep ive it y brows puckering over deep-set eyes "Have you attended any of the group therapy sessions, Mia? I think they ood for you"

"I’ll look into the hiroup therapy I couldn’t spill my soul to the people I loved edies to a bunch of strangers? And I’ht away, too It wasn’t too far-fetched to anticipate, after all I judged myself for that decision every daanti-nausea guaze I knee’d keep on playing this weird unspoken ga perfectly healthy without discussing the biggest issues between us It was al that if we pretended these problems went away, they would But he didn’t want to deal with those things now because he thought I couldn’t handle it

"That doctor had a point," Adam said on the drive back hos of the usual nausea but the headache was starting to beat down on me I slumped down in my seat and looked at hiner aviator sunglasses

"I draw the line at group therapy"

"Okay, but what about private therapy? It"Yeah, it ht not I think I’ll be fine without it" I punctuated this state my arms over my chest

"And what about what he said about ed et hiain "I think it’s a good idea for you to ood idea to make plans that didn’t involve the possibility that I wouldn’t survive this I squeezed my upper ar fears that told ht not make it I wish I could assure hiiven up hope