“Dr. Williamson,” Mackenzie started. “It’s Mackenzie Roberts. I’m calling in for my monthly check-up.” Mackenzie had only been through one of these before and she already hated them. Every time she received her chemotherapy, the medication was increased and the side effects were brutal.
“Ms. Roberts, I glad that you called in. We received your test back from the lab a week ago with some promising news. The white blood cell count in your body is going up rather than down. The cancer has seemed to be slowing it’s production on mutated cells. All in all, we are predicting full recovery. It’s just gonna take a while.”
“Great,” Mackenzie thought.
The doctor continued. “Our office is going to try and send you your medication. What city do you think that you will be in a week from now? We can ship the medication directly to the post office of that city.”
“My best bet would be St. Louis, Missouri.” Mackenzie stated. “We have a show there on the 18th.”
“Perfect. Just don’t forget to program your machine for 20 Ks. I’d also like to send some new breakthrough medication that will ease the side effects of your chemotherapy. Okay?”
“That would be great. Thank you Doctor.” With that, Mackenzie clicked her cell phone off and was full of mixed feelings. She was happy that finally, the cancer was beginning to loose the battle but the fact that it was going to take longer to beat the disease wasn’t what Mackenzie wanted to hear.
Just last week, Mackenzie had begun loosing hair in small quantities. It was amazing how much of a fuss Nick had put up when Mackenzie showed up to rehearsal with a short new haircut.
“Nick,” Mackenzie had protested. “It’s summer and it’s damn hot all the time. Long hair is just not comfortable anymore.”
“As long as it grows out by the wedding,” Nick had said.
Mackenzie remembered that she had laughed a little at that seeing as how she and Nick hadn’t even set the date yet. It was then that Mackenzie had a thought and this time nothing was going to change her mind. “I have to tell Nick about the cancer before we set the date.”
Mackenzie and Hannah, a second year dancer on the tour, were busy rolling around a beach ball in the sweltering heat waiting to go on. “Whose idea was this to have a concert in the middle of the day?” Hannah was whining.
“I have no idea,” Mackenzie said. “But it’s too damn hot for this.”
“Your telling me,” AJ sighed as he sank into a beanbag chair in the lounge of the Rams stadium in St. Louis. “Does anyone have any water?”
“Here ya go Bone,” Mackenzie said, weakly tossing a bottle of Evian AJ’s way.
AJ was surprised when Mackenzie missed his hand by a couple feet. “Damn Mac, that was a shitty throw. Normally you take my damn hand off.”
“Too hot,” Mackenzie moaned. The truth was that Mackenzie’s limbs were just too sore from chemo.
AJ tossed the water bottle back to Mackenzie and the group continued to lie sleepily in the exhausting, scorching heat. They all groaned when they saw Kevin peek in through the doorway to tell them that they had 10 minutes before show time. Wearily, everyone exited the lounge and headed for the stage. It was then that Mackenzie realized that her fiancée was no where in sight. “Where’s Nick?” she asked, a little concerned.
“I haven’t seen him since rehearsal,” Eve offered. “But I’ll help you look for him Mac.”
At that, both Eve and Mackenzie took off running around the stadium looking for Nick and screaming his name. They found him, in his dressing room, hopelessly tangled in his microphone cord again. The two girls would have burst out laughing except for the fact that they had exactly two and a half minutes before Nick had to be on stage. Mackenzie quickly grabbed the microphone piece and Eve began untangling the cord as the three of them went running off for the stage. They were grateful to hear the opening cords to the play off version of Larger Than Life to get the crowd to go wild before the actual show. “Good luck,” Mackenzie called to Nick.
Nick had already made it half way down the hallway when he heard Mackenzie’s voice echo in his ears. Debating with himself, Nick quickly turned around and ran to kiss Mackenzie before running, in the sweltering heat, to the stage.
“You’re so lucky,” Eve said smiling. “I swear I’d die if Nick had proposed to me onstage.”
“I almost did,” Mackenzie smiled. The two were interrupted by Rebecca screaming at everyone to get their butts up to the stage.
Chapter Twelve
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