Jordan and Cody - 5. Chapter 5

“Right guys, we have to go. We will be here in the morning to pick you up, we have booked a flight to Queenstown to drop Isaac off and then we fly to Dunedin. We will be there for a few weeks, Jordan your Dad will come up when he can.” Mum says.

We all nod. We give and receive hugs goodbye. We are left alone and the drugs I am on are making me tired. I pull Jordan into a deep kiss and we drift to sleep on my bed.

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“Cody, time to get up.” Mum says softly.

“Mrphh” I mumble.

“Come on the plane leaves in ninety minutes.” She says.

I remember what has happened, I want to forget all of it. I don’t want to be cursed with cancer as a young person. I get up and realise that Jordan is already up and dressed. I get dressed and feel arms wrap around my waist. I turn around and embrace my lover. We stand like that until my knees start to weaken. Jordan grabs my chair and pushes me out. We find Mum talking to Bill at the nurses’ station.

“Come on boys, let’s go.” She says tiredly.

I smile at Bill. “Thanks.” And we leave. We go out the main entrance and are greeted by a cold blast of air and Ruby’s car in the pickup zone. We jump in and Mum wheels my chair back. We drive to the airport and park the car in the long term parking area. Mum and Jordan support me walking to the terminal. The Invercargill Airport looks dated since it hasn’t been done up since the Invercargill floods in 1984. We take a seat in the upstairs seating while Mum checks our bags in. I look around the terminal and spot my old friend, David. I try to hide my face. Ruby tells us she is going to get a coffee and asks us if we need anything. We ask for a hot chocolate and she leaves. Out of the corner of my eye I see David rise and walk towards us.

“Well, well, well, look what we have here. A couple of fags, you aren’t flying to Queenstown are you?” He says.

“Fuck off David, why does it matter where we are going?” I say angrily but I am drained after that.

“Because I don’t want to be stuck in a plane with faggots.” He says smugly.

“Fuck off,” was all I could muster in a raspy tone.

He draws back his fist and comes close to punching me when Jordan leaps up and grabs his fist and twists it behind his back.

“Did you know that we are flying to Queenstown then to Dunedin so that Cody can have radiotherapy? You see he was just diagnosed with leukaemia, yesterday. So I advise you to piss off and never talk to us again.” Jordan states calmly.

David looks at me in shock and then pulls out of Jordan’s now loosed grip and storms off to his parents who are looking surprised by Jordan’s actions. I smile ant Jordan and mouth “Thank You”. He sits back down. His Mum stands up and heads in our direction.

“What the hell do you think you are doing young man?” She asks Jordan.

“Hello Janet.” I say quietly.

“Hello ma’am, my names Jordan. I see you know my boyfriend Cody?”

“Yes I do, now may I ask why you did that to David?” She asks coldly.

“Well its simple ma’am, David was going to punch Cody but I stopped him and told him what we have been through the past few days.” He says politely.

“And what in the name of god would that be?” She asks me coldly.

“Janet, yesterday I was diagnosed with acute leukaemia, we are going to Dunedin to get radiotherapy.” I say in a tired[N1] voice.

She looks shocked and tears start to form in the corner of her eyes.

“I’m sorry to hear that Cody but…” She starts until Mum comes over.

“Hello Janet!” She says.

“Hello.” She replies stiffly.

“May I ask what the problem is?” Mum asks.

“I have heard your news.”

“Oh.” Mum says, I can see the beginnings of tears in her eyes.

“Good luck Cody, and will I see you around again?” Janet asks.

“No I don’t think so Janet, your son has made it quite clear not to bother your family.” Mum says coldly.

“You are always welcome Cody, don’t worry about David.” She smiles and leaves. I watch her sit down across from David and lean over to David’s chair and slap him on the right cheek.

We hear our flight being called to the gate, so we walk over and hand our tickets to the lady at the gate. We walk down the air bridge until we reach the air hostess.

We are flying Air New Zealand. They have designer uniforms that are pretty cool. She points us to our seats and we sit. I get the window seat and Jordan gets the aisle. We have all passengers on board so the pilot informs us of the weather. We start to move then we go a bit faster to the runway. We taxi down to the end of the runway and then pivot. We start off slowly and then the propellers get pushed to full throttle, we begin[N2] to vibrate and shudder until we lift off. The flight is uneventful until our decent. We slowly descend and we hit turbulence. We get pushed up then pushed down. Then before we know it we are on the runway. We taxi to the Queenstown terminal and wait to disembark[N3] .

Once we are off the plane we walk to the arrivals lounge, I see Jack and sprint over to him and he pulls me into a massive hug. I hug him back. He pulls back and I see the reminisce of tears in his eyes.

“Hey buddy!” He says.

“Hey Jack” I say.

“Right I need to sit down.” I tell him.

“Okay come on.” Jack says.

By now everyone has caught up and we sit for a few minutes until we are called to our gate. We say goodbye to Isaac and Jack and go to our gate. We repeat the last flight and we land in Dunedin. Ruby races off to get our rental car. We go to collect the bags and wait out by the pickup zone. She pulls up in a grey Mitsubishi Lancer 2012 ES. We pile our bags in and jump in. Ruby drives us to the hotel that we will be staying in for the next few weeks. Once we get settled in Jordan and I go for a walk.

We walk to the octagon arm in arm and we find a nice café for lunch. We order and wait for our food.

“Jordan, my Dad lives in Dunedin.” I tell him.

“Do you think we will see him?” Jordan asks worriedly.

“I hope not!” I say.

We carry on talking about random stuff that range from cars to mountain bikes. Then our food arrives so we scoff down our tucker, my phone goes off in my pocket.

Mum Calling.

“Hey Mum!” I say.

“Where are you? Your appointment is in one hour!” She says.

“Don’t panic, we are in the octagon just swing by and pick us up.” I say.

“Okay I will see you no doubt?” She says.

I tell her where we are and she comes to get us. Once we are in the car we drive to the hospital. We get there and after asking a few people for directions we find Dr Fowlers office. We sit in the chairs outside.

“Cody Davis.” A gruff man’s voice says.

We walk into the office and we are greeted by a short balding man.

“Hello. You must be Cody, who is this young man?”

“Hello Doctor, this is my boyfriend Jordan and my Mum Karen.” I say.

“Hello nice to meet you.” Jordan says. They all shake hands.

The rest of the consultation goes on with the dangers and things that will happen. I will lose my hair and eyebrows! I am glad I have Jordan to help me through.

“Right we will have your first course of radio in a few minutes so I will ask you to follow me.” He says.

I am surprised but we follow him. He go through a maze of corridors until we get to the radio clinic. I strip and get put in a hospital gown, the nurse leads me to a big machine where I lie down on the table.

****JORDANS POV****

I see through the window Cody lie down on a table, Karen is holding onto me and we are both wiping tears from our eyes. We see the doctor turn the dial and Cody wince through the camera. This lasts a few minutes and then they shut it down. Cody stands up and walks to the nurse. We walk out to greet him.

****CODY’S POV****

I find Jordan and Mum waiting for me, Jordan races up to me and hugs me. We stay embraced for a few moments then Mum joins in. We stand there for a few minutes.

“Mum, I need to go to the barber to get my head shaved.” I say.

“Don’t you want to keep it for as long as you can?” She asks.

“It will just make a mess so I will just get it off.” I say with a weak smile.

“Okay we will go there tomorrow.” She says.

We drive back to the hotel and I feel tired so I lie down to rest my eyes. I wake to find Jordan’s arms around me, I smile then look at the clock; 4:23am. Wow I haven’t had dinner yet. So I shut my eyes and drift back to sleep.

“Come on babe, up.” Jordan says softly.

I wake up alert and look at the clock; 9:36am.

“Kay.” I say.

I get up and we have breakfast, one of the girls must have gone shopping because there is a selection of cereals. Skippys, Wheet Bix, Ricies[N4] , Cocoa Pops and Nutri Grain. I reach for the Cocoa Pops and for some reason the slogan pops into my head ‘Just like a chocolate milkshake only crunchy’.

After my breakfast I head back to my room to make the bed. I look at my pillow and I can see strands of hair. I start to cry, it is becoming too much for me. Jordan walks in and tries to comfort me. He then looks at my pillow and hugs me tightly, I sob quietly into his shoulder. After a few minutes I get myself back together.

“You okay now babe?” Jordan asks comfortingly.

“No, not really but we will get through it together.” I say smiling weakly.

Jordan and I get dressed and we head out for a walk. We wander the streets until I spot a hairdresser.

“Come on Jordan let’s get this over with.” I say softly.

“Only if you want to, kay?” He replies softly.

I nod and we walk in holding hands. I look around and there are a few ladies getting their hair done.

“May I help you boys?” A tall brown haired lady asks.

“Um can I get my hair cut please?” I say.

“Yep sure, just come over here.” She says with a smile.

I smile weakly back and follow her still holding hands.

“Right how do we want it done today?” She asks.

“Can I get it all off please.” I say quietly.

“WHAT?!” She screeches.

“Can you please take it all off?” I say again.

“Why would you do that with such beautiful hair?” She says loudly while running her hands through my hair.

She looks down at her hands, she pales and her eyes get glassy. “Oh, I’m so sorry! But you have such beautiful hair.”

I start to get sad, Jordan notices this and walks over and gives me a peck on the cheek,

“Oh, um right?” She says.

She gets out the razor and turns it on. When she finishes shaving off my hair she is looking sad and I am looking at the floor. There is so much hair there. She sweeps it away and we got to pay.

“How much then?” I ask.

“Nothing, you don’t have to pay.” She says.

I look at her and she pulls me into a hug.

“If there is anything I can do tell me.”

“Not unless you can find a cure to leukaemia” I mumble.

Just then the door opens. And a tall blond haired man wearing casual clothes walks in. It only takes me a few moments to realise who it is. I rush to Jordan and hide behind him.

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