Beautiful
Chapter 11
Jacob's POV
I pulled up to Maddie’s mansion-like house. I know I shouldn’t be, but was a little nervous. I kept thinking over and over again about what they would say or think when they saw a bald boy with huge bags under his eyes and who was exhausted from hours of chemotherapy.
I tried to shake the thought and told myself to have a good time. After all, what did I have to lose?
 
I grabbed my notebook out of the backseat and stepped out of the car.
Maddie opened the door before I could even knock. Her face was flushed and she looked really nervous. But she did look beautiful.
“Hey!” she said a little too energetically.
“Hello gorgeous,” I responded. Her face softened at the remark.
“Please, come in,” she said, gesturing to the foyer of her house.
She shut the door behind me and took my hand. We walked together to her large kitchen, and 3 people immediately looked up.
“Guys? This is Jacob. Jacob, this is guys.” Maddie introduced.
A tall man with brown hair and brown eyes, who looked to be about 21 or 22 walked over and shook my hand.
“Ethan,” he said. He must be her older brother.
“Hi Ethan. I’m Jacob.”
“So you’re the one who’s been kissin’ my sister,” he teased. Maddie blushed fiercely and gave him the don’t-start-that-sh*t-with-me look. She must have been really embarrassed considering that we haven’t kissed yet.
I just laughed it off.
Another tall man with graying hair and brown eyes who looked to be in his mid-to-late 50’s came over and patted me on the back.
“Hello son. I’m James, but people call me Jimmy. Welcome to our home.” He said kindly.
“Thank you sir, pleasure to meet you,” I said.
He laughed. “That’s very polite of you, but you don’t have to call me sir. You can call me Jimmy.”
I nodded.
Finally, a short woman with graying hair and green eyes like Maddies, who looked to be in her mid 50’s gave me a little squeeze.
“Hello honey. I’m Ava. We’re very pleased to have you here tonight.” She smiled.
“Thank you. I’m happy to be here too.”
“Let’s go eat. Dinner’s ready.” She waved us over to the dining room.
Maddie took my hand.
“Sorry about my brother,” she whispered, “he obviously doesn’t know how to behave himself.”
I giggled. “That’s alright.”
We sat down at a large, rectangular table. It was set with fancy china and food that looked amazing. Maddie took a seat next to me, and across from her brother. Her dad sat at one end, while her mother sat at the other.
“So, Jacob, what school do you go to?” Jimmy asked.
Maddie’s eyes widened as she shot me a is-that-an-ok-question look. She squeezed my hand under the table.
“Actually, I don’t go to school. I have a tutor who comes to the hospital every other day. School became too much for me after I got sick,” I explained.
“What do you have?” Ethan said with a mouthful of chicken.
Maddie squeezed tighter.
“Stage 2 leukemia,” I answered.
“Will it go away?” asked Ava, a worried look on her face.
“Well, we caught it at the end of stage one, so they weren’t able to fully cure it right away. I’m now in the late-middle part of stage 2, so it could get worse or it could get better; we don’t know.”
“Is that why you don’t have hair?” Ethan asked.
“Well, yeah. It’s the chemo and the other meds that does that.”
Awkward silence as everyone nods.
“So, do you have any hobbies?” Jimmy asked.
Maddie exhaled loudly and let go of my hand.
“Jacob is an amazing artist!” she yelled proudly.
“Really? I’d like to see some of your work sometime,” said Ava.
“Actually I brought my notebook with me, if you’d like to see it now,” I offered.
Nods from everyone at the table.
“Of course! Of course!” Jimmy said.
I took it off of my lap and gave it to Jimmy, who flipped through it, commenting on how beautifully done the pictures were. He then passed it to Ava, who did the same, all the while skipping the last page. She passed it to Ethan who slowly looked at every page, and then came to the last one. He held it up.
“Wow. That is some quality work right there,” he smiled goofily.
Maddie looked at her lap and blushed. I smiled bashfully.
“It looks just like you Maddio!” Jimmy said.
“Dad!” she whispered, “I thought I told you no Maddio!”
He smiled at me. “Oops! Sorry!”
 
The rest of the dinner went well. Ethan embarrassed Maddie a few times, in which I couldn’t help but laugh. They seemed to like me, and I liked them too.
When dinner was over, Maddie took my hand and announced, “Me and Jacob are going for a walk. We’ll be back soon!”
Soon we were out the door and halfway down the street.
“So…what do you think?” she asked.
“I like them.” She beamed at the answer.
“Well they like you too.” She said.
We walked for a few more moments in silence.
As we walked, we slowly edged closer to each other, and were soon hand in hand.
For a while, I stared at her, admiring her beauty.
“What?” she giggled. I had been caught.
“Nothing,” I said.
For some reason, I don’t know why, but we stopped.
We stared at each other for what seemed like years.
“Maddie?”
“Yeah?”
“I think I love you.”
Silence.
“Y-you do?”
“Yes.”
More silence.
Uh-oh. Did she not love me back…?