Catharanthus Roseus

Abbey looked at herself in the hospital mirror and frowned. "Why do I lose all the hair on my head, but it still grows so thick on my legs?"

"At least you still have your eyebrows," her sister teased.

"For now," Abbey sighed. "Did you see the girl that was in my last room?"

Kat walked to were Abbey was sitting and rubbed her palm over her sister's smooth pate. "Today's the last day, then we get to go."

"You get to go," Abbey laughed darkly. "I'll be back in two days for another round of chemo before the surgery."

"And then you'll be done, and then we can go home," Kat added, ignoring Abbey's pessimism.

"No," Abbey said, looking into her own reflection. "Sometimes, I feel like it's too depressing to talk about all that. It's too much to talk about going home, about things being over, whatever."

Kat opened her mouth to speak, but then stopped herself. The two sisters shared a long silence, each lost in their own thoughts. At last, Kat bent down and kissed her older sister softly on the lips. "I love you," she told her.

"I love you, also," Abbey said, turning her head to bury her face in her sister's long black hair.