The cafeteria is loud and everyone is shouting. It drills against my brain like a jackhammer and I can feel a migraine coming along. I silently pop two asprins and keep walking, my plastic tray digging into my stomach as I push it against my body.

I pass girls with long hair and girls with short hair. Boys with crude smiles and boys with kind smiles. I get to the back of the large room to a small table pushed harshly against the wall with only three chairs since people take all the chairs from this table. A girl with a scarf wrapped around her head is reading a novel that has no cover. Her uneventful brown eyes are hidden by purple framed glasses and her skin is pale. She is wearing not only her uniform dress shirt and blazer, but the uniform sweater under the blazer that is only required on Sundays. Her name is Cecile and she has leukemia. She is my only friend.

"Would you like to sit or keep hovering? You're making me uncomfortable, Dan." She says, not looking up from the stripped book. My tray makes a small clink as I set it down and sit across from Cecile.

"How long do you think it's been raining?" She keeps going. Her voice is like the soft purr of a cat. She licks her thumb and flips the page of the book.

"Exactly ten days." I say. I am not a loud talker, but Cecile can always hear my mutters.

"Of corse you've been counting." She purrs, looking up finally at me to give me a well earned smile. "What would I do without you?"

"Be forced to count the number of consecutive days it's been raining on your own?" I sip my Diet Coke.

"Yes. And I'm far too busy. Hospital appointments. Chemotherapy. Homework." She sighs. Cecile is the type of person who sighs a lot, sometimes for no reason.

"Well. I'm happy to help." Is all I say, since I haven't a clue what else to. I'm always at a lost for words around Cecile or in fact anyone. I can never find the right formation without thinking very carefully about it.

"You look like a drenched rat. Buy an umbrella, fool." Is all Cecile says and then it is silent at our table.