Waking up to the sound of water running in the kitchen. I sat up on the couch slowly and looked to find that Prince was gone.

  "Nelson?" I called. There was no answer.

Pulling the blanket off of my I stood from the couch and followed the sound of the water. It was coming from the upstairs bathroom. I ran up the steps and into the the steaming hot bathroom and sat on the sink. It was a relief that it was Prince and not my mom. The dead giveaway was his clothes laying on the floor as if he wanted to shower quickly before I woke up. I didn't make a sound as I waited for him to step out dripping wet and naked. I was beginning to think that this would turn into something sexual if I stayed. I slid down from the counter to the floor and tip toes across the hall to my room and laid on my bed reading a magazine with Cindy Lauper on the cover. The water had shut off and I heard the scraping of the shower curtain rings against the metal rod screwed into the wall. I kept my focus on the reading material in front of me and dared myself not to take a peek at his naked body before he wrapped his lower half in one of my mom's bath towels. I was focusing so hard that I didn't even realize that Prince was standing in the bedroom doorway.

  "I see you're awake." I heard him say in a deep voice.

Dropping the magazine on my lap I looked over  at him happy to see him.

  "I am! I thought you'd left!"

  "Now why would I do that when I told you I wasn't going anywhere?"

  "Because you fell asleep on my living room floor."

  "Oh yeah. Like that's ever stopped me before. I've slept in worse places."

  "Yeah? Name two?"

  "Your tree house and Andre's bedroom."

  "What's so bad about Andre's room?"

  "I don't think you wanna know. You'll never be able to look at him the same way again."

  "I've never looked at him in any way. Come on I'm sure it's not so bad tell me!"

Prince really didn't want to throw us best friend under the bus but he knew I was going to pressing the issue until I got him to tel me. He let out a sigh and went over to my closet with his clothes to put them back on.

  "You sure you wanna know?" He asked me.

  "Yes you ass I wanna know!" I replied.

  "Alright. You know when my dad put me out his mom was nice enough to let me stay there right?"

Nodding that I remembered I flopped myself down at the end of the bed as he continued is story while getting dressed.

  "Well I didn't have a place to sleep at first so he was nice enough to let me stay in his room with him. At one point his room was in the basement before it was given to me. He would sneak out the window on Friday nights and would ask me to cover for him he would always come back with a new 'girlfriend'. Andre and this girl would be going at it for hours."

  "You mean like arguing?" I asked even though that wasn't the answer.

  "Not at all mama. I mean how like me and you were going at it at The Avenue."

I felt like I was going to be sick.

  "Awwww Prince! And you had to listen to that all night?" I asked as I winced in disgust.

  "I had to have a little help getting to sleep mama." He said as he tossed his shirt on.

I had to really think about what he meant before I gave him my response. By then I was ready to just leave my room and gargle with bleach.

  "I assuming he brought you a friend?"

  "I wish."

  "So you....."

  "For about two hours."

  "And yet you still have a right hand!"

  "Wasn't the right hand Mouse but good guess."

My mouth fell open as he watched me get up and leave completely grossed out. I could hear him laughing at me as went into the kitchen to grab a small pack of crackers from the cabinet. As I reached up I felt a sharp pain in my chest. It hurt so bad that I must have yelled out loud enough for Prince to come rushing down to my side. He nearly ran into the table before he got to me panicked that I had hurt myself. I dropped to the floor writhing in extreme pain.

  "REGAN! WHAT HAPPENED? TALK TO ME!" He pleaded as he helped be down to the floor.

It took me a few minutes before I could get my thoughts together from the pain being so awful. Once it had finally subsided I was able to speak.

  "Are you ok? What happened?" Prince asked worried.

  "Yeah. Yeah I think I'm fine now. That's never happened before. God that hurt!" I said as I rubbed down the center of my chest.

  "Mouse you may need a doctor."

  "Prince no! We've already talked about this. No hospitals right now. I promised that I was gonna do the treatments."

  "Yeah but Regan if you don't see somebody now you might not be able to get the treatments."

  "Don't do that! Stop trying to tell me what I should and shouldn't do!"

I stood up slowly from the floor while Prince helped me up.

  "Regan I'm sorry I'm just worried about you why are you getting so upset?"

A valid question like that deserves a valid answer.

  "I don't know! I guess I'm just.....scared. Things are going good for us. I don't want them to stop. Skipper......I'm scared that we could be doing all of this.... for nothing."

Prince took my hand and we sat at the table. I felt the knot in my throat form as I fought back the temptation to cry.

  "Mouse you know that we aren't doing this for nothing. We're doing this because we love each other. No matter what happens. We're gonna be together. Whether it be here on earth or......"

His eyes were glassy as he squeezed my hand a little tighter. We both knew where this heavy conversation was going and we both knew we had to deal with it but neither of us knew how. The only thing we could do was be together through this crazy storm until it passed. As he shook his tears away he stood up from the table. In a shaky voice he pitched me an idea.

  "Hey. Let's move tomorrow's plans to tonight huh?"

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Well I told you I had something special planned you you for tomorrow and I don't wanna wait anymore. Let's do it tonight. Be ready by 7. Tricky and Dez will be here then."

Prince grabbed his car key from the table from where he had left them hours before and ran out the door with a smile on his face. I quickly ran after him trying to figure out what he had planned.

  "Skipper! Wait!" I yelled running out the door.

He stopped and looked up at me before he got in his car.

  "You're wasting time girl it's almost 5."

  "I know but.....what should I wear?" I asked as I smiled at him.

He gave me a smile back along with his answer.

  "Something sexy." He said.

I blushed heavily as the smile on my face grew larger with excitement. Prince got in his car and drove back to Chanhassen and I ran back inside to shower and find something really nice to wear.

At about 6:45PM I had put on a black skin tight dress and matching heels and washed my hair so I could get my curly back. I was just about ready to put on a little bit of makeup when I heard the doorbell ring. Heading downstairs the bell rang again. By the time I got to the bottom of the steps the bell ran obnoxiously.

  "Damnit Tricky grow up already." I mumbled to myself.

I got to the door and pulled it open to find Jerome rocking back and forth with his hands behind his back. Dez just stood and shook his head at Jerome disappointed in his friends childish actions.

  "Well hello my dear! Prince is waiting. Are you ready?" Jerome asked with a big grin.

  "Yeah let me just grab my coat and keys. Dez? Control you sidekick." I said before leaving from the screen door.

I went to the closet and pulled my dark blue coat from its hanger and grabbed my keys from the coffee table. I turned out the lamp and headed out the door where the guys were waiting.

  "I hope you're excited Mouse?" Dez said as we walked down the steps from the front door.

  "Why would I be excited? I'm only going back to Paisley."

We rounded the corner to find a black limo parked outside. I smiled as I looked at the long car ecstatic.

  "What is all this?" I asked with a giggle.

  "You'll see! Go ahead and get in. The driver will take you and we'll meet you there." Jerome said.

I ran to the limo and got inside closing the door behind me. The car pulled off and I sat in the back seat with my thought ma racing. What does he have planned and how long had he been planning this? The ride didn't seem that long because I was so caught up in my thoughts. The limo stopped and there it was. All lit up in what looked like purple lights was the wonder that is Paisley Park. The driver opened my door and I got out and looked the place over. It looked really nice all lit up on the outside when you stand in front of it. Jerome and Dez came up to me and the three of us arm in arm went inside. The building was really quiet and standing in the lobby felt weird.

  "Here Regan take off your jacket." Jerome said.

I took off my jacket and handed it to him while Dez went over to the reception desk and picked up a white box.

  "Prince wants you to open this and put it on." Dez said handing me the box.

  "Well where is prince and why isn't he doing all of this?" I asked.

  "He couldn't be here for this at the moment but you'll see him in a second." Jerome said.

Opening the box I was shocked at what I found.

  "Oh wow!" I shouted in excitement.

Pulling the contents from the box it floated to the floor. It was a cap and gown just like the one from my graduation.

  "This is......but....."

  "He's waiting through that door." Dez said pointing to the small room they was once used days ago to deliver the heartbreaking news to the rest of our friends about my condition.

I smiled at the two of them and went over to the door. Placing my hand on the knob I looked back at Dez and Tricky and waved. They smiled and waved back and I opened the door to see balloons and steamers everywhere. Andre was standing on the small stage holding what looked like a blue folder.

  "Regan Jenson? Your degree awaits." He said.

Smiling in excitement I ran up to the stage to Andre and before I could accept my award of honor Andre pointed out into the room to a single chair front and center. In that chair sat a very proud Prince applauding me for finally getting my degree. I was so happy that I jumped down from the stage and ran into his arm in tears of bliss.

  "You did this for me?" I asked him.

  "You know it! I felt bad for missing your big moment so here it is. Congratulations Mouse."

This was a really joyous surprise. We went out of his way to make up for missing my college graduation. Andre had went out to meet with the guys and left Prince and into talk.

  "This was really nice of you Nelson. I don't know how to thank you."

  "It was nothing. I had this planned in three days."

  "Why?"

  "I owed you."

We sat for a moment looking back at one another with smiles on our faces. As we began to think of what to say I'd figure I'd tell him what I did when he left.

  "So I have some good news. My doctor is scheduling my first round of chemo in three weeks. Would you come with me?"

Princes' smile faded slowly and he turned away from me.

  "What's the matter? I thought this was WANT you wanted." I asked confused.

  "No it is it's just......"

  "Just what?"

He sighed and took my hand.

  "Management moved my tour date from two weeks to Monday. I leave for the first stretch of the tour Sunday night."

  "For how long?"

  "Ten months. Roughly."

The sadness and disappointment grew inside was I slumped down from the stage we were sitting on.

  "It's....it's ok...i'll.....I'll wait until you come back that all. It'll.....it'll be fine. You'll see!" I said sadly.

He jumped down from the stage and pulled me close to him.

  "I promise when it's over I'll be back and we can go to as many treatments you have after that. For now don't cancel them just go without me or.....have the guys go!"

  "But....I really wanted....you."

A tear fell from my eyes and I lowered my head. Prince held me in his arms as I cried.

  "It's ok! I'm gonna be with you through it all. This time will be different. We'll call each other everyday until I'm home again. I promise."

I cried in his arms as we both found our way to the floor. The news was hard to accept but I knew he had to go. I couldn't stop him from his music.