CHAPTER EIGHT
°⋆∴☽°:۵≼

i. a little less sun, a bit more rain !

— WHEN THE SUN SUPPOSEDLY ROSE EARLY IN THE MORNING AND RAIN BEGAN TO CEASE SLIGHTLY, Anthony found his eyes heavy with sleep after staying awake all night. Going to sit up, he found that he couldn't go very far when he saw the messy tufts of hair splayed on his sweater clad stomach.

Looking around the room, his laptop had been set on his bed and had long since powered off with lack of use. The uno cards were a mess around them after they threw them around in playfully mocking frustration. Anthony had a pile of pillows near his head like one big pillow, and Alice had grabbed at a few blankets and was cocooned onto Tony's side, falling asleep to the rise and fall of his chest.

Well, she wasn't asleep. But Anthony didn't know that.

Not wanting to wake the girl, Anthony simply leaned back into the cluster of pillows when his eye caught his old camera a foot away.

Grabbing it, he turned it on to see all the photos he and Alice took last night. Most of them goofy, but some of them were sweet pictures of them laughing at each other and trying to make an uno card tower. Or when Alice stole the camera and took sneak photos of Tony, or when Tony did the same to her.

"Good morning." Alice spoke shifting slightly to look at Tony.

Anthony put the camera on his bedside table and smiled down at her.

"'Morning." He stated before smirking. "You comfortable?"

Alice laughed and nuzzled gently into him a bit more.

"Surprisingly not bad." She confirmed.

"You've probably got a great view of my double chins so that's always a bonus." Tony chortled, knowing how absolutely attractive that was.

Alice hummed a laugh.

Anthony found himself ruffling her hair and then fixing it all over again, doing this a couple times before he spoke up again.

"It's been close to a week since we met each other." He muttered with a smile.

"Really?" Alice's eyes widened in surprise before she closed them again. "It feels like I've known you for years."

"The feeling is mutual." Tony laughed.

It was silent again, both of them could hear Charlie and Bella downstairs in the kitchen but neither of them wanted to get up yet.

"Thank you." Alice broke the silence.

Tony looked confused, "For what?"

Alice gestured around the room, "for my very first sleepover and for coming shopping with me, giving me actual advice. Thank you." She smiled.

"Your welcome." Anthony grinned. "And thank you."

It was Alice's turn to look confused, so Tony continued.

"Thank you for your company and... thank you for sleeping on my stomach. I know what you were doing."

Alice smiled shyly.

"I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any breathing problems during the night-" She began when Tony cut her off.

"So you placed your head just low enough so it wouldn't effect my lungs and just high enough that you could feel each breath. Thank you." Anthony had known exactly what she was trying to do. Renée used to do it when he was younger and even Liv had done it after a particularly hard hitting treatment. It took him a week to get her out of his bed and back into her own.

Him and Alice had barely known each other for a week. Yet this was the closest he's ever felt to someone.

Alice was so light and positive and kind. Her voice was like honey, her laugh like a song. Anthony found himself unable to be sardonic around her, because if he showed off a cloudy day Alice was sure to find the silver lining anyway.

Alice sat up and stretched for a moment, Tony following her lead before he stood up.

He quickly and expertly changed out his oxygen concentrator for his tank, pulling the straps over his shoulders.

"It's 9 o'clock." The Swan Boy stated, the green lights of his alarm clock glaring up at him.

"I should be getting home then." Alice said, looking down at the clothes she was wearing almost in remorse.

He caught the look on Alice's face.

"What is it?" He asked.

"Your clothes are so comfy." She whined lightly, obviously not wanting to change but needing to leave all the same.

Tony chuckled, "Then keep them."

Alice looked up in surprise.

"I'm serious, I just got plenty more clothes and I hardly wore those ones anyway. It's only a sweater and a pair of joggers."

Alice still looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Really Alice, it's okay! You can wear them when you want a break from being stylish." He laughed, and finally Alice snapped out of it and flung her arms around his neck in a hug, muttering thank you's.

Once Alice pried herself away and grabbed her phone and the bag of her clothes, the two teens hopped down the stairs and Alice followed Tony into the kitchen.

"Hello again Chief Swan!" Greeted the Cullen girl. "And Bella, it's good to see you."

Charlie was sat at the dining table while Isabella was leaned up against the fridge, having a toned down glower on her face. Anthony took note of it.

"Hey kids." Charlie returned her gesture, "Anyone hungry? We picked up some Cap'n Crunch." He offered.

"Thank you sir, but I really should be getting home before Emmett realizes his Jeep is missing."

"Alice." Tony shook his head with a laugh.

"Esme knows I took it, she'd cover for me."

Tony simply nodded, and led
Alice out the front door where the rain had stopped but the overcast was still ever present.

"Thanks again, Tony." Alice hugged him tight around the middle.

"No problem," Anthony returned the hug. "We should do this again sometime soon, I had a lot of fun."

Alice nodded excitedly with a small hum of agreement.

Then they broke apart, and Alice waved goodbye before getting in Emmett's Jeep and pulling out of the driveway.

Tony waited on the front step, just under the overhang so he wouldn't get wet, and watched the Jeep fade off down the road.

He was about to step inside when Charlie shuffled out the door in his cop uniform.

"Hey Dad." Anthony greeted again.

"Hey kid. Gotta get to work, I'll see you two later." Charlie stated in a hurry, clapping a hand on his son's shoulder.

Anthony waved Charlie goodbye before going back inside.

"Isabella!" He called out as well as he could.

"Yeah?"

"Living room, now."

Setting his oxygen tank on the ground and grabbing a pillow off the couch, he plopped down and held the pillow to him in a hug. This was the position he was in when Bella came down the stairs.

"Tony if this is about yesterday, really, I'm fine." Bella ran a hand through her hair and stood in the doorway of the room, not wanting to cross over and get into the dreaded conversation that she knew they had to have.

"Bella, sit your ass down or so help me god I will set up legos around your room in discreet places, but just out there enough to make you step on them" Tony threatened.

Isabella lowered herself to the opposite side of the couch, also grabbing a pillow and mirroring her brother's actions.

"Okay, lets start simple," Tony began. "What the fuck is your problem?"

And there's Liv Marigold's influence on him, the angry swearing.

"Tony-"

"No, really. Isabella, you've had an issue with me, we both know it. I'm sick and tired of having to guess your mood every morning!" Anthony threw his pillow back on the couch as he stood up. Grabbing his oxygen tank, he wheeled it behind him as he paced back in forth in front of Bella.

"I mean- honestly. With the way you act, it's like you're mad at me but you won't tell me what's wrong! Save us both the trouble of my assumptions okay!" Tony stopped pacing so abruptly that his tank made a sharp squeak.

This is when he looked at Bella.

And he didn't like what he saw.

She was staring down at his oxygen tank, the hum was low and unnoticeable, but the tears in her eyes were.

Tony's face changed in an instant. He sat down next to her in defeat.

"Shit, Bells, I'm sorry." He put two fingers to the bridge of his nose, trying to relieve the stress he felt building up there. "I just... Liv said you might be acting like this because I'm dying." Bella inhaled sharply. "Is that true?"

There was a pregnant pause before he saw her nod. She'd long since given up trying to keep the tears in.

"Why?" He asked. "Why are you so... this?" He gestured to he with his hands.

"I just-" Bella hesitated, bringing her sleeve up to swipe at her face. "I'm just angry that you've given up, okay?"

"That I've given up? You do realize I don't have a choice, right?" Tony snapped. He then sighed heavily, trying to calm himself down enough to have this conversation. He knew it needed to be had.

He thought about Alice. How wonderful she was, thinking of him constantly. How everything had just been peachy a near 20 minutes ago when he was the happiest he'd been in a while.

He thought about Emmett and Rosalie, his playful, flirty new friends and even Edward, he already knew their friendships would last a lifetime or longer.

Then he thought about Jasper and how much easier this conversation would be if he was here. Anthony couldn't explain it, but it was like Jasper had a handle on his emotions and could calm him down with one look.

Finally he thought about Bella. Anthony knew what cancer had done to him. It crushed his many hopes and the dream of being an accomplished artist. It destroyed his body until he could no longer breathe without having to be hopped up on drugs and having a tube in his nose.

It hurt him.

Cancer had hurt him.

But he never really stopped to think about how it would hurt his sister. His baby sister.

Bella thought the world of Anthony. He was her personal superhero with an old wrap around blanket as a cape. He protected her from the things she couldn't protect herself from and there wasn't a person she could trust more.

Now, he realized, her hero was dying. What kind of hope did that leave her?

"Bells, I'm sorry." Anthony sighed. "But I will die. There's no stopping it, and even if there was I don't know if I should try."

"Wha-why?" Isabella stuttered slightly in surprise.

"Because, there are no cures over the hill or around the bend. The only thing I'd possibly get is a way to last a bit longer. And no one with terminal cancer wants to last longer unless they're the most optimistic fuck on the planet."

It was true, the only thing scientists could achieve in the near future would be some way of slowing down the process of his body destroying itself.

He didn't want any part in it.

Neither did anyone else with cancer. He knew that for a fact. He practically grew up in the hospital, which is the reason he was held back a year of school, but instead of meeting normal everyday people he met other people with cancer.

Everyone he talked to, they told him their regrets. An elderly woman with breast cancer, sat in her wheelchair and told him she regretted not dancing more with her husband. A man he met with leukaemia said he wished he'd cared more about his body, wished he'd moved around more and appreciated it for what it was before each bone became as brittle and fragile as glass.

There wasn't a single patient that told him what they were looking forward to when they were cured.

Accept for Daniel of course. But then, he was the optimist.

"Why don't- why don't you want to last longer?" Bella asked, almost afraid of the answer.

Anthony sighed, "Cancer is who I am now, Bells. My death is inevitable and I'm done hiding from it." He took a deep pause, feeling his voice waved slightly with the oncoming sentence.

"I just want the pain to stop."

author's note

So
Wow
You guys are so gREAT

Thank you all for your support on WDWG I'm really trying my best with it and I have a whole bunch of scenes planned in the future that I hope you'll enjoy.

But again- the support is crazy- like a few weeks ago we were #13 in twilight and I flipped out
Also 2k reads??
Hello??
130 votes??
What??
And I've been reading and replying to the comments and wowie you make my day

Ilysm guys♥️