CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
°⋆∴☽°:۵≼

i. protect people like you !

— THE TRIP TO PORT ANGELES WAS MORE AWKWARD FOR ANTHONY THAN THE LAST TIME. To be entirely honest, he much preferred shopping with Alice. She was easy to talk to, and didn't constantly blush when he treated her like an actual human being.

Yet still, he sat curled up on a cushy ottoman, eating skittles out of the bag. He remembered the shop they were in briefly, though he and Alice hadn't gone in and only glanced at it through the window.

They had some nice dresses, which were being displayed by Angela and Jessica.

It seemed like both girls had taken what Tony said to heart, and had only tried on what he suggested.

Anthony glanced over at his sister, who, mentally, looked far away and deep in thought.

"I kinda like this one, but I dunno about the one-shoulder thing." Jessica grabbed a bright pink dress and held it up to her frame. She turned to Tony, "Opinions?"

Anthony finished off a skittle before he spoke, "Strapless or intricate straps to be safe if you don't know how you're doing your hair yet. My opinion: one shoulder just doesn't look right unless you have your hair up or to one side."

Jessica nodded with a smile and hung the dress back up.

"What about this one?" Angela held a blueish tinted one with small beads sewn into the chest.

"I like the beading, you wouldn't need jewelry." Jessica offered.

Anthony spoke up. "Forks is way too cold, you'll be wearing some sort of overcoat and the beading won't be noticeable." He said as he popped a red skittle in his mouth.

Angela laughed and put the dress back.

"What would we do with out you, Tony?" She asked rhetorically.

"I suspect there'd be a freak out, Bella here wouldn't know what to do and then," Tony imitated an explosion noise, "Crash and burn."

Jessica, who was inside a dressing room, yelled out.

"He's not wrong."

"What's the problem with the dress you're wearing?" Anthony asked, pointing out the simplistic, beautiful dress that Angela had on.

Angela glanced down with a slightly scrunched nose.

"Lavender? Is that good? Is that my colour?"

Jessica came out from the dressing room with a strapless, pink dress paired with white elbow length gloves.

"I like it." She stated, then looked in the mirror. "Okay, I like this one. It makes my boobs look good." Jessica said as she fluffed her hair.

Tony let out a low whistle, looking at the two.

"Ladies, I believe these are the ones. You guys look wonderful." He complimented, offering out the bag of skittles for the women. Only Angela took a few.

Then there was a knock on the window and a few catcalls. When Anthony turned to see, there were a group of frat boys outside, lusting after Angela and Jessica.

Tony flipped one of them off, which seemed to anger him as he pounded a fist against the glass.

"Oh, choke on your dignity." Anthony dismissed, yelling loud enough for the boy to hear it. "You don't seem to have much left and y'know, tiny things are hazardous to small minded creatures."

Despite how desperately Tony wanted to make a dick joke in honour of Liv, he didn't. Only because he had three ladies on his side of the glass that would hound him for it.

So when the guy's knuckles tapped harshly again, making a hollow echoey sound, Anthony decided to fall back on:

"Eat one, asshole."

At that point, one of the other boys pointed out Tony's tubing and the guy that was oh so angry simply huffed and walked away.

"I hate people like that, thinking that's the way they should treat someone, like some piece of meat or hey- real estate? Absolute jerkoffs I swear," Tony rambled as he dug back into his skittles.

"Tony, that guy looked like he wanted to hurt you- what the hell were you doing? Taunting him like that?" Bella rushed in a disappointed and concerned tone.

"Chill out, Mom. It doesn't matter."

"It doesn't ma- he's twice your size! He could probably take you down with one hit!" Isabella yelled. Angela and Jessica fell quiet, but didn't move from their spots.

"He can't though. We get into a fight: he loses either way. Let's say he wins, then he's the guy that beat up a kid with terminal lung cancer. Now let's say I win, then he's the guy that got beat up by a kid with terminal lung cancer." Anthony said, grabbing an assortment of skittles and eating them before he continued.

"Either way it's a win-win for me, and I don't care if I get into a fight with someone over something like that."  He said.

"Treat people with some goddamn respect and maybe the world wouldn't need people like me trying to protect people like you." The girls could sense that he was finished, and Angela seemed to be the only one who was brave enough to speak up.

"Someone got hurt before, didn't they. Someone that made you angry at those kinds of people. You wouldn't have gotten so heated about it otherwise." Angela muttered.

Anthony sighed, "Just forget it, okay? Y'know I think there was a bookstore Bella and I wanted to check out so we'll meet you at the restaurant." He grabbed his shoulder bag and oxygen tank and practically ran as much as he could out of the shop.

Bella sent the two other girls an apologetic look, to which they waved off with awkward smiles. Then, she joined her brother outside.

"Tony," Bella began as her feet hit the pavement.

"Don't." Anthony demanded, turning around and tucking his left hand in his pocket. "Just- let's just get going, yeah?

Without waiting for a response, Tony turned and began walking in the direction of the bookstore they needed to find. He'd looked up a map earlier and was pretty sure he passed it on his day out with Alice anyway.

"Anthony, you can't just go off like that and then not expect questions." Isabella stated as she tried to catch up. It didn't take much, even she couldn't be outrun but the cancer patient.

"Bells," he sighed, stopping in his tracks and facing her. He parked his oxygen tank next to him. "Yes, I've seen what douche canoes like that have done to people. I used to live in a fucking hospital, okay? It's inhumane and disgusting." Tony spat, glaring at the ground. "And when Liv-" he cut himself off, a shake in his voice. The boy took a deep breath.

"Look," He tried, still not looking Bella in the eyes. "I get that you're worried that I'll get into a fight I can't handle, but I'd rather die fighting one of those assholes than deteriorate slowly and quietly in a hospital bed." Tony finally looked his sister in the eyes as he finished, "Got it?"

Isabella simply nodded.

Anthony paused for a moment before grabbing the handle of his oxygen tank and yanking it along after him. Bella followed silently.

Once almost twenty minutes had passed, Tony slowly came to a crawling halt in front of a bench. He didn't want to show it but it was becoming increasingly more difficult for him to walk long distances. He kept trying to push through so he knew Bella wouldn't have to walk alone. One weak, pretty much useless partner is better than walking through the dark with nothing.

"Tony, sit down. You don't look too good." Bella said, helping to lower Anthony to the wooden bench that was slightly damp.

"Wow, thank you so much." He muttered sarcastically. Though he could practically feel his chest screaming for him to stop talking.

"You can not keep walking like this." Isabella brought out the voice. That voice that reminded him of Renée. He loathed it.

"Like hell I can't." He snapped, though he made no move to get back up. "Fine, you go on ahead maybe I'll meet you at the restaurant."

"Are you sure?" Bella hesitated, though she really wanted to get to the bookstore soon.

"The f- of course I'm sure, just go!." He shooed. The brunette woman nodded and left Tony on the bench.

Anthony watched as Bella walked down the sidewalk and turn the corner, then sighed and leaned back, putting a hand to his chest to try and ease the pain.

He reached into his shoulder bag and grabbed his painkillers, which he hadn't been taking half as often as he was supposed to, yet still they were almost gone. He'd have to go back to the hospital and get a refill.

Just as he dry swallowed one and tucked the case back in his bag, a honk came from behind him. Turning, he saw a familiar silver Volvo with a similarly familiar face in the front seat.

"Need a ride?" Edward spoke through the open window.

Anthony chuckled and stood up, going to lean against the car.

"Why are you stalking my sister?" He asked bluntly.

Edward visibly inhaled.

"Because I worry about her."

It was silent for a moment, both boys staring back at each other. Then, Anthony shrugged.

"Can't argue with that, she's as dumb as a doorknob sometimes." He agreed as he popped open the door of the backseat and slid in, pulling his oxygen tank in to sit next to him.

"So, back to following my dumbass sister." Anthony exclaimed while Edward stepped on the gas.

Tony sunk back into the seats, still trying to deal with his achy chest. Edward was glancing at the Boy worriedly through the rear-view mirror.

"Are you okay there, Tony?" Edward asked.

Tony waved him off.

"M'fine Eddie."

Yet, little did Anthony know, Edward could and was reading the boy's mind. He could tell things weren't as fine as Tony wanted people to believe.

No really, I'm fine Eddie. I just think, y'know, I'm dying a lot faster than I thought and I can't even tell Bella because it'll freak her out and I can't do that when we're finally on speaking terms and I can't tell Dad because he'll get upset and I definitely can't tell Renée because god knows she won't leave me the hell alone.

The thoughts flying around Anthony's head were giving Edward an almost physical headache. It was difficult to discern word from word, but he managed to catch the idea.

"I'm gonna ask you again, are you okay?" Edward tried, looking at the brown eyes boy in the backseat.

Anthony glanced up long enough for them to lock eyes.

"What do you think?"

"What I think isn't the problem, is it? Why do you think you're gonna die soon?" Edward asked.

Tony tried to change the topic, "Are you psychic or something?"

"Tony." The Cullen spoke in a warning tone.

Anthony sighed.

"Right now, the thought of actually eating physically repulses me, but I force myself to do it so I don't worry Dad or Bella. I've been getting cold so easily because a bunch of my body fat is gone- have you seen how damn small I am now? Not quite Liv Marigold bad but still pretty bad." He sighed.

"And I already know what comes next. Next I get weaker and weaker. I won't be able to sleep and then I'll be even more exhausted than before and there's nothing I can do about it." Tony rambled.

Edward stayed quiet for a second.

"You should tell them." The bronze haired boy suggested.

Anthony scoffed.

"No, really. It'll sound better coming from you than from your doctor or the person that calls time of death."

Tony couldn't deny that Edward wasn't entirely wrong. Maybe it was the coward in him that just felt like he couldn't say anything.

"They've got enough on their plates right now." He muttered.

"Whatever man. By the way, there should be a blanket back there somewhere." Edward said, remembering what Tony said about being cold

Anthony found the soft grey blanket and wrapped it around himself.

"Thanks."

author's note

tHIs ChApTeR iS pRObabLy ShiTe bEcAusE I fiNiSheD aT liKE 4:32 am
(better ones are coming I swear)

bUT I finally got a charger so I can keep writing whoop whoop

I legit always finish chapters at 2-4 am and then I wait till like 11 am to publish just because idk how many people have notifications on and the same time zone

we hit 1k votes and 18k views while I was offline wtf thank you ♥️