CHAPTER TWENTY
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i. a funny thing !

— ONCE THEY'D GOTTEN HOME BELLA IMMEDIATELY DISAPPEARED INTO HER ROOM. Anthony knew what she was doing. She was going to find out what the Cullens were.

As much as he wanted to go with her and play dumb, he knew Charlie was far more vulnerable than her right now.

Tony found his father sitting on the front porch with a beer in one hand.

"Hey, Dad." The younger male Swan greeted as he sat next to his father.

Charlie only nodded to acknowledge Tony's presence, then took another swig of beer before passing it to Tony.

There was only a little left in the bottle, so Anthony finished it off and sat the empty glass down next to his foot.

It was silent. Not necessarily awkward as one would think. It was almost serene. The two, father and son, stared out into the dark. The ever present rain had let up and hung in the air as if waiting to cry for another lost soul. It was slightly foggy, and the street lights could only just be seen, dyeing the fog a light gold colour.

Charlie sighed as Anthony leaned into his side, offering some sort of comfort.

"It's a funny thing, isn't it?" Charlie spoke, his voice was a bit hollow as there were nearly no other noises surrounding them accept for the hum of Tony's oxygen tank.

"It is." Anthony agreed. He knew exactly what Charlie was talking about.

Life, it's a funny thing.

"I think," Tony began again, glancing at Charlie's side profile. "With this planet being so big, there are so many people we haven't met. We may pass by them on the street or share a glance and smile at a store, but the truth is we can't know everyone. Some people don't even put in the effort." Anthony looked down at his shoes as he dug the heel into the step below him.

"You should just be glad... Glad that you had the chance to know him at all. It's better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all." Tony finished, placing his hand and chin on his father's shoulder.

Charlie let out a breath and put his own hand over Tony's.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." He sighed.

It was quiet for another moment.

"C'mon, I've got something to show you." Charlie stood and helped Anthony up. Tony looked at him confusedly, but allowed Charlie to lead him around the side of the house until they were face to face with the door of the garage.

They had never used the garage, it was too small for any of the family's cars. Not even Charlie's police cruiser would fit through the green painted door.

For the longest time it had just been forgotten storage space.

"So as you know, Bella's truck won't fit in here, and neither will my car." Charlie stated as he pat a hand against the door, making the metal rumble and vibrate with noise.

"Yeah, Dad, you park on the grass."

Charlie chuckled lightly.

"Hey, it rains a lot. Parking outside gives my car a free wash." He defended.

Tony rolled his eyes lightheartedly.

"That's not what I was talking about. We have a perfectly usable driveway and yet you decide to tear up the lawn." He crossed his arms with a mockingly accusing look on his face.

"You got me there." Charlie nodded. "Anyway, we don't use the garage so I thought..." Charlie trailed off and leaned down to open the door.

The door slid up and when Charlie flipped on the lights, it revealed a well lit art studio.

Despite the door of the garage being small, the inside went beneath almost half the house so it was quite a large space.

Tony stepped into the middle of the room and looked around in awe. There were nails on the walls to hang canvases, there was a desk in the corner with stacks of packaged paper, there was a whole shelf with all his spare blank canvases along with a built in sink and all his painting materials organized neatly in drawers and jars.

Next to it was his old wooden easel, the one that he got second hand when he was young and too short to actually reach high enough to paint. There were splotches of acrylic all over it from when he desperately needed to test a colour and there were a few spots where Bella had practiced her writing by scribbling out the lyrics of whatever Anthony had been listening to that day.

When he approached it, he saw the permanent marker lyrics of a Queen song that he hadn't heard in years. Bohemian Rhapsody.

Turning again, he noticed his CD shelf next to the drawing desk and a little cheap radio sat atop it.

Anthony walked over and looked through his CDs before finding his Queen albums.

Popping the CD in and skipping the tracks, a moment later and the soft beginning melody of Bohemian Rhapsody entered the room.

Finally, Tony turned to Charlie who had stood back and watched his son get used to the area.

"Why did you do this? How long do you think I'm gonna have in here?" He muttered, his voice almost drowned out by the music as the beat got louder.

"Bella told me you'd started doing your art again. I remember how much you loved your art so I figured I'd dust off all your old things and set them up down here." Charlie said.

Tony's eyes watered as he walked up to Charlie and stood in front if him.

Didn't mean to make you cry
If I'm not back again this time tomorrow
carry on, carry on

"You'd waste your time for me when I may not even have the time to appreciate it? Why can't you just hate me? It'd be easier for you! You wouldn't feel as bad, you- you wouldn't care as much when I leave!" Anthony sobbed and sniffled.

Too late, my time has come
Sends shivers down my spine
Body's aching all the time
Goodbye everybody, I've got to go

Charlie just looked down at Tony, an almost bittersweet smile on his face.

"It's better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all." The man whispered, reciting Tony from earlier.

Then they wrapped each other in a hug, Charlie as if he was protecting Anthony from everything and Anthony, with his face in his father's chest hiding from the world.

Mama ooh
I don't wanna die
I sometimes wish I'd never been born at all

— WHEN ANTHONY AND CHARLIE HAD GONE BACK INSIDE, it was late. Charlie said his good nights and fled to his room to sleep off the day's events.

Anthony went upstairs as quietly as he could while lugging a heavy metal tank and once he did he got everything prepared so he could go to bed.

He brushed his teeth, changed into more comfortable clothes, switched out his tank for his oxygen concentrator, then he got into bed and grabbed his phone.

He saw a few messages, some from Liv and Danny just updating him on what's going on, he replied to those first with news of his own though he didn't expect a response at this time. Then he spotted a few messages from Jasper.

Jasper
Sorry if I made you uncomfortable, we only have to hang out if you want to.

Jasper
We really don't have to

Jasper
But I'd like to get to know you more if that's okay?

Tony
Lets hang out at my place after school tomorrow?

Tony
Unless you want me to meet your vampire parents

Jasper
Maybe not yet. Your place sounds good

Tony
Didn't expect you to be up at this time

Jasper
We don't sleep

Tony
Ahh

Tony
Do you miss sleeping?

Tony
I do

Jasper
Sometimes I wish I could drift off, yeah

Jasper
Why can't you sleep?

Tony
Not sure

Tony
Though I'm thinking it's something to do with my cancer.

Jasper
This may sound weird but- do you want me to come over? I can make you fall asleep

Tony
That sounded alarmingly sexual

Jasper
No!! I mean- that's not what I meant

Anthony chuckled at Jasper's mess up, though he was curious what the vampire meant.

He didn't have time to think about it before his phone was getting a call.

Tony saw the ID was Jasper, and answered the phone.

Raising it up to his ear, he spoke.

"Warning: I'm a lot more confident when not looking at you face to face and all cognitive thinking has gone out the window thanks to sleep deprivation so- hey good lookin'" Tony sang, though it was a complete lie. The Swan boy just hoped if he seemed a bit more animated that Jasper wouldn't be able to tell he'd been crying only an hour before.

He heard Jasper laugh though the receiver.

"Hey darlin'"

Tony wanted to punch something. How dare Jasper have the right to sound that good with his stupid, overrated, beautiful southern accent.

"Darlin' sounds so gay." Anthony pointed as he laid back against his pillows and stared at the ceiling.

"You are gay." Jasper retaliated.

Tony shrugged, "Carry on."

"As I was saying before, I could help you sleep? I'm not sure if Edward explained it all to you but I sort of have an ability-"

Tony interrupted as he sat up slightly.

"He mentioned his and Alice's abilities but he never said anything about you." Anthony informed, pulling his blankets up to his chest.

"Well- I'm an empath. I can feel and manipulate other people's emotions in a way."

"You asshole." Tony spoke.

"Oh so goodbye to pet names, hmm?"

"Sorry sweetums but you are a grade A asshole. You're the reason my emotions have been so out of wack when I'm at school! I thought I was becoming bipolar." Anthony raised his voice slightly, but he didn't want to wake anyone in the house.

"I know, I could feel your confusion." Jasper chuckled.

"Ooooh I could slap you right now or kiss you for calming me down before I exploded." Tony spoke, remembering that first day in school when he nearly snapped at the class.

"Can I choose?"

"Don't push it boo."

It was quiet for a moment on both ends.

"So yeah, I could run over and calm you down so you can sleep?" Jasper spoke up again.

"As much as I'd love to see you, calming me down so I can sleep will probably cause problems with my chest and whatever. I don't think we should risk it. Thank you for the offer though." Anthony explained. The more he spoke with Jasper over the phone the more he started to realize that the Hale probably knew about Tony's crush.

He was a vampire with super hearing and the ability to feel emotions, if Jasper didn't know by now, he would have to be the stupidest vampire on the planet.

"Jasper?" Tony asked.

Jasper hummed in response.

"Are you gay?"

He could hear Jasper sigh through the receiver.

"Maybe I should explain that in person."

"You think?"

"Yeah..."

It was quiet for another moment.

"D'you think, in the mean time, we could just talk? I like the sound of your voice." Anthony asked.

Jasper responded in agreement.

"Yeah, I like the sound of your voice too."

So they chatted back and forth as seconds became minutes and minutes became hours. Soon enough it was nearly two in the morning and neither of them had gotten off the phone.

Tony's voice became sluggish and tired as the night bled into day. Jasper tried to say goodbye and make Anthony hang up.

"I think you need some rest, we can talk later."

"Nonsense, I wanna talk now." Anthony's voice was muffled as he nuzzled into his pillow.

Jasper laughed slightly.

"Go to bed, Tony."

"Talk later?" Anthony asked, giving up on arguing.

"Talk later." Jasper confirmed.

Then, all Jasper heard was the beeping that signified the call had been terminated.

author's note

Finished at 3:11 am I desperately need to stop this cycle but it's the only time I can write properly ugh

Lemme know what you thought of the chapter because for some reason I don't like it?? Maybe I just re read it too many times or maybe it's the music part that I don't like about it idk

Also I had a small convo with someone who pointed out a mistake of mine; I just wanna let you guys know that I won't take those sorts of comments in a bad way, I actually encourage it!!

If you see a mistake in my writing, please point it out so I can fix it, I absolutely will not take it rudely.

I know some authors practically bite the heads off people that do that and honestly it's so stupid of them. Wattpad is a site where unpublished authors can get feedback and constructive criticism! They're only doing it to help you fix your work!!

Anyway, I'm really thankful that person pointed out my mistake because now I won't make the same one in the future ♥️