Magicanimalclub: 2 : What Happened?

Fatal

--DAVID'S POV--
"Ash... I..." My jaw shivered. "I've been meaning to tell you this.. But I just.. I just.. Couldn't."
Ash looked up at me. He resembled his mother. His beautiful mother. Nicole.
"Dad.. Please.. Just say." A tear had fallen from his cheek. My son was overwhelmed with heartbreak and.. Shock. He wasn't over his mother's death and I knew it. If I knew anything it was that Ash wasn't happy. And if I wanted one thing before I died. It was that my children would be happy.

--EMILY'S POV--
I was alone in my bedroom back at home in Hampshire.
I was a mess. Hungover, heartbroken and lost. So lost.
"Hey.. Emma.." My mother walked in, the woman once known as Sqaishey.
"Hi mum." I said, blankly smiling as she handed me a cup of tea to me in my bed.
"Emma what's wrong?" She asked me, putting an arm around my neck. My eyes started to turn red and tense.
"I don't know mum.." I cried, "ever since I went to Uni it's all been different."
"Honey.. Where's Ash? You never used to go out drinking, you never went to nightclubs never mind hooking up with random boys."
"Ash is gone. He's done. I left him." I told her,
"Emily. I don't know half of what's going on in your life, but what I do know is that he makes you happy, he makes you laugh. He cares about you and you've only gone out with very few boys in your life but he's actually good for you! Emma you can't just let him go! You're letting yourself go! He loves you!"
At the word 'love' my heart stopped.
"He may love me but he doesn't love anyone else." I muttered. My face was red and wet with tears.
"Then why are you crying?" Mum asked me. I opened my mouth to speak but I couldn't. "Ash.. Ash and I have had our time.. He said some things about other people that I can't forgive him for. It's was great while it lasted.."
"Emma. It lasted twelve years. What did he say that hurt you so much?"
"It was.. Nothing.." I said. I found myself defending Ash. "Please I just want to go to sleep."
I rolled over and tried to close my eyes.

--ASH'S POV--
"I've got dementia." Dad said. Handing me a sheet of paper. "Had it for almost two years now."
I looked down at the sheet of paper. It was a doctors note. Clearly stating what my dad told me.
"The next year is going to be tough and.. I.. I don't know if..."
I felt my eyes watering. I didn't want this to happen. I didn't want to lose my dad. My last parent. This couldn't happen.
I walked up to him and wrapped my arms around him, a tear fell from my eye. This was all so surreal. Everything that was happening. How was this real? Why me.. Why do I have to lose both my parents in the space of two years.. Why...
"I.. I have to drop out of university.." I said, my hands shaking.
"No Ash, please don't.."
"I'll do a home graduate.. I'll do the work in my own time.. I'm not leaving you." I told him,
"Ash no I need you to be happy." Dad argued.
"I need you to be happy! You matter more than anything else in the world to me and I need to see you smile." I said. Tears subsiding. "While you still remember me.."
I looked at my dads big sad eyes. I just wanted to see him laugh. I just wanted something. Something for him.

Hours later my dad fell asleep on the sofa. It was 9pm. I tucked a couple cushions behind his head and draped a blanket over him. I stuck a post-it note on the table beside him just in case he woke up saying: away to Beth and Emily's be back before midnight ~Ash.

My eyes were coated with tears as I walked across the street towards Emily's house. I knocked on her door. I wore a hoodie to cover myself in the rain. I was destroyed.
Emily's mother Beth opened up the door.
"Hi Ash come in you're drenched." She said, stepping to the side and letting me in. I couldn't keep my tears in. My dad was going to die. She took my hoodie off me and hung it up. I sat down by the kitchen table covering my mouth. Beth walked in the room, took a look at me before putting her hands around my shoulders. She knew that I missed having a mother figure, and losing my dad was going to destroy that even more.
"He told you didn't he?" She said, wrapping her arms around me.
I nodded, more tears streaming down my face. He told me..

--EMILYS POV--
I heard a knock on the door.
"Come in." I said, expecting to see my mother.
Instead it was Ash.
"Ash-"
"Emily, I know you don't want to talk to me but-"
"You're right. I don't want to talk to you." I said, I didn't care what he had to say. He knew nothing.
"-but I want to talk to you." He continued. He walked into the light. Tears were streaming down his face. My mouth dropped and I stood up.. What happened?!
"You were right." He said, "for an Oxford mathematician I am remarkably stupid.."
I continued to listen to every word he had to say.
"Dad has dementia." He said, my stomach dropped,
"He is starting to forget who I am. Rosie and James aren't coming home. I have no one. Absolutely no one anymore.. I've changed, Emily. Ever since we split up I've just been so selfish and foolish."
I started to relate to him..
"I miss my mum." He said, making me close to tears, "I miss my dad. I miss having someone to talk to.. I miss having.. Someone.."
I walked up to him, before I took his shaking hands.
I didn't realise this.. I didn't realise what was going on with him..
"Ash." I told him, staring into his beautiful blue, teary eyes, "you can have me."
I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him as he cried. I recognised his warmth and immediately wondered how I ever survived without him in my life.
How could I let him go now.
He needed me.
And, I think that honestly, I needed him too.