Letting you go [COMPLETE]

Chapter 16

I realise I haven't updated 'Waking the fae' in while but I've been into this story so I've been writing this! For anyone waiting for an update (if there is anyone) it'll be soon! 

Anyways, this is unedited, so I can't say there's no mistakes becuase there probably is. 

This reached #682 in teen fiction tonight! Made me happy :)

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The car ride is awkward—at least that’s what it feels like to me. I stare outside, watching the trees go by, the families walk—anything to distract me from the looks dad keeps giving me. I don’t even have to look at him to tell. Thankfully, Rick is unaware of the tension, so focused on his DS. His “accidental slip-up” or so he’d claimed was still plaguing dad’s mind. And he wouldn’t forget any time soon either.

“Alyson?”

I hum noncommittally staring at the family passing by us. Two parents. Two and a half a kids—because babies count as half a child, right? Average, normal family. No issues. No child with a terminal illness. Just a happy family. I can’t help but stare at mum, wishing she could say the same. That she doesn’t have a daughter with less than a year to live.

“Ally.”

Again, I just hum, still staring at the family. There’d been a time—before the cancer diagnosis—where we’d been that family. The family with no issues, no cloud of death hanging over them. Or, namely, me. I hadn’t had a care in the world. Neither had mum or dad. That had been us, before cancer, before heartbreak. Now, it was constantly looming over everyone’s head, in the background of everyone’s thought. And I knew this because that was me—though I tried to pretend it wasn’t real some of the time.

“Ally.”

With a sigh I force myself to look away from outside. “Yes?” I ask, searching for mum’s eyes in the mirror. They’re cloudy, swirling with sadness. Different from what they normally are: empty. Or, in the odd moments, full of affection and happiness. The smile she forces, doesn’t meet her eyes.

“What do you want for dinner?”

“Dinner?”

Mum rolls her eyes. “Yes, dinner. You know, the thing you eat at night?”

“Ha. Ha. Uh, depends on what you want.”

Rick, not as attached to his DS as I’d thought, almost drops it in his haste to answer. “Pizza!”

“Pizza it is then,” dad says, and I can’t help but look over at him. When his eyes catch mine in the mirror reflection, I look away. The concern in them is what gets me. He should be angry—even though I hadn’t really be hiding anything—, but he’s not.

Mum glares at him. “It’s not pizza yet. Alyson, what do you want?”

I only shrug, brushing hair out of my face. It’s grown out since the last round of chemo but it’s still not long enough for a fringe. “I don’t mind. If Rick wants pizza, we’ll have pizza.”

“Sure, honey?”

I can’t help but roll my eyes. “No, mum, I’m lying. Like I’d say no to pizza.”

“Yeah, mum, everyone loves pizza,” Rick adds, smiling in victory. “Meat lovers pizza.”

“What if I want pineapple on pizza?” I ask, bumping my shoulder against his.

“No one likes pineapple. It’s gross. Like Brussel sprouts. And you don’t have pineapple on pizza. There’s a girl from Italy in my class and she hates it.”