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"You don’t have to explain anything to me," I said

But despite my protest, Tanner attempted to explain anyway "Your father He’s an ass, always has been But you’ve probably figured that out already He only mildly tolerates eneration Red to convince you to get rid of me since ere in diapers, after we had Sammy I think he finally ca anywhere But no matter how much he likes hter So even though we share a kid, I’ in yourlike I’ve been doing since we learned how to cli father likes to think he has control over everything that goes on in his house" Tanner flashedhere, like this, is…frowned upon"

"Frowned upon?" I asked The turn of phrase sounded out of place being spoken by soe

"Your father’s words not mine," he admitted "And you knohat I mean, Ray Don’t be a smart ass," Tanner said playfully

I sat down at the foot of the bed "I have so much to ask you, my head has more questions than answers, but I don’t have a clue where I should start," I aded my elboith his "Well, I have some questions of my own…if you don’t mind," Tanner said "So how about we trade off, one question at a time But you have to promise to answer honestly We’ve never lied to each other and I’reed

"You start" Tanner said "What do you want to know first?"

There was one thing that I needed to know first "I want to know about us, about Samuel Sammy" I was a bit in shock earlier to ask you too much about it

Tanner clapped his hands onto his knees "Then I shall start at the beginning," he said in soe accent I raised an eyebrow, not sure how to react to his brand of humor He looked down at the carpet and continued on, accent free "You and I have been together since ere in diapers If you take the short cut, it’s only a five-minute walk between our houses Our moms were close, before yours decided that vodka made a better friend than people do We were in every class together growing up We used to pretend to get married in our fort ere little Another one of our friends used to pretend to be the reverend She even cut up one of her dad’s Hugo Boss shirts to rounded for a week, and after her parents told ours, the three of us didn’t see each other for the entire suhed nervously He rested his chin on the back of his hand and sighed "It feels really weird to try to explain us to you"

"I can assure you that hearing it is probably weirder," I adain but he took a deep breath and continued, "We were fifteen when Sainally planned to wait to have…to be…physical, until we graduated" He looked pained as her tapping his sneaker on the floor "But then I got sick Real sick" He turned to face me "Leukemia"

I didn’t kno to react under the circuave him a sether than continued "On the day they told raduation, weand stupid, but we said our own ht here in this roo on s, I felt removed from it Like it wasn’t partly about h the open"I promised to always smash Cheetos into your sandwiches and you proone And then we…," he trailed off aardly, but quickly recovered, "…and then we e proud senuinely happy e’d done

And e’dyou’ll remember someday, because I may have been at death’s doorstep, but it was the by far the best night of my life," Tanner finished He folded his hands on his lap and with his chin to his chest he looked up atforthat ca I still do," I admitted