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"One day that is ill happen, West And it will be incredibly hard But what you can do now is make the most out of the time you have left Talk to him even if he can’t talk back Hold his hand Tell hione you don’t have regrets"

HerAnd so had her father with his horrible, sick act She’d lost it all just like that She was right I had tirets?" I asked, already knowing the answer I could hear it in her voice

"Yes So ie having anything to regret She was kind and gentle It was hard to think of her being anything less than perfect

"I’hter every mother wanted," I assured her "I know yours had to have been very proud of you"

She didn’t reply at first, and I was afraid I wason her pain to forget h

"Two hours before ie said, then let out a bitter laugh "Because I wanted to go to a party thatat her house, and my mother didn’t feel like there was proper adult supervision there I wanted to go so bad I had thought her not lettingthat could happen to me If I had only knoo hours later that I’d lose herthat I would find out what the worst thing that could ever happen to ret heavy inside irl wanting to grow up She had been acting out like all teenagers did Hell, I hadunfair that she’d lost her mother that way before she could fix it Before she could apologize and ht

"She knew you didn’tlike the words were inadequate But I didn’t knohat else to say

"I hope so But it will always be ret," she replied

I Was a Liar Fantastic

CHAPTER 15

MAGGIE

I woke up with my phone on my pillow Then I had lain there and just stared at it for several ht Until I’d fallen asleep Hearing my own voice when I knew he neededto souncontrollably But it wasn’t doing that I was talking to West with ease Last night I had actually talked about things I’d thought I never wanted to talk about again And I hadn’t had a panic attack or curled up into a ball and whiiven theive thes like West had I didn’t want the me speak in a courtroom where I would have to faceme cheer Who’d clapped the loudest at my school play when I’d walked out as a bear instead of Goldilocks, which ho I’d really wanted to be Who’d sung "Happy Birthday" to me dressed in a Superman costume with my Marvel comics cake in his hands the year I was obsessed with superheroes That oodelse Someone else Someone I couldn’t talk about or see