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Shitnothing else There was nothing after that

A tear trickled downwith Austin, and my dad didn’t try to force his arms around me Maybe he should have, but he didn’t He just stared at me

We were at the exact same standstill we had been e’d started He believed and I didn’t, and I was sad because of who he’d become, and sad because I almost wished I could confir--to make it seemoment, he blinked hard, and a pained expression crossed his face, and I was sure I saw him there-- eyes "You’re right," he finally admitted with a shaky breath, and I felt , because he was still there There was still hope for hi "I kneas too much," he said "I knew I should’ve waited"

I felt ht before my heart stopped

"Dad, no" My voice was barely a whisper, but he heard iven up on it at all And it was then I knew the truth; he wasn’t in there anymore, in that husk of a body, not my dad This was soht I’d stopped crying, but I tasted the tears when I opened my mouth to say, "Just take h the front door,me, but she was the absolute last person I wanted to confide in She was half the problem If she hadn’t pushed my dad away in the first place, there was no way he would’ve ended up in that crap-ass trailer overfloith star charts and hidden booze bottles But instead of facing her like a grown-up, I opted for thehtstand in front of the door

She at least had the decency not to shove her way inside, which she totally could have since hed like ten pounds

Instead, she stood out in the hallway and spoke to h the door, which is how it felt like she’d been talking toto her atte to my dad tell reed with him, that I was certainly-surely-most-definitely a victim of alien abduction I pinched ivenabout my father and what he’d become I wondered if he’d ever, ever come back to me the way I’d coave up and went away

Whenit almost the moment I did

Can we please talk? the text from my dad read

I’d never, in my entire life, ever avoided my dad before I o to practice or that one ti in class Or the tio to

But never like this Never when I was afraid of hurting his feelings because I was sure he’d lost his freaking one through, and I hated it I hated her for giving up on hi the saht, ignoring his e I knew I couldn’t put him off forever, but I wasn’t yet ready for another round of Kyra Meets ET