Veto Syndrome// m.c

[4]

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How, she gasped to herself. How could you do that?!

She was laying on her bed, staring up at the flags of the different countries she wished to travel that she had pinned up onto the ceiling.

She dreamed of that day that doctors would have a medical breakthrough and find a way to be able to permanently build back her immune system. She would no longer have to be so cautious in life. She could go to the airport and travel to all sorts of places. She could go to places with fresh air and the places with smog. That would be magical.

It had been two hours since she and her mum had gotten home and she ran up to her room to avoid any questions she knew her mum was dying to ask. She had never had a crush before, nor had she ever truly interacted with a person of the opposite sex. Michael was a first on so many levels. He held her hand, he was nice to her, he asked her to be a 'Janet', he joked with her, he held her hand. And she gave him her number. So many firsts!

She pulled her eyes away from the flags to stare at her phone screen that was vacant of any new notifications. What if he didn't want to talk to her? But he seemed to like her, why wouldn't he want to talk to her?

A groan left her lips as she turned over onto her stomach and buried her head into her pillows. She stuck her hand out from where it was tucked under her body and reached for her stuffed animal to cuddle it. It was a neon pink kitten that her dad had won her at her first trip to a fair; Plush, she had named it. Her mum had tried to convince her to name it something more cutesy, like, Kitty. Steph cringed at the name. She had decided on the name 'Plush' because, realistically, that's what the thing was: a plush animal.

Her dad thought she was brilliant, loving that she was a realist.

"Stephanie!" her mum called her from downstairs, most likely for dinner.

She got up from the bed, contemplating whether she should take her phone with her, or not. She decided against it, placing it back on her black comforter.

Her mum was walking to the table, a platter of lasagna gripped in her hands as she called over her shoulder to tell her husband to grab the bowl of breadsticks.

"Hello, Stephanie." Her mum's mocking tone was followed by a sly grin.

"Mother," Steph replied with a small nod. She slid into her seat, her mum sitting down in the seat across from her and her dad sitting in the seat beside her.

"What's with the creepy smile, Nic?" Daryl asked as he spotted the grin on his wife's face.

Nic shook her head, "Oh, nothing..." she sent a glance in Steph's direction before leaning forward to begin serving the lasagna.

Daryl stared at Nic, still curious. He then looked over to his daughter, hoping she'd give him some answers. "Steph?"

Steph shrugged, tucking her clammy hands under her thighs. She let out a small breath of relief as her father moved the conversation away, beginning to talk about the rugby game that had taken place earlier that day.

The topic change would only fend her mother off for a couple minutes, but the distraction was a lifesaver.

"Daryl, the game sounds interesting, but you know what is much, much, more interesting?" Her father rose his eyebrows, slightly upset that his discussion of the game had been cutoff. "Our daughter talked to a boy today," Nic continued.

Steph's father paused before he began cackling with laughter. "Our daughter?" He pointed at the girl sitting at the table, another fit of laughter swallowing him. "Yeah, fucking, right, Nic! Oh, Lord. Ya got me th-"