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— ONCE ANTHONY HAD ENDED HIS PHONE CALL AND ALLOWED THE DEVICE TO FALL ONTO HIS BEDSHEETS, he listened for Bella's voice in the other room. After a moment of not hearing anything other than her radio blaring slightly, Tony deduced that she had hung up on their wild mother.
Heaving himself up off his bed, he stretched his arms into the air and debated whether or not he was actually going to talk to his younger sister, or if he should just lay back in bed and sulk or seethe in anger.
Deciding against the more depressing option, Anthony grabbed the handle of his humming oxygen tank and tugged it out the room with him.
The rubber wheels on the hardwood floor would have probably alerted Bella to his presence, if she wasn't already passed out on her bed when he opened the door.
Stepping into her room and manoeuvring around the wooden framed doorway, he glanced around the room that he hadn't seen in years. It was as if nothing had changed, despite the bedsheets and the computer in the corner.
There were drawings and pictures and little souvenirs stuck to the walls. Looking at all of them, he smiled a genuine, happy smile. He saw a child's drawing of a wonky dog stuck to the wall with frayed masking tape.
He recognized it as the one Anthony had drawn for her when he was seven.
When Anthony was young, he wanted to be an artist. He wasn't that bad either and despite an armada of people that told him being an artist wasn't a stable job, his sister never once doubted his ability.
Sometimes, for practice, they'd get out Monopoly money and little Bella would pretend to be an interested buyer while Anthony showed off all his rather abstract paintings and slightly off pencil sketches. Needless to say by the end of the day, Anthony was rich in fake money and Bella was creating a wall of art pieces in her room.
Simpler times, Anthony thought as he ran his fingers along the $500 bill of Monopoly money that was attached to the wall with a thumb tack next to a slightly better drawing of a butterfly.
Turning around to see Bella, still sprawled out on her sheets with the blankets bunched up at her feet and binders of homework laying next to her.
Anthony huffed slightly and sluggishly grabbed the binders and pencils off her bed, trying his best to set them on her desk despite his tubing holding him back.
Once Tony was done he sat down next to his sister, facing her.
For a moment, Tony's mind wandered between memories of him coming into his sister's room as a kid to sooth her nightmares as he moved the hair out of Bella's face.
He used to climb up onto the bed and hug Bella close. Even as a child he was trying to protect her from her demons.
How did it get to this? He thought. How did he get to this moment where Bella hated him for his illness.
