ALLISON’S POV
We cry into each other for the longest time, and it’s the strangest thing to figure out I’ve wanted this for so long without knowing what this even was. Not an apology exactly. Just her. Just my mum, relating to me and real and here.
When the worst of it passes, she pulls back slightly, dabbing under her eyes with the edge of the sheet mask. It’s tattered now, half-hanging off her cheek, and I almost laugh.
“Mum, your mask.”
She blinks, then touches her face. “Oh, for heaven’s sake.” She peels it off in one dramatic sweep and drops it on the nightstand, then fans her face. “Don’t look at me.”
“I’m literally lying next to you.”
“Then look at the ceiling.”
I chuckle, and she does too, and for a moment we’re both just laughing and sniffling at the same time, which shouldn
