I WILL BE POSTING ONE CHAPTER EVERY TWO WEEKS (hopefully)

Thanks to awesome tumblr user otpdestroyedmylife for edititng :)

I think this fandom lacks of single parent fics... I love nice comments so please? Leave them :)))

I hope you'll like it :)

'Can't make it today. Tell Dylan I'm sorry.'

Felicity read the message and sighed. Once again, she had to tell her 7-year old that he won't be going with the cinema with his dad.

"Mom, why is he late?" Dylan was jumping impatiently while looking out the window. He adored his father, which Felicity never understood. He barely knew him; Cooper never wanted to take care of his son. He visited him exactly seven times before Dylan's 7th Birthday. Then when Dylan turned 7 and went to school he started comparing himself to his friends. To Felicity's displeasure his only best friend was Andrew Diggle, a very cute and polite boy who had both of his parents, an older sister named Sara, and strong bond with his father. He didn't know other children who had only one parent and she knew he felt worse than Andrew, who kept talking about his happy home, not knowing that it upset his best friend. Dylan begged her to call Cooper so they could spend time together more often. She couldn't say no to him so she offered her ex-boyfriend to spend some time with his son. He quickly agreed at first, but after a few meetings that Dylan truly loved, Cooper started cancelling them. He made up excuses at first, until today, when he didn't even bother. Felicity wasn't sure if she could do this anymore. She wanted the very best for her son, but Cooper was ruining his childhood.

"Call him! We can't miss the movie!" Felicity's heart hurt as she watched her dearest son so excited, waving the tickets in the air, and she knew it would hurt even more to see him disappointed. Besides that, lately he has become incredibly rude and Felicity was having a hard time dealing with him.

"You know what honey?" Felicity began, her voice low, "I'll go with you, okay? Dad texted me, he can't come today. He's very sorry." Felicity saw his face fall. She was about to cry, again. Again because of her ex.

What was wrong with her? She knew now that she should never have told Cooper about the baby. She made a mistake and now she was paying for it. When she told him she was pregnant she didn't expect him to marry her, but she didn't expect him to break up with her after a 2-year relationship and walk away without a word. When she finally got a grip and started a new life, on the date Dylan was born, Cooper showed up with a huge and ugly teddy bear. The baby was too small to remember anything, but then her ex showed up the next year and the next year, always on Dylan's birthday, and only once a year. But that was all it took for the child to understand that there was a father.

A two-year old Dylan was repeating the word "dad" for about a week. The three-year old didn't remember and seemed to be meeting "dad" once again. The four-year old kept asking "why" and Felicity's only reply was to cry her eyes out at night. Then the five- and six-year old assumed it just had to be like that. The seven-year old Dylan was smarter. He knew what a family should look like: two parents and a child. After all, Andrew's family looked like that, right? Moreover, Andrew also had a sister! So the little boy started asking and pleading and begging for Daddy to come back and finally he did. And it was good. Too good, actually, until it all started turning into a nightmare. Felicity was crying a night after night, and Dylan seemed to do everything just to make her feel worse.

"What? Again? Why mom, why?" Dylan stood in the middle of the room and his mom could see the tears that threatened to fall.

"It's okay, he'll be here next time."

"You said that last time, too," he opposed.

"Yeah… Dylan, I'm sorry." She walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Sure you are."

"I am. I know how much you wanted to go with Dad. You're happy with him and you know I'd do anything for you to be happy" Felicity was hugging him now so he wouldn't notice her watery eyes.

"Make Dad come here!"

"I wish I could… but hey, we can have fun together, too. If we hurry we can still go to the cinema," offered Felicity, hoping he wouldn't say "I don't want to go with you" like he did the last time Cooper cancelled at the last minute. She was tired of it. She had no idea why her ex was still setting up meetings if her never wanted to be there.

"You won't like the movie, but fine, let's go," said Dylan and went to grab his jacket. Felicity just sighed, took her purse, and before she put her phone in it, she texted Cooper: Tell him finally. Then she ran after her son pleading that he wouldn't change his mind and would go with her to the cinema politely.

On their way, Felicity got another text from Cooper: 'Friday 3pm?'

She texted back: 'Forget about it.'

'He's my son, too.'

'Stop it! You won't show up anyway!'

She couldn't understand how he could not see that he was hurting Dylan. And every time she demanded that him to stop calling he always said that Dylan was his son, too, and she couldn't tell him what to do. She hated Cooper with her whole heart. She wished he could just disappear from their life.

xxx

Felicity was exhausted. It was 6pm and after a whole day of work she had to pick Dylan from school. She missed the bus and the next one was in 30 minutes so she had to walk to the school in the rain. She was lucky to have an umbrella.

The front door was already closed so she ran to the gym door., which was where her son would go after regular classes were finished. Well, first he does homework in the library, then goes to the gym where his favorite PE teacher has extra classes for all the children who want to attend.

The most handsome man to have ever walked the Earth, Oliver Queen, wasn't actually Dylan's teacher. He was hired at school for the extra classes only because the mayor of the town wanted every school to be open until late hours. Every day looked the same except for Saturdays - the school was closed, but the gym was opened all day – and Sundays, when Felicity didn't have to work thanks to her helpful colleague.

That's how Felicity was able to work so much to get extra money. Cooper was a quite rich IT specialist, but he never offered to pay any money for Dylan and Felicity wasn't going to ask. She never graduated college and even with her extra computer skills, she couldn't get a job in IT. She was a single mom working as a waitress, just like her mother. She always wanted something more, which is why she always studied hard, had the best grades and had the best results at college before she had to quit. It all changed when she held Dylan for the first time. Her mom was by her side when she cried all night telling her that if she could make it, her daughter can make it too.

Felicity entered the gym and immediately saw her son among other 2 kids that were trying to throw a basketball into the basket. Oliver was telling them how to improve so they wouldn't miss.

"Good evening!" said Felicity when all eyes diverted to her.

—

"Good evening," replied Oliver, seeing the blond woman. He knew exactly who she was. Dylan's mom: the always-running-fast-to-work young woman with a bright smile on her face. She was very pretty and seemed very nice and Oliver has even talked to her a few times.

They first introduced themselves in a not-so-nice circumstance after she had been called to principal's office when her son got in a fight after he got tired of his annoying classmate calling him names.

Then they talked on a very warm day on the school play yard. She had come to pick Dylan up and Oliver told her that her son was soon going to become a professional player, but he was not sure what sport should he choose because Dylan's good at almost anything. She only smiled and said something about her son loves to play with balls, then her face turned red and she started naming all sports that came to her head: basketball, volleyball, softball, football, soccer… and he was pretty amused so he didn't say anything to stop her.

It was the truth. Dylan loved playing all of these sports and was really good at them. Oliver was the only person who understood him and could spend time playing with him. Very often, Felicity's son was the only child in the "After School Care" program. He didn't mind, he loved going there. And, in Oliver's opinion, Dylan was the most polite child in the world.

Felicity wished she could agree, but her relationship with her son had been rocky for the past few months. She knew it was because she didn't have time for him during the school week and he was used to being on his own. But every time she tried to do something for him he only asked her to call his dad. It had worked for four months. Then Cooper started cancelling the meetings. He always called her or sent her a message wanting her to tell Dylan but he never wanted to talk to his son himself.

It made Felicity mad and told Cooper every single time that she couldn't tell their son again, or to just not promise him anything, but he never listened. Cooper wasn't there to be mad at so Dylan was left thinking it was all his mother's fault. According to the Dylan, his father did everything better. Made pancakes with more chocolate chip, made sweeter tea, bought more presents. The only thing Dylan didn't understand was that his father never was and never would be there for him.

"Wow, it must be raining really hard," commented Oliver when he came closer.

"Actually it stopped a while ago." Felicity smiled and waved to Dylan who made a face and slowly went to the dressing room, his two friends with him.

"How was Dylan today?"

"He's always an angel," responded Oliver. For a second he thought Felicity's smile faded away, but she quickly smiled again.

"I'm glad he's not making any trouble."

"Why would he?" asked Oliver. This mysterious woman always seemed to doubt that he's telling the truth. He didn't mean to be nosy, but after all of those quick conversations with her he had an impression that something is not right.

"Oh, you know, he's just a kid…" Felicity hoped she sounded natural. "Kids are strange sometimes, you know?"

"Yeah, but you really don't have to worry about that," assured her Oliver. "Are you going to the game on Saturday?"

"What game?" Felicity looked surprised. "Some kind of sport, for sure… Silly me…"

"The soccer game? First this spring… Dylan's playing, he's so happy about it."

"Oh, sure, I start work later this Saturday" replied Felicity wondering why her son didn't tell her about the game he was so excited for. Then she noticed Dylan walking towards her from the dressing room. "Hey honey, how have you been?"

"Did dad call?" was the first thing Felicity heard instead of "hello" every day this week. She only shook her head in response. As if her talk with Oliver hadn't been embarrassing enough Dylan, furrowed his eyebrows and started walking towards the exit ignoring her.

"Bye, Dylan!" said Oliver, and the boy replied without turning around. Felicity didn't even have time to blink before her son was outside shutting the door loudly behind him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered. "Goodnight, Mr. Queen."

"Goodnight," said Oliver as he watched her run after her son. He had never seen anything like it before, but he started to underst why Mrs. Smoak was so concerned about her son's behavior. Clearly there was something wrong. Now that he thought about it, he kept hearing Dylan talking about his father. There was a time they went to the zoo, then to the park, or the swimming pool. He barely heard Dylan talk about his mother, though. But he saw this woman almost every day of the week, always smiling, always talkative, but also tired. From what he knew she was working all day long, while was why Dylan was in the after school care almost every day. Oliver knew it wasn't any of his business, but he was too intrigued to let this go. He was sure that behind the charming smile of this babbling blonde girl, she was hiding something more.

Thank you for reading :) Don't be shy to message me if you have any questions.

My tumblr - missfsmoak :)