ｂｒｅａｔｈｅ．{ʀ. ʜᴀʟᴇ}

22 | three months over

⸺ OCTOBER. ANDIE. 

The first month without her was the very worst.

I tried really hard to be a normal person, for Charlie's sake. Of course I felt disconnected from the world, I felt like I was in a dark pit that I could never get out of, but I was better at hiding it than Bella. She had become a shell of herself without Edward. I pretended to be okay around people. I would go to school and get good grades and talk to people. I would sit with Bella at lunch and try to talk to her, and try to distract her from the empty Cullen table across the cafeteria. I would talk to Charlie at home, and cook dinner for all of us, but at night I couldn't sleep. I would cry in Rosalie's absence. 

I would sit in Bella's bedroom at night, waiting for her to wake up so I could try and speak to her. To get her to snap out of it. We would have conversations, but I never dared to bring the Cullens up, even though they were really the only things on our minds. 

I had nightmares too, although I didn't wake up screaming. They mostly involved me reaching out for Rosalie, and she wan't there. 

The first month, I would really only leave to go sit outside of the Cullen's house. I could see Rosalie's room from below. I wondered if some of her things were still in there, or if they took everything with them when they left. 

One night near the end of October, Bella actually came into my room, and she finally cried. For the first time since they had left. "He's gone, isn't he?" She said tearfully, "Forever?"

I held her hand. "I think so." I sniffed. "Have you heard from them? At all?"

She shook her head. "I've been emailing Alice, but I think she got a different email. That, or she just doesn't care enough to respond." She sighs, laying her head on my shoulder. "I'm sorry. I haven't talked to you in a month. I've been being a shit sister."

"It's okay." I told her, "I haven't been a great sister either. Or a great student."

"You are," She insisted, "You're probably going to be valedictorian."

"I wish." I roll my eyes. "Do you think we'll see them again?"

She stays silent for a moment. "I don't know."

.

OCTOBER. ROSALIE.

"I'm worried, Carlisle. And I know you are too." Esme murmurs downstairs. They were having a family meeting about me. Well, some of the family. Jasper and Alice were vacationing by themselves, looking into Alice's past. Edward was... somewhere in Brazil. Elena, Emmett, Esme, Carlisle and I were here, in a country house far outside of New York City.

"She hasn't left her room in days, she hasn't hunted in weeks... Maybe we should just make them go back?" Esme suggested. "They'd be angry, but... We could be a family again. I could see them happy."

I close my eyes tightly, clinging onto Andie's t shirt that I had stolen right before I left. Please, I thought. Please make me go back to her.

"You know they wouldn't, Esme." Carlisle responds gently. "I would send Edward even farther away, and I don't know if Rosalie would even leave her room for long enough for us to tell her."

"We can't just let her sit in there," Elena says. "She's suffering. She thinks that she's done the right thing, but she hasn't"

I have, I thought. Andie will have a life now.

"I'm going to try and get her to go hunting, just us two. Like back in the old days? Maybe I can snap her out of it..." Emmett suggested.

I hated that I was putting everyone through this, along with myself. I needed to be strong for Andie. I needed her to have the life I never had. I needed to stay away from Forks, away from her.