A New Cullen Sister

Chapter 57

"He's gone, Mia. He won't hurt you," whispered Rosalie, slowly walking into the closet that Amelia had hidden herself in. She spied her little sister sitting between her clothes, hugging her knees to her chest, sobbing openly. She bent down and picked up Amelia, holding her close. Amelia wrapped her legs around Rosalie's waist and buried her face in the side of her sister's neck as Rosalie straightened up and brought her out of the closet and into the bedroom. She sat down on the bed, and Amelia crawled into the corner of it, where two walls met and sat with her back against it. Esme joined them, she too was shaken by what had just happened.

"Esme, I think you should maybe hunt as well just in case," stated Rosalie. Esme looked understandably upset at the prospect of leaving Amelia alone, but realised that there was little she could do except allow Rosalie to take care of her younger sister.

"Don't go too far, Esme. I'll call you if we need you. There's a herd of deer about ten miles out. Jacob says it's alright if you take a shortcut across the Quileute land, Leah's going to meet you and run with you, if that's alright with you," said Alice. She was in the kitchen, flicking through a cooking book, wondering what Amelia would like for dinner. Esme nodded and glanced to Amelia for permission.

"It's fine, Mom. Go and hunt," she whispered. Esme kissed her forehead and left her eldest and youngest daughters in Amelia's room.

"Do you want to talk about it?" asked Rosalie kindly.

"Dad flipped out because I have a crush on Steven Smith," murmured Amelia, a fresh wave of tears falling down her face. Rosalie handed her a tissue and opened her arms wide. Amelia crawled into them willingly, desperately needing a hug.

"Steven Smith, huh?" asked Rosalie, keeping the malice out of her voice. It was no secret that she didn't like him, but out of respect to Amelia, she'd hold her tongue. Now was neither the time nor the place to launch into a tirade of how much she despised the boy.

"Yeah," she sniffled miserably, "he asked me out to watch a movie sometime after orchestra practice this afternoon. I turned him down because there is no way on earth I will be up for a movie, so I asked him if he wanted to come over here instead. Emmett has such an extensive DVD collection that we will surely be able to find something to watch. And he bought me a birthday present too. I know he was rather nasty to me on my first day at school, but Rosie, he really feels bad. He's become such a good friend."

"I know, Mia. He's phoned here a couple of times, even tried to visit you in hospital. I dislike him, but he has earned my respect because he does genuinely care for you. What did Carlisle say?"

"It started off alright, he was devising a 'fatherly speech' to give Steven. It's all my fault! I told Dad to go easy on him because I really like him, I'm actually kind of in love with him, and it went downhill from there. Then he started yelling at me and he wouldn't let me explain and I ran. Then I heard Mom yelling at him and now everyone's just so angry and it's all my fault. I should have just kept quiet about the whole thing!" Amelia wailed loudly. Alice joined them.

"It's not your fault, Mia. Carlisle is being an idiot," stated Rosalie.

"Yes he is. You did nothing wrong," chimed in Alice, coming to sit on Amelia's bed.

"But now Mom and Dad are fighting too," she howled.

"They will sort it out. They always do. Their fights never ever last long. Before you know it, you'll be listening to them-"

"Alice!" Rosalie broke her off, glaring at her and shaking her head in obvious disapproval.

"As long as they will be okay," murmured Amelia, anxiety eating away at her like scavengers, "I'd hate for them to be fighting because of my stupidity."