Saints and Sinners

The Real Colin James '?'

Edward's POV~

I'd texted Louis last night; apologizing for missing our 'not'-date. And asking him if he wouldn't mind coming over to the house to chat after school. He'd agreed.

So I felt a little less guilty. Since I technically had a valid excuse for forgetting; with everything that had happened at school. I didn't tell him about Zayn..I wasn't even sure if I could explain what we were. But I cared about Louis very much, and didn't want to hurt him any more than I already had.

I rolled over onto my back and studied my ceiling. Even with everything that had happened..I felt..happy? Like the happy that settles deep into your lungs. I could imagine streaks of color above me instead of just plain white. A colored ceiling..that's what I'd want my bookstore to have. A mural..painted by Zayn.

There was a timid knock on me door, "come in." I figured it'd be Harry. I quickly sat up when it wasn't.

"Karen?"

She smiled sweetly, "Good morning, hope I didn't wake you?"

"You didn't." I glanced at the clock beside me, 5:28am. "Something wrong?"

"May I?" She gestured to the bottom of my bed. I curled my legs to make room. She smiled and sat down. I turned on my lamp. "Liam..told me what happened..yesterday at school. I want you to know I've talked to your principle and they're going to find who did this." A sour feeling churned in my stomach. "..but..I wanted to see if you were..uhm..well..if you were alright, dear?"

I couldn't bring myself to meet her eyes. "I think I'm..just..gonna stay home today? If that's alright?"

She frowned and reached out to put a hand on my forearm reassuringly, but stopped and brushed an imaginary fuzzy from my blanket.

"Okay..but..well I just don't want.." she paused. "If that's what you need, then stay here. But Harry has his cheer competition tonight and I'm sure he'd appreciate you being there to support him."

Right, the Recruiter is coming tonight..

I nodded.

"Do you need me to stay home with you today? I can call in sick at work..we can watch movies, eat ice cream?"

I felt a sharp pain in my chest and had to fight to keep my face neutral. "No." But quickly added, "thank you."

She nodded, "Okay. Well I'm just a phone call away if you need me, okay? I'll come straight home..I promise. Whatever you need." And before she could remember to stop herself she brought a hand up and ruffled my disheveled curls. My eyes widened but I fought to keep my body from flinching.

"Oh, I'm sorry."

Finally, I asked what had been eating at me since the day we moved in. "Why'd you adopt me?"

"What?" She asked, taken aback.

"You already have a son..Liam..why get two more? And why two teenagers? Why didn't you want some sweet little undamaged kid? I mean..what's the point of adopting someone who's going to be eighteen after two years?"

"That's what you think? That family is just until you turn eighteen and then we throw you out and never speak to you again?" She sounded heartbroken. Her eyes hurt to look at.

I shrugged.

"Edward..You're father –er, Geoff and I, we love you." She reached out and took my hand in hers. I stiffened but didn't pull away. "We didn't adopt you so you could leave us in two years, we adopted you because we want you in our family. Forever. We want to cheer you on when you get into university, and celebrate holidays here together as a family, and see you get married, and have kids if you want kids, –course I'd love grandkids but it's not my life, it's yours. But, my point is we just want to see you happy. We want to be apart of you and Harry's lives, until the rest of ours. You're our babies, I don't care how big you get." She squeezed my hand. I didn't know what to say, so I stayed silent.