A Penny For Your Tears

Forty Four

Today's chapter is dedicated to sparklesmith866 sparklesmith866, thank you for voting! Means the world to me. Remember, if you want a chapter dedicated to you all you have to do is vote on this and previous chapters!

I brought the last of the groceries into the house, putting it down on the kitchen counter with a sigh.

"Thank you, Miss, but you didn't have to come with us. Jonathon and I could have handled it." Amelia spoke timidly as she began putting the vegetables away, Jonathon remained quiet as he waited for my grandparents by the door, he was driving them to a friend's house for a drink. There was still a slight awkwardness between us, as if they still didn't know whether to trust me or not.

"It's fine, I wanted to help." I answered, putting the fruit in the fruit bowl. After my motivating lunch with Ashe, I had decided that I wasn't going to sit around and let life pass me by, I wasn't going to allow the fear of Luca coming to take me control me any longer because, he was going to come.But this time, this time I wasn't going down without a fight.

"Alright then, we won't be back till late in the night, be safe ok." Grandma said as she walked into the kitchen, she kissed my forehead before putting on her coat while I gave my Grandfather a hug.

"We really have to find time to spend with each other, I feel like we haven't seen you in ages. " Grandpa pointed out sadly and I nodded with a strained smile.

"Yeah, I've just been busy, but we'll make time, I promise." I escorted them to their car waving them goodbye before retreating into the house. I decided to stick around the kitchen and see if I could help Amelia out, just wanting to do something to keep my mind busy and distracted from any thought of Elias. It was still hard, but as the weeks passed I came to realize that as long as I didn't allow my mind to dwell on it for too long, it would all be ok.

"Do you hate me?" I asked suddenly, as I sat on the kitchen counter, swinging my feet back and forth as I munched on an apple. Amelia looked up slowly from the onions she was cutting and gave me a weary look.

"Whatever would give you that impression?" She asked, avoiding my gaze as she tried to return to her work.

"Amelia, you know ok? I know that you and I want to know if you hate me, I would understand if you did. I hate me as well. " She sighed, dropping the knife and wiping her hands on her apron before circling around the kitchen island to be in front of me.

"I don't hate you, Olivia." She responded, carefully using my name instead of saying Miss. "In fact, I admire you. I know you know my story, about how Jonathon and the others found me, helped me recover and put me back on my feet." I nodded, allowing her to continue. "Well, then you'll see that if it wasn't for them, I would be dead, I needed them to rescue me, I needed and still need Jonathon. But you, however, you escaped all on your own, you outwitted the demon that tortured you and found a life for yourself. You did that all on your own and you don't need Elias even if you think you do. You're brave and strong, something I never was and don't think I'll ever be. Yes, you shouldn't have lied but you did what you thought was necessary something that Elias and the others, people who haven't been in the situation we have been in will never understand. You can apologize and hate yourself for lying to Elias, but don't, don't ever feel bad for doing what you thought was the safest thing to do for yourself." Amelia answered sternly. She place a comforting hand on my own for a second before going back to work as if we hadn't just had this conversation. We stayed in the kitchen in silence for two or more hours, occasionally making small talk and when dinner was done, I asked her to stay and join me because there was more than enough food for the both of us. Afterwards, I helped her clean up the kitchen before bidding her goodbye as she left for the night. I entered the house again and decided to head up my room already and have an early night since tomorrow was Monday and I wanted to go back to work again. I had just finished brushing my teeth when the sound of shuffling feet and panicked calls of name scared me and caused me to drop my toothbrush in fright.