Amelia's Daughter

forty five

AMELIAS POV
I opened Charlotte's door and she was crying.
"Hey," I said softly.
"I'm so sorry," Charlotte said crying, "I'll never leave the house again."
"Charlotte," I said, "tell me what happened."
"Arizona didn't tell you?" She asked.
"No," I said. I laid down next to her and she cried into me.
"It was over a boy," she said quietly.
"Okay," I said.
"I thought he really liked me, I mean he was so cute, and I thought he was kind," she sighed, "so I trusted him when he gave me two drinks."
"What did he do?" I looked at her, "did he hurt you?"
"He tried to force me to have sex with him," she said and my heart broke.
"Did you? Do we need to go to the hospital?" I asked her.
"No that's when I called you. I didn't know what to do. I knew you'd smell the alcohol and I didn't want to call you but I was so scared. I thought he liked me but he just wanted to have sex and he probably just gave me beer so I would," she cried. I wrapped my arms around her tightly and kissed her head. I realized she wasn't me. She was smarter than I was. She knew better. She wasn't me. She made a mistake.
"I'm very glad you knew what to do and left," I said, "I'm glad you didn't let him hurt you."
"I'm so sorry I drank," she cried, "I won't do it again."
"You're not me," I said softly, "you made a mistake, which most teenagers can do. You're not me. You only had a drink or two, which I'm not excusing because it's not right, but you're not me. You can't live in fear of the mistakes I made, and I can't hold my mistakes against you. You're smart. You knew not to get drunk, and you knew to get away from that boy when it turned bad, and you called me. I'm proud that you didn't let anything happen to you that you didn't want, and that you're safe. Your safety is the most important thing in this world to me." She cried harder as I hugged her.
"It's okay, I'm not mad Char," I said.
"I know," she sniffled.
"What did Arizona say?" I asked her.
"Basically what you said," she said, "that you weren't mad at me."
"I'll never be mad at you, I love you," I said, "I just want the best for you and I want you to be safe."
"I know," she said. I held her close to me as I rubbed her back.
"I love you," I said.
"I love you too," she said. I stayed with her until she fell asleep in my arms. Her door opened and Arizona came in.
"She asleep?" Arizona asked.
"Yeah," I said softly.
"You staying?" She said.
"Probably, unless she moves off me," I chuckled.
"Okay, goodnight I love you," Arizona said.
"I love you too, and thank you for talking to her," I said.
"Anytime," Arizona said.
-
I opened my eyes and Charlotte was asleep next to me. I kissed her head as I got up and walked downstairs. Arizona was making breakfast and I smiled.
"Good morning," I said and kissed her.
"Good morning," she smiled.
"Are we doing wedding stuff today?" I asked her.
"We can," she said.
"Only 5 more months until I can call you my wife," I smiled as I kissed her.
"Exciting," Arizona smiled, "and then I get a whole week of you on a beach in a bikini."
"Can't wait," I smiled and kissed her again. Charlotte eventually came downstairs and I couldn't tell if she was hungover but I wouldn't say anything. She felt too much guilt anyway, and I felt bad about the boy thing.
"What are we doing today?" She asked.
"Wedding stuff," Arizona said.
"Can we try cakes I kinda want cake," I laughed.
"I'm sure if we call the place we can do cake sampling," Arizona said.
"Can I come I want to taste cakes," Charlotte chuckled.
"Yes, we can do that and maybe stop at the florist," I said.
"What color flowers are you doing?" Charlotte asked.
"Purple, white, and pink," Arizona said.
"Aw that's pretty," Charlotte said.
"Yeah," I smiled. The three of us finished lunch and went to go get ready for the day. I showered and got ready and put some makeup on.
"You look cute," Arizona smiled coming into the bathroom wearing one of my shirts.
"Is that my shirt?" I chuckled.
"Yeah," Arizona said, "I'm stealing it."
"No fair," I joked, "it looks better on you."
"Definitely not," she said and kissed me. We walked downstairs and got Charlotte and then drove to the cake place. There were 8 different cakes to chose from. We could customize a flavor but that felt like too much work.
"The vanilla is yummy," Charlotte said.
"I agree," Arizona said.
"What about marble cake?" I asked as I looked at the cake sheet.
"That's good too," they both said. We tasted the cakes and went back and forth on flavor, how many tiers, design, and everything.
"You need little women for the top," Charlotte smiled.
"Oh yes," Arizona said, "that would be so cute Ames."
"It would," I smiled, "so should we do three tiers?"
"Sure," Arizona said.
"What shape?" I asked as I looked at the pamphlet.
"Rectangle would serve the most people," Arizona suggested.
"Yeah good point," I said.
"What if you did a rectangle but in a diamond?" Charlotte said.
"What?" Arizona and I chuckled.
"Like just rotate the cake on a diagonal. Makes it fancy," she said.
"This is why we keep her around," I joked to Arizona. Charlotte chuckled as we continued eating cake and picking out designs. It was a fun day.