The Devil - Rewritten

Chapter Thirteen

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SECOND-BEST

If there was a Devil, I would sell my soul to make it end.
-James Frey

There's a side of Emma Carter's family she rarely ever gets to see, not out of any dislike of them or because they didn't live enough enough; it's because her mom won't let Emmeline around them without getting her in trouble even when she gave her permission, or picking a fight with the other adults, or yelling at the children.

So eventually, she just stopped asking to go.

Though she'll never understand why, Emma couldn't be around the only family she had left that loved her was a problem—sure, her mom and her dad's family never really got along, but that didn't mean they ever treated her daughter with the same distaste.

Not everyone was an undiagnosed borderline personality that made others walk on eggshells, and the Carter side of her family understood that.

It wasn't fair.

On the Carter side, there was Grams and Papa Levi. To some, Grams was Nana Rose, or Auntie Rose, but to Emma she will always be Grams. Even if, in fact, she was her strangely young-looking, feels like she's an immortal, great-grandmother.

Their grandchildren are Stephen, Emma's dad, and Wyatt, her uncle.

Since his wife and only brother died in the span of three weeks, Wyatt Carter hasn't been the same. Through the grief, he still had to raise his two kids- -Cameron and Camille, who are only a year old than Emma- -and he's still done a really good job at it.

Besides her Grams, he's who Emma likes to be around the most. His silence is lovely, it says more than he ever will and Emma in fluent in his language of loneliness. Together, they've bonded over the grieve.

Cameron and Emmeline were close though, and were each other's favorite cousin. Camille was outside it all, and the two girls never got along. 

The way that Grams explained it to Emma when she complained about it was like this:

"The girl's grieving, she just lost her favorite uncle and mother, her mother, just as you lost a father and your favorite aunt." (That didn't process in Emma's twelve year old mind that at that moment, her and Camille were the same.) "And you're all any of us have left of your father. Her dad spends all his time comforting you instead of her. She's hurt and jealous, cut Millie some slack."

Grams had given the exact same speech to Camille. Not that either of them would ever know it. Disappointingly, the way the two interact wouldn't change for a very long time. Camille was too jealous that Emma still had a mother, and Emma was too jealous that Camille had a father.

Because of all this, Emma is surprised to see Cameron and Camille standing in her school's hallway, but once they see their cousin, Cami turns away. It instantly makes more sense than she was just dropping her twin off. 

He doesn't know how to drive anything other than an electric scooter. Emmeline loves Cameron, but he's kinda dumb.

As in 'willing to do obviously stupid things with Emma that are quite possibly life-threatening as long as he can get a good laugh from it' dumb. Cameron's always reminded her of a puppy who hasn't grown into it's paws yet.

Reminiscent of that is how Cam grins at her, going "Em!" and rushes towards his cousin, only to trip half way there and step on her feet—she nearly caves in under his weight. Overgrown puppy is right.

"Aw, Cam," Emma grumbles. "I'm all covered in slobber now."

"Em!" Cameron cheers again, his arms that once awkwardly extended at Emma's middle coming in to hug her tightly. "I found you!"