The Family We Choose

Chapter 53

Emelia wakes up on the couch without Buck, instead there is a pillow under her head and a blanket wrapped around her. She groans at the sun beaming through the window and decides against trying to fall back asleep.

Instead she follows the sounds of giggling coming from the kitchen. Chris and Eddie are at the stove, trying to flip the half cooked pancake in the pan. Chris erupts into another bout of giggles as the batter splatter everywhere when Eddie succeeds and flips it.

She can help but giggle too, Chris' laugh always did that to her.

"Hey sleepy head." Eddie says, not realizing she had been standing there.

"Morning," she mumbled, leaning up against the counter. Content with just watching them mess around.

They were good, for once, cooked all the way through. Unlike the brown outside and gooey inside she is used to.

Chris finished before the both of them and bolted to the living room finally able to join his friends on his game.

"You've forgiven Hildy?" She teases, barely dodging the bacon tossed at her.

"No, but I couldn't take one more of Chris and Bucks pleas for it to be plugged back in."

She giggles.

"I've missed that?" Eddie says without thinking. She tilts her head in confusion.

"What?"

"That smile," she dips her head. It had been a shitty couple weeks and that didn't allow for much smiling on her end. "How are you feeling about all this? I know things have been a little crazy lately."

He leaves it open for whatever she wants to talk about. Pushing everything that happened with May away she smiled again but this one didn't reach her eyes.

"You're happy with her."

Ana, Eddie nods to himself. This he could work with.

"That's not what I asked. How do you feel about her?" He counters.

"I'm happy you're happy." She rephrased what she said with a smirk but Eddie doesn't let her get off that easy.

"Are you?" He asks, shaking his head fondly. "You're such a good kid, you know that? Always thinking about Chris and me before yourself. But you don't have to do that anymore. I am here and I'm not going anywhere, let me take some of this weight. Being happy just because I am or your brother is doesn't make it real. You are allowed to feel however you feel about this. Your feelings matter too."

Emelia listens to every word he says. The word parentified had been offered to her in therapy all those years. But that is all she knows. Taking care of her parents but more importantly taking care of Chris. She didn't know how to change that.

But maybe she thought. She could start.

"I really like Ana, I do and I want you to be happy but I don't think she is the one who can give you that." She says honestly, trusting in what Eddie says and not fearing it will lead to the world ending.

"You have someone else in mind." He asks, and she realizes her opinion on this matters to him.

"That's for you to figure out." She says, pointing her fork at him. It lightens the mood a bit. "I just... I'm trying really hard to be positive about this but it's kind of exhausting."

She stops herself from continuing. Her mind goes back to May and all the hurtful things she said. She doesn't want that to happen here.

"It's okay, keep going." He places his hand over hers. Encouraging her lightly.