Not Me!

One Last Summer Day

(Y/N)'s POV

Summer is slowly breezing past faster than a bullet—warm summer nights spent with Cynthia or the rest of my friends. But the summer fun is coming to a close, and school is coming back into season.

I gently laid my violin down in its case. This will probably be Cynthia's first school year, so I'll need to help her get into high school and everything.

I found her on the living room couch. Her eyes were glued to the TV like a moth to a flame. She watched whatever that would come on. This time, she watched a tennis match between two women and two men.

"Okay, Cynthia," I plopped onto the couch beside her. "We need to come up with a story to tell other people."

She looked over at me from the TV. Her brows furrowed, "what do we need a story for?"

"Well, you need to start going to school with me. So we will need to do a little bit of lying." I reached over to the remote and cut the TV off.

"Lie about what?" She tilted her head a bit and adjusted to face me entirely.

"How we're related? I'm only three years older than you. I can't just say that I'm like an adoptive parent to you. People would give us plenty of odd looks."

"Okay, what would we say?" Her eyes scanned over my face over and over again.

"I'm not sure." I paused to reflect on all of the possible options that I could give her. "You can say you're my niece. How about that?"

"A niece? And that is?" She raised a brow at me. That's right, she lived in the woods by herself for who knows how long.

"Um, an aunt or uncle's kid," I tried to figure out the best way to tell her what a niece is. "Does that make sense?" My eyebrow raised like hers did.

"I think so?" She told a not-really-convincing lie. The TV is more interesting to her than what we had to talk about by a long shot. Glancing at the screen every few seconds, her eye would catch it before looking back at me. She wanted to speed things along.

"Alright, so in public, if anyone asks, you're my niece. You're staying at my house for the time being. Got it?" I slowly added as I kept eye contact with her.

"Yeah, I got it. You're my aunt or something." She didn't even bother to look at me anymore and just at the blank screen.

"Good; if people ask any more questions, I'll try to answer them for you." I turned the TV back on and watched her lean forward a bit like she's being hypnotized.

"You know you don't have to sleep on the couch, right? The old guest bedroom is yours if you want it." I called over my shoulder as I left the room. Whether she heard me or not is a mystery for a later time.

I went about what I wanted to do, and she did what she wanted. We kept to our own little corners for the night.

Someone knocked on our door. At the door, I saw Edward.

"I need to have a private conversation...with you." Edward slowly spoke, his eyes glancing behind me and back at me.

Whatever he had to tell me, he didn't seem to want Cynthia to know about it. His relationship with her is hit or miss at times. He more so treated her like a supporting character to some kind of plotline in his head or something.

"Sure," I stepped out of my house and closed the door. He took my hand into his and stepped off the porch. "How far are you taking me?"

"Far, so no one can hear us." He strolled across my yard into the woodsy outskirts.

"Okay, so this is something that we need to be secretive about?" Curiosity had a tight grip on my mind.

"Yes," He didn't stop until we were a good distance into the woods. "My family and I..." He paused for a moment like the next words had a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Yes, Edward?" I urged him to go on about what he had to say. My interest peaked hearing that it's a family-related matter at hand. There were endless possibilities in my mind of what it could be.

"We need to leave Forks." He said it in such a manner that it sounded final.

"We? Like just you and your family? Or do I come along too?" I didn't completely understand what he meant by we in his sentence.

"No, just my family and I," He looked into my eyes.

"Okay, when will you come back?" I felt a little saddened by the news, but I didn't mind it too much. Our relationship is strong; we could last in a long-distance one. It would take a little bit of work from both sides, but we'll do just fine.

"We won't come back to Forks." He rested a cold hand on my cheek like he wanted to comfort me and himself with just this touch.

"Okay, that's fine," I whispered. My voice lost all of the confidence in it. "So you're moving away? Could we visit each other?"

"No, it'll be too far away." He moved his thumb along my cheek, feeling my complexion for any and all imperfections.

"That's okay, will you promise to contact me? I don't care what strange way you find to do it. Email, phone call, text, letters sent by a pigeon," I mumbled near the end.

The loss of his cold touch would be an unfortunate phase of life. I doubt we would ever see each other again, but it still weighed heavy on my heart.  His presence has been making me feel safe and loved for the past few months.

A tear or two slipped from my eyes, but I willed myself to remember this wasn't a last farewell or anything. It will be just fine.
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1017 Words