AURORA ☾ Leah Clearwater ✔

Chapter 1... Perfect

☾

January 2003

Leah

Tears streamed down my face. My whole body shook. My chest was starting to hurt. I gasped for air... 

"Are you serious?" I finally managed between giggles.

"One-hundred-percent serious,"  Emily said between giggles of her own. "You should've seen her. She was covered in mud. It looked like she crapped herself!"

We both burst into laughter again, the sound echoing through the small living room. We collapsed together, a heap of giggles on the old worn couch.

Finally, my laughter finally began to subside. "Karma's a bitch," I said, wiping the tears from my eyes. "Maybe next time Tricia will think twice before stealing someone's boyfriend."

"Yeah," Emily agreed but her smile faltered. It was just for a second, but I caught it. Emily couldn't hide anything from me; she may have been only my second cousin, but we were more like sisters. Twins. Same mind, same heart.

I nudged her gently with my elbow. "C'mon. Are you really still upset about it?" I said, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. "If Percy is the kind of guy who would ditch someone as amazing as you for someone like Tricia, it's his loss. And good riddance!"

Emily nodded and smiled back, but the smile didn't reach her eyes.

I sighed. Poor Em, I thought. I hated to see her all torn up like this over a guy who wasn't worth her time. She had only been dating Percy for a little over three months, but that was enough to get hurt. For whatever reason, she had really liked him. 

And even if the guy was a total loser, it still sucked to be cheated on.

I had been cheated on, once, by my very first boyfriend. I was so glad I didn't need to worry about that anymore. Not with Sam... And if I had been able to find him, even in this tiny little nowhere of La Push, then there had to be someone like that for Emily. "There plenty of other fish in the sea. You'll find the right guy."

"Maybe. If only I was as pretty as you," Emily sighed, tugging at the ends of her shoulder-length black hair. She had meant it as a joke, but I heard the truth in those words.

I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "You are pretty."

"I guess," Emily replied with a shrug, doing her best to seem unbothered. "But not like you."

Man, Percy had really done a number on her self-esteem. I made a mental note to kick his ass at school on Monday. This kind of insecurity wasn't normal for Emily. She was usually self-assured, confident, focused on more important things than looks.

Pretty. I wanted to scoff. The length of my naturally black lashes, the fullness of my lips, the depth of my golden-brown eyes, the smoothness of my dark skin... These were all the things that people listed off when they told me I was pretty. It was nice of them, but as a tomboy, 'pretty' had never mattered much to me. What good did 'pretty' get you? Stares? Boys? Whatever.

Nothing that actually mattered in my life had been obtained through being pretty.

Emily suddenly sat up straight and shook out her hair. "Let's talk about something else," she said. "Anything else."

"Sure. Like what?" I said, leaning back into the couch. "Got any more gossip?"

"Hmm," Emily said, tapping on her lip as she thought. "Well, did you hear about that new family that just moved to Forks?"