Emeline Rivera has done the same things since practically the moment she was born. Wake up, go to school, hang out with her friends, spend time with her mom, and have scarily realistic dreams at night. With some fainting mixed in of course. Forks's...
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1861
It's been said that when you die your life flashes before your eyes, and as someone facing the blood red eyes of my own demise I can confirm that that statement is mostly true.
It's impossible to know that your death is coming and not self reflect. For me I've come to one conclusion. I was hardly a person at all, merely a creature sewn together by threads of my own fear and limitations. I had one point of intrigue in my meaningless, inconsequential life, and I shied away from it at every opportunity.
It's far too easy to get lost in the consequences before you know you won't be alive to see them.
Comparing myself to Charlotte or him clarifies it even further for myself that I was simply too lost in my own cowardice to truly live.
The only reason I met him in the first place was Charlotte's insistence, which is all too telling.
It was a day like every other day in my simple life, and I was listlessly slaving away in my fathers bakery, like every day.
Charlotte burst through the door and everything changed.
Looking back Charlotte had a distinct presence that I didn't fully appreciate. She couldn't enter a room without the air itself being permeated by her aura, her very personality left a tangible thing behind her like a parting gift.
Charlotte played peasant with me for about an hour before deciding to reveal her real reason for deciding to pay me a visit.
"Leanne," she whispered to me from across the counter "the soldiers are in town."
And I was hooked.
Papa didn't take much convincing at all to allow me to leave of course. He knew how Charlotte was.
Everyone did.
When she set her mind to something it was pointless to try to convince her otherwise.
Within minutes Charlotte had me running through the town with her, barely giving me time to make pleasantries with the confused people that we passed.
I stopped chasing after her momentarily to help up a poor elderly lady Charlotte bumped into while Charlotte raced through the blistering Texas heat, and I apologized profusely. Looking back I wish I had been able to just follow her, sharing in her exhilaration.
Charlotte's pure, unadulterated, utter lust for life made everyone fall in love with her a little bit, and I'm not ashamed to say I'm included in that.
"Leanne, hurry up!" Charlotte's laugh rang out, and after apologizing once more to the poor woman I ran to catch up to Charlotte, only to find her waiting at the tree line for me.
That was another thing that Charlotte had the ability to do. Not the waiting for me part, but the way it made me feel. It was exciting to know that I was important to her, and she could put her rapid fire life on pause for me, even if for just a few seconds.
I moved to ask her what she was doing, but she brought one finger to her lips, signalling for me to be quiet.
I hardly thought that was fair, as she'd just been calling out to me, but I complied nonetheless. Charlotte knew best.
That was the problem with me. I'd think things but never say them. Charlotte knew best was a mantra for me, a creed by which I lived my life.
She was a person, my best friend, and yet I never saw her as such. Instead she was some deity, some unattainable figure who's level I could never reach. We could never be equals in my mind, and I don't think we were in hers either.
Our dynamic stayed that way until the day she left my life.
I peered over to where she was looking, and saw that the soldiers had made camp in a clearing a little ways away. I could only see a sliver of what was going on, so moved to go and greet them. Charlotte gestured for me to follow her further into the woods and towards the camp, but asked me to stay put just out of sight.
I didn't understand what she was on about, and when I told her that she simply laughed before disappearing.
The disappearing act was her favourite.
I watched as Charlotte approached a young soldier and almost immediately began to flirt with him, if her body language was any indication. I grabbed onto the tree I was hiding behind, and it registered to me that I was jealous.
It might sound surprising, but I was jealous of her. I wanted to be as brave as her, to force myself to step out from the place where I stood and join her, but I couldn't.
I pathetically waited behind the tree for hours, until the moon was in the sky and Charlotte was out of my sight.
I was fixing to just leave her and go home when I heard a male voice behind me, and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
"Y'know ma'am, it isn't very polite to spy on people."
I turned around faster than I ever had before, my back to the tree I had been leaning on.
In front of me was an exceptionally attractive young man. His skin was lightly tanned from being in the Texas sun all day, and his hair was honey blonde. It framed his boyish face perfectly, and lightly fell into his steel gray eyes.
Him.
He didn't mean anything to me in the moment that I met him, he was beautiful of course, but that was it.
It sounds unhealthy to say it, but from the moment that he entered my life to the second I'm in, my death, he was the thing that made my life anything other than pathetic.
He raised an eyebrow at me, and my face reddened as I realized I had been staring. Of course I'd been staring.
"I'm uh- incredibly sorry, sir." I fumbled, my words seemingly a million miles away, yet on the tip of my tongue all at once. On top of that, I took note of the metals and badges that covered his uniform, and realized I must be speaking to a very high ranking officer. I internally cursed myself for my foolishness.
"What brings you here then...?" He asked, blanking on a name.
"Leanne." I supplied him with, speaking in my most gentle voice. I didn't want him to think I was entirely rude. "And I'm here because my friend Charlotte brought me here, not to spy. I was just looking for her so that we could leave."
"Well let's find your friend then, Leanne." He said, amusement coloring his features, and my face heated up yet again, much to my displeasure. My name had no right sounding that good coming from his lips.
"Who are you?" I blurted out. He turned to me and made a sweeping motion, kissing my hand gently.
"Major Jasper Whitlock, at your service ma'am." He drawled, and my heart begin to flutter as he straightened up and led me out of the woods and towards camp.
