She Will Be Loved

13

It was bit awkward after that.

Dad came up again after a couple minutes, sighing sadly as he saw me still sitting there, wide eyed and shocked in the middle of the landing. I just stared at him, unable to process the actions of my perfect, harmless little sister as I blinked up at the pain in his eyes. How was I supposed to feel? Happy that that jerk was gone? I was just angry.

"She said she'd call us." Dad said shortly. "When she gets there."

"Huh." I replied. My voice barely made it out.

"You ok, Genny?" Dad asked quietly.

I shook my head.

"Oh. Well. Why don't you go call some of your friends? Talk it over?" He was not that great of a counselor, my dad. But I guess it was nice to see him try.

"Maybe tomorrow." I said thinly. "I think I'm going to take a shower and head to bed now."

"Okay, sweetie." My dad replied, giving me an awkward pat on the head and mussing my already snarled hair. I looked up in surprise at his use of the word but he was already walking away, obviously wanting to be alone and away from his second emotional teen daughter.

Suddenly he turned around again.

"You don't feel like that, do you, Gen?" He asked. He frowned at me as my mouth opened in surprise.

"Like what?"

"Like Forks is... Like you want to leave." Dad looked down at his hands and his face looked ancient, familiar: I saw the same feeling that haunted me, the same loneliness and wonder what was wrong with you that you had to watch others turn away.

I waited a moment before I answered, memorizing the one vulnerable moment my dad had ever had with me. "No." I said finally.

He nodded and he looked a bit more like himself again. "Good." He said gruffly.

He turned and walked back down the stairs.

I realized I was getting a rather severe headache.

One hand on my forehead, I crawled up the stairs at a rate of about one per every ten minutes, only standing when I got to my door and had to walk past my mess to find a towel and my phone. Scooping some ibuprofen off my desk, I tossed some pills into my mouth and swallowed them dry before heading back down the shower, texting two or three of my friends to see if they had time to talk.

The shower was, thankfully, the one part of my weekend that was completely uneventful. The water was fine, I didn't slip, didn't get shampoo in my eyes, didn't even have to shave. This was good because if one single thing had gone wrong, I would have been curled up in a ball on the throw rug, sobbing about how much I hated people. As it was I just ended up stand in the hot water too long, once again turning up the heat bit by bit until the bathroom was filled with steam and I found myself red as a lobster when I finally go out.

I wrapped my towel around myself and made my way back to my attic room, checking for replies and finding none, sending out a few more texts to some of Bella's friends so they would know she'd left. I knew she wasn't going to tell them. Upstairs I threw on my comfiest pair of jeans and a baggy t-shirt before grabbing my laptop and popping in 'Steel Magnolias', not sure if I wanted to continue moping or cheer up. About ten minutes into the movie my phone finally buzzed.

I flipped open the phone and frowned, seeing a text from an unknown number. Kicking the bits of broken lamp out of the way, I made my way back to the bed and collapsed onto it before jabbing angrily at the button to show the text.