Close to Nothing

The next week, Emmett wouldn’t leave my side. I tried to act as though nothing happened but he was the opposite; he was this big caring Emmett the whole time. He’d open doors for me, get my lunch, offer to do my homework for me, make up excuses for teachers when I didn’t do something, scare off other people. It made me a little uncomfortable and I worried about what Rosalie would think.

Surprisingly Rosalie was the one who encouraged Emmett to do those things. She glared at him from time to time as though she was disappointed and whenever I protested against Emmett’s help, she’d ignore me and tell him to do it anyway. All of the Cullens were sympathetic to me and maybe even pitied me but I had recovered quickly. I didn’t dwell on it because if I did, I’d go insane.

It was Thursday and the last bell just rang. I walked between Rosalie and Emmett to his Jeep. They were taking me home. I sat in the back.
“I wish we didn’t have to go to school,” I said.
“Well when there’s another sunny day, we’ll go back to the mountain,” Emmett said to me over his shoulder and Rosalie glared at him.
“Don’t even joke like that, Emmett,” she hissed at him.
“Hey, it’s alright Rose, it happened ages ago,” I said lightly and tugged lightly at a lock of her beautiful blonde hair.
“It’s not, Eleanora, Carlisle said that you would’ve been crippled and imagine living like that forever,” she emphasized and I let out an involuntary shudder.
“But I do want to see the mountain, I didn’t get to see much last time,” I said more to Emmett than Rosalie. He gave me a thankful grin. He knew that I knew he was extremely sorry but he was glad that I just dropped the subject at times.

We stopped at my house and everyone got out of the car. This was Rosalie’s first time here and she was examining everything with a curious eye.
Lately she’s been taking to following Emmett and I. She even walks us to our bio class. Rosalie, like any other average female, is worried about the fact that Emmett spends so much time with me. It’s true that Emmett is the member of the Cullen family that I talk most with. I feel at ease with him and despite the accident on the mountain, we’ve become close friends.
Rosalie walked around the house, closely examining all my books and CDs. She stopped near a bookshelf that had pictures on it. She tapped one.
“Who’s that?” she asked. I looked at the picture. It was Christopher and I in Russia. We were standing on a bridge above the Neva river.
“My brother, Christopher,” I said with a smile and she lightly traced and finger over his face. I glanced curiously at her face but she hid it behind her hair and moved onto the next picture. She frowned.
“When was this?” she asked. There was a small edge to her voice. She saw the last picture. It was the day at the mountain with Jasper, Edward, and Emmett. We were standing near the edge of the cliff and the blue sky was behind us. The sun was shining on us making us shimmer a little. Emmett’s arm was thrown around my shoulders casually and we were grinning at the camera like two idiots. This picture was one of my favorites.
“Oh that day at the mountain, the view is amazing,” I stated lightly. I could see Rosalie seething underneath her cool exterior. She turned around and looked at Emmett. He looked back plainly at her.
“We’ve got to go,” Rosalie said to me. I nodded. She walked right out the door. Emmett gave me a sad smile and followed her. I didn’t know what to think.