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CHAPTER ELEVEN. DO NOT FALL IN LOVE
AND there was Peter, standing to the side looking appropriately distressed. She didn't wait for anyone to tell her it was okay for her to walk or run or anything, really. While the others were getting checked out by the medics, Amelia broke into a sprint. It took Peter a moment to register that Amelia was running and another to register that she was running towards him. He opened his arms as she came closer and threw her arms around his neck. Peter rocked back with the force.
Peter was sure she was saying something, but she was shaking too, so it was hard to decipher what it was actually that she was mumbling. He shushed her, arms curving around her back. As her breathing came back to normal, he heard what she was saying, over and over. "I'm sorry. I'm sorry." This girl. She had just about almost died and she was apologizing. Why? As if she heard him, she leaned back. "I'm sorry I said that I hated you. I don't hate you. I was just angry because you didn't answer my calls but then you found time to call Ned and I thought you were deliberately ignoring me and ─ "
"Shh," Peter hushed her. She was crying. Amelia was crying and Peter tried not to laugh. He tried, very very hard. But failed. A chuckle left his lips. She looked up at him, mouth opened in more a D than an O, offended.
"You're laughing," she croaked. "I'm crying and you're laughing!"
Now Peter completely forgot they were being secretive (were they?) and let out a tremendous laugh. It was a powerful thing, that laugh. He only did it once, but his eyes remained shaped like it.
Something inside Amelia did a complicated tug. I like his laugh, she decided. A smile fought its way to her lips too, mirroring Peter's. Annoyed, she punched him in the arm.
"Ow!" he said, more offended than anything.
"That's for not answering my calls or text," she said. Then she reached up on her tip-toes and planted a kiss on his cheek. Peter was blushing. Amelia did her best to hide that so was she. "And that's for saving us," she whispered.
Peter's eyes softened. He looked at her face and wiped the grime from it with his thumb. "You're okay, right?" He was staring at the cut on her forehead and her palm and her bare knees. Peter didn't know how to tell her the terror he'd felt when he had thought she had fallen ─ that she was falling and he couldn't catch her. Then he had. But what if? What if she had fallen? What then? Something tugged on his heart ─ a pain, ancient and ever-present. He had already lost too many people in his life. He didn't think he was ready to lose anymore. He stepped back a little, away from Amelia, and instantly felt cold.
Amelia was nodding. "I'm alright," she said, but there was a thinness to her voice. As if she wasn't sure herself. Cold air enveloped her when he stepped back ─ like an alarm going off in her head. She didn't have time to react though as Ned interrupted. She was glad.
