Girl In Red (R.HALE)

19

WARNING: This chapter contains description of seizures. Read with caution.

Leigh couldn't stop smiling in the morning, which was highly uncharacteristic of her. 

Lorrie had gone upstairs to wake her up for school, only to find her already up and dressed. She had been listening to music in her earphones, and dancing in front of her wardrobe. It was such a strange sight, Lorrie lingered for a moment. Of course, as soon as Leigh saw her, she ripped out the headphones and grumbled in embarrassment about coming down for breakfast. 

She hadn't even complained about taking her pills, which was practically unheard of. 

Emmett was once again waiting for her when she pulled into the parking lot, casting a scathing glance over Tammy as Leigh cut the engine. 

"At this point, I'm begging you to let me buy you a new car," he said as she got out. 

She scowled at him. "I don't need your charity, rich boy, Tammy works just fine." 

Emmett's eyebrows flew up. "'Rich boy'? That's new."

"Well, your family has, like, five cars and a massive house, I think that classifies you as wealthy," she said, throwing her bag over her shoulder. "And you still insist on calling me 'new kid', so I thought I'd try and return the favour." 

He nodded. "That's fair enough. 'Rich boy' isn't that good, though." 

"Neither's 'new kid'," she countered. "But it's a work in progress." 

He chuckled, falling into step beside her as she strode across the parking lot. "You've got English first, right?" 

"Yeah," she said, before frowning. "Where are the others?" 

"They already went in," he said. 

Her heart sank. "Oh." 

She didn't know what she'd been expecting. Rosalie didn't seem like the kind of girl publicly to throw herself at the feet of her new girlfriend - and Leigh wasn't even her girlfriend. But a part of her had been hoping she would at least say 'hello' to her in the morning. 

"We're going to go and play baseball this weekend," Emmett said, changing the subject. "There's a storm coming in. Want to come?" 

Leigh smiled amusedly. "Can humans even play vampire baseball? You run too fast." 

"You wouldn't be playing," he chuckled. "You'd, like, literally die if you did." 

"We'll see," she said, before sighing. "I don't think my mother would be too keen on the idea." 

He nodded, understanding. 

Leigh spent the rest of the morning trying not to focus on how tired she was. 

The combination of the radiotherapy and her encounter with Rosalie had lead to a sleepless night for her, with a lot of tossing and turning. She went through phases of nausea, and her body had decided to jazz things up a bit at three in the morning with some night sweats, which she greatly appreciated. She didn't tell Lorrie, as she would have kept her home from school, and the last thing she needed was to be alone with her own thoughts for an entire day. 

Carlisle's offer was still swirling around in her head. And whatever she had with Rosalie was beginning to complicate things. 

She didn't have any answers. For anything. 

She didn't know what she wanted, in any context. She didn't know what she would do with such a limitless life, after living under the impression that she had a finite existence much shorter than that of others. She didn't know if she could live said limitless life knowing her family thought that she'd died, but she had said so herself that she didn't want them to continue suffering.