He stood next to the fridge, holding the door open with one hand, and stuffing food into his bag with the other. I watched him for two minutes, deciding what to ask, or what to do. I wanted to know what the hurry was, but I was too scared. I shook my head, knowing whatever was wrong my big brother would tell me. He always told me.
I backed away, but heard a crunch of a leaf. I must have stepped on it because it was all over my shoe. Any day my brother would ignore that, but today he seemed jittery and he turned around. He relaxed when he saw me, but he sighed quietly.
"Oh Bella," he walked slowly to me, the fridge door closing behind them. He knelt down near me.
"Em, what's going on?" I asked. Emmett smiled.
"Nothing gets past you, huh?" He smiled sadly. I shook my head.
"Nope." I said triumphantly. He sighed again.
"I'm going away for awhile." He said.
"What?" I asked. Did I hear him correctly?
"It's gonna be awhile, before you see me again." He said, avoiding my eyes.
"But… where will you sleep, eat?"
"I—I don't know. I just need to be away from Renee and Charlie. I just can't stand being around them." He struggled to say this, and I was surprised he did. Emmett said that when you call your parents by their first names, they feel threatened. When I said it, they threatened to take my T.V away. I went back to 'Mom and Dad'. They seemed to like that better.
"Now?" I said. Everything was happening so fast.
"Uh, yeah. I'm sorry I didn't tell you any earlier." He looked down at the ground, ashamed.
"When are you coming back?" I felt my lip quiver, but I bit it, doing my best to stay brave.
"Well, I'm sixteen now, um, when I turn eighteen. You'll be ten years old then."
"Two whole years?"
"Aren't you the quick math geek." He messes with my hair, and I push him away playfully. "It won't be that long. It will go by fast, I promise." Emmett was using the face that could convince me of anything. I sighed, knowing I couldn't stop him from doing anything he put his mind to.
"Okay, I guess. But you better be at our tree house exactly when you turn eighteen." Emmett smiled, and hugged me tight.
"I promise."