Early update! I hope you like it.

I know that a lot of you asked me to keep Laurie close to Amy, but I actually had planned to pull them apart one last time.

It's not the happiest chapter, and I doubt it's going to be the saddest.

Three days after the ball, Amy still couldn't sleep. She went to bed, but her mind kept spiraling at the events. She felt stupid and angry. How could Laurie think that she would want him to settle with her? And why did she have to open her mouth? Now Laurie would tell Jo and the whole family would know and they would pity her and laugh at her. Regret, regret, regret.

Flo noticed something at the ball, but Amy insisted on acting as if nothing was wrong. But she could see it was false. She hadn't seen Laurie since that awkward conversation with Mrs. Taylor. Her future mother-in-law had been so embarrassed. She went and told her what happened and Flo tried to comfort her, but she also felt bad for Laurie. Regardless, Amy kept silent. She acted normally, although her eyes looked tired and she remained at home. The adults didn't seem to notice much or at least they never mentioned it. Mrs. Carrol was busy with her friend and they took James and Flo out, so that distracted them.

When everyone was busy with other things, Amy went to see some friends at the stables.

"Hello, dear," Amy said affectionately to the black stallion. The horse greeted her with joy. He recognized her, of course. She practically went to visit him every day and often she would take him for a ride. The horse began to move his head pointing at the reins. "I know, handsome. I promise tomorrow I'll take you out."

Laurie was no better. Amy's confession had made him rethink their whole friendship. All this time, she had been in love with him! How could he have been so blind! Maybe he could have noticed something, but he was so focused on Jo, he didn't pay attention. And then when they grew up and he brought his friends, it seemed like Amy liked to hang out with them. He continued remembering things; all the times he danced with her and their flirtatious exchanges. Suddenly a conversation she had with Jo came back to him.

'Mother doesn't approve of flirting even in fun, and you do flirt desperately, Teddy.'

'I'd give anything if I could answer, 'So do you'. As I can't, I'll merely say that I don't see any harm in that pleasant little game, if all parties understand that it's only play.'

He thought Amy and him were in the same game, but he had been wrong. For Amy, it meant much more. He went back and forth in his room, to the door and back. He didn't know what to do. He wanted to talk to her, but he feared she would reject him again. The way he looked at him, she was scared. And then there was the issue of his "settling". He could go and tell her that she was wrong, that he truly had grown to love her deeply, deeper than anyone before. That this was not a matter of settling but of realizing what true love is. He could tell her that those moments they shared had been the happiest he had been in a year.

And then he had the issue of work. His grandfather had been communicating with him, telling him about work duties. He knew he had to go back. He wanted to go and work, but how could he leave like this. Somehow he got convinced that Amy wasn't going to believe his speech. So he set out to prove himself that he could be a useful man before he could be worthy of a woman like Amy. And then he would come back for her.

The next afternoon he walked to the Nierikers' residence. However, the nearer he got, the more nervous he got. What if she rejected him again? He decided to beg for her forgiveness before attempting anything else. First, he needed to win her friendship back, the rest could wait.

"Good evening, Mrs. Carrol," said Laurie, "Good evening, boy. We have missed you. Amy is not here." She said, knowing Amy was the only reason he would visit her.

"Oh, she isn't?"

"She went riding," Flo said.

"I see." He said disappointed. "Well, I won't be here for long," Aunt March stopped drinking from the teacup to look at him. "I'm going to London. My grandfather has been there for a while and I told him I want to start working on the business. I start next week."

"Mhmm" Aunt Carrol nodded in understanding. "Good for you. I have to go. Good luck, Laurie, we're going to miss you."

"She'll be back any minute," Flo said once her mother was gone.

"My train leaves in an hour," Laurie replied quickly. "Could you...could you just give Amy this," he handed her a note. "Tell her I'm sorry." He looked nervous, like he wanted to say more but couldn't. What does Amy have to forgive?

"What's going on?"

"Just tell her I had to go."

Not twenty minutes had passed, when she heard Amy walking in.

"Hello, Flo." Her voice had some mix of fear and excitement. "I missed riding, I need a bath. What is it?" She asked when she noticed Flo was worried.

"Laurie was just here."

"He was?" Amy asked.

"He said he needed to go. To London." She looked at Amy's face beginning to crack. "He left you this," she said, giving the note. He watched Amy reading the small piece of paper.

Dear Amy,

I'm deeply sorry for what I said. Please forgive me. I have gone to make something of myself, so you might not be ashamed of calling me your friend .

Yours, Laurie.

Amy looked at the note with disbelief. So now he wanted to be a better person, wow. Well, at least he was finally going to work. What hurt Amy the most was the word friend. He wanted to be her friend?! What was he playing at? Yes, she rejected him, even before he got a chance to say anything, but still, it felt like a bucket of frozen water. And he felt sorry for what he said, what did that mean, that he regretted it? She exhaled and closed her hand into a fist crumpling the paper. Flo watched her attentively. Amy was trying to hide it, but her cousin could see she was hurting.

"Amy?"

"He's going back to work," Amy finally said.

"Alright...isn't that what you wanted?" Flo asked dubiously. Amy did love having him there, but she also had mentioned a couple of times about how he should start to really work.

"No, it's great, it is!" She reaffirmed, but her voice betrayed her. "He's finally doing something. I really have to change." Amy said and hurried to her room.

Amy entered her room and as soon as she closed the door she let all those tears she had been holding finally come out. God, how much she wished Jo had been right when she called her 'heartless', that would have made everything much easier. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. It was as if her heart was literally breaking because she felt actual physical pain.

The next day, Amy opened her eyes slowly and noticed Flo sitting close by.

"Good morning, or evening I guess," Flo answered from the chair where she was reading the last number of La Mode Illustrée.

"What time is it?" Amy asked, alarmed. It didn't feel like it was morning.

"Past noon." She approached to offer Amy tea. "What's going on?"

"I'm sorry, I haven't been sleeping lately."

"Yes, I noticed that. I also noticed it began after the night of the ball." Amy hid her face between her legs.

"Weren't you supposed to meet James today?"

"Don't worry about that. I explained it to him and he agreed that I should stay with you."

"I'm so tired."

Flo let her rest a little more, after convincing her that she could go write letters and do her own things. After a couple of hours of sulking, Amy finally made her way to the bathtub. She got dressed in a simple white dress and didn't bother putting on the bustle. She just braided her hair in a simple way. Walking around the room, she saw a figure walking towards the house. It was Elton.

"Oh God,"

"What?" Flo asked worriedly.

"It's Elton," They heard the door opening and Elton talking with the maid. "I can't talk to him."

"What?!"

"I can't! Look at me!"

"Amy!"

"Please, please. Just tell him I'm sick, whatever."

"Wha..." Flo tried to argue against it, but Amy pushed her out of the room.

"Elton," Flo greeted him at the drawing-room.

"Good evening, Florence."

"Are you here for Amy?" Flo said fearing the answer.

"Yes. We haven't seen her this week. Is she sick?"

"You could say that," Flo admitted. "She's unavailable."

"Are you sure it's that?"

"What do you mean?"

"I know I haven't had as much time with her as Laurie. And I saw them dancing." Elton lowered his head in defeat. "It's him, isn't it?"

"To be honest I don't even understand myself what's going on. She hasn't been herself in these last days."

"Well, we haven't seen Laurie either. I just want to know the truth." He said looking away. Flo could detect pain in his voice. "Anyway, I hope she gets better soon. Thank you, Flo." He said making his way out.

"Is he gone?" Amy asked, biting her nails.

"Yes, but he deserved more than this."

"I know. But I can't right now."

"Why don't we go outside, it'll do you good fresh air." She said grabbing Amy's arm and taking her outside.

"Can you tell me what happened? Mrs. Taylor said something about you and Laurie, is that it?" Flo asked when they sat on a bench.

"She thought Laurie was my suitor. I told her we were just friends." Flo made a face that told Amy something. "You knew?"

"Well, yes. I mean, I think everyone did, to be honest. Why else would Laurie be here all the time?"

"I thought he felt homesick."

"He never told you anything?"

"No! That night, he… God, I'm such an idiot! I should have never followed him to that garden."

"Ok… honey, you really need to tell me what exactly happened there," Flo asked because in her mind more serious things happened.

"He was angry because I said we were just friends. And then he… I guess he wanted to make a declaration or something, but I stopped him. Like he expected me to jump in his arms and what?!"

"He proposed?!"

"No… or at least I didn't let him say much. I ended up telling him that I loved him." Flo opened her mouth astonished.

"What did he do?"

"Nothing, he just stayed there and I left. Jesus, what did I do?" Amy began crying harder. Flo only held her cousin. It was so weird to see Amy like this, which made it all the more painful.

"I know you're hurting. I'm on your side. All I'm saying is that your family always talks about Laurie with the highest praise, especially you. It doesn't fit that he'll do something like that."

"When we were in Nice, he told me that Jo was the only one he ever cared about. Am I supposed to believe that in the span of six months he changed his feelings completely? Either he's as volatile as a feather and therefore what he claims to feel means nothing, or he's just stupid if he thinks he can have the life he envisioned with Jo, by settleting with me and therefore he doesn't know who I am at all, cause I can't be Jo! He wants to be close to her." Amy said, her eyes getting redder. "Maybe I was wrong all along. He's desperate. He went to work for his grandfather, and he needs a wife. He needs an ornament to socialize." Amy said echoing her words in Valrosa.

"I should have never answered that letter," Amy said regretfully.

"What letter?"

"The Christmas letter. I should have never answered. I mean, I was fine! I had made up my mind, I was going to marry Fred."

"You said no for a reason."

"I know."

After that day, Amy resolutely decided not to sulk ever again. Although she didn't recover her usual energy instantly. She went out with Flo and some friends, but those also reduced in number, since Laurie and his friends had gone.

"How are you honey, are you feeling better?" Mrs. Carrol asked. For days she watched the girl closely, wondering if her illness was more a matter of the heart than of the food as Flo told her. Because she wasn't stupid, she noticed how Amy's mood got better every time Laurie wrote or visited.

"Yes, Thank you, Aunt Carrol."

"Listen, dear, I know we promised you and your family to be back home before winter, but we don't want to separate Flo and James and it looks as if he is already planning a proposal."

"I'm so glad."

"We are too. But my husband and I were thinking of staying here a few more months."

"Oh," Amy said letting her disappointment come out. She was happy for her cousin, truly; but she also missed home so much.

"If you want to go back, we could send you a chaperone."

"I don't want to bother with all of that."

"Nonsense. It's very easy. A lot of young women have to travel alone and that service is offered." Amy was still hesitant. "It's ok, sweetheart." Mrs. Carrol reassured her.

"Alright."

"I'll get the tickets ready and you can tell your family about your returning."

But there was still a pending matter: Elton. She didn't know exactly what to say. Back at home, she rejected a few boys, even rejected Parker's requests for a kiss. Saying no to Fred had been hard, but at least she knew she did it because he didn't really know her nor cared about her art. But Elton was different and she even could say that she began to feel something. It wasn't love exactly, but she certainly liked him. She could see herself being part of that family where art is all around. She wrote a note to him, asking if he was willing to see her, and he accepted. So they met in the park.

"Hi," They greeted each other, but the exciting and warm rapport was gone. "Thank you for agreeing to see me."

"I don't have much time," he said, trying to be kind but really he was angry. Amy couldn't blame him.

"Elton, I'm so sorry."

"If he was always your choice, why did you accept me?"

"It's not like that. Laurie has been around since we were kids and we were always friends and nothing more."

"That's not how it looked like."

"Believe me, I had no idea. I… I never expected him to do anything more." She touched her forehead. "I liked you. I really did. And perhaps had you arrived a year ago to my life, this would have ended completely differently."

"I don't understand, when you stopped going out, I figured out you had chosen him, but then he left."

"I didn't. He went to London, and I'm going back to Concord." She watched Elton's eyes looking down. "You are a wonderful man. I'm so sorry you got in the middle of this," Amy tried to apologize but she felt as if she was doing the exact same thing Laurie did with her.

"He's lucky." He said in a low voice. "Don't make it easy for him."

"I don't think anything else is going to happen." But Elton knew better.

In the next couple of days, Amy focused on cleaning the painting room. She packed her sketchbooks, aquarelles, and oil paintings. And in the process, she realized how prolific she was. Most of them were sketches of landscapes, animals, and the people she saw. She now knew why almost every artist's dream was to visit Europe. It was such an incredible place and so inspiring. She was going to miss it. But her tie was up and now she needed to go back and figure out her life on her own.

She began putting down her easel, collecting the pieces of the canvas she still had and all of her materials. Flo helped her to get everything in order. They spent the rest of the week together.

"So, what are you going to do?" Flo asked as they closed the last baggage.

"I'm going to teach," Amy confessed as she folded some papers into a box. "I always said I would when I came back. Katherine says that Mr. Brown has a waiting list, so maybe I can talk to him."

"What about Laurie?" Amy just sat in the bed and shook her head. For days Flo had wanted to talk with Amy about him. She decided to just get it out, see if Amy may open up to her.

Amy moved her head negatively. "For years I watched Laurie as he watched Jo. He saw his life with her. I can't compete with that."

"Maybe it's not a matter of competing."

"Jo is going to kill me if she ever finds out!"

"But she rejected him…"

"You don't know Jo, from the moment she met him, he was hers. He would play with us all and he would even flirt with me, but Jo had a claim on him, even when it was not romantic." She continued. "The whole family expected them to marry. Maybe if I were Meg or Beth, she might be okay with it, but me..."

"Things can change..."

"I'm so sick to always be in second place," Amy began talking. "Whenever Jo discards something, it passes to me. First being Aunt March companion, then yours, and now Laurie. I can handle everything before, but Laurie...I rather stay unmarried for the rest of my life than spending my days with someone who's never going to love me as I love him because he's thinking about my sister...that would kill me." She said standing up to continue her packing. "Jo already hates me enough...and a lot of it I brought it on myself, and some I'll just never understand...But I know I'm not adding Laurie to the list."

"But..."

"No, please, Flo. I don't want to talk about it. Aunt March is disappointed, I know she is. And, I was supposed to return married, to help my family."

"It's not your job..."

"But it is. Jo already did her part. She's sacrificing her writing to get money. Beth needs a good doctor and Meg and John need help. My parents won't be able to work for long."

"Are you going to be ok?"

"Of course, but I don't want to hear about my marriage in a long time. My marriage, not yours. I want to hear about it as much as you can say, alright?" She said as she watched Flo blushed.

"I'm going to miss you." Flo hugged her tightly.

"Me too. Thanks for always being there for me."

"Are you kidding me? I don't have three sisters waiting for me back home. You're it!" The couple of cousins laughed and cried. They loved each other so much, and Amy knew she had a fourth sister.

"Good luck, sweetheart. Write to us when you get home."

"I will, Aunt Carrol," Amy said and her aunt pulled her into a hug. "Thank you so much, for everything."

"It was a joy to have you with us. We're going to miss you." Her aunt replied.

"An absolute pleasure, young lady." Mr. Carrol spoke. He and Flo took her to the train station where she met her chaperone, a mature woman with a strong face.

Notes:

Just to be clear, when Amy mentions "Katherine" or "Kate", she's referring to her childhood best friend Kitty Bryant. I just thought that since they are adults, calling her Kitty would be right.

The sad part of triangles is that for sure, someone will get hurt.