5

“Look who’s up bright and early for once.” Seth said as I walked inside the hospital room.

It was the next day and It was 9:30. That was early for me. Usually I would sleep in and wouldn’t wake up until noon. But today I had more confidence then yesterday. Today I would read the rest of the letter she wrote for me.

I don’t know why but I wanted to read the letter while I was close by her. To me that’s what felt right. Seth looked way better then yesterday but you could still see the sadness in his eyes. India for once was quiet by her sister sad as always. Autumns' mom was sitting in a hospital chair further away from her daughters' bedside, it looked like she was about to cry again just like she did yesterday and the day before. Her husband was close by, rubbing soothing circle on her back, comforting her.

I took a seat near the window.

“So how is she doing today?” I said aloud.

“She doing better than yesterday. The doctor says that she is healing slowly, but that she has to wake up so that she could heal better.” India said not taking her eyes off her sister.

“Oh” I said. I didn’t know what else I could say. Everyone was quiet just starring at her like any moment she might wake up.

“If, it helps I think she’s going to make it.” I said, I know my mate and I knew she was going to make it, no doubt about it.

“My girl has always been a fighter. She's not gonna die on us with out a fight.” Her dad said. He was the only one that looked away from her to look at me. I could tell that he was sadder than he seemed to be. He gave me a fake smile and then turned back to her.

“What do you mean when you say ’she not gonna die on us with out a fight?’ she’s only 17 and she’s turning 18 tomorrow. She’s to young to die, it’s not her time to go. Someone tried to kill her isn’t it obvious to everyone in this room? Someone came and severely beat her half to death, honestly I didn’t think I had to say that out loud for you guys to know that. I mean just look at her.” India said pointing to her.

Every one was quiet. And shocked by India outburst. She was usually all for peace and love. To see her yell and scream at people was out of the ordinary.

“Trust me, I know my mate. She’s not dying anytime soon. Today I could feel she’s getting better by the second.” I said without thinking. I didn’t know what I was saying until it was to late. Every one turned around to look at me. ‘Damn it! I should’ve just keep my mouth shut!’ I thought to myself. The only person that knew she was my mate was my brothers, sister, mom, and dad. They told me that I should tell her before anyone else found out, especially my mom.

It was an awkward silence, well for me mostly. They were just starring at me and I couldn’t read their emotions. Everyone was starring at me but Seth.

“I knew it all along.” Seth said turning away from me. He looked hurt by my words but shrugged. “It obvious that their mates, don’t you see the way Nathan looks at her, the way their always together. It’s like I was the only person that was seeing how they act towards each other.” he said as if it were that simple.

“How long did you know that you two were mates?” Her farther said. Now that it was out there I might as well just tell them the whole story, I thought to myself.

“I knew it since we were ten. At that time I didn’t know what the feeling was but then my father told me. I wanted to tell her ever since we were sixteen but I never got the chance to.”

“Oh, my god. I knew their was something going on between you two. When she wakes up you have to tell her.” India said as she smiled for the first time in two days.

“Come here” she said running up to me and giving me a bear hug. “You two are too cute together.” she said pulling away and then grabbing onto my hand. “Come on we have to talk, brother in law.” she said as she pulled me outside the room and begun to walk out the hospital.

“So tell me.” she said plopping down on the bench that was outside the main entrance.

“Tell you what?” I asked sitting next to her.

“Come on we’re family now. You could tell me anything.” she said looking excited to hear what I had to say.

“Ok, what do you want to know.” I asked her.

“How long have you been feeling this way for her?”

“Umm, I don’t know I think it was when we were kids. Maybe around the first time we met, I thought she was cute and then eventually over time I guess my emotions got stronger and stronger towards her.” I wanted to say more, but I knew if I did I would go on and on about it.

“Oh my god so you had a crush on her ever since you met her.” India said. It came out sounding like a statement but I answered her anyways.

“Yeah” I could feel my cheeks turn red, but quickly tried to cover my face.

“And you blush! Autumn told me that was one of the cutest things about you.” she said pulling my hands away from my face. I swear when she said those word my world went into slow motion.

“What? She talks about me, to you?”

“Well duh I‘m her sister, Who do you think she tells stuff to about you. Well of course not you since she scared to admit it.” she said. It sounded like there was more to the story so I waited until she continued but she didn’t.

“What does she say about me?” I asked.

“Well, for starters, she has had the biggest crush on you since you guys met. She thinks you’re the cutest guy in school. She even said that sometimes she wished you were her mate and I guess since it’s true she’ll be super happy when you tell her when she wakes up.” she said.

“I don’t know if I’m going to tell her when she wakes up.” I said. India looked confused but smiled. “I don’t want to stress her out, cause I know she’s going to be all tired and weak. So I’m going to tell her later.” I said.

“How long is ‘later’ ?” she asked as she air quoted ‘later’

“I don’t know? I want her to tell me that she loves me more than a friend and then I’ll tell her.” I said. She seem to understand what I was saying.

“Well good luck, because my sister is stubborn.” she said getting off the bench and then heading for the entrance.

“I won’t need luck because I know my mate is going to tell me that she loves me more than friends.” I said following her.

“Trust me I know my sister.”

“And I know my mate and best friend.” I said as we came back to the hospital room.

When we got back everything was just as we left it. Well one thing changed they were all smiling with hope now.

“What did your letter say?” India asked as soon as we got back.

I pulled it out my back pocket and handed it to her. “Aw” she said as she glanced at the letter and then flipped it over.

“Let me see that“ Seth said getting up and looking at the letter from over her shoulder.

“I like the back part the most.” India said as she flipped it back over and the handed it back to me. Seth on the other hand had a blank look on his face as if he want to take the letter and burn it to ashes. “Well tell us about some of the memories you guys shared. That’ll keep us all occupied until she wakes up from her long nap.” India said.

“Yeah, tell us I’m sure we’ll all love to hear.” Seth said sarcastically.

“Just pay him no mind. He has problems.” India said loud enough that Seth could hear her. Everyones' eyes were on me. So I decided to continue with the next thing on the list and I read it out loud.

3. You remember when you invited me to your sixth birthday. That when you showed me your tree house in the woods.

“Now what happened in the woods?” India said as she smiled at me.

“Nothing that your thinking right now happened. I have a tree house out back a few yards off our property. No one, but me, my brothers, sister and Autumn knew about.” pause “She was my best friend I had to show her my tree house.”

“ Oh, I get it! Did you guys do a blood oath not to tell anyone else about the tree house as long as you two lived?” India said but you could clearly see she was kidding.

“Yeah, we actually did. We cut our palm and pressed it together.” I said “ But I think we cut ourselves a little to deep. I still have the mark from this day and she does to, you see.” I said as I lift my left hand up right so that my palm was up.

There in the middle of my hand was a dark brown mark that went from my thumb to my pinky.

“Wow, it’s surprising how you guys had the guts to cut yourselves when your only four and five.” she said as she examined my cut.

“Yeah, well that’s the other part of the story. We didn’t cut ourselves we cut each other. We thought if someone else did it, it would hurt less and it worked. It did hurt less.” I said as I took my hand out of view.

“Wow” Seth snorted under his breath and shock his head as he looked away.

“Oh, shut up” India snapped back. “Now tell us what happened from beginning to end.” she said.

“ok” was all I said before telling the story about the tree house on my fifth birthday.

Flash Back:

It was April 11th. It was Nathan’s fifth birthday party. The sun was out and kids were scattered all over the house, playing tag dancing, and throwing food at each other.

In the backyard parents and kids were talking and eating. Sitting by the pool there was the birthday boy and Autumn. They were looking out at the water as they ate burgers and hotdogs with chips and soda.

“If I told you of a secret place and I told you not to tell anyone about it would you tell someone about it anyways.” Nathan said looking over at her. Her hair were in to pigtails as she wore a jean shorts and a dark green shirt with flowers all over it with dark green tights to match.

“Nope, I’m good at keeping secrets.” she said smiling at him and continued to eat.

“Are you going to tell, I need to be able to trust you.” he said more seriously. He was wearing dark blue jeans with a black and blue plaid shirt.

“Sure I won’t tell, but what I’m I not telling about?” she asked confused.

“Pinky promise?” he said holding his pinky out for her to hook her pinky onto.

“Fine pinky promise.” she said hooking her pinky around his. “Now what’s the secret that I can’t tell anyone about?” she said.

He smiled at her and stood up from where he was sitting. “Come on I’ll show you.” he said as he helped her to her feet and held her hand before helding her to the edge of their property. He looked both ways to see if anyone was following him but no was even around that part of the yard.

He pulled her into the woods a she held onto his hand. “Where are we going Nathan?” she asked looking around seeing his backyard fade the more they ran throw the woods.

“Where almost there." he said looking back at her to see she was worried.

“I’m scared, what if we can’t get back home. We have to go back.” she said tugging him back the direction from where they came from.

“Trust me cupcake I know the way back. I been out here more than once and found my way back all the time. Were not lost.” he said tugging onto her sleeves.

She looked around her more and then looked back at him. He was smiling at her was he held her hand and begun to walk deeper in the woods. Not to long later they came to a tree that had a ladder connected to it.

She looked up and about fifteen feet up was a wooden tree house that looked abandon.

“Come on” he said getting a head start up the ladder as she just stayed behind and looked up at how high the tree house was.

“I’m scared” she said for the second time today.

“Scared of what?” Nathan said as he stopped climbing the ladder to look down at her. He was already halfway up the ladder when he finally got up. “Your scared of heights aren’t you?” he said smiling his cocky boy smile.

She nodded once before Nathan made his way down the ladder and dragged her over to it. “Come on, climb It. If you fall I’ll catch you.” he said.

“I don’t know Nathan, I think we should get back to your birthday party before our parents find out we’re missing.” she said backing away but didn’t make it far when Nathan grabbed onto her hand again.

“They’re not going to notice we’re gone.” he said. “Now climb the ladder”

She hesisted before shaking her head.

“Don’t you trust me?” he said

“Yes” she said shyly.

“So you’ll trust me when I catch you?” he asked

“yeah”

“So climb the ladder trust me I won’t let you fall cupcake.” he said letting go of her hand and taking a step back.

She hesitated for a minute before she started to climb the ladder. She told herself not to look down repeatly. By the time she opened her eyes she was at the top of the ladder and quickly crawled into the abandoned tree house.

Two seconds later Nathans' head popped up into the tree house before he crawled into the tree house and stood up.

“You see It wasn’t that bad.” he said helping her to her feet.

“Yeah, I guess it wasn’t” she said smiling at how brave she was about climbing the ladder up to the tree house. She couldn’t done it with out Nathan’s help.

She looked around the tree house to see it was almost empty. The only thing that was up their was a broken mirror, a birds nest on the window seal, a few coloring books and crayons.

“Me, Jackie and Markus found it here last month, then we showed Kassie it. We decided to keep it a secret and use it as a secret hid out you’re the only person other then them that know about it.” he said looking out the window.

“Well I’m happy I know about. What kind of friends don’t know about each other secret hideouts.” she said coming over to the other side of the window and looking outside to see the tree tops of many other trees and a small city since they were on a hill.

“Yeah, and now that you know about it you have you make a oath not to tell anyone about it.” he said turn around and picking one of the coloring books up from the floor.

He ripped out a blank page and wrote down a few words. It said ‘ I swear not to tell anyone about our new hideout as long as we are best friends’.

“ Nathan I already pinky promised.” she whined.

“I know but this make it more official.” he said signing his name on one side and leaving the other half blanked. “Now you sign.” he said giving me the purple crayon.

“Do you even know what official means?” she asked. She didn’t know what the word meant herself and was curious about the meaning.

“Nope, but Markus and Kassie said it before and I thought it was the right time to use the word.” he said watching Autumn sign her name.

Once she was done Nathan handed her a sharp piece of the broken mirror that he got from the corner of the tree house.

“What’s that for?” Autumn said moving away from it.

“We have to cut ourseves and smear our blood together than put it on the paper. I watched it in a movie. It’s so that the promise could be stronger so that no one can break it.” he said as Autumn took the sharp piece of glass away from him.

“Ok, but we better hurry up the sun is setting.” she said to him. They both hesitated when It came to cutting themselves.

“I can’t do this.” she finally said.

“Me either.” Nathan said before throwing his piece of glass out the window.

“How about you cut me and I cut you. It’ll make it easier.” she said. He thought about it for a second before agreeing.

“ok, who’s going first?” she asked afraid to get cut open first.

“I’ll go first” he said seeing her worried expression and decided to show her it’s not going to be that bad.

He put his left palm out as Autumn hesitated but cut through his skin with the sharp glass. Nathan winced in pain but didn’t let it show. Slowly blood started to pour out his palm.

“Ok, my turn” she said handing Nathan the piece of glass and then flipping her palm up just like Nathan did.

Nathan didn’t want to hurt her but it was a blood oath. The thought of him hurting her made him feel bad but he just shrugged. ‘She’s my best friend I don’t want to hurt my best friend’ he thought . Or was it the fact that his mother and father told him and his brothers to never hurt a girl because it was wrong.

Without thinking he quickly slashed the glass into her skin as she winced back in pain. Just like his cut blood started to slowly come out her cut.

“Ok, give me your hand.” he said to her and she did. He mixed their blood together and the wiped his hand on the paper they had their names on it. He motion for her to do the same and she did.

“Ok, that makes it finally.” he said before tapping the paper onto the wall and the wiping his hand on his jeans.

“Ok, we really should get back.” she said as she climb down the ladder with out fear this time. Once she went up she could get down herself. That boosted her confidence.

“Ok, lets go.” he said following her down and then held her hand once they were on the ground. He lead her back the way they came and know one even noticed they were gone.

The rest of the night they had fun and cracked opened the piñata ate cake and then Autumn went home with her mom, brother and sister.

Everyday during that summer they would always go to the tree house to have fun until the sun setted. '

End of Flash Back:

“Aw!” India gushed when I was done telling the story. Her parents we smiling at me and whispering among themselves. Seth on the other hand looked disgusted.

“What kind of mate you are, you cut her.” he said

“We were four and five. We didn’t know any better. We didn’t even know what mates really meant.” I said

“Yeah whatever your just lucky that I’m just finding out about it. If I knew that eleven years ago I would of beat you up until you were begging me to kill you.” he said.

“Oh, stop it Seth. Do you know how upset Autumn would have been if you were talking to her mate like that? You guys need to learn to get along, pretty soon were going to be family. And then I’m going to have little nieces and nephews running around and…..”

“Just stop there!” Seth yelled. “I don’t want to hear anymore.” he said.

“Well your acting like a pain in the ass. Lighten up a little. Is that so much to ask for?” India said

“I’m not going to lose my little sister. Once she wakes up, she’s never going to be here again. She never going to get hurt.” Seth said. “Sorry for caring so much about my little sister, I didn’t know it was a crime.” he said sarcastically.

“Your not going to lose her, she always going to be your little sister. Trust me she isn’t going to get hurt like this ever again, because this time they’ll have to get through me first. “ I said to him. It was true. All of it. Whoever wanted to do harm to her would have to get throw me first.

“Really sweet of you but I need a man’s help, not a little boy” he said.

Whatever he said to me didn’t matter. The only reason why I put up with him is because he’s Autumn’s brother. It’s like he would like me one second but once you put Autumn and my name together he was my worst enemy.

“ Tell us what next on the list” she said. Rolling her eyes at Seth and then looking back to me.

“Ok” I said. I looked at the next thing on the list. I smiled down at the paper and it took me a minute to start reading it out loud.

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 What do you think of that chapter! ? What do you think of Seth so far? What do you think about Nathan so far? When do you think Autumn will finally wake up or is she even waking up?! Well your going to have to wait to see what happen next!!!

And please comment & vote, when you don't comment or vote I think my story is bad and so I'm not motivatived to upload any time soon: ( So don't forget my lovely fans and readers! And Happy 4th of July to all of you! I'll be watching the fireworks tonight & party-ing!!! :) 

The next uploas will be in on the 7th. Until then..Farwell!  And a shout out to my Lovely editer! Brianna! I know she's going to be glad when she see her name in this. Sorry readeds, I can write good storys but I can't spell to save my life. So, I have to have an editer!

Peace! Love! And A Pocket Full Of Doves!  

XBrooklyn13CubX