Paint Me Beautiful

I say, voice as calm and clear as the waters of a lake, still, peaceful.
    The front door is open, so Emmett walks right in with a smile on his face.
    “ Knock, knock,” he says but nobody looks at him. My father moves away from me and disappears into the garage with Marlena at his heels. My mother turns away and heads back to the cutting board she's set out next to the sink. Oddly enough, there's a red and a green bell pepper on it. I look away. Emmett notices the strange ambiance in the room right away. “Is everything okay?” he asks me, putting his hands on my upper arms.
    “ Everything is fine,” I tell him, my resolve strong but my heart fragile. My family has only been holding me back. The sooner I get away from them, the better. One day, they'll learn and they'll realize the mistakes they made. Maybe then we can be friends. For now, I'm leaving this house with its pine ceilings and its animal heads and its judgmental inhabitants who are supposed to love me but instead decide to have me burned at the stake. “Let's just get out of here as quickly as possible,” I tell Emmett as I grab his hand and drag him up the stairs. I feel like the very air here is poisoned, and if I don't get out soon, it's going to kill me. “Claire,” he whispers as he closes my bedroom door behind us. “I hate to say this, but I think they need this just as much as you do. Once they figure out that they can't change you by force, they'll come around. You don't need doctors and a fancy clinic, you need family.” I turn around at stare at him.
    “ Why?” I ask, voice tight. Is Emmett inferring something or am I reading too much into his words? “What do you mean?”
    “ I mean that they can't try to fix something that you don't think is broken.” I listen to his words carefully and decide that he's no threat. What he says makes sense. He's the first person that's said anything useful all day. As if sensing I need a bit of support, Emmett comes up behind me and gives me a gentle squeeze, releasing me before I get the chance to feel anxious. Without asking, he then begins to help me pack. With his help and his strength, we end up with an empty room in less than an hour.
    I stand in the middle of pale pink walls and white carpet and I spin in a slow circle, catching sight of a stain near the bedroom door where Jenn once spilled a jar of dirty paint water. Across from that, there's a burn mark on the wall near the bathroom door from when Leanne, Jenn, and I tried to have a séance and lit so many candles that we kept knocking them over. We very nearly caught the place on fire. I close my eyes and just sit with the strange feelings that are taking over me. I was born in this house, watched my grandma die in this house, but most importantly, I lived in this house for my entire life and now I'm leaving. When I leave that room and close the door, I find that this is going to be harder than I thought.
    My mom watches me come down the stairs with the last box, Emmett trailing along behind me. She does not say goodbye; I do not say goodbye.
    I walk out of that house and I leave my family behind. Silent tears stream down my face, but Emmett says nothing, leaving me alone to process my pain. I don't know it yet, but he feels for me, wants nothing more than to wrap me in his arms and hold me, but he doesn't because somehow, someway, he knows what's best. Emmett Sinclair is looking out for me and I'm damn lucky for it. Without him, there's a good chance that I'd wind up dead.
    Sometime later, laying on a bathroom floor, I almost do.

 

    Emmett's house is absolutely adorable, somehow managing to lift my spirits even as the sky falls down, letting loose tiny drops of rain that pebble the roof of the truck as we pull into the driveway of a house that's seen generations born, raised, and long gone.
    “ It's beautiful,” I tell him, climbing out before he has a chance to respond. I don't jog through the rain, instead moving slowly, letting the liquid coat my body in icy cold that makes me shiver so hard that my teeth clatter. Emmett watches me move and waits until I step under the covered porch to follow after. I touch my hand to the yellow siding on the house and wait for him to open the purple door and welcome me into his home. As I cross the threshold, Emmett gives me an old fashioned bow that nearly dislodges his beanie and makes him look even rougher and scruffier than usual. That and fucking sexy as hell.
    I move across the pale