The knot in Ebony's stomach grew worse as she followed Edward into the training grounds. She could hear her heart pound in her ears, nearly drowning out the millions of thoughts running through her head. What in the hell am I going to tell him?

Edward interrupted her thoughts. "Alright, so... our training today. That was..." He drew in a deep breath and shook his head.

Ebony opened her mouth to speak, but the lump in her throat caused her to choke on her words. No, no, please don't cry, not now... "Eddy.." She managed out before breaking into sobs.

Edward's eyes widened. "Holy shit. Eb, it's okay, come here.." He pulled her into his arms protectively and held her. "I'm here, it's okay.." He repeated, patting her back gently.

Ebony sniffed and pulled away from his arms. "I'm fine, th-thanks.."

She walked away from him, taking a deep breath. This is it. She walked back over to him and held her head up, standing tall. "Edward, I... I outed Amaya to Nicolette.."

Edward's expression immediately shifted from concerned to enraged. "What the hell? Why would you even think of doing that?! She hasn't even told our parents!" He paced around. "You can't do that, Ebony! Why... Why did you even tell her?!"

"Because Nicolette is head over heels for her, and Amaya was playing along! Nicolette would have been seriously crushed once Amaya told her. I had to say something!"

"That's not your decision!" Edward barked.

"I don't care!" Ebony shot back. "I'm in love with Nicolette, and I can't stand by and watch her get hurt!"

Ebony quickly clamped a hand over her mouth as soon as she blurted that out. Edward was stunned.

"Ebony... what..?"

Ebony felt her face heat up with humiliation and rage. "You fucking heard me..." She looked down at the ground. "I'm... I-I like girls, okay? I've never had any interest in anyone until Nicolette showed up. I.. I just realized..."

Edward shook his head. "Ebony, I... I had no idea." He lowered his eyes and spoke in a softer tone. "But I need you to understand that you can't just out someone like that."

Ebony nodded slowly, a stray tear rolling down her cheek. Her cheeks were flushed with embarrassment. "I ruin everything, Eddy. I hurt Amaya just so I could have a chance with Nicolette. Now I've ruined it for all of us. Had I just waited..."

Ebony shook her head. "No. There's no chance Nicolette and I would work out." She sniffed and looked up at him, smiling through her tears. "You love her too... and she trusts you. You two always joke together and talk, and... and I have to hurt someone just to get the attention I desire. I'm a bad person, Eddy..."

"Ebony, you are not a bad person." Edward touched her shoulder. "You're a kid. You're supposed to make mistakes. You just have to learn from them, you know?" He sighed and looked down. "And as for Nicolette... fighting over her won't get us anywhere. Let's agree to just leave her be, okay? She's probably still thinking about Amaya."

Ebony nodded, smiling. "I promise, Edward." She got up and hugged him. "And I promise I won't ever hurt Amaya again. I'll make up with her, and I'll try to get the three of us back on track."

Edward smiled. "Good cousin." He patted her on the head and chuckled a bit before growing serious again. "We still have to talk about what happened today."

"I've been thinking." Ebony tapped her chin. "What if we all got together and talked about each of our experiences this week? Compare and contrast sort of thing, you know?"

Edward nodded. "That's a good idea. Let's round up the others." He smiled softly and motioned for her to follow.

Ebony walked beside him, smirking. "You deliver one hell of an inspiration speech, Tubby. You should look into being a motivational speaker."

"Don't call me that." Edward groaned. "Jeez, I though we had a moment."

"We did." Ebony smiled. "I'm just teasing you, just like I did before all of this."

"You are by far the weirdest cousin in the world."