Two + People

Is two better than one?

Three days passed, and Emerald was starting to get used to Roy talking to her. She always felt slightly awkward though. He always asked her questions and her opinions on things. She rarely asked him anything. She had so many questions to ask, but she was too shy to ask him. She did not fully grasp his attitude and reactions yet.

-What are your parents like?
-Do you really like talking to me?
-Do you care about your grades?
-What do you want to do once you're out of school?
-What are you most happy about?
-Most scared about?

These were just a few of her questions on her mind. She was not very good at just bringing them up, and she thought they would seem like dumb questions to him. Through these days, she also noticed how he never asked personal questions. They were simple questions. Sometimes his questions were about school work.
With Roy talking to her more, Emerald was more relaxed. She did not have to worry about making people not see her; because when Roy is talking, she did not want people seeing him talk to air. People usually ignored her presence anyway, when someone would come to talk to Roy.

Another day later at school, the teacher was out of the room for a bit. Emerald was done working on homework, while Roy was still working thoughtfully without talking. Emerald saw a girl across the room chatting happily to her friend. Emerald had nothing better to do, so she listened in carefully.
"Does that cute red haired guy have a girlfriend?" the blonde girl asked curiously.
Emerald glanced to Roy with his flaming-red dyed hair then smirked. "Girls would dare and fall for this crazy guy?" she thought jokingly then looked back at the girls.
"Roy? Nope, he's single," the other girl replied.
"Ooh, I wonder if he's nice!" she said excitedly then stood up.
"He's really nice actually, but he's hard to get," the other girl said glumly. The blonde girl walked over to Roy's desk nervously. "Hey, Roy, right?" she asked calmly.
Roy looked up with his eyebrows creased in question. "Yes," he replied calmly. "Need something?"
"Um, I was just wondering if you would like to hang out or something tonight?" she asked shyly.
Roy glanced toward Emerald. She was smirking at the scene, because she thought it amusing to watch. He furrowed his eyebrows angrily at her and whispered, "Did you make her do this?!"
She looked at him with surprise. "What? No!" she replied upset at him for blaming her that quickly.
He glared then quickly changed his expression and faced the girl. "Sorry, Emerald and I have plans to study tonight," he answered her coolly.
Emerald showed her shock. "What?! When did we make those plans?"
"Just now," he glared.
The blonde girl looked confused and upset and walked back to her seat by her friend.
"You just turned down a date with a pretty girl, you know," Emerald pointed out.
"You made her do that, didn't you?" he asked aloud now.
"No! I told you I didn't do that! She came by her own free will. I will absolutely NOT force people to do things for my own amusement," she replied sharply, crossing her arms and huffing.
Roy sat thoughtfully.
"Are you realizing you just turned a pretty girl down yet?"
"No, I don't care if she was pretty! I'm sick of pretty girls always talking to me and expecting me to just go out with them!" he replied angrily.
Shocked at his reply, Emerald stared down at her finished homework to leave him alone to calm down.
Roy noticed and sighed to himself. "Ah, I'm sorry for yelling at you. It's not as fun as people say in being popular."
"Really?" Emerald asked curiously.
"Yeah. Girls fight over me. They think that if they act tough, they'll impress me. I usually freak out and leave them to fight over nothing. Who wants a girl who likes to be competitive and violent?" he looked over at Emerald expecting her to answer but saw her looking questionably up at him. "What?"
"Did you really just say that?" she asked with a dazed face.
"Um, yeah?"
"That's a first."
"What do you mean?" Roy was obviously confused.
"Most guys never think like that," she simply stated, then started to put her books and papers away.
Roy did the same and stared toward the clock. "So if you make everyone not see you . . . does that mean that I'm one of the first people you've actually talked to in a while?"
Emerald looked up at him quickly but showed no facial expressions.
He looked away from the clock to her. "Yes? Well, I'll call you after school today!" The bell rang and he walked quickly out of the room to his art class which was the period she had a cooking class instead.
Baffled, Emerald took a while to leave.

After that class, school was over. Emerald was on her bus and was listening to her music calmly. Suddenly, a boy poked her on the head and asked, "Are you new?"
"No," she replied, forgetting to cloak herself.
"Then why haven't I seen you on the bus before?"
Quickly, Emerald thought, "Make him leave me alone."
The boy turned around and started talking to his friend near him.
Emerald sighed with relief.
Then he turned back and looked at her with squinted eyes. "Hey, girl, why are you blurry? Am I fainting?" he asked as if he was joking, but it was true. In his eyes, he could see her slightly, but it seemed like she was disappearing. His head started to pound.
Emerald sighed angrily now, "Please, stop talking to me."
"Huh? Why are you so angry? What did I do? I don't even know you!" he complained without thinking.
"Then why are you talking to me?"
"I don't know. Was I talking to you?" he asked with his expression rough with the sign of a headache.
Emerald was about to say something, but she noticed the bus was at her stop. Quickly she rushed to get off and started walking home. Suddenly her cellphone went off with her calling ringtone. She fumbled for it in her pocket and eventually pulled it out. "Hello?" she asked, answering quickly without seeing who it was.
"Hey, whose house are we going to? Yours or mine?" Roy was heard on the other line.
"I don't care," she answered with a crooked mouth.
"Yours then. How do I get there?" he replied calmly.
Emerald told him the directions, and he hung up. "Hm, I wonder if his house is a mess. Haha! Probably!" she thought calmly. "Wait! He didn't tell me what time he was coming!" With that thought, she ran home to tell her parents.

Once home, her parents were calmly going on with everyday life and she quickly said, "Um, Mom, I'm having a friend over . . . I don't know what time though."
"Okay, could you do your chores quickly?" her mother replied calmly.
"Yeah."
Emerald did her chores as she usually did them. Then as soon as she finished, her doorbell rang. She froze where she stood then realized someone should answer. Quickly she ran to the kitchen where the front door was. Her mom already made it to the door and opened it. There stood a calm Roy.
"Hi," Roy greeted, raising his hand as a wave.
"A boy?" Emerald's mother questioned with small surprise. She turned around to look at Emerald. "Your friend is a boy?"
Emerald looked at her quietly then nodded.
"Well, come on in then," her mother motioned for Roy.
"I'm Roy Brinzveld, by the way," Roy said kindly.
"Oh, nice to meet you, Roy. I see you've managed to befriend my daughter. No easy feat there," Emerald's mom replied with a smile.
Emerald looked at the floor in embarrassment, and Roy noticed.
"Why is that?" Roy asked with fake curiosity.
"I'm not sure, but she always seemed like she was invisible to people every time I was with her," Emerald's mother answered.
"All right, Mother, we're going to go study," Emerald interrupted with a blushing face.
Roy was not sure if she was embarrassed and angry at her mom or him, but he knew it was one of the choices.
"Okay, have fun," her mom said then left.
"So you made everyone but family see you as invisible?" Roy asked, walking toward Emerald.
"I only had them not see me when I was ever in trouble," she admitted.
"So even your family is in your grasp?"
"Roy, I am not God," she said with an angry sniff and sat down at the table.
"Of course not, you're a girl," Roy said with a smirk and sat in the chair next to her.
"Well, thank you for telling me I'm a girl, because all my life I have been thinking I was a boy," Emerald said with major sarcasm.
"Ha! You're actually a joker? Oh, and I appreciate you saying my name in a normal tone; it sounds nice. You need to say my name more."
"What?" Emerald asked with confusion written all over her face.
"Most girls that say my name always say it with some annoying, high-pitch, girly, and flirtatious voice that always makes my ears bleed. Hearing it with a girl's normal tone of voice sounds lovely," Roy explained with a small smile.
Emerald stared at him with a blank and thoughtful expression. She replied with, "Maybe I should start using a higher pitch voice more often just to annoy you." She was smirking evilly.
"And just think that I've been being so nice to you these days!" Roy shouted, throwing his hands in the air with fake frustration.
"Oh, calm down. I can't talk with a high-pitch voice for long anyway. So what are we studying?"
"This!" he said, enthusiastically throwing a small paper book onto the table in front of Emerald.
She looked at the book with her mouth open in small shock and confusion. "What is it?"
"It's a script," he answered, smirking.
"So you need help memorizing lines?" she asked, hoping his reply would not be what she thought it might be.
"Yeah, but you're going to memorize, too," he said with a huge grin.
"You have got to be kidding," she said, slapping her palm to her forehead and thinking this was ridiculous.
"Nope, I'm forcing you into this, and you will do it."
"What will happen if I don't?" Emerald asked, expecting the worst.
"I will annoy you even more than I already do!" he exclaimed dramatically, pointing at her nose.
She slouched her shoulders farther than they already were. "What character am I? Do I have only a few lines?"
"You are my wife," he said with such a huge evil smirk, that Emerald thought flames would appear in his eyes.
"I don't have any lines . . . right?" she asked with little hope in her voice.
"Eh . . . you have - I don't know - like thirty lines, but they're separate and small," he replied calmly.
"So why exactly are you making me do this?"
"So all those girls that are trying to be that part in the play can't be it." He tapped his fingertips together. "The director said I could choose who I wanted to have the part, and I choose you!" He poked her on her forehead as she watched him.
Emerald slowly pushed his hand away from her face, and replied, "Fine, what do I do in the play?"
"You just say a few things with the rest of the people, and some other stuff," Roy answered but could not remember what else happens in it.
"So this is just something to help you with your girl troubles?"
"Yeup! I'm sure you're an excellent actress!" he said with a kind smile and his thumbs up.

Author's Note

Please tell me what you think!