Bright - Chapter Three - Commitments

Emma spends time with Kiera. Kiera notices Danny's hair, among other things. Emma notices Danny.

Chapter Three

Commitments

The sun was bright, but the air had cooled that afternoon. Emma and Kiera had planned to suntan in their bathing suits, but the air was too crisp for Emma. She slipped a long tee-shirt over her bikini, and picked a spot in the direct sunlight to park her folding chair. Kiera was determined though. She wore her skimpiest bikini and laid on her stomach, flipping through trashy magazines, shivering occasionally when the wind picked up. Kiera’s complexion was pretty fair and freckly for a girl incessantly slathering her body with tanning oil. Emma had warned her before, but Kiera was going to do what Kiera was going to do. Kiera had thick, curly auburn hair, and hazel eyes. She was incredibly pretty, but she didn't have much depth to her character.

“What’s your accent color?” Kiera turned up from her compelling article and looked at Emma, waiting for a response.

Emma pulled her sunglasses down her nose.

“What?” Emma asked, somewhat confused.

“Like you know, your color. Like how mine is pink. But soft pink, not bubblegum pink. Oh! And sometimes grape purple, in the winter. And dark green too… yeah, I look really good in green.” Kiera continued, assuming that Emma knew what she was talking about.

“I don’t know… black?” Emma said, fixing her shades back up, and tilting her head back to continue soaking in the heat of the sun.

“You can't wear black to the winter formal. Emma! Come on!” Kiera had four hobbies. Practising her makeup in the mirror for hours. Watching way too much reality television. Hip hop dancing (she was actually really good). And preparing for the next upcoming social event way too far in advance.

“Why are you bothering me about the winter formal right now? It's still months away.” Emma said.

“No… it's only 11 weeks away actually, and don't you want to get your dress ahead of time so that you don't end up wearing the same one as someone else?” Kiera said.

“I wouldn’t care if someone had the same dress as me.” The two of them hung out enough, Emma didn’t see how Kiera didn’t know her better by that point.

“I think you’re colour is probably teal. Especially with your blonde hair and tanned skin.” Kiera said flipping the page of her magazine. “And probably floor length.”

“You should be glad that I'm helping you with this you know. Maybe you can help me find a half descent guy to be my date in return.” Kiera said.

Emma was reading a chapter of her book on black holes and tapping her foot to “The Velvet Underground Loaded” album that was playing from the stereo in the living room. They had the sliding doors open, so that Rosie could go in and out of the house as she pleased.

“What the hell are we listening to?” Kiera asked, only just realizing the music in the background.

“Good music.” Emma said plainly.

“Well it's frigging weird.” 

#   #   #

A little while later, Kiera walked back out, onto the deck after grabbing two cold glass bottles of coke, and handed one to Emma. Kiera was still standing and took a sip from her bottle. She looked out at the backyard and saw a guy, out near the shed, pushing a lawn mower on the grass.

Kiera stopped and squinted, shading her eyes from the sun with her hand, in order to make out the mysterious figure. The guy took off his grey tee-shirt. He was wearing long, black cargo shorts, and a pair of red sneakers. Kiera was in awe, and then she finally figured out who it was.

“Oh my god!”

“What?” Emma had dozed off, but she was startled by Kiera's sudden outburst. Emma looked to where Kiera was looking. Danny? Emma thought. She squinted too, not believing what she was seeing. He looked incredibly different. Obviously the hair was what threw her off at first, but the body to go with it was extremely confusing. She had gotten a small glimpse of it the night before when she got a closer look at his injury. But now she saw the bigger picture. 

“When did Danny get HOT?” Kiera exclaimed. 

“Shhh…” Emma said, embarrassed and forcing herself to look at the page of the book in front of her. The words seemed to jumble together.  She assumed she was experiencing a small form of shock. That was all. She cleared her mind and read the next paragraph. She could tell that Kiera was still staring.

“Dayyyuumm!” Kiera said giggling. “Emma, look at his muscles!” Kiera was tapping Emma on the shoulder, she wanted her to join in on the fun. Emma refused. She tried shushing Kiera and telling her to stop, but Kiera smiled big and put her arm up to wave. “HI DANNY!” Kiera yelled from the deck. Danny had started the lawn mower so it was difficult for him to hear, but he definitely heard something. He looked up and saw Kiera, clad in a tiny pink bikini waving at him and smiling. He kindly smiled back and waved.

Emma saw Kiera’s “parts” jiggle slightly as she did this. She pulled Kiera’s arm down, and Kiera laughed, resuming her spot on her beach towel. This time, she laid on her back, pressing her chest up, and resting on her elbows. She was going to show him all that she had. Like peacock feathers Emma thought.

Kiera was happy with herself. 

“Maybe I'll get Danny to take me to the Winter Formal.” Kiera closed her eyes and laid back down on her towel. She grabbed her pack of extra thin, pink colored cigarettes and brought one to her lips. She had started smoking that summer. She thought it made her look cool. She told Emma that she had no intention of actually becoming a “smoker”. 

Emma's mom was dressed in her clean scrubs and ready for work. Her shoes were on and her purse hung down her left shoulder. 

“Okay, I got called in to work, so I won't be back until early tomorrow morning. There’s a container of veggie chili in the fridge, and did you finish that essay for your English class?” Maggie was a super mom. She worked all the time, and when she wasn't working, she was cleaning, or cooking. Idle hands made her anxious.

“No, but it's almost done.” Emma said, smiling up at her mom.

“Alright. I'll see you tomorrow sweetie.” Maggie grabbed Emma’s face and kissed her square on top of her head. As she did, she noticed Kiera, with a cigarette. Maggie sighed to herself, she didn’t have time to deal with other people's teenagers right now. She was just grateful that she had yet to smell the scent of tobacco on her own daughter.

“Kiera honey, use a cup or something to put your ashes into? I don’t want you ashing that on the deck.” Maggie said. She felt like that was the best advice she could give at the moment.

“Oh, sorry Mrs. Roy.” Kiera grabbed the empty plate that they had used to hold their snacks from earlier.

“Okay, be good.” Maggie said to Emma and left.

“You're mom is so cool.” Kiera said.

“Yeah, I know.” Emma said.

Suddenly a honk came from the front the of the house. Emma didn’t budge. Kiera looked up at her. “I think your mom wants you.”

“That’s not what her horn sounds like.” Emma said.

Kiera jumped up, off the ground. “S**t! That must be my dad!” Kiera put out her cigarette in a panic and grabbed her clothes from her backpack. She threw on her dark skinny jeans and white tee-shirt. She pulled out a perfume spray bottle and sprayed it all over her body and then popped two pieces of mint gum in her mouth. The horn honked again.

“K. I gotta go. I'll see you tomorrow!” Kiera said to Emma as she left.

#   #   #

Emma continued reading, listening to the hum and whip of the lawnmower. Past that, she heard the sound of nature alive all around her. The chirping of the bugs and the chattering of the birds, echoed from the forest past her backyard. Her record had finished and the stereo had turned off automatically. She felt Danny's presence, just meters away, and she suddenly for the first time, felt uncomfortable with him. She heard the lawnmower engine stop and looked. Danny was making his way around the big evergreen that sat at the back of the property. The branches at the bottom had grown quite long, so it made it difficult to cut the grass around it. When Emma did it, she usually made a wide turn around it, not worrying about making it perfect. Danny appeared to be taking this task much more seriously than she ever did. She watched him pick up some of the dead branches that had fallen on the ground around the tree and toss them into the woods. He grabbed the hedge trimmers from the shed, and started clipping away at the branches at the bottom of the tree. He stopped to wipe his forehead with the back of his gloved hand and Emma saw the soft, tanned skin of his back glisten in the sun. She saw the definition of his hip bones, and the width and structure of his shoulder blades as he continued trimming, flexing his back and arm muscles with each slice.  Her stomach twirled slightly. She felt like she might be sick. Perhaps too much sun she thought. She placed her bookmark in the crack of the pages and closed her book, setting it down next to her chair. She got up and went to the kitchen.

Emma peered into the fridge. She couldn’t figure out what she wanted. She was hungry. Or thirsty. Or… something. The lawnmower started again in the distance, and she remembered, Danny looked thirsty. She grabbed two water bottles from the fridge, walked off the deck, down the stairs and slowly made her way to where he was working. He didn’t know that she was behind him, so she tapped him lightly on the shoulder. He turned around surprised and quickly turned off the mower. He smiled at her as she gestured to hand him one of the bottles. He pulled one of his work gloves off with his teeth and took the bottle from her.

“Thanks.” His voice sounded a bit hoarse. He opened the bottle and chugged half of it before Emma said anything. She was standing an arm's distance away from him. The further she was, the less nauseas she felt. 

“Did my mom ask you to do this?” She asked, squinting one eye at him.

“Yeah. I don’t mind though.” He said.

Emma was beginning to feel normal again. Her body was registering that this mythical creature standing in front of her was in-fact her childhood best friend. Her heart rate slowed, and her stomach settled. Danny was finishing off the bottle, and Emma gave his head a really long, thorough scan. Danny saw her and almost forgot. He placed his hand on top of his head and stroked his short hair. He couldn’t tell from her facial expression whether she liked it or not.

“I can’t believe you cut it off.” She said.

“Yeah well, it was time to give up the dream of playing in a metal band.” Danny said sarcastically. 

Emma smirked at him.

“You do realize that in order to be in a band, you have to actually be able to play an instrument.”

“Yeah well that was going to be the NEXT step.” He said.

“Ohhhh… I see… Not the other way around?” Emma went along with his joke.

“No, no, definitely not. First the hair, then the music comes later.” He quipped. They both laughed and Emma took a sip of her water. She was actually trying to think of something to say, this didn’t happen to her very often. She must be getting sick she thought. It didn’t help that he was being so witty, was he always this witty, she wondered.

A silence that verged on awkward almost fell upon them, but she saved it just in time by backing up and saying “okay, I didn’t mean to interrupt, just wanted to say ‘hi’… so Hi” she began to walk away and he said hi back as she did. She turned and scrunched her face, what the hell was that she wondered. 

She was heading back to the house, when the noise of the mower behind her got lower and she could hear the house phone ringing. She ran up the stairs onto the deck and grabbed the phone from the kitchen. It was Ryan. He called almost every night. Emma was really starting to grow fond of him. He wasn't super smart, but he was kind and thoughtful, and surprisingly asked her a lot of questions about her life, and listened for the answer. He seemed to get serious pretty quick. He introduced her to his parents on their first date, and she could tell that they liked her too. He always wanted her to watch his hockey games. She did when she could, but she had school, the track team, homework and well, there was only so much hockey that she could watch in one week. But she did like how much he liked her. It made her feel pretty good. To have someone want you, and to not be afraid to let it show. Kiera told Emma that she thought they would “defs” be high-school sweethearts. She loved those kinds of stories. She didn’t have one of her own at the moment, so she lived vicariously through Emma, constantly asking her questions like; things they talked about, how many times a day that they kiss, etc... Kiera found a picture that Emma had of her and Ryan kissing and took the liberty of drawing a big pink heart on it with lipstick, and taping it to Emma’s headboard when she wasn’t looking. It could be considered weird, but she meant it as a kind gesture.

Ryan was asking Emma if she wanted to go to his hockey tryout that night. He was trying out for a AAA team, the tryouts were about an hour outside of West Glen. But her mom wasn’t going to be home, so she could get away with going. She was planning on getting in her pajamas early, eating a whole tub of cashew ice cream and binge watching reruns of “I Love Lucy” / after finishing her essay of course. She hmm'd and haww'd a bit.

“Pretty please?” Ryan said sweetly on the phone. He was so cute, and she didn’t see him at all that weekend. She looked out the back door, Danny was still working, but some dark clouds had rolled in and it started to rain a bit. But he kept at it. Emma was lost in her thoughts.

“Emma?” Ryan asked at the other end of the line.

“Uhun. Yeah, I’ll go.” She said finally.

“Okay, I'll be there in an hour to get you. Bye.”

Emma hung up the phone and walked upstairs to get changed. She opened her closet and looked at her selection. It started to pour rain outside, and a few large drops tapped on her bedroom window. Sweater and jeans she decided. She would sit in the warm part of the arena, working on her essay. So she wouldn’t need a coat. She got dressed quickly, fixed her hair and added a tiny bit of mascara to her long lashes. She didn’t usually wear makeup, but once in a while she found it fun. She found Rosie soaking wet and sprawled out on the couch when she came down stairs. Well, she’d have to spray the couch later, damage is already done. She closed the back door and locked it, wiped a bit of water from the floor with a towel and looked out, at the backyard. She didn’t see Danny, nor could she hear a lawnmower, she figured he had gone home.

It was already 5:30 and she saw Ryan pull into her driveway. She walked out the front door with her backpack, locking the door behind her and before running through the rain to meet Ryan , she looked over at the lawn on the right side of the house. Danny was still there, he was drenched, and pushing the mower around the lawn. Emma felt bad for him. He surely must have known that he could quit and come back to finish it another time. Emma wanted to go over and tell him. Ryan honked. Emma knew he wasn’t trying to be rude, but he couldn’t be late for his tryout. She looked over at Danny once more and saw how concentrated he was. Well, he’ll stop when he needs to she thought. She ran quickly to the door of the car and jumped in, wiping down her hair a bit. Ryan smiled and kissed her softly on the lips. He always smelled so good.

“Ready?” He asked.

“Yep.” Emma answered, and turned to put on her seat belt. She saw Danny fade away as they drove off, still fully committed to getting that lawn mowed.

#   #   #

Author's Note

Opinions please :D

Reviews

[emipoemi]

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That is the sound of speechlessness!! WHAAAAAAT!! SOOOOO good! Ok, first thing first: A couple of spelling/grammatical errors: In the section section there's needs to be a "where" not a "wear" (she looked to WHERE Kiera was looking), and in the last section "out of town. About an hour's drive" should be a comma not a period (or change the wording of the following phrase to something like: "Her mother wasn't going to be home, so she could get away with going to the next town for hockey tryouts" or something).

My main comment concerns the prologue you mentioned in your previous comment to me. In writing a book/story, the main action has to happen by at latest chapter 3. If this is going to have some scifi components later on, and just focus on the love factor in this book....scratch the prologue. Have this entire book be the prologue. It could be it's own stand alone prologue to the entire series. Putting in other elements is going to ruin its flow, because you're taking all this time to introduce the characters, and the main conflict right now is the fact that Danny can't have Emma because of Ryan, which is fantastic (I love that last image of him mowing in the rain....can I say I'm your biggest fan right now....I may be your only fan on this site, but d****t, you're sooooooo gooooood!). Save the scifi bits for the following books, when these teens really go on their crazy adventures. For I can definitely imagine them going on them, but you should take this book to settle the Danny-Ryan-Emma feud/triangle, and then probably leave a cliffhanger to be continued and developed more in the subsequent books. I'm going to say this again, your flow is too good to start adding scifi stuff. I know the weird old neigbour (whose tall), and the crazy lady with beefs about Rosie are going to come back in some way, and I'm guessing part of your scifi adventure is going to revolve around at least the tall dude. You can do that....but simply give subtle hints to them that would make the readers keep on guessing until you jump to the next book and boom! duhn-duhn-duhn! the creepies get worse and the real adventures start. You've created a fun town with great characters, but you've placed the romance as first priority in this book, so focus the entirety of this book on the romance part as its own prologue, and then you develop your world and more adventures happen. Don't put yourself in a position where your world would go beyond your control due to trying to be everywhere at once. Little by little, one element at a time. It's good to take things slow at times.....especially if the narrative is this good!! Well freaking done!

p.s. Writer's Cafe weirdly doesn't have an algorithm that is able to detect dashes, so they come out as question diamonds and quotation marks. If you wanna place a dash, you just have to settle for a hyphen. Just so you know, All the places where there should be a dash is a black diamond with a question mark inside topped with a pair of quotation marks.

[J.L.Q.]

(Ugh, my damn spelling mistakes lol, plus I'm writing all of this on my phone or a tablet, touch screen is soon annoying for writriting - but yes, I will have to fix those.)
And you're probably right about the prologue, I never even considered making a whole book into a prologue! But that is an amazing idea, and come to think of it, that is pretty much what my first book is, because the epic, life altering thing happens at the very end. I did post a short prologue a few minutes ago, just as a practise. But I think you're right, it really doesn't need it. Thank you so much! I love that this story has a fan!
And yes, I definitely have to do something about those stupid black diamonds. :) thanks again so much!

[emipoemi]

my pleasure.