CHAPTER 2

A Chapter by Emily

Everything hurt. She heard her mom yell at her a while ago, but she ignored it. She didn’t want to get out of bed. She heard footsteps come up the stairs, she was hoping the footsteps would go past her door and go to a different room. But she heard a knock on her door, she didn’t answer. Her mom, Robin, came through the door and saw Emily on her bed, still under the covers.

Robin sat on the edge of her bed and said softly, “Emily? Are you going to school? If you are, you need to get up, and get dressed because we’re going to leave pretty soon.”

Emily just mumbled and sat up a little. She rubbed her eyes so she could see. Her eyes were still puffy and red from the night before. She saw her mom and just said, “I never want to go to school again or I’d rather go to a different school.”

Robin saw how her eyes were puffy and realized she was crying the night before. So she just hugged her youngest daughter. She pulled back so she could see her daughters face and said, “Oh honey, if you don’t go to school, I’ll probably end up in jail, or if you want to go to a different school, I’ll need to pay a lot of money.” Robin laughed.

Emily smiled. “Ok, I guess I’ll get up and go to school,” she put her finger up in the air, “but only for you. I don’t want my mom to go to jail. I love you mom.” She hugged her mom again.

Robin pulled back and stood up, “Ok well hurry up, we’re going to leave in ten minutes.” Robin left the room and closed the door behind her. And when that door shut, Emily got out of bed, put her Taylor Swift CD in her CD player. She pushed a button on the CD player and made it play the song Pictures to Burn. She went to her closet put on her darkest clothes, and then she went into the bathroom and put on make-up to match her outfit. Then she put her blonde hair in a ponytail.

She walked back in her room and turned off the CD player. Then she walked downstairs. She grabbed a Pop Tart just in time to hear the car honk. She walked outside to the car and jumped in.

The car pulled in front of the school, she exhaled and jumped out. She opened the school door and walked though. She found Melissa and just hugged her.

Melissa hugged her back and said, “Nice to see you, too.” She pulled back and looked at Emily’s outfit and said, “What’s with the dark clothes and make-up, are you Emo now?” Melissa laughed. Melissa took one of Emily’s wrists just to make sure she is not hurting herself.

Emily laughed too and exhaled. And she told Melissa what happened yesterday. “Yeah, and last night I was crying and oh my gosh you should’ve seen my face this morning! It was like I was a zombie.” She laughed.

Melissa chuckled and said, “I can’t believe he did that. I’m so sorry that I gave him you number. I thought he was going to get together with you. Oh my gosh I want to kill him now!” She chuckled, at the same time, Melissa saw Kevin. “Oh and specking of that guy, here he comes, don’t look though.”

“Why not?”

“Because, if you don’t look, I know that he’ll think your someone new and want to meet my new friend. Just go along with it. Ok?”

“Alright, but I don’t think this will work.” Emily heard footsteps coming but she still kept her eyes on Melissa.

“Hey Melissa, thanks for the number you gave me yesterday, even though it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to.” Kevin said, sadly. “Hey who is your new friend? Hey I’m Kevin.” He said to Emily.

Emily freaked out and looked at Melissa with big eyes trying to say ‘what do I do?’

Melissa caught on to what Emily was doing and said, “This is my new friend… uh... Dana. Yes, I just met her right now. Isn’t she pretty?”

Kevin just said, “Well I don’t know yet, I haven’t seen her face. Maybe if she looks at me I will see, but I already think she is pretty.” And at that time Emily looked at Kevin and then she saw his face go into shock.

Emily exhaled, “Hi, my name isn’t Dana, its Emily. But I think you already figured that out.” And at that time the bell rang. So Emily said, “I got to go to my class now, so I’ll talk to you later Melissa and I’m glad I met you Kevin.” She laughed.

While she was in class Emily took out her phone and started texting Melissa she wrote hey thanks that was pretty funny she pushed send and she was trying to figure out what the teacher was talking about then her pocket vibrated, she pulled her phone out of her pocket and opened her phone I know, the funny part was when you left, he looked at me and said ‘your mean’ and I just said ‘yes I am but so are you.’ She laughed and the teacher heard her and the teacher looked at her and said, “Emily what’s so funny that you had to interrupt my teaching?”

Emily just looked at the teacher and said, “I remembered something that happened yesterday! And I was really funny…you just had to be there.” She made everyone in the room laugh except the teacher.

The teacher said, “Well I wasn’t there and neither was the class, so I suggest you keep it to yourself.” And he turned back around and started teaching again.

She went back to her phone and just text lol I can’t believe he didn’t know it was me…you’re a genius!! Ha-ha. This time she made sure she was paying attention every time he turned around. She finally figured out that the teacher was talking about how they were about to start reading the play Romeo and Juliet. Right then her pocket vibrated again so she looked at her phone and she read it yes of course I am but the most surprising thing that he did when you left was he actually said ‘yes your friend is pretty’ it made me think that maybe we shouldn’t have done that but whatever it was fun. She couldn’t believe what just happened he still thinks that she’s pretty. She was feeling wonderful, so wonderful that she was actually listening to the teacher.

When the bell rang, she went into the hallways and found Melissa by her locker, and just danced a happy dance. Melissa looked at her as if she was crazy and just said, “Ok I didn’t say he was going to marry you. He only said you looked pretty, he says that about all the girls, even me. Just calm down because here he comes.”

Emily settled down a little bit and put her tongue out and smiled, which made them both burst out in laughter. She kept her eyes on Melissa, while she heard footsteps coming toward them.

They now were softly laughing from the moment they had just a second ago, then she heard his voice and, then he said, “Ok, what’s so funny?” With a smile

Emily just looked at him and said, “That would be none of your business.” Then she just walked away. She couldn’t believe what she just did. She has never just walked away from someone who was talking to her. She felt bad enough that he pretty much dumped her even though they were never together; however, he hurt her feelings, so why should she try to be his friend? She didn’t even understand what was going understand on inside of her. She felt bad about leaving him like that, but at the same time, she felt she did the right thing.

So she went through the rest of the week feeling bad. She even tried ignoring him just as he ignored her. The part that was funny was that he tried talking to her but she walked away. It’s as if they traded places. Nevertheless, she just walked around looking sad, as if she was crying the day before. Which the day before she did cry, she cried all week, but covered it up with make-up, and she still wore black clothes. He even tried texting her but she never responded, not even to one. Melissa talked to Kevin many times, and he tried to find out what he did. So Melissa just told him, “It’s none of your business what going on with her. It’s your fault anyways, so just stop trying.”

Emily was very lucky to have a friend like that. Melissa was always there for her, she would hurt the one’s that would hurt Emily, and that would be Kevin. The best part was that Emily knew her since middle school. This would be the third year she would know Melissa, and she was glad. She was her only best friend.

In her last period, the one that Kevin is in, she would always look at him. However, Kevin would look back with a sad face, and then Emily would look in the other direction. It’s almost as if she didn’t want to get caught looking at him, but then when she realized she was caught, she noticed that he was looking back. When she looked at the other direction, she starts to smile but then realizes they are not together and she shouldn’t be smiling.

One day she was at her locker and Kevin showed up out of nowhere, just like he did right before she told him she liked him. Kevin still had that confusing look on his face. Then said, “Okay you don’t have to talk to me, and that’s fine. But please, just listen to me.” He made sure Emily wasn’t going to walk away. Then started up again, “Look, I’m sorry about everything I did to you to make you mad at me like this, and I know I deserve it. But look when your ignoring me like I did, it makes me realized what I did to you. Moreover, I’m sorry. I know I’m saying that a lot, but you have to understand I wasn’t trying to hurt you; I was only trying to be honest. And I wish I took it back, but—”

Emily cut him off and said, “Why do you want to take it back. It is the truth. You don’t like me, and I…I’m okay with it.”
“Really? You are okay with me not liking you. Then what with this dark clothes?”

“I’m trying something new.”

“Okay that is fine, but you never let me finish.” Kevin looked over Emily’s head and stared at the locker behind her. “I wish I could take it back, but the real truth is that…” He closed his eyes and said something Emily was not expecting to hear. “The truth is that when you where ignoring me, I realized that I do like you, but I don’t want you with me. Emily, I’m not good enough for you.” He opened his eyes and stared at Emily. They stared at each other for a very long time.

It felt like forever. It was as if he ripped a new whole in her chest. “Kevin…” she felt like crying. “You are good enough for me. Why else would you think I would pick you instead of the other guys who asked me out?” Kevin just starred at her as if she hadn’t said anything. Kevin starred at her, and Emily starred at him. It was like something she only saw in movies when the girl and the boy stare deep into each other’s eyes and realized that they are in love with each other.

Out of nowhere, Melissa walked up and said, “Emily, you’re going to be late for class, and so are you Kevin.” Melissa stepped in between Kevin and Emily so they had to blink and look away from each other.

Emily looked at Melissa and said, “Oh yeah school, that’s where we are. I forgot. I’ll see you later.” Emily took one more glance at Kevin and walked away, almost tripping on the way to class.

Emily was so excited about the stare she shared with Kevin. She had not noticed how late she was. When she went through the door of her classroom; everyone looked at her and the teacher even stopped teaching and ask, “Your late Emily. Please take a seat and I’ll just mark you tardy, but next time I’m calling your mom.” Emily went to her seat and barely noticed that the teacher was still talking about Romeo and Juliet, she was just starring out the window. Then she felt something in her pocket move, and she did not realize what it was until she came back to reality. Someone texted her, but she could not figure out who would be texting her, so she pulled her phone out, just enough where she could read the phone and her teacher could not see it.

It was the person of her dreams texting her. She was wondering why he would text her, then she remembered that they just had a moment together. She opened the phone and it said hey I am sorry about that…I was almost late to class. She was wondering why he was sorry. She was not sorry about any of that. So she pulled her thumbs over the keyboard and wrote why are you sorry? And I WAS late to class. She did not put the phone back in her pocket because she knew she would get another text soon. And just like she expected her phone vibrated in her hands. She opened the phone and read well I just told you I couldn’t be with you. Are you not mad? She didn’t understand the question. She was about to reply when the teacher came up to her and had his palm out for her phone. She made the puppy-dog-face but the teacher did not buy it. He put his palm closer to the phone and then Emily just closed the phone and put it in his hand. The teacher said, “I’m calling your mom after school and tell her to pick up the phone, and I’m going to tell her you were tardy.”

“Why are you going to call her, she picks me up anyways. I’ll just tell her you want to talk to her.” Emily said.

After school while she was waiting for her mom to come, she noticed Melissa and Kevin talking to each other. Kevin looked up at her and pointed to Emily. Melissa shook her head yes and they both walked toward her. Emily was wondering why they were talking to each other about her. And she didn’t notice how fast they were walking until they were there in front of her.

Kevin looked at Emily and said to Melissa, “See, I told you she was mad.”

Emily didn’t realize until then, that her arms were up against her chest; she put them down quickly, and gave them a confusing look.

Melissa told Emily, “Kevin thinks you’re mad at him, since you didn’t text him back.”

“Oh, well no. I’m not mad. I was about to reply but my teacher caught me looking at the phone. I am probably going to get in trouble by my mom, because she has to come and get the phone. And my teacher is going to tell I was late to class.”

Kevin looked shocked, “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t—”

“There you go again saying sorry, when it wasn’t even your fault.” Emily’s mom came up and honked for Emily’s attention. “I’ll see you later.” Emily walk to Robin’s car and told her what happened in class. Robin got mad and went to park the car. Emily waited for her mom on the sidewalk. Robin went to Emily and followed her to her English class.

Her teacher was waiting for Emily and Robin. The teacher, Mr. Gomez, had Emily’s phone in his hand. He told them to sit down in a desk, specifically, closest to his desk.

Mr. Gomez started out, “Hi, I’m sorry for this problem.” He looked at Emily and started talking again. “Okay first of all, Emily was very late to class today, almost 10 minutes late.” Emily didn’t know it was 10 minutes into class; she must’ve walked very slowly. “And second of all, I caught her texting during class.” Robin looked at Emily, and her face looked mad. Mr. Gomez gave the phone to Robin. “Okay that’s all I wanted to say. Thank you for meeting with me.”

Robin stood up and walked out of the class. Emily followed her, Robin turned around to face Emily and said, “Okay, I’m not mad at you, but I don’t want to take away your phone, alright? You know my rules with the phone. You can have your phone back…but next time be careful not to get caught. Okay?”

Emily shook her head yes. And got her phone back, and pushed it into her pocket. When they got into the car, she took her phone out and then noticed that she had almost 10 text messages. She went to look at them, and it took her by surprise when she noticed it all from the same person, it was Kevin. She looked at them and they said, “I’m sorry,” “Don’t be mad,” “Can you please text me so I know you’re not mad.” And they just had the same reason for texting her…he was sorry. She got it. She shook her head back and forth and put it back in her pocket.

Emily figured something out by the time she got home. Something she’s been waiting for since November.

Kevin was in love with her.

prev chapter