Page 35 of Echoes of Us

“No kiss?” he asks with a smirk. I roll my eyes and lean in to kiss him. He deepens the kiss and starts to move his hand up my shirt. I shove his hand away forcefully.

“Are you joking? My parents are right there!” I snap.

“Even if they weren’t there, you wouldn’t let me. You never want to do anything. It gets so old, Em.” He huffs and sits back. “See you tomorrow.”

“Sorry, I am not going to jump your bones in front of my house, Devan. Don’t be such a pig,” I retort and exit.

What a douche bag.

Chapter 39

Teagan

Things are getting so much better with Emmaline. Sometimes I feel myself wanting to let my walls down, but the second I think back to the trash in my locker; I pull them back up. Every night this week, we studied at the kitchen table and never had an argument, which is a first.

Last night, after her and I both got home, we actually watched a movie without EJ. Eve made EJ go to bed early last night because, apparently, while we were out, he decided to be a mad scientist and wasted all of the bottles of cleaning solution. It was weird, but nice watching a movie with just Emmaline last night.

“How did you like this one?” she asks as the credits begin to roll.

We watched Inside Out, which made me cry. I tried to hide my face so she wouldn’t see my tears. She hit the button to turn up the lights, revealing she, too, had been crying. We stared at each other for a moment, then burst into laughter.

“I don’t see you as a ‘cry in movies’ type,” she exclaims.

“Oh yeah. I am really a big old softy under this bad ass exterior,” I tease.

There is an eyelash under her eye from falling tears. I reach over and gently wipe the eyelash off her cheek and onto my fingertip.

“Make a wish, princess,” I say, smiling mischievously.

She glares at me and shakes her head before blowing gently. “I wish you’d stop calling me that,” she remarks.

“Well, guess that isn’t happening since you told me your wish,” I respond.

She rolls her eyes and smiles softly. We are silent for a moment, still looking at each other when she suddenly inhales sharply.

“All right. Well, I am headed to bed. Goodnight.” She announces and basically rushes out of the room. I sat there wondering what spooked her this time.

The next morning, she acts even weirder. I guess we are back to the hot and cold bullshit.

After we drop off EJ, Emmaline parks the car and turns to me quickly, “Wait. Don’t get out yet.”

“Uh, okay? What’s up?” I ask confused.

“Look. I wanted to ask you last night, but I was nervous. You don’t owe me anything and honestly, I don’t deserve a favor. But…” she trails off, clearly embarrassed.

“Dude, just spit it out,” I say flatly. She sighs and begins to pick at her fingernails. She only does this when she is nervous.

“I want to go to a party on Friday and I need my parents to think you are coming with me so they say yes. You can come by the way, it’s just a bunch of juniors and seniors at our school. If you don’t want to that is cool, too.”

I look over at her, “Thanks for the invite, but I would rather do literally anything else. I’ll just say I am going and hang with Sean.”

“Thanks. This is really cool of you. And I mean if you change your mind, you can bring your boyfriend to the party,” she replies.

What??? I cannot control myself as I bend over holding my stomach, laughter bursting from within me. This is the best laugh I have had in a really long time. I look up and meet her eyes. Emmaline is looking at me with a mix of worry and confusion. This only makes me laugh harder. Wiping tears from my eyes, I finally say, “Sean is not my boyfriend. He’s super gay.”

“Really? But he is so attractive…” she starts, then looks at me frantically, “I mean not that gay people can’t be attractive…I just… never mind.” She looks down and begins to pick at her fingernails again.

“It’s fine. He will actually love that you said that. He is so vain,” I say, smirking. “We can just leave at the same time on Friday and I’ll have Sean grab me from down the street.”

---