Page 21 of Breaking Emilee

“What?” Confusion is written all over his face.

“Emilee, we’re in first hour together, and she wasn’t there. She also hasn’t been answering my text messages or phone calls. Where is she?”

“Hold up, my sister doesn’t have a cell phone. What do you mean she wasn’t in class?”

What the fuck is he talking about? Now I’m confused. “What do you mean she doesn’t have a phone? Look, I’m telling you she has a phone.” I pull up her contact and turn it around so he can see it, forgetting I saved her under Beautiful, not her name. He runs his hands through his hair pulling at the ends of it.

“Look, I don’t know. She was on the bus this morning and got off here.” The bell rings at the same time. He turns on his feet and heads to class. What the fuck if someone was standing in front of me telling me my sister was missing, I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about going to class. He shouts his number and tells me to send him Emilee’s number. That he will try to get a hold of her. The growing feeling that something is definitely wrong has me freaking out. If he didn’t have Emilee’s number, there’s a reason for that, and I’m not about to betray her even more than I probably already did. Why does her family not know that she has a phone? That’s not normal, but I know her family isn’t normal. I need answers.

Me: Butterfly, where are you? Your brother said you were on the bus, but you aren’t here. What happened between your house and here? Did Vanessa or Christian say something or worse do something? Please just answer me. I feel like I’m going crazy over here. I’m scared.

I know I’ll be late for class, but I don’t care, so I don’t rush down the empty hallway. My hand is on the door handle right as I turn it my phone buzzes. I almost drop it when I see she has finally answered me.

Beautiful: I’m fine. My phone was shut off. It’s almost dead again. I’m at the park.

Dropping my hand from the handle, a massive sigh of relief leaves my mouth. I turn around, racing down the hallway past the office. I should stop and tell them I’m going, but I couldn’t care less now. I know where my girl is, and I will get her. Thank God my extra helmet was on my bike because I didn’t get mine from my locker. Speeding off, I don’t slow down till I reach the park. Looking around, I can’t see her. Where is she? The park isn’t too big, when you stand at the front you can see all the way to the back. Hopefully, she didn’t leave while I raced here. I look left and right while heading down the main path but don’t see her. I park my bike and get off. Why is she here? So many questions run through my head at once, and the only person who can answer them I can’t find. I head toward the back of the park, yelling her name.

“EM!” I scream while cupping my hands around my mouth so the sound will carry. Is she hurt? My heart starts to race even more, and my adrenaline kicks in, making my whole body shake again. A voice sounds like it’s coming from my right, where the trail heads further away from the front. Heading that way, I start running, continuing to yell for her. “Em, where are you, Butterfly?” The voice comes louder as I come to the curve leading you back to the front of the park. Turning left, I continue my way back till I’m standing in front of a fence surrounding a water tower. “Butterfly.”

“Look up.” I hear a giggle coming from above me. Leaning back, I put my hand up, shielding my eyes from the sun, and I finally see her. She’s a little spot up at the top of this high-ass tower.

“What the fuck, Em? Come down from there.” I’m scared of heights, so there’s no way in hell that I’m going up there unless she can’t come down by herself. I hear her laugh again, but I find nothing funny about this. I watch her slowly make her way down to me. The view of her ass is fantastic, but I can’t relax until she is in front of me, and I can physically touch her. When her feet touch the ground, I pull her into me, not allowing her to turn around entirely. As her scent hits my nose, the knot in my stomach unfolds. She is safe, and I can breathe again.

“Parker, why’s your heart racing?”

A small sinister laugh leaves me. “Why do you think? You weren’t in class and haven’t answered my texts. I was fucking worried about you.” I spin her around entirely so I can see her. She doesn’t look hurt or upset. “What happened? Why didn’t you text me back last night?” Now that she is in front of me, I want nothing more than to shake her and yell at her for making me worry. Instead, I stare into her beautiful eyes, trying to calm my heart down.

Stepping back, she takes my hand and starts walking away from the tower and onto the path. “I didn’t feel like dealing with school today. I just wanted a day of peace and quiet, so I got off the bus and came here instead. I found this place when I was a kid. It’s hidden so no one would have found me.”

There is a bench halfway up the path, and I pull her to sit with me. Angling my body toward her, I pull her into me, wrapping my arm around her shoulder. “Okay, I can understand not wanting to deal with school. Who doesn’t need a break every now and then? But why haven’t you answered any of my calls or texts?”

She pulls her phone out of her bag and shows it to me. “I forgot to put it on the charger last night, and I didn’t have enough time this morning to charge it. I turned it off to save the battery. When I powered it on, someone blew it up. All your messages drained the battery even more.” She’s scrolling through all the messages I sent her today. When she gets to the messages from last night, I grab the phone from her.

“Where’s the long message I sent you last night? Why did you delete it?” I scroll up and down but don’t see the paragraph where I spilled my feelings to her.

“They are the only messages I got from you this morning when it turned back on. I would never delete your messages,” she says as she pulls her phone back and moves away like I physically hurt her with my words.

Pulling my phone out of my pocket, I scroll back up in our messages, and that’s when I see it. In small ass lettering, “not sent.” How did I not see that as many times as I was in this app today? “Fuck.” I groan out.

“What’s wrong, Parker?” She leans over, trying to look at my phone, but I lock it quickly before she can see.

“Nothing Butterfly. You want to get out of here?” Her brows scrunch together as confusion crosses her face. I know I’m doing a complete one-eighty on her, but I’m a big believer in fate. That’s why I just put my phone in my pocket instead of showing her the message. Maybe being that honest so soon is bad, and the world is telling me to slow the fuck down.

“Sure.” She finally says as I grab her hand and head out of the park. More confused now than I have been since I got on this crazy rollercoaster with her.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

I instantly feel the shift in Parker. I can’t understand what is going on but he has put up walls to keep me out. It has to do with the message that he thought I deleted. His body was stiff as I held on to him all the way to his house, which drastically changed from the relaxed Parker I held on to yesterday. He never said anything, so neither did I. The need to find out what I did wrong is strong, but I fight with myself because I don’t want to push it and risk pissing him off more. I’m afraid he is second-guessing this friendship and the possibility of being more with me. If that’s the case, I’d rather be ignorant, even if that makes me naive. I know that my mental state can’t handle that right now. At least until the project is complete, I still have him in my life, and I will take that.

He asks if I want to watch the movie for English class, and I just nod my head, afraid if I open my mouth, I won’t be able to keep myself from asking him what’s going on. I sit down on his couch, watching him put in the movie. I expect him to sit in the chair or at least away from me with his current mood. However, he sits right down next to me. We are so close that every time one of us shifts even a centimeter, our leg or arm brushes against the other. Every time it happens, my body temperature rises, goosebumps break out all over me, and desire pools in my stomach. Out of the corner of my eyes, I watch him to see if it’s bothering him as much as me, but he is just sitting there stoically watching the damn movie.

It doesn’t help that we are surrounded by his delicious smell. Halfway through the movie, I can’t take it anymore. I have to do something to ease this tension within me. Jumping up off the couch is the only thing I can think to do, even if it is embarrassing. “You okay?” He asks with a puzzled look on his handsome fucking face.

“Uh, yeah. Can you pause the movie? I need to…um…use the bathroom,” I stutter as I turn around and hightail it to his bathroom. I have to get my emotions under control, or I’m going to lose it in front of him again but for a completely different reason. Turning the cold water on, I gather some in my hands and splash it on my face. The water instantly cools my face. “You need to calm down, girl,” I say to my body, hoping it helps. Raising my eyes to the mirror, I can see my eyes are full of lust. I slam them shut, count to ten, and take really deep breaths. I just have to get through this movie then I can handle this little situation at home, alone.

Drying my face and hands, I try to put a neutral look on my face and head back to the living room. Even though Parker is acting weird, I don’t want him to worry that I’m in here hurting myself. As I enter the kitchen, I can see him sitting in the living room and putting his phone back in his pocket. Fear runs wild through my veins as I wonder who he is talking to. Shaking my head, I remind myself that I decided to trust him, and in order to do that, I have to stop reacting to him messaging someone like this. I have to believe him that he won’t hurt me. When I get to the couch, I grab my drink, taking a gulp to get the lump out of my throat. Sitting down, I scoot a little to the right and lean against the arm rest, putting enough space between us that I can focus on the movie and not his body. He doesn’t say anything just picks up the remote and presses play.

My body is stiff once the credits start rolling across the screen. I sit up, twisting my back to pop it, and stretch my arms out above my head. Of course, with my thumbs through the hoodie’s sleeve, it rides up when I do this, and I hurriedly pull it down, covering the skin that was just showing. Embarrassment rolls over me at the thought of him seeing even a sliver of my stomach. My face starts to get hot again as a blush rushes to my cheeks. I can only see him out of the corner of my eyes and he doesn’t look disgusted but I don’t risk turning around fully.

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