Forever Here

by Harold Wall

  Anyhow, Emerald continued on autopilot, just going through the motions of school and work. Lucas avoided her at all costs during work, skirting around her, passing her quickly and

  silently not making eye contact. She could tell she'd hurt him, but again, the whole trust thing. Emerald just had major trust issues that she couldn't just drop for one guy. It wasn't

  like she didn't appreciate his attempting to help her; she just didn't want his help.

  Or so she thought.

  Turns out, Emerald was starting to feel guilty about blowing him off like she did. She missed his company at work because his company provided some normality to Emerald's life. When she was at work she could just pretend she was human, working a waitressing job to keep afloat. It wasn't like Carter didn't provide normality, but she was dating Sky who

  was a shapeshifter and part of the Drache family.

  Lucas helped keep her mind off her life and the things going on in it when they talked because he talked about normal things like how he was doing in school and his opinion on

  something strange and random like pineapples.

  So after maybe four days of this avoidance, against her better judgment and all her instincts, she approached Lucas.

  "Can we talk after work?" she asked quietly. It wasn't break time and the restaurant was filling up quickly.

  Lucas looked a little surprised but shrugged. "Sure, I guess." He didn't sound too enthusiastic, but he'd agreed and that's all Emerald needed.

  She smiled. "Great, thanks." With that she headed off to go turn a table.

  When her shift ended she waited outside for Lucas he came a few minutes after herself.

  "So, what did you want to talk about?" he asked as he got outside.

  "I wanted to apologize," Emerald started. "I feel bad that I kind of told you off the other day. I realize you were just trying to be nice… it's just I—"

  "Have a hard time trusting." Lucas finished for her. "I know."

  "I've been going through a rough patch." Emerald said looking down at the ground. She thought about telling him about the breakup but decided last minute she wasn't ready. She

  looked back up at him. "The point is that I am distracted just because I'm in a lot of pain. I enjoy our…" She trailed off not sure whether to call it an acquaintanceship or a

  friendship.

  "Friendship?" Lucas offered.

  Emerald couldn't help but smile. "I enjoy our friendship and your company and I don't want that to be ruined because I won't open up a little more to you."

  "I appreciate your apology." Lucas said. "And I'm sorry that you're in pain."

  "Thanks," Emerald murmured. "So, we're good?"

  Lucas nodded and smiled. "Yeah, we're good." He then stepped forward and pulled her into a hug.

  Emerald froze up like she always did whenever someone gave her an unexpected hug. But this time it wasn't just that, it was also because heat blossomed where he touched and it

  wasn't just because he was warmer than her. Her pulse quickened and her heart did a funny little thing again.

  Lucas pulled back a moment later.

  "Have a good night, Emerald." he said.

  "Yeah, you too."

  And with that they headed off.

  The next week went a little differently. Now that they were on mutual terms, Lucas started hanging out with her a lot more during work hours as well as after work hours. It wasn't

  long, sure, but when Emerald came home she realized that she felt… better. He made her smile and laugh and forget about her worries and pains. He was just easy to be with.

  Then he kind of popped the bubble. It's not like it was a bad thing, what he did, it was just a shock to Emerald.

  So, they were sitting in a small café, naturally after work. Lucas had his cup of coffee and Emerald nothing, like usual. He'd just told a lame joke, but Emerald seemed to find it

  funny and she smiled, chuckling at how lame it was but also how it was actually funny.

  After getting over the fact Emerald realized he'd be staring at her the whole time.

  "What? What's wrong?" she asked.

  "You just… light up when you smile." he finally said after a small pause.

  Emerald looked down at the floor at this compliment, embarrassed and selfconscious.

  "You shouldn't look so embarrassed, it's true." Lucas continued reaching forward and tilting her chin up with one of his finger before brushing her hair back behind her ear. Emerald

  looked at him frozen as unexpected warmth rushed through her.

  "Lucas?" she asked breathlessly.

  He dropped his hand and looked at her intently. "I think…" he started slowly, choosing his words carefully. "I think… I might… be falling for you, Emerald." he finally got out.

  "I—" Emerald tried, but was too shocked for words. She closed her eyes, her eyebrows furrowing, so confused. She looked back at him and shook her head. "I'm sorry." Not being

  able to say anything else she stood, grabbed her jacket from the back of the chair and rushed out of the café.

  "Emerald, wait!" Lucas called.

  She stopped just outside of the Marriott, in the middle of sidewalk. The warm, inviting, orange lights glowed from within the hotel, illuminating both Emerald and Lucas as they

  stood a few inches apart.

  "What? What do you want from me?" she snapped.

  Lucas looked at her, eyebrows furrowed in anger and confusion. "I just… I just admitted my feelings to you and you… ran off!"

  "What did you want me to do? You don't just throw that at someone. Especially if that someone isn't prepared!"

  Lucas struggled to get the words out. "Well, I was hoping… I was hoping you'dyou'd say, you know, your feelings were… were mutual."

  Emerald didn't know what to say to this. Was it possible she'd actually been forming feelings toward sweet, sweet Lucas through this past week? The answer was immediate and not

  exactly what she wanted. Yes, she had been forming feelings for him. But she didn't want to put him in any danger. With her going out and hunting again and her reputation with the

  whole Night World as the Vigilante and probably Most Wanted in their world as well, she wasn't going to put someone like Lucas in that kind of danger. It seemed cruel and unfair to

  him. And it wasn't like she could tell him about the Night World because that was illegal and would surely just get him killed faster than if she were to just date him.

  Not to mention that if anyone saw him with her, they'd go after her and threaten her with him, still putting him in the path of danger. Her father was still out there and she knew he

  was probably watching her every move, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. There's no doubting if she started getting intimate with Lucas he'd use him against her and then

  were would she be?

  "No, I don't." she finally answered. "I don't have the same feelings, I'm sorry." She looked away from him and started to turn away as well, but Lucas caught her arm.

  "Don't lie to me. I don't like liars." he growled. That seemed absolutely and completely unfair to her. Even if she told him the truth about her feelings, she'd still be lying to him

  about almost everything else in her life.

  "Then you might as well give up now." Emerald muttered, pulling her arm out of his grasp, still refusing to look at him.

  "So you do admit you have feelings, then?"

  Her head snapped up and they locked eyes.

  "I never said that." she answered too quickly.

  Lucas smiled. "Then why won't you admit it? It's not that hard." His hands came up but Emerald stepped away from him quickly.

  "I can't because I'm not a good person, Lucas. I've gotten involved with a lot of bad things. I'm tainted. You don't want me." She shook her head, biting her lip.

  "Emerald—"

  "Don't say you don't care!" she yelled. "If I told you I loved you then they'd use you against me and I'm not going to put y
our life in danger. If they saw you with me, they would

  come after you to hurt me. I care about you too much to let that happen to you."

  Lucas smiled again, a small one this time. "So you do care about me." he said softly.

  "Are you even listening to me?"

  "This is my decision, too, Emerald. If you'll let me, I'd like to… you know, be your boyfriend."

  Emerald looked everywhere but at Lucas. "I just don't know—"

  Lucas had taken this minute moment of distraction to step forward, put both his hands on either side of Emerald's upper forearms, lifting her nearly off the ground, pressing his lips

  to hers.

  For a moment, Emerald was just too shocked and surprised to respond, but suddenly she felt like she was melting and her lips molded to Lucas's nearly perfectly. It was an odd

  sensation, kissing him because he wasn't a vampire, he was just human so he was warmer and every time his heart beat there was this force that hit her that took her breath

  away. Words just couldn't exactly describe the feeling.

  Lucas finally backed off and stood back, letting go of Emerald. His chest was heaving; Emerald's a little less than his. His piercing greenblue eyes were trained on Emerald's face

  trying to gauge her reaction to his sudden kiss. Right now, his assumption was that she was at least interested in him, that she might want to be with him, despite her concerns,

  that she'd respect his decision.

  "Well?" he finally asked not able to stand the waiting.

  Emerald took another moment to gather herself and her emotions and reply what had just happened before that heated kiss.

  She slapped him then, her eyebrows knitting together, turning down into a frown, her eyes were as hard as emeralds, and her lips were a thin line.

  Lucas blinked, his head still turned to the side, his cheek red and throbbing.

  "Okay," he said. "I wasn't expecting that response." He looked back at her questioningly.

  "Don't do that, again." Emerald told him. "Ever."

  "The kiss?" Lucas asked a little incredulous.

  "That was very uncalled for."

  "You reciprocated."

  "Yeah, well that was before I realized how I really felt about it."

  "So do you not feel the same for me as I for you, then?"

  Emerald really thought about this for a moment. "Well… I didn't say that." she muttered. "It's just, I wasn't prepared for that. It was… rude."

  Lucas didn't say anything for a few minutes. He simply looked at Emerald with an emotion in his eyes that she couldn't decipher at the moment. Suddenly, he reached up and

  caressed her face, stroking her cheek with his thumb, her hair brushing against his fingers. Emerald's breath caught and her heart did a funny little thing in her chest with his hand

  gently holding her face like that.

  "You're hair is amazingly silky, has anyone ever told you that?" He finally spoke running his fingers through her hair before brushing it back behind her ear with the same hand that

  had been caressing her face a moment ago.

  "Nnot… not outright." Emerald stuttered, he stomach full of butterflies.

  Lucas took a step toward her, closing the distance between them and cradling her face in his hands, tilting her head slightly upwards.

  "You have beautiful eyes."

  Emerald's heart squeezed. She'd heard that before. From Storm.

  "You're very mysterious." Lucas continued in a low voice, leaning in, their faces now just inches apart. Emerald blinked, her heart hammering against her ribcage. He smiled. "I like

  that about you." Lucas leaned in even closer, their lips nearly brushing. "It's very… intriguing." And just when it felt like he was going to kiss her he quickly turned his head to the

  side, and whispered in her ear, "How was that?" before pulling back, his hands dropping to his sides.

  Emerald blinked and tried to clear her head as the longing for the kiss that never came slowly faded. Lucas waited patiently for her answer.

  "I'm… speechless." she finally said.

  Lucas smiled, pleased. Emerald rolled her eyes.

  "May I walk you up to your suite?" he asked, holding out his arm, like he was escorting her to a ball. She looked at him eyes narrowed but with a smile on her face. Without a word

  she linked her arm with his and together they walked into the Marriott. When they got to her suite however, Emerald realized she'd been thinking about the first kiss and the second

  almostkiss all the way up to her room.

  She pulled her arm out of his and reluctantly and slowly took out her keycard but paused for a moment before sliding it in, biting her lip, thinking whether or not she was really

  going to do this.

  "Something wrong?" Lucas asked.

  Emerald smiled and chuckled. "No. No… nothing's wrong." She bit her lip again and then turned to face Lucas. She reached up to caress his cheek before grabbing the front of his

  shirt with his other hand and pulling him down for another kiss. She wrapped one of her arms around his neck, running her fingers through his thick brown hair. Lucas wrapped one

  of his arms around her waist, burying his other hand in her hair.

  Emerald didn't know how much time had passed since they'd first started kissing, but suddenly someone cleared their throat. They broke apart, breathing hard and Emerald looked

  over to her left. Her eyes widened in surprise and her mouth fell open slightly when she saw who it was. She stepped away from Lucas almost a little too quickly and turned toward

  him. She didn't know what to feel, because it wasn't confusion, it didn't feel like pain, and it definitely wasn't embarrassment because to be fair, he had a girlfriend too. Why

  couldn't she have a boyfriend?

  Having Lucas helped, because he took most of the pain away. He made her smile and made her feel better about the breakup. But it wasn't exactly the same. Of course, like

  people, no two relationships would ever be the same, but she'd always love Storm and her love for Lucas just wasn't as strong as it was and always would be for Storm. Sometimes

  she thought about just breaking up with him because she felt she was using him for her own purposes, but then thought better of it.

  Lucas was an amazing, sweet guy and this was partly his decision. Emerald had a feeling after the meeting with Storm he figured out just how much this breakup was affecting

  her, putting her actions the night they dined there with that. If he did, though, he never said anything about it.

  Emerald came up to his door and hesitantly knocked. There was immediate movement on the other side of the door. Valerie answered.

  She had a bright smile for Emerald, which she still couldn't figure out. Why was she so nice? It just didn't make any sense to Emerald, who'd grown up not being able to trust

  anyone and never meeting someone that she felt she could indefinitely trust excluding a select few that were close to her.

  "Hey, come on in." Valerie greeted, pulling back and opening the door. Immediately she heard the TV with what sounded like a recent movie that'd come out on DVD (and Bluray).

  "Am I interrupting something?" Emerald asked taking a small step in.

  Valerie waved her hand passively. "No, it's totally fine. I was just watching a movie. You'll be quick, right?"

  Emerald slowly stepped in, biting her lip as Valerie closed the door.

  "Yeah, I should be. I didn't leave a lot of my things here." she murmured not feeling up to asking where Storm was, before heading to the bedroom. Valerie followed her inside and

  picked up a box that was off to the side, near the door.

  "Here's a box for you to carry your things. You can see yourself out when you're done. Thank you for doing this on such a short notice."

  Emerald nodded and gave her a small smile. Valerie left, closing the door.

  For a moment, Emerald stood at the door, looking around th
e room all the good times flooding through her mind, one after another, each one hitting her, knocking all the air from

  her lungs.

  Shaking this feeling off as best she could, Emerald picked up the box, heading straight for the closet where the rest of her clothes had been sectioned off in a corner, including her

  shoes. She pulled them off their hangers and picked up the shoes, throwing them into the box swiftly, but pausing momentarily. For a moment an overwhelming impulse to go up to

  one of Storm's shirts and smell them for that familiar, wonderful scent hit her. Ashamed at this thought, though, she hurriedly dashed out of the closet, closing the door.

  After were just the small knickknacks that she'd given Storm. They were all crowded on one side of the dresser that stood across from the bed, against the opposite wall, so

  Emerald assumed he no longer wanted them. With the feeling that someone had just jammed a knife straight into her heart, she trudged over to the dresser and in one fell swoop

  pushed all the little gifts into the box.

  Just as she was turning to leave, though, a picture sitting on Storm's nightstand caught her eye. She went over to it and picked up. Tears pooled in her eyes but she smiled at the memory. Carter had taken this picture celebrating Emerald's twentieth birthday. It was somewhere in Central Park. All three of them—Emerald, Sky and Carter—were just taking a

  stroll in the park on a nice sunny, warm, summer day, the flowers in full bloom, the trees filled with green leaves, giving them the much needed shade. (Vampires, though don't

  burst into flames in the sun, get very weakened in the sun and it's not pretty when they stay out in the sun for too long.)

  Anyway, they were celebrating Emerald's birthday and Carter and Sky insisted on going out. They told her that they hadn't invited Storm because they said that he told them that he

  was planning something special later with just him and her so they were trying to celebrate with her before Storm whisked her away. She was reluctant at first to go, because it

  just felt wrong without Storm, but they convinced her and for that she was glad because there was actually a surprise waiting for her at the park. It was Storm, as you probably

  guessed. It was Storm and, what it looked like, was 25 of his closest friends. It was like a smaller version of Mobbed (hosted by Howie Mandel) with Storm wishing Emerald a