by Sean Kennedy
“For now,” Emma said.
Will looked at her.
“You know those two,” Emma said quickly, not wanting to get his hopes up. “Changes like the wind.”
He didn’t say anything. He glanced up at them again, and just as quickly averted his eyes. They were still at it.
“How are things at the moment?” Emma asked. “Is the settling-in period at Tom’s house over?”
“Yep, I’m a fully fledged sponge now.”
“Don’t be like that, Will.”
“It’s how I feel sometimes.”
“Your uncle wants to help you get back on your feet. Okay, bad choice of words.”
It made him smile. “I know. And everybody is being great. Dec asked me if I wanted to do some voluntary work for GetOut—”
“Brilliant!”
“Yeah, but that’s kind of fallen by the wayside at the moment. They’ve too many other things to worry about.”
That reminded her. “I haven’t called them in a while. I didn’t want to be annoying.”
“I’m sure they’d love to hear from you. They wanted to come tonight, but what with everything going on—”
“They would have been here if they could,” Emma said. “They have every other time we’ve needed them.”
“We should be there for them for a change.”
Emma threw her arm around him. “You’re right. We should go and see them tomorrow while we’re all still in Melbs.”
Micah appeared before them, with Kyle nowhere to be seen. “This is where you’re hiding!”
“I’m surprised you noticed we were gone, what with all the inappropriate pashing,” she said.
“Inappropriate?” He looked surprised.
“Public professional event,” Will said, and the monotone was back.
“Oh, piss off, you killjoys.” Micah threw himself down in a chair across from them, limbs akimbo as he draped over the back of it. “We were just celebrating seeing each other again.”
“So where is he?” Emma asked. “Avoiding me?”
“No!” Micah was defensive, which meant she was partly right. “He saw somebody he had to talk to.”
Emma looked across the dance floor and spotted Kyle. He was standing next to a young guy in a very tight shirt. The first three buttons were undone, and Kyle was rubbing the collar between his fingers as if he was testing merchandise in a store. As he let it go, his finger dropped against the exposed collarbone and traced down his chest until it was snagged by the first closed button.
Micah, of course, couldn’t see it, as his back was to them. Emma looked at Will for confirmation, but once again his eyes were on Micah.
I’m not getting involved. I’m probably jumping to conclusions, and I’ll be the one who gets shat on.
But it felt like trouble. It was something Micah would have to deal with.
When Emma looked up again, Jess had blocked out her view and was waving at them.
“Looks like they’re starting,” Emma said.
They made their way to the stage, where a curtained canvas stood waiting. None of them knew exactly what was going to be on the front cover of the magazine, but Emma knew most likely that if it wasn’t a group shot it would be Micah and Trish. They were the most well-known, and they would probably want one female and one male representative. And Emma was fine with that. (As long as the rest of them were on the gatefold.)
Will noticeably stood back from Micah and Kyle. He looked a bit sweaty as he leaned on his crutches, and Emma tried to be as close to him as possible to lend assistance if he needed it, but not enough to look presumptuous that he couldn’t manage on his own.
There was your usual speech from the editor of the magazine about how barriers were coming down in sports blah, blah, blah, and a new generation was rising where an openness about sexuality would lead to everybody being comfortable on the field and able to give their best without fear. It was nice enough, but as usual didn’t talk about concrete ways this could be done. Emma honestly thought GetOut was one of the best charity organisations trying to make a palpable difference in schools, and thought it was a shame nobody had been asked to talk on their behalf. But like she and Will had discussed, Simon and Dec had other things on their mind right now.
When the curtain was drawn, Emma felt the ground tremble beneath her and realised it was only her knees shaking. Almost the size of the wall, it showed three figures standing in a triangle formation, as if it were a poster for a superhero movie: Trish forefront and centre, Micah and his football on her right, and Emma with her hockey stick slung over her shoulder on her left. The sea appeared dark and foreboding behind them, as if they were about to take on the forces of nature, and her red hair blazed against the moody blue.
“Oh my God,” she heard Jess breathe.
“Did you know?” Emma asked her.
“I’m a lowly intern,” Jess reminded her. “They forgot who I was the moment the shoot ended.”
Micah hugged her from behind. “Congratulations, Em!”
“And to you too.” She was dumbstruck.
“I’m going out with a cover model.” Jess laughed. “This will be something to brag about at a school reunion.”
A visual presentation began, showing the article within the magazine and the other photos that would be part of the layout. Emma was too overwhelmed to take it in, and as everybody else was distracted, she seized the opportunity to find a dark corner and hide.
Her solitude didn’t last long, as Trish sought her out. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” It was all she could say right then.
“The cover looks good, doesn’t it?” Trish asked.
“I can’t believe I ended up on it.”
“Why would you have trouble believing that?”
“I seem to remember you saying I only got on the shoot because of Micah.”
Trish winced. “Yeah, but I was being a bitch.”
Emma smiled.
“I guess you’re not going to tell me I’m not?”
“Nah.” Emma shrugged. “That was a pretty bitchy thing to say. But I guess I said bitchy stuff too, so let’s just let them cancel each other out.”
Trish stuck out her hand, and they shook on it. “You know, you ended up on that cover because they asked around about you when writing up the article and the interviews, and they were impressed with what they heard. They know you’re on the cusp of greatness.”
“Yeah, right!” Emma scoffed.
“I’m only telling you what Jackie told me.” She hesitated a moment, then carried on. “Look, there was one thing I wasn’t being bitchy about back then. You should really apply for the exchange program.”
“You think I’m good enough to get into it? Really?”
“Yeah, really. And Jackie will write you a letter of recommendation.”
Emma was floored. If the coach thought so…. “You know, I like you a lot better when you’re nice to me.”
Trish raised her glass to Emma and winked. “Ditto.”
As she walked off, Jess joined Emma. “You know I could almost swear that interaction looked friendly.”
“It’s a Christmas miracle!” Emma cried.
“It’s September,” Jess reminded her.
“It’s a September miracle!”
“Maybe it’s a good thing we’re all being friendly,” Jess said.
“How could it be a bad thing?” As they walked back to have a closer inspection of the cover, Emma didn’t want to tell her, just yet, that—as it would seem from her perspective—Trish was encouraging Emma to leave the country. What if she did apply and she got in? She had only been with Jess a month or so. Could Emma expect Jess to come with her? Could Jess expect her to stay? Suddenly Emma was looking at a situation very much like Micah and Kyle’s a couple of years ago. And look at how well that had turned out.
But Jess was staring at the gigantic canvas Emma’s image was emblazoned upon.
“What is it?” Emma asked.
> “Aren’t you proud?” she asked. “It’s beautiful.”
“Of course I am.”
“You look like you do on the field.”
“Constipated?”
Jess suddenly kissed her, and Emma could taste the wine on her lips. Jess pulled back to look at her, and even though their relationship was new, there was an unmistakable pride in her eyes. “You look like an Amazon.”
Emma turned back to look at herself. “Like Wonder Woman?”
“Don’t get too full of yourself. I said an Amazon. One of those lesser Amazons on Themyscira.”
“Okay, ego deflated.”
Another kiss. “But you could become Wonder Woman.”
Ego reinflated.
Jess went off to get fresh drinks, and Emma was left admiring herself.
She heard Micah call her name. Jess had joined him, Kyle, and Will at the bar. They waved her over, and she signalled she would be there in a minute. She would probably get teased for being a narcissist when she joined them, but that’s what friends were for. Sometimes you needed taking down a peg or two before you became too enamoured with yourself.
But that wasn’t a problem with Emma. At the start of the year she had noticed a disparity between the Emma Goldsworthy that was on screen in Simon’s documentary and the Emma Goldsworthy she thought she was. They didn’t gel. That Emma appeared confident and bolshy, and Emma had lost a lot of that this year. As she looked up at the cover that would soon be in newsagents and supermarket aisles across the country, Emma saw a girl who had made some stupid decisions but learned from them. She was growing up. She would probably still make mistakes, but she would also get through them. She no longer worried about her purpose or whether she was good enough. She was going to stop being scared, and she would put in that application for the exchange program. She might not get in, but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t do well in some other way.
That girl up there on the wall wasn’t an Amazon. Not really.
She was Boadicea. She was a warrior with flaming red hair, her hockey stick at the ready.
She wasn’t a stranger at all.
That girl was Emma Goldsworthy.
More from Sean Kennedy
Get Out: Book One
There is no Plan B.
After being outed in an especially brutal way and briefly running away from home, Micah Johnson has sworn to get his life back on the straight and narrow. Well, not so much straight, but you know what he means.
Unfortunately the path to redemption is not an easy one. With fights at school and on the football field and an all-round snarky attitude as his number one defense mechanism, will Micah survive the school year and the training camps to achieve his dream of making the national draft and becoming a professional AFL player?
His mentor, Declan Tyler, believes in him, but Micah wishes he had the same confidence in himself. Only time will tell if the ongoing reformation of Micah Johnson will be successful.
Sequel to The Ongoing Reformation of Micah Johnson
Get Out: Book Two
On the outside, Micah Johnson seems to have everything. He is proving his worth on the field during his rookie year with his new professional football team, the Fremantle Dockers, but his personal life is a mess. Homesick, three thousand kilometres away from his family and friends on the other side of Australia, Micah isn’t coping. He’s using casual sex, alcohol, and drugs as crutches since he doesn’t feel comfortable approaching his foster family with his problems, and he’s left with nowhere to turn. It isn’t until he experiences a health scare and a friend is rocked by a personal tragedy that Micah realises he does have the strength to succeed at a new life in the West—but he has to learn to ask for help.
Readers love the Get Out series by Sean Kennedy
The Ongoing Reformation of Micah Johnson
“What an amazing, amazing story! I cannot wait for the follow-up!”
—Paddylast Inc
“I cannot recommend this novel more highly. The Ongoing Reformation of Micah Johnson is a stunning novel with rich and genuine characters who grapple with all the many issues facing gay teenagers today.”
—The Novel Approach
“This is a real coming of age story, honest, humorous and above all, diverse… You’re guaranteed to discover a cast of characters you won’t be able to live without.”
—The Nocturnal Library
Micah Johnson Goes West
“Sean Kennedy’s writing is just amazing. I get lost in Micah’s story immediately.”
—Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words
“I highly recommend the book. I’ve loved every one of Mr. Kennedy’s books, and this one isn’t an exception.”
—Love Bytes
SEAN KENNEDY lives in Perth, Western Australia, but his heart still belongs to his hometown Melbourne—which is also the home of Simon Murray and Declan Tyler from his series Tigers and Devils. A disciple of cult leader David Lynch, Sean survived the twenty-six-year wait for a third season of Twin Peaks.
Website: www.seankennedybooks.com
Twitter: @sean__kennedy
By Sean Kennedy
GET OUT
The Ongoing Reformation of Micah Johnson
Micah Johnson Goes West
The Obstruction of Emma Goldsworthy
Published by HARMONY INK PRESS
www.harmonyinkpress.com
Published by
HARMONY INK PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
[email protected] • harmonyinkpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Obstruction of Emma Goldsworthy
© 2018 Sean Kennedy.
Cover Art
© 2018 Catt Ford.
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Harmony Ink Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or [email protected].
ISBN: 978-1-64080-387-9
Digital ISBN: 978-1-64080-386-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018900699
Published April 2018
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
