Fox winked at me and waved at Lily before following his friend out of the cafeteria.
“Dude, you’re sucha pansy,” I heard him say as he caught up with Nick.
I smirked and shook my head before looking back at Lily, who was smiling at me. It wasn’t her usual innocent smile; it was kind of a wicked one… with a hint of slyness.
“What?” I asked.
“Nothing,” she shrugged in a childlike manner, as if she were hiding something.
I glared at her.
“Well, if flirting with Fox is considered nothing, anyway,” she said, biting her lip to smother that smile she’d been dying to rub in my face.
“I wasn’t flirting with him,” I disagreed.
“Uh-huh, yeah sure,” she nodded sarcastically.
“Believe what you want Lily, but nothing’s going on. I’m not a bottle-blonde or anything even remotely exotic, so if our conversation was considered flirting he’s getting desperate,” I said.
“Sure, Em,” Lily said again, nodding profusely, “Like putting yourself down will help you believe that.”
“Shut up, Tiger Lily,” I muttered, “Let’s go, before we’re late.”
***
My heart felt like it was made of lead as I walked through the glass doors of the center.
I immediately went to Nina’s office, dropping my backpack on the way.
I walked over to her empty desk, guessing she was probably in the bathroom.
Biting my lip, I strode over behind her desk curiously.
The site on the computer screen made me gasp. I backed up, breathing heavily as Nina walked in to her office.
She looked guilty as she put two and two together.
“It’s not nice to pry,” she said, walking over to her desk.
“It’s not nice to kill an innocent human being either,” I said, referring to the abortion page on her screen. “Red Cross goes against all of this Nina.”
“Emery, it’s only an option. I doubt I could ever go through with it,” she replied, on the verge of tears as she stared at the screen and then her stomach.
“You’re failing to see how beautiful this is,” I told her gently.
She shook her head slowly and closed her eyes as she rubbed her temples.
“I can’t sleep at night, and I’m considering… abortion,” she whispered, her voice cracking as she said that horrible word, “How is that beautiful?”
“Adoption?” I offered.
“I can’t stand the thought of giving something like that away to some strangers after nine months,” she sighed.
“But you can somehow stand the thought of someone killing your child?” I said, a little too harshly.
She flinched.
“Nina I’m sorry,” I apologized “I just… you know how I feel about these things. It’s going to be ok, I know it,” I said as strongly yet as gently as I could.
“How is it going to be ok?” she asked with her voice cracking every other word, “How do you know something like that? I’m now responsible for another human being, Emery. A little person is inside of me.”
A few tears were sliding down her face now. I tried not to cry myself.
“And that little person is part of you, Nina. It probably has your cute little nose,” I smiled, and she let out a small chuckle between sobs, “and your golden caramel skin, and your thick, dark brown mane of hair – which I’m incredibly jealous of.” I laughed myself.
“And he or she is probably about as big as an orange,” I said, cupping my hands together.
Nina cracked, letting the pool of tears flood her eyes and spill down her already wet cheeks. I walked over to her, and she stood up to hug me.
I never realized how little she was. She was shaking a little as she cried, holding me tight. I wrapped my arms around her and rubbed her back.
“You were great with Holly,” I reminded her, “She clearly loves you. And I’m more than positive you’ll be the most kickass, most beautiful mother ever.”
She let out a few more chuckles, before pulling back and wiping her eyes with the palms of her hands.
“Oh God,” she sighed, “I hope my child is half the angel you are, Emery.”
Then I started crying. A few tears made their way down my own cheeks, and we both resumed our hug as we laughed and cried at the same time.
Nina finally pulled away, and we stepped back, smiling and chuckling in embarrassment as we wiped our eyes.
We silently exchanged ‘I love you’s and I walked back to the counter.
Fox was sprawled out on the floor.
I smirked as I walked up to him.
“Hey there hot mess, how may I help you?” I murmured.
“Get me ice. A whole tub,” he groaned, sitting up. Then he grinned as we both realized what I’d just said.
“You think I’m hot!” he stated, “I totally knew it.”
“What, setting up the Haunted House took that much out of you?” I sniffed, ignoring his last statement as I took a tissue and dried my eyes and my cheeks.
My face was probably all red and blotchy. Swell.
“Yeah, each room was fixed on a separate truck. We had to all push the pieces together like an effing puzzle, and it took a while to move them across the field,” he sighed, standing.
“Wow,” I said, “Is the thing at least cool? Was it worth all that hard labor?” I asked.
“Not at all,” he replied, finally looking at me.
His uneasy gaze made me blush, which just added to the redness of my face.
“What’s wrong?” he asked, stepping closer.
“Me and Nina just had a little talk,” I said softly, “You know how girls get all emotional.”
He smirked, but it was from amusement not arrogance.
“She gonna be ok?” he asked, taking another step toward me.
I suddenly felt claustrophobic as I swallowed hard and replied, “She’s going to be fine.”
Then I spun around on my heel and headed behind the counter as he hung his head down and his hair bounced a little.
“You know what this means, don’t you?” he groaned.
“Yep,” I said, “We have to work twice as hard, twice as fast – especially if you’re still interested in tutoring sessions, Mr. Evans.”
“I’m up for it,” he said after a moment, “Not that I have much of a choice.”
I laughed. “Exactly. Now get ta’ steppin’ bitch,” I ordered assertively, “We got new SAT words to study.”
“Bitch?” he asked with some serious attitude and head swaying, “Excuse me?”
I smiled, “You heard me.”
“Oh, speaking of SATs,” Fox said enthusiastically, as if he’d remembered something.
He got his backpack and pulled out a slightly crumpled piece of paper.
“I am fuckin amazing,” he said cockily as he held the paper up to my face.
I saw the paper had his name on it, followed by a few sentences in legible, slanted writing... with a large red 96 circled in the top right corner. Last week’s SAT test. He’d actually aced it?
“You mean, I’m fuckin amazing,” I corrected him as I looked him in the eyes and smiled broadly.
“That too,” he said, returning the smile.
Chapter 16
.EMERY POV.
“Pfffhaaaaahahahaahaa,” Lily and I practically wheezed as we stared at the screen.
White Chicks was hilarious, I found myself in love with the Wayans Brothers.
“Triple Tee, Kay, Ay,” I muttered as the credits started rolling and we heard the doorbell ring.
“Time. To. Totally. Kick. Ass,” we said in unison, quoting a line from the movie.
I grabbed the bowl of candy we’d set aside for trick-or-treaters. We called it the Icky Bowl because we’d selfishly picked out all the good stuff and stashed it away for later.
Lily pulled open the red front door, and I began to say ‘Happy Halloween’ before I realized the candy addicts weren’t kid
s. They were tall guys – one look at the Scream guy made me jump.
“Trick or treat, smell my feet, gimme something good to eat,” the guy behind the Hilary Clinton mask sang miserably.
“If you don’t, I don’t care, I’ll pull down your underwear,” the one behind the Scream mask finished in a high-pitched tone, moving forward with tempted hands.
I found myself smiling, remembering how popular that song had been a couple years ago.
“Alright pedophiles,” Lily muttered, “Reveal yourselves.”
The guys hesitated before pulling their masks off. Scream did it first. I rolled my eyes when a pair of emerald eyes met mine and a mop of white blonde hair appeared.
“Who’s Hilary?” I asked curiously, leaning against the doorframe.
“None other than my favorite bitch,” Fox smirked, wrapping his arm around the guy’s shoulders.
He whipped the mask up, and Nick smiled sheepishly at me.
“One of these days, Fox, you’re gonna regret all the shit you put me through,” Nick threatened.
“No hard feelings, boo bear,” Fox muttered, releasing Nick from his hold and crossing his arms over his broad shoulders. His feet were slightly spread out, and he had lifted his chin a little. He was inspecting me, and when I finally realized that… the blush was inevitable.
“That’s not something Teresa would wear,” he observed, eyeing me up and down.
I self-consciously crossed my arms over chest in an effort to hide my nonexistent cleavage. I suddenly felt naked; my hair wasn’t in its usual curtain form around my face and on my shoulders. It was tied up in a high, perky ponytail.
“I decided to make tonight a ‘sweatpants and tank top’ night,” I sighed. “That’s not something Trisha would wear either.” I nodded at his attire.
“But it scared you anyway,” he smirked, “I figured since the outfit still had the same effect, I was good.”
I laughed, cursing myself on the inside.
“The only reason I jumped when I saw you was because we watched Scream earlier,” I explained.
He nodded, shifting his weight from one foot to the other. It was then that I averted my gaze to Lily, who was staring off into the night. I glanced at Nick, who was staring at his feet and clenching his jaw.
A brilliant question popped into my mind.
“Why are you guys even here?” I asked finally. I narrowed my eyes as Fox looked over at Nick, who’s black eyes are staring at the empty space between Lily and me.
They stayed silent, so I pressed the matter.
“Didn’t you guys say you had dates tonight…?” I chuckled as I watched them continue to shift their weight uncomfortably.
Hah! This was a good feeling… having the upper hand. I could definitely get use to this.
Nick cleared his throat. “Well obviously we’re out together,” he smirked.
“Dude, I’m straight,” Fox objected, distancing himself from Nick.
They both laughed, while Lily and I just stood there. So… we really were rejected. Not because they had actual dates, but because they didn’t want to be seen in public with us.
Why did it hurt to realize that?
.FOX POV.
I kept looking over at Lily, who was biting her lip and sighing every now and then.
Nick was staring at his feet. Loser.
Emery was completely oblivious to their behavior, but the awkward silences were definitely there.
“Right,” I said – sick of the silence, “Ladies, hand over the goods.”
Emery came to life, extending the purple bowl of candy to me. I grabbed a few handfuls and stuffed the candy into my backpack. I zipped it up, and slung it back over my shoulder.
“You’re seriously trick-or-treating?” she smirked, tucking her dirty blonde bangs behind her left ear. They kept slipping out and into her face. I almost felt tempted to reach over and tuck them behind her ear myself. But I didn’t, that would just creep her out.
“Why not?” I shrugged.
I’d convinced Nick to go trick-or-treating with me because I was on a top-secret mission. One he was totally oblivious too.
Since he lived a few houses down from Lily’s, I figured we could just stop by… unannounced. He hadn’t been too fond of the idea, but I didn’t really care.
“Right, well we’ve got a long night ahead of us,” I muttered after another painfully dull silence. “You guys enjoy yourselves, but not too much.”
“Pshh, we’ll do whatever we want,” Emery said, uncrossing her arms. I gave her another one-over, and then returned my gaze to a safety zone before she caught me checking her out. There wasn’t much to see, after all, but she was a touchy person.
“Happy Halloween,” Lily said wickedly, “I hope your teeth rot from all that candy.”
And with that, they closed the door.
I smirked and shook my head as Nick and I walked back onto the sidewalk and continued down the street.
Gotta love women.
“Dude, let’s find some chicks,” Nick muttered.
“I thought you were against infamous hookups,” I said, making this difficult for him.
“Screw what I said before,” Nick scoffed. “What about Tinkerbell over there?” He pointed to a glittery pixie looking blonde across the street.
“Dude, she is such a butterface,” I disapproved.
“Butterface?”
“Yeah, everything is cute… but-her-face.”
“Her face is the last thing I’m interested in,” he said, ignoring my statement and walking over to her.
He needed to let go of the past. Or face it.
…Which would start right after I had some fun with Tinkerbell’s lovely friend, who was dressed as a sexy little nurse. Nick had definitely forgotten how to pick ‘em.
***
.EMERY POV.
I sighed, blowing my bangs out of my eyes.
Lily and I were in sleeping bags on her living room floor, where we not only had access to the kitchen and all of its yummy contents, but where were warmed by the fireplace.
It was electric, so I could go to sleep without fear of setting on fire – which was great.
“So, what’s the deal with Nick?” I asked curiously.
“What do you mean?” Lily replied.
“He was really sketchy today,” I murmured.
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