Second Heartbeat

The lights dimmed down, and the movie started.

Of course the damn previews had to go first. I didn't pay much attention to them. I mostly stared down at my right hand.

Zacky's hand was still locked in mine.

Was Zacky just being nice to me?

I mean he didn't bring one of his many girlfriends with him, but was that just to make me feel better. Everyone else had their girlfriends, so maybe he was the odd man out?

Jimmy could've done the same thing for me, but he didn't. I might've been closer to Zacky then, but what about now?

The real movie started, and it was just some girl jogging. I sighed in relief. Nothing bad could possibly happen right now, right?

She was just jogging.

But it did get worse.

In the first minute, I screamed. I could hear Michelle screaming with me. Brian and Zacky were just laughing at us, and I glared over at Zacky.

"You're suppose to make me feel better," I whined. He just smiled at me.

"You're so cute, when you're scared though." I rolled my eyes as I tried to pay attention to the movie.

I didn't scream anymore, but I did lots of clenching Zacky's hand. I even broke contact with him to cover my eyes up.

Zacky thought the movie was quite funny though. I could hear him laughing through it as I was terrified. I could hear Brian doing the same.

Eventually, I was hugging myself.

This movie was not a good choice for me. I was shaking now, and I wanted to just run out of the movie room. I didn't like this one bit. I didn't like this feeling that made me want to jump out of my seat.

I felt Zacky's hand take my right hand again, pulling it away from my face. I looked over at him.

He had a smirk on his face this time.

"If you want, we can leave. Just you and me," he said. I nodded exuberantly. He grinned as we both stood up. We got out of the room, and I felt myself breathing normally again.

"Sorry about the movie. Probably a bad idea," he said. "No, it was a great idea. Just not for me," I whispered. "So what do you wanna do now that we've ditched our friends," he asked grinning wide.

I smiled back at him.

"Let's go to the arcade!" I said happily. He nodded. "Exactly what I was thinking," he said.

He grabbed my hand, and we ran over to the arcade.

I waited as Zacky got the change. I felt bad actually. Here I was, not paying for anything. It seemed like Zacky was just wasting his money on me.

I didn't like that. I should be paying for something, anything.

Zacky came back, and he had pockets full of little coins.

"So what do you wanna play first?" He asked. "Time Crisis!" I yelled.

He grinned as we walked over to the game machines. Now I suck at most games, but I can kick ass on Time Crisis. Well, for a moment only. As long as I had the machine gun.

I laughed as Zacky died before me.

He groaned, saying that he should've lasted longer than me. I quickly killed myself. Playing alone sucked.

"So what game next?" I asked. "One of the racing ones. I can beat you at that," he said.

I raised an eyebrow. I was terrible at this sort of game, mostly because I was terrified of driving. I could never do that myself... without freaking out.

I sat down on the driver's seat, and Zacky took the one to my right.

I was surprised, when another guy sat down next to my left.

I looked at him.

He had red and black spikes, and his grey eyes were absolutely dazzling. I knew him.

"Eddie!" I shouted. I gave him a big hug, and he hugged me back.

"Hello, Emma." He said letting me go. I smiled at him.

"You seem to be stalking me," I said laughing. He nodded. "Lucky too. I've missed you," he said. "You just saw me a couple days ago," I said. "Still missed you. You're a great girl," he said.

I heard Zacky clear his throat.

"Oh, yeah, Eddie. Zacky's here with me," I said happily.

I could see Eddie's happiness die a bit.

"Hello, Zacky," Eddie said. "Hey," Zacky said gruffly. "So you gonna play with us?" I asked.

Eddie nodded happily. Zacky shot him a glare, but I just shrugged it off. No time to get them friendly at this point.

I quickly picked the yellow Porsche, and I picked the driving layout. Just like Nascar's. Left turns were gonna be the only hard part for me.

The race had started, and I sped off. I was in tenth place, but I was doing better than the guys. I could see they were behind me, and I tried my best just to pass some more people. I could barely do that, but I ended up passing a couple of them.

I soon saw Eddie's car right next to me. I could see a grin on his face, and he passed me by. Zacky soon did the same.

Now I could see them passing each other by, neither really winning.

I could tell that they weren't playing for fun anymore. They were competing with one another now.

They probably weren't even worried about me now.

I sighed as I finally gave up. I let my car slowly go into the last place. I didn't care anymore. If the guys were just gonna compete with one another, it wasn't anymore fun. It'd be just another competition with men.

Which led to another thing...

Why did men feel like it was so damn important to compete? To win? It wasn't like the other guy would actually acknowledge that he lost fair and square.

He would blame it on the car or the layout. It was useless and pointless.

I looked over at Eddie.

He was biting his lip, and he looked so determined. He almost seemed like he was glaring at the screen, and his grip on the steering wheel was tight. His hand was white by now.

I looked over at Zacky. He looked exactly the same but different. He looked almost smug. A grin was on his face, and he looked overall happy.

The race ended, and Zacky ended up winning. I saw Eddie glare at him, so I decided to make him feel a little better.

"It's okay, Eddie. I got last place," I said. He shrugged.

"I think if you gave me a hug, I'd feel better," Eddie said grinning.

I shrugged. I might as well go along with it.

I gave him a long hug, wrapping my arms around his neck. All of a sudden, I was unexpectedly lifted into the air.

I tightened my grip on Eddie, not wanting to fall to the ground.

I could hear Eddie laughing as I let out a small scream.

"Let me down, Eddie." I said laughing.

He put me down slowly. He had a grin on his face, and I pouted.

"Next time tell me, before you lift me off the ground." I said softly. "So I can do it again?" He asked hopefully. I nodded.

"It was fun," I said letting a grin creep onto my face. Eddie was sure making me feel happy.

I heard Zacky clear his throat. Ooh, I forgot about him.

"Good job at winning, Zacky." I said. He smiled at me.

"I know, I'm the best." He said. I rolled my eyes. So damn conceited.

"Emma!" I heard a familiar voice say.

My head quickly turned to my right. Emily was waving her arms around like a maniac. Johnny was next to her, shaking his head. He was probably already getting tired of her damn mood swings.

"Emily!" I shouted.

She ended up running all the way to me. She completely left Johnny on his own, but he looked happy to be alone. He just sat down at one of the tables, and he put his head down.

I smiled at Emily.

She was eying Eddie up and down. She was almost glaring at him. Eddie just smiled at her. He knew who she was, but she obviously had no clue who he was.

"Em, this is Eddie, remember? I met him at the beach back in high school," I said. She nodded slowly.

You had to give her some time, but she would slowly begin to remember people.

"Ooh," she said slowly. "I remember you, Emily. You were always so proper," Eddie said smiling still. Emily nodded.

"Well, now I'm all knocked up!" She said laughing. Eddie just stared at her oddly.

It was like he had no clue how to respond back to that sentence. I wasn't even sure how to.

"Oh, must be the reason why Emma was at the Rite-Aid buying that test." He said. She nodded. I froze.

That wasn't the story we told Zacky and Johnny.

"I thought you bought it for yourself," Zacky said slowly.

Shit, he was more observant than I gave him credit for.

I looked over at Emily, who was just talking away with Eddie. I looked back over at Zacky. He was still waiting for my answer.

Now what was I suppose to say to that? Well, I guess I could just tell him the truth.

It's not like it was bad or anything.

"Zacky, I never thought I was pregnant. I was just buying the test for Emily," I said. Zacky stared at me hard.

Was he angry?

"Then why did you tell me that it was for you?" He asked. "Well, I was just agreeing with Emily. She was worried about how Johnny would react, so she just passed the blame onto me." I said.

Zacky just stared at me.

I could tell what he was thinking. It was a mixture of "what the fuck" and "what the fuck were you thinking". So I didn't think this was exactly a good thing right now.