You Promised Me the World

A day off in Emma Thomas’ life was like Christmas, it seemed like it came once a year and always made her internally giddy the whole week before. She spent hours in bed catching up on sleep, did nothing but lounge around, watch TV and eat junk. Nobody came to bother her; nobody demanded extra packets of peanut butter for their toast or just one more sugar for their coffee. She was completely alone in her own world, and that’s exactly how she liked it.

So as Emma’s eyes cracked open when she realized somebody was knocking at her front door, her perfect day off had been ruined before it could even begin.

Sliding her thin frame out of her warm bed Emma let her feet slap loudly against the bare floor, a loud and annoyed sigh escaping her lips. Rubbing the sleep away from her eyes, she tried to focus her cloudy vision before grabbing the thick black frames that sat on her bedside table.

“Coming,” she yelled out towards the front door as she stumbled out of her bedroom, almost loosing her balance as her foot got caught in the pesky jeans that she had discarded the night before.

She heard another loud rap come from the front of her apartment, causing her to call out again. The impatience of the person knocking at her door was matched by her impatience of them interrupting her perfect slumber. She was expecting the person on the other side to be a solicitor, or even a neighbor. It had to be somebody without common sense, she thought, groaning at the wall clock as she passed it. Nobody in their right mind would knock on a door before ten am.

Unlocking the deadbolt, Emma fought with the stubborn chain lock for a brief moment, sure that whoever was behind the large piece of wood could hear her cursing. Swinging the door open to reveal the nutcase who was throwing her whole day down the toilet caused Emma’s breathe to catch in her throat.

“What do you want?” She hissed, the sound of her own harsh voice causing her body to shiver further.

“I uh,” he fumbled, his eyes frantically looking her up and down.

Following his line of vision Emma glanced down at her bedroom attire, a simple pair of black boy shorts and a tank top. She was mortified to say the least, her cheeks getting so hot that she could almost see the steam coming from them.

“Can I-”

“Come in,” she finished for him, practically shouting the invite before mumbling something about giving her a second and running down towards her bedroom. Returning to the front of her apartment, a robe wrapped securely around her body she ran a hand through her hair.

“It looks nice,” he said softly, his eyes scanning the entire space before landing on her.

“What are you doing here Kennedy?”

A small, unintentional smirk crept across his lips as he let his shoulders rise and fall in a shrugging manner.

“I almost forgot how to get here,” he continued, ignoring her demand before looking around once again. “Remember when we took that wrong turn trying to find the other place and ended up here? You loved this one instantly, the smile on yo-”

“Look if you came here to reminisce save it,” Emma snapped. “I really don’t have time for this unwanted trip down memory lane Kenny, so please get out of my apartment.”

“You haven’t changed a bit,” he mumbled.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Shaking his head he let out a dry laugh. “You’ve never given me the opportunity to explain myself.”

Narrowing her eyes at him, Emma felt her body stiffen. “What was there to explain Kennedy, it was all pretty damn clear the moment your poorly kept secret was spilt.”

“I’m not talking about that Emma; it was a general fucking statement,” he spat, throwing his hands up in frustration. “I’ve apologized a hundred and fifty times, and I get it, sorry isn’t good enough. You could at least give me some respect to explain what I’m doing here.”

“Like you gave me the respect?” She asked, rolling her eyes at his audacity.

“Will you just stop being this frigid bitch for five minutes?” Kennedy said, his voice rising just above an acceptable level. “This isn’t exactly what I want to be doing right now either you know, but it’s the only damn thing I know to do.”

Emma’s glare transformed into confusion, “what the hell are you talking about?”

“Here,” he mumbled, shoving the ring box in her direction. “I came to give this back to you, and to apologize for last night.”

Feeling her chest tighten, Emma put her hand up in protest. “I don’t want this Kenny,” she whispered, her eyes flicking from the blue velvet to his face. She wasn’t just talking about the ring; she was also talking about how they were both acting. She didn’t want to treat him like shit; she didn’t want to be like him.

“Neither do I Em, but this is pretty much how it has to be,” he whispered, his sentiment exactly the same as her own.

She could feel the tears pushing against her lashes causing her to blink wildly for a moment as she shook her head. “You bought it, so it’s yours.”

“But I gave it to you, besides I tried to throw it out and that didn’t work so I figured you would keep it safer,” he laughed awkwardly at the admission, ducking his head to hide the shame on his face.

She was stunned even though she knew that she shouldn’t be. He had treated their entire relationship exactly like he had treated that ring, like a piece of trash left for her to keep safe.

Reaching out she ran her fingertips over the smooth velvet before slowly sliding it from his grasp, she had always loved the feeling of velvet.

“I should go,” Kennedy said interrupting her thoughts. Before she could respond he was already halfway out the door, stopping at the last second and turning around. “I’m really am sorry Emma, for what it’s worth. I really didn’t expect it to turn out like this.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” she whispered, brushing her hair from her face.

“I’ll see you around,” he said in a hopeful voice, seemingly waiting for her equally as hopeful answer. When it didn’t come, she watched his face drop slightly before he disappeared behind the door.

“Yeah, see you around,” Emma replied unsteadily into the now empty apartment.

It was as if a switch had been hit the second the door had been closed, tears feverishly dripping down her cheeks as she tossed the ring box on her kitchen table. Plucking the phone away from its charger Emma dialed the number with ease, wiping away her tears and impatiently waiting for him to pick up.

The hoarse voice broke through the shrill ring in her ear, mumbling some form of a hello.

“Are you busy?” She asked quickly, trying to cover up the quivering in her voice. She knew that it was a stupid question, he had obviously been sleeping but Emma wasn’t exactly being rational.

She could hear him moving around. “What’s wrong?”

“Can you come over?”

“Give me ten minutes.”

Justin Richards was many things, talented, funny, sweet, but most of all he was trustworthy. Emma knew that he would be there for her at the drop of a hat; her good friend Julie constantly teased her about it. She had once said that he would probably fly home from the middle of tour if she asked him to.

Julie just didn’t understand, like most of her friends. They didn’t know Kennedy like Justin did, they only knew what Emma had told them. He had offered her a shoulder to cry on when she had been left to deal with the aftermath while Kennedy climbed in a van and put it all behind him, and Emma leaned on that shoulder until it was about to break.

The second knock of the day brought her out of her daze. She realized that she had been standing in place, with the screaming phone still pressed against her ear. Turning it off, she took the five small steps and opened the door.

“What happened now?” He asked as he breezed passed her.

She couldn’t help but laugh at his disheveled appearance, a red hat covering up his messy bed head, his plaid shirt buttoned up crooked, his shoelaces untied.

His head was now cocked to the side, questioning her sudden burst of laughter. Nodding her head towards the table, Emma showed him all that she needed to.

“Oh,” he said in a surprised tone. “I thought you gave that back to him.”

“I did, but apparently it’s some kind of boomerang,” she sarcastically replied. “He just dropped it off with an apology for last night.”

There was silence; it was evident that Justin had no idea what to say. Shrugging her shoulders Emma let out a long sigh.

“I’m going to get dressed now so help yourself, there isn’t really mu-”

“I’m okay Em,” he chuckled, slipping out of his shoes and making a move towards the couch.

Nodding her head Emma pulled her robe tighter around her body and walked back towards her bedroom. Coming out a few moments later in a pair of sweat pants and a black hoodie, she retreated to her coffee maker. Emma was going to need a big cup to compensate for the awful morning she was having.

“So what happened?” Justin’s voice rang out from the large black leather couch.

“Well,” Emma sighed, plunking two heaping tea spoons of sugar down into the black liquid, stirring it slowly before taking a long sip. “He came banging on the door to return that little piece of jewelry before we verbally assaulted each other,” she smirked making her way over to the couch and plunking down next to Justin, bringing her knees underneath her she shrugged. “That pretty much sums it up.”

“Verbally assaulted each other or you verbally assaulted him?” Justin asked with a raised eyebrow.

Rolling her eyes Emma took another sip from her mug. “Verbally assaulted probably wasn’t the best way of putting it, more like we…had words.”

“Ahh,” Justin nodded leaning his head back and glancing up at Emma. “So, what are you going to do with the ring?”

Emma thought on his question for a moment, covering up her discomfort with another sip of her coffee. Although her tears had virtually stopped and she was seemingly hiding every emotion with a smirk or a snarky quip, she could still feel the tightening of her chest.

She felt like that cheesy Lord Of The Rings quote applied perfectly to her situation; “one ring to rule them all”, or rather one ring ruled her life. It wasn’t so much the meaning, of course that had a lot to do with it, it was more so the mess that one single piece of jewelry had caused.

“I’m pawning it,” she finally said.

“Emma,” Justin groaned, running a hand over his face.

“What?! You can’t seriously expect me to keep that thing.”

He shook his head at her. “You can’t pawn it.”

“You’re right, the next person to propose to me will probably end up with it,” she mumbled into her cup.

“Emma.”

Adjusting her position on the couch she looked down into her mug, studying the black liquid as if she were waiting for it to string together the perfect response for her.

“I’m over all of it,” another wavering breathe escaped her lips. “Everything that came after he gave me that ring and everything that’s happened since he’s been back, I’m just over it.” She cleared her throat, feeling her voice almost ready to crack. “I never wanted to pack up his shit, I never wanted to treat him like he treated me but here we are,” she flicked her eyes towards the ceiling to combat the tears that threatened to fall again.

“It has to be like that though,” Justin pointed out, reaching over to grab her knee to comfort her.

She could feel her bottom lip quiver slightly hearing Justin’s words that were identical to Kennedy’s. “He said that too.”

“Well it does,” he shrugged. “Because if it isn’t you’ll miss him.”

“No,” Emma laughed softly. “I stopped missing him a long time ago.”

“You’ve got to get yourself together here Em.”

“I have, I told you I’m over it,” she lied. “It doesn’t bother me anymore.”

“Come on,” Justin laughed, the look in his eyes making Emma realize that he was never going to believe that. “I know you; you’re way too nice to even admit that you’re still pissed off about what he did.”

Huffing loudly, Emma closed her eyes. She could feel the headache forming, not really willing to continue this conversation. “Whatever, can we talk about something else before my head explodes?”

“What are you doing tonight?” Justin questioned, switching over to an enthusiastic tone.

“Trying to salvage my disaster of a day off,” she said as she ran a hand through her hair.

Throwing Emma a sly grin, Justin shot her a wink. “We’re going to dinner.”

“Justin,” she groaned, the thought of going anywhere in that town frightened her with the day she was already having.

“No pressure, no Kennedy, no ring, just food and a friend,” he said nudging her side.

Emma knew he was trying his hardest to sell the idea even if he couldn’t guarantee any of it.

“You owe me for waking me up so damn early.”

Laughing gently Emma shoved his shoulder in a playful manner and nodded her head. “Alright fine, but I get to pick the place.”

“Deal,” Justin said holding his hand out to shake on it.

Sliding her hand in his, Emma felt him pull her forward into a hug causing her to giggle. Maybe it wasn’t going to be a bad day after all.