Don't Ever Meddle... With Emily's Heart.

I woke up the next day to the sound of people talking. I noticed this was going to become a regular thing, so I rubbed my face and slithered from my warm bed. Well, I say bed but I had still been sleeping on the sofa since my room wasn’t fixed-up yet. I stroked down my messy hair with my right hand, hoping that I looked a little respectable now. I turned my focus to the kitchen where there was a woman standing smoking a cigarette. Her hair was dyed a fiery red, her skin like porcelain. She was a lot taller than my father by a good few inches. She was wonderfully curved in all the right places. I noticed she had a few tattoos and piercings too. The main one I noticed was on her neck, which read, ‘LOVE FREE’ in script.

My father scurried to her side and smiled at me. “Come here, Emily, I’d like you to meet Jay.” I walked over with no expression on my face nor in my body language.

I looked from him to her, knowing what was coming next. “Hey,” I muttered. I shrugged my shoulders and walked back to the living room, where he was close on my tail.

“She’s my girlfriend,” he declared. I already knew that, I’m not five. I shrugged and looked away from him. I didn’t have anything against her, because I didn’t know her to judge her. However, I thought it was just going to be him, his crazy friends and me. That I would get to spend some quality time with him but now that she has invaded that, I cannot. I picked the laptop up from the table in front of me and switched it on, ignoring his glare.

“Aren’t you going to say anything, Emily?” He raised his eyebrow and I shook my head. What was I supposed to say?

I continued to look at the laptop screen, logging into my twitter. I had a few direct messages to write back to, which on this occasion I was glad about because I could distract myself.

“Hey, Emily. How you doing? I haven‘t seen you in ages! But I could recognize that serious face anywhere. I heard you moved to Huntington. x” read the first message, from an old friend of mine. He moved away when we were in elementary school and I had not seen him since. We were the best of friends though, we went everywhere together and nothing came between us until his family moved. I do not know where to, either. Just one day he was gone.

“Rex! Wow, it’s been so long! <3 Things are… alright, I suppose. Could be better but that’s life. How about you? Yeah! I moved to Huntington. Where are you now? x” I sent back, quickly wanting a reply.

I grabbed a chilled glass of Dr. Pepper, without looking into either my father’s or Jay’s eyes then proceeded to wait for a reply from Rex. Finally, it said ‘new direct message’.

“Yeah, I know. How come? Meh, it’s been alright. We live in San Diego again. x”

Then I felt a small draft behind me against my neck, making my spine play a delicate shivery tune. I turned to see Zacky’s eyes look forcefully at me.

“Is that your boyfriend?” He joked, but I did not find it funny. I raised an eyebrow and laughed.

“NO! He’s just a best friend from ages ago.”

He looked at me as if I was not telling the truth. “C’mon, I won’t tell your dad.”

I shook my head again. “There’s nothing to tell, really.”

“Well… anyway, do you want to come with me and Syn to McDonald’s?” he asked, grinning. I wasn’t even dressed, and I can take quite a while.

“At this hour?!”

“For lunch, duh.”

I nodded, I wanted to get away from this house for a bit. I slammed down the laptop screen and pushed it slowly onto the glass tabletop. I jumped up and ran to what was going to be my room. I grabbed my clothes, the same ones I had arrived in, a few weeks before. Washed of course, I just had not had any time to shop for any new things yet. I pulled my t-shirt down and fixed my hair as best I could.

“Ready,” I stated, smiling widely. I glanced at my father and Jay, I realised they actually looked pretty good together but I did not care about that. I was getting McDonald’s for lunch. My mother NEVER let me do that.

Zacky lead me out to Brian’s car, where he was sitting casually in the driver’s seat. The windows were all rolled down - even though the day was a bit glum. Music blasted from the speakers and got louder as I neared the car. I wasn’t entirely sure what it was, but I assumed I’d find out.

“Ladies first and all that,” Zacky said as he pulled his seat forward to let me into the back of the car. Several cigarette buds lay lifelessly at my feet and the interior whiffed of smoke. I didn’t mind though, I was in a place where thousands of girls my age would love to be.