Almost Gone

“Hey, Emma,” I say, kissing her forehead. She stares at me oddly, raising an eyebrow. Since Sam and Kate got together, and they no longer worked for us, I decided it was okay to treat them like humans. And I couldn’t help but notice how hot Emma looked.

What are you doing? she writes in her notebook. She carried that thing around like as if it were her life, although it was handy so we could have conversations with her. I roll my eyes, chuckling.

“How come I can never greet you like you’re human?”

Because I know about you. I raise an eyebrow at that, making her smirk. I know everything.

“Do you, now?”

She nods, rolling her eyes. Damn! She looks so hot like that! I think, soon watching as she writes in her notebook again. I read, You hear a lot when you can’t talk.

“Well, I wanna talk to you …”, I say nervously, rubbing the back of my neck.

She shrugs, grabbing her pen and notebook as she stood up, following me. I walk around the corner, and as I turned around, I quickly find myself kissing Emma. WTF! I was just gonna talk! I think, soon just enjoying the feel of her lips. I wrap my arms around her waist, soon realizing she had dropped the pen and notebook as I hear them hit the wooden floor in the hallways.

I pull away to look at her, but she was quickly grabbing the pen and notebook, staring at me with startled wide-eyes. And then she was gone, running. Damn it! I think angrily. I go stomping the opposite direction she had ran from, soon finding Sam and Max.

“S’up, Carl?”, Max says, smirking.

“I kissed Emma,” I grumble, sitting down and lying my head on the cold marble countertop.

“You what?!”, Sam says, as they both do spit-takes.

“I kissed Emma,” I repeat, rolling my eyes.

“And how’d she react?”, Max asks, looking confused.

“She ran.”

“Oooh,” they say together.

“What should I do?”

“Well, I can tell you what not to do. And you should’ve done the same as me. I think I’m getting through to Ella.”, Max says smugly, smirking. He hasn’t shut up about that for who-cares-how-long.

“Yeah, dude, she probably still thinks you hate her.”, Sam says, chuckling. He’s been all smug since he kissed Kate. From what he told us, she took it better than Emma.

“I highly doubt that,” I say, rolling my eyes. “I’ve hardly been mad at her since you and Kate.”

“Don’t mean nothin’, Carl.”, Max says, rolling his eyes.

“Then you tell me how to get Emma to like me!!”, I growl, glowering. These two were seriously annoying as hell. They’re both real smug about their girls, and won’t shut up for five frickin’ seconds about ‘em!

“Buy her a necklace. That’s when I really think I got Ella.”, Max says, smirking.

“Or find something that she likes. Talk to Kate and Ella, see what they know about her.”, Sam says, shrugging with a smirk.

I thought about that idea a moment. It wasn’t a half bad idea. But then another thought occurred to me. “Hey, do you guys even know where she came from?”

“Nope,” they say together.

“Interesting …”, I think out loud. I should go talk to Kate. She’ll probably be most willing to help me, I think, standing up. I wonder where Emma came from. She most likely told Ella and Kate. They’re like best friends, I think, rolling my eyes as I walk back into the kitchen where Ella and Kate still sat.

“Hey, where’s Emma?”, Ella asks, eyeing me suspiciously.

“Ran off,” I say dismissively. “Hey, what do you two know about Emma?”

“Why? Does someone like our friend, Emma?”, Kate teases.

“Just answer the question.”

“Umm, we don’t know much.”, Ella says, thinking out loud.

“Yeah, all we really know is that she’s mute, but has a lot to say.”, Kate says. “She never really talks about her past. Or really any interests.”

Mutes sure can keep secrets, I think, rolling my eyes. Well, looks like I’m just gonna have to make a phone call.

* * *

I had called Mac and Chase. They were coming over with a file on Emma. I didn’t exactly feel comfortable going through her file, but I had to know some about her if I wanted to win her over. The last time I had seen Mac and Chase, was when they dropped those three off.

I hear a knock on the door, and immediately open it, just to see Mac and Chase come waltzing in. Chase has dirty blonde hair, dark brown eyes. Mac, dark brown hair, dark brown eyes. They were holding files, thick ones, too. I raise an eyebrow at them questioningly.

“Emma Kalliope Meade,” Mac says, smirking. “Ironic, isn’t it? She’s mute, but her middle name means ‘beautiful voice.’”

I roll my eyes, grabbing a couple of those giant files.

“So, why exactly do you want these?”, Chase asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Personal.”

“Sounds more like you like her.”, Mac says, smirking as he lays the files on the counter.

“Basically, she’s an orphan. And she’s been adopted multiple times. Like, around fifty.”, Chase says, rolling his eyes. My eyes widen, as I skim through the files. Sure enough. Most of the papers were adoption certificates and registrations.

“Wow, she’s had it rough,” I breathe, continuing to read. I heard the sounds of footsteps, and all of our heads turn to see Emma. She was holding up the notebook, which was easy to read as it was written as big as I have ever seen her write:

Now you know