The Right Kind of Wrong

Dressed in velour sweatpants and a UND t-shirt, Emily drove down the familiar Interstate and smiled softly as she listened to her friends argue across the car. Charlie had called shotgun as soon as they were approaching the car, which was actually Chris’ truck and Marissa – Mary – was complaining up a storm about it. Apparently she was now claiming a tendency to getting carsick as a reason to be riding upfront.

That they had already been driving for almost three hours didn’t deter her determination in the argument.

“Just call shotgun for the return trip now,” Emily threw out there. “Charlie sits up here with me the rest of the way there and you get to sit there when we head back?” she suggested, finding it the most obvious thing in the world.

“Fine,” Mary sulked as she literally fell back against the seat, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting like a five year old.

“Are you sure you know the way?” Charlie questioned as she looked around at the very bleak surroundings. Personally she wouldn’t even notice if they made a wrong turn and ended up several hundred miles away in the wrong direction, everything was just so similar.

“Sweetheart,” Emily smiled widely. “I went to school there for three years and I drove this road the opposite way all three of those for the exact same reason were going there today.”

“Right,” Charlie nodded. “So you didn’t tell me why we’re in this truck and not in your über adorable little Beetle.”

“Cause Chris has gotten it into his head that it’s not a safe car, especially in snowy conditions so he practically forced me to take his car when I told him we were making the trip down,” Emily admitted blushing as she focused her attention solely on the road ahead of them.

“Mhm,” Charlie nodded slowly, observing her friend. There was so much going on between those two and neither of them was acknowledging it. “He is aware that you had the car long before you moved up to Grand Forks, right?”

“Yeah,” Emily nodded simply turning off the ramp and heading towards the familiar St Paul campus at UofM – Twin Cities. The second Gopher meeting was rolling around, this time on their home ice and she along with some friends were heading down to watch the games and support their team. It was after all not more than a four hour drive.

Kelly was supposed to have been with them, but as Chay couldn’t accompany the team just yet, she was staying home to support him whilst watching the game on TV; he really hated not being able to be there for his friends, his team.

As she’d previous attended the school, Charlie and Mary had opted to go with her instead of trying to find their way themselves and it proved to be a rather nice road trip to boot.

“You're not bothered by his over protectiveness?” Charlie questioned concerned.

“Actually,” Emily licked her lips, “I'm not,” she admitted. “He’s not being annoying and suffocating or any of that sort,” she tried to explain, it was after all just a feeling.”He just…he just want to make sure that I'm okay,” she shrugged, hoping her friend would drop the subject, it was one she personally didn’t venture into very often, afraid of what she might learn if she looked at it too long. “I can’t explain it,” she admitted.

“As long as you're alright with it,” Charlie pointed out, reaching out to increase the volume on the radio as a familiar song came on.

“I am,” Emily admitted softly, happy for the music that filled the truck as she turned down the familiar streets, heading straight towards the hotel they were going to be staying at.

It felt weird being back in the city that had been her home for three consecutive years…

“So how does it feel to be back here?” Mary asked as the three of them were walking down one of the streets of the campus where she’d previously lived and attended school.

“It’s weird,” Emily stated frankly as she looked around the place she’d called home. “This used to be my hangout, Erik and I used to walk down these streets, just…” she trailed off as she stopped, looking across the street and out over the large park where she had loved spending warm Spring and Fall days as she was still living there. “It feels a bit like stepping back into something you’ve left, where everything has moved on but you haven't,” she tried to explain it.

“But you have moved on,” Charlie pointed out.

“Yeah, but…but I look around here, it feels like I haven't,” she tried. “I can’t explain it, but it’s like when you go back to that place you used to vacation at when you were a child and you feel like you're the same as back then, obviously you're not but you feel like it, and when you get there, everything has changed, it’s not the same.”

“Yeah, I get it, kind of,” Mary nodded slowly as they continued walking, Emily showing them around the places they usually didn’t visit if they went to see the team play outside of Grand Forks.

Returning to the parking lot where she had parked, using her still valid parking permit from when she went to school there, she slowed down slightly, something that didn’t go unnoticed but her friends.

“What’s wrong?” Mary asked concerned as she saw the look that passed over Emily’s face.

“Nothing,” Emily tried to brush it away, but couldn’t quite make the smile reach her eyes.

“Do you know them?” Charlie wondered as she saw the girls getting out a car at the very end of the parking lot, the same group she was looking at.

“You could say that,” Emily nodded slowly, her voice barely above a whisper. She knew the second that she agreed to make the trip, that she would be running head first into her past, a past she wasn't sure she even wanted to revisit.

“Emily?”

“Hi Jenny,” Emily smiled strained as she halfheartedly returned the hug the bubbly blonde gave her, practically squeezing the life out of her.

“I haven't seen you for ages,” Jenny smiled widely.

“Obviously,” Emily nodded. “You all know what happened,” she pointed out, already knowing that they didn’t care, they wouldn’t have done what she did.

“You could have stayed,” Jenny pointed out as the three other girls also joined them, finally catching up with Jenny who was sort of an erratic spirit…

“No, I really couldn’t,” Emily stated honestly as she turned to the other girls. “Hi,” she smiled, slightly more convincing this time.

“You went dark side on us,” Tanya smiled widely, giving her former study-buddy a hug. “How are you?”

“I'm good, really good actually,” Emily smiled widely, this time it reached her eyes, making them sparkle. “And apparently I went dark side on you,” she nodded jokingly, knowing that Tanya was referring to the Fighting Sioux logo on her brimmed hat. “It’s UND all the way now,” she added, feeling the looks Mary and Charlie was giving her, clearly they were curious.

“Guys, these are some of my friends from when I lived here,” she told them. “This crazy one’s Jenny, this is Tanya we used to study together, and these are Carmen and Savannah,” she introduced them. “These are friends of mine back in Grand Forks; Marissa or Mary and Charlotte, Charlie,” she continued, watching her friends greet each other. It was a surprisingly pain free introduction.

“So how long are you here for?” Savannah asked. “I can only guess you're here for the hockey,” she added smiling. Not that it was that hard to imagine considering that all three girls were wearing UND merchandise, and they were on enemy territory right now.

“The whole weekend, pretty much,” Emily replied. “Skipped a few classes to be here,” she smiled slightly. “But we’ll probably be returning on Sunday morning or around there anyway.”

“Okay, maybe we’ll see you around,” Savannah nodded slightly.

“What’s up with the truck?” Tanya wondered. “I thought you lived in that Beetle of yours,” she added smirking, there was no ball parking the amount of times they’d driven around in that thing.

“I still do,” Emily stated. “This belongs to my…to a friend of mine,” she changed her mind as she looked over at the black truck. “He didn’t want me to drive the Beetle all the way down here, there’s a bit of a snow chaos back in Grand Forks right now,” she fibbed, not really wanting to get into who’s the truck actually was, or why she was really driving it.

“Okay,” Tanya nodded. “Well, we have to go, so maybe we’ll see you again before you leave?”

“Yeah maybe,” Emily nodded uncertain before watching as they left.

“You okay?” Charlie asked from her side.

“Talk about a blast from the past…” Emily mumbled before climbing in to the car and slowly driving out of the parking lot. That was a lot stranger than she’d imagined it…