The Right Kind of Wrong

Sitting at the kitchen table in the apartment he shared with a friend of his from back in freshman year, Taylor ate his fried rice under silence as he carefully watched Emily. She was sitting on the other side of the table, dressed in simple jeans and a school sweatshirt, and one of her legs pulled up on her chair as she was completely ignoring the carton with Chinese food that was standing next to her.

Her gaze was firmly in the book spread out in front of her, but he knew that she wasn't actually reading it. She’d been staring at the same page for the better part of twenty minutes. He wasn't a fast reader, but not even he read that slowly…

Not calling her out on it, he continued eating as he observed her. She’d been acting sketchy all day and his mind was running haywire with different possibilities as to why that was. Most of them pointing in the direction of her infatuation with the hockey player…

Putting the food carton down on the table, he leaned forwards across it and snapped his fingers in front of her face, succeeding in catching her attention.

“What?” Emily asked as she looked up quickly, confusion written all over her features.

“Where were you?” he questioned, raising his eyebrows at her.

“I just…” she trailed off. “I just have a lot on my mind, I guess,” she figured, quickly looking back down at her book. She hadn’t registered a single word she’d read the entire afternoon.

“Anything I can help with?” he wondered, quickly suppressing the slight joy he felt that he was there for this and not that…that hockey playing buffoon.

“No, no it’s nothing,” she shook her head quickly, refusing to look up at him.

“I'm your friend, you know that you can talk to me about anything,” he tried persuading her. “Has it to do with what’s-his-name?” he decided that going out on a limb wouldn’t hurt.

“No,” she smiled widely. “It has nothing to do with Chris.”

That wasn't the answer he wanted…

“I just…like I said, I have a lot on my mind,” she insisted as she closed the book and picked up her carton that was still filled with food. “And I don’t want to talk about it,” she stated frankly, stopping him from saying whatever it was that he was about to say. “With anyone,” she continued. “It’s something I have to work through on my own. And I apologize for being such a crappy friend,” she added as she slowly began eating.

“You're a great friend,” he said softly.

“I know people who’d beg to differ,” she said under her breath. “So are you and I love you for it, but…it’s something that has to take its course and I can’t really do anything about it right now, besides getting through it.”

“If you sure you don’t want to talk about it…” he trailed off, reluctantly backing down from the issue as he knew that she could very well end up kicking him out of his own apartment.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she stated frankly, giving him a look that clearly told him to shut up. “It has nothing to do with Chris, or whatever is going on between us, no matter how much you would want it to and I would appreciate if you didn’t spend time wishing that my relationship with other people hit a brick wall and fall apart,” she glared at him, stabbing her fork into the box like she was on a mission to hurt something.

Blushing brightly as it always seemed that she knew what he thinking, he ducked his head and searched for something cleaver to say. She knew him better than most people and they hadn't even known each other for a year, it scared him. But not as much as the fact that she didn’t seem to care.

She didn’t care that to him she was the best thing since sliced bread, that if she gave him a chance he could make her a lot happier than that punk ever could…

Sighing heavily as a very awkward silence spread between them, she quickly finished her dinner and began packing up her books. “I have to get back,” she mumbled as she stood up from her chair and threw away her trash, before picking up her books.

“Em…” he tried, knowing better than to get up and follow her.

“You know,” she spun around on her heel, looking straight at him. “Actually you don’t know this, but I'm a complicated person. And sometimes I don’t like talking about things, things that bother me and the people who really care about me accept that,” she said quickly. “You need to accept that too,” she told him frankly. “Sometimes I just don’t want to talk about things,” she added softly. “And for the record, not everything in my life that is bothering me, or making me upset, or just overall weird, have to do with Chris, or the rest of the boys,” she stated frankly before she stormed out to the front door.

“There are so many things going on in my life,” she said softly, but still loudly enough that he could hear it in the quiet apartment whilst she was putting on her shoes and shrugging on her jacket. “You don’t even know half of it,” she mumbled before picking up her messenger bag and pulling the door open, slamming it shut behind her as she disappeared down the hall.

Sitting in the now completely silent apartment, Taylor sighed heavily as he stood up from the chair and walked over to the sink. Anger bubbling up inside of him he threw the carton into the sink, making rice splash across the stainless steel surface. He freaking loved her and she didn’t even care!




Lying on her bed, flat on her back, one arm resting over her stomach and the other one across her forehead, Emily was staring up at the uneven ceiling, wondering what the hell she was doing. She was scared out of her mind…

By the end of her bed her messenger bag was standing, next to a North Dakota Fighting Sioux duffle bag along with a larger duffle bag.

The next day, around lunch, she had her first game as a member of the UND softball team. And she was literally scared out of her mind. Roll into a ball, weep like a baby kind of scared out of her mind.

Closing her eyes, trying to stop feeling like she was going to throw up and stop herself from finding a convincing argument why she should not go and why she should quit the team. Before she even played one measly game…

Breathing evenly, without falling asleep, she jerked slightly as she felt the edge of the bed dip and she was about to sit up and scream bloody murder when a very familiar scent washed over her, assuring her that everything was alright.

“You're wired about as tight as a spring,” Chris whispered softly into her ear as he lay down next to her, wrapping his arms tightly around her waist and placing a soft kiss on the side of her neck.

“I don’t want to go,” she admitted. “I just want to lie here, and forget that there is even a world outside of these four walls.”

“You're going to do great,” he smiled into her hair. “Don’t worry so much.”

“I have never, ever played a game of softball in my life,” she stated frankly. “A real game that meant something. That wasn't just a stupid way of getting us all to get better grades cause we knew how to hit a freaking ball,” she ranted slightly.

“If you weren’t good enough, you wouldn’t have made the team,” he reminded her.

“What if I was the one who sucked the least?” she frowned. “What if they needed another body on the team and I was the best of the worst?”

“I've seen you practice,” he stated, smiling softly as she whipped her head around and looked at him strangely. “It’s not like you’re in a very closed off space when you're practicing,” he winked at her. “As I was saying, I've seen you practice and you were definitely not the best of the worst,” he pressed his lips to the side of her neck. “You are really good and if I didn’t know you, I wouldn’t guess that you’ve never played before, that you haven't practiced for several years to get that good.”

“I'm bad at dealing with nerves,” she admitted, turning her head back and continuing to stare at the uneven ceiling. “I'm…”

“Don’t over think it,” he whispered. “You wouldn’t have gone to the tryouts if you didn’t think that you could make it, you wouldn’t have been happy for making the team if you weren’t looking forwards to pulling on that uniform, wearing the colors of the Fighting Sioux and competing for the school.”

“I hate you,” she sighed softly.

“Yeah, well, I can live with that,” he smiled, leaning over and pressing his lips against hers. “And you should probably get some sleep,” he pointed out.

“I can’t,” she pouted.

“I’ll stay with you,” he promised. “This is the first time you’ll be going away and I'm staying behind,” he smiled slightly.

“You’ll survive,” she laughed softly, remembering what she’d said when he was leaving her at the beginning of the hockey season. Turning to her side, she laid her head on her arm and looked at him.

“You're going to do fine,” he whispered, reaching out and gently caressing her cheek. “And I’ll keep track on how you're doing,” he promised.

“That’s not making me feel any better,” she groaned slightly. “But thank you.”

“You're my girlfriend,” he pointed out, smiling at the blush that spread across her cheeks. “And that’s what boyfriend’s do, they support their girlfriends and they keep track on how they are doing in their first ever softball game.”

Not saying anything, she only snuggled into his embrace, smiling into his chest as he gently placed a kiss on top of her head. This was nice…


Some hours later, at 4.28am in the morning, Emily took a deep, supposed to be calming breath before she placed a soft kiss on Chris’ forehead. Already wearing her UGG’s and her jacket, she pocketed her keys before picking up her bags and quietly leaving the room.

She was not a morning person and yet she’d been up for almost half an hour. Getting some breakfast on her way out to the arena where they were all meeting up for the trip, she was soon united with the rest of the team. Placing their bags in the bus, they all climbed onboard and shedding her boots, pulling up her feet on the seat next to her and fishing up her iPod touch from her messenger bag, she looked out of the window as they slowly began the long drive. The give or take 8hour bus ride they had ahead of them.

For some reason, watching Grand Forks pass by outside the window seemed like such an amazing thing… pressing play, a soft smile spread across her lips. Life wasn't like it had been, or even how she thought it would be, but that didn’t mean it was bad…