Soft on the Lips, Rough on the Heart

Emily’s POV

Busted. Busted. Busted. My ass is toast. Here comes the nunnery. Shit, he’s going to jail.
The list goes on. These were just a few of the things that I thought as my head cleared and allowed me to figure out the right answer. My aunt just sat perfectly still in the awkward, green recliner next to bed.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about?” I replied and reached for my water to wet my mouth.
Whenever I’m lying and feel like I’m actually in trouble, my mouth gets dry.

“Bull shit Emily, bull shit.”

I took my first good look at Aunt P. The edges of her eyes where eyeliner should be were red. Her blonde hair was in a tight ponytail; a look which I had never seen her rock before. Her face and neck were splotchy red as if she had broken out in hives. In short, she looked like hell.

“I’m sorry; let me start out with that.”

I watched for her reaction; there was none.

“And I need you to not hurt Spencer.”

Again, there was no reaction.

“I love him.”

One of her perfectly sculpted eyebrows rose above her glasses; it sent a shiver up my spine.

“I do love him Aunt P. And if I didn’t know any better I’d say he loves me too. You don’t
understand it. He was the first to make me smile after I’d moved here. I moved away because of him. Everything I do is because of him,” my shoulders dropped after I finished.

She leaned forward to put her hands on her chin, and her elbows on her knees; she had to tuck her hair to keep it from falling in her face. “Start from the very beginning,” she requested and I had no choice but to oblige.

I began with our meeting and swiftly moved into him staying with me at our apartment, and our little rendezvous. Then I had to tell her that he broke it off because of my age (she seemed to approve) and how I couldn’t bear to live here afterwards. Then I came back, nearly eighteen, and he seemed to feel what I hadn’t forgotten about. And then we started this thing back up and here we are now.

Aunt P leaned back slowly, pushing her glasses onto her head and rubbing her temples with great care. I stared at the world through the blinds until she finally spoke again.

“I’m trying really hard to be angry. I feel the most irritated with me. I saw this; I’ve been seeing this for a long time.”

I pulled the hospital bracelet as tight as possible on my wrist. I started to spit out apologies; apologies for everything I’d ever done. I just felt like I’d done something so very wrong.

Third POV

“Derek, have you ever done something, and no matter how good it made you feel, you still kind of wish that you could take it back? But you know if you took it back you’d feel atrocious so you really don’t wish that it didn’t happen,” Spencer stared down at his long fingers, the touch of Emily’s skin still lingered.

Derek lightly grabbed onto Reid’s forearm, causing the young doctor to look up at him. “No kid, I can’t say I have, but by the looks of it you have. Now are you going to tell me or am I going to start guessing? And trust me; I have a really good guess.”

Spencer leaned against the cold concrete wall and slid to the floor. He held his legs to his
chest and placed his sweaty forehead against the knee of his pants.

“Well I guess I’ll take over the conversation from here on out then. I know that you didn’t listen to me when I said that she was too young. And if my profiling is correct this is something new with you two, is it? Should I go on? Reid, do you realize how inappropriate this is? And don’t think that I can’t tell what happened. I’ve never seen that look on your face. At least not since the last time you got lai-,” he was cut off abruptly.

“Hey handsome, can I talk to you over here for a second?” Penelope was standing just behind him, grabbing the back of his shirt roughly. “Go on in Spencer.”

Emily’s POV

The door creaked lightly and I had to quickly adjust my covers and gown; I had been examining the bandage on my upper stomach.

Spencer’s face was much paler than usual. His body was sticky with a thin layer of perspiration and his eyes were shifting up and down the bed, as if he didn’t believe I was in one piece.

“I thought I killed you.”

I brushed invisible dirt off my shoulder, “It’ll take a lot more than some little bullet to kill me.”

He pounded his fist against the movable tray. “Damn it Emily. This isn’t something to laugh about. I- I- I really care about you.”

“That’s all? You care about me? Well guess what. I love you.” My blood pressure rose, alerting the nurses, and causing his dismissal.

My aunt reentered and I threw my head back on the lumpy pillow dramatically.