The Dates.

Jake had suggested we take a break after the disastrous interview with Rebecca Grey. I gladly obliged and was now picking at the sandwich I had for lunch. It didn't seem very appealing to me with the thought of more interviews coming up. What if they were like Rebecca's again?

"Hey guys." greeted a girl who had approached our table.

I looked up to see that it was Emma. Other than Jake, she's my oldest friend and we've known each other most of our lives. Our mums are close friends and they started talking when I accidentally knocked Emma over in the playground. Her mother never lets me forget it, despite the fact I can't actually remember doing it.

"Hey Em." I smiled, looking pointedly over at Jake.

He caught me staring and offered a haughty hello to Emma. He didn't like her much because he thought she was going to steal his place as my best friend. He would never admit to it but I knew what he was thinking because I've known him so long. That and because I heard his mum scolding him for not being nice enough to Emma whenever she was around us.

"So I got this funny looking poster in my locker the other day." she said, holding up one of Jake's interview posters. I forced myself not to glare at Jake and instead grinned sheepishly, feeling completely idiotic.

"Oh, sorry. Jake must've accidentally put one into your locker." I said, my words steely as I aimed them towards Jake.

Emma pursed her lips slightly and tucked a lock of brunette hair behind her ear. She slid onto the bench seat opposite me and pulled the clipboard towards her. Jake started to protest but I threw an elbow at his chest, stopping him. He rolled his eyes and turned his back on us sulkily.

"Wow. Quite a list. No wonder you made so many cuts, you'd be here all day.” she said lightly. Something in her voice alerted me that she wasn’t quite happy with what I was doing.

“You okay, Em?”

She paused and peered across at Jake, who was munching on my crisps. I could tell in the way that she stared at him that she blamed him entirely for this whole event.

“Well, I don’t know if I should really say anything...” she admitted, her brown eyes cutting into mine with worry.

“No, go ahead.” I urged, leaning forward against the table.

She bit her lip but her mind was set now that I was asking her to tell me. She slid a hand over mine and smiled sadly at me.

“Personally? I think this whole idea is stupid. You have to hold interviews to find a decent girl? Look around you, Andrew. Most of these girls are here because A) they don’t want to be and got forced into it somehow or B) they just want to get higher up on the social food chain.”

My mouth opened for a moment but I realised I couldn’t find anything to say back. Knowing that I looked foolish, I closed it again and stared away at the ground. Emma squeezed my hand a little.

“I’m not telling you this to humiliate you or anything, Andy. I’m just saying it because I don’t want you to get hurt again.” she assured me. “Just...if you’re going to carry on with this, be careful of the girls who approach you. You never know what they’re thinking.”

“ I saw what happened with Rebecca, who is a total bitch for saying that stuff to you, so I just wanted to let you know I’m here for you. You don’t have to do this, Andrew. I suppose he talked you into it?” she asked, indicating to Jake with a nod of her head.

Jake being Jake heard this and swivelled in his seat to face us again. He lay his hands flat on the table and tilted forward to whisper angrily at Emma.

“I’m being a good friend. Don’t insult this idea because I know it’s gonna work. How can he choose the wrong girl if he gets to know them better before he dates them?”

“Um, because people can lie, Jake.” she replied, her tone implying that what she was saying was obvious.

“What the hell, Emma? You think you can just come swanning over here and moan about it to Andrew? You’re being totally selfish, you know? He just wants to find a decent girlfriend for once and you want to ruin a chance for him to get one.” Jake seethed, his face coming inches away from Emma’s.

I looked back and forth between the two of them, not quite comprehending what was going on straight away. Jake's face was slowly starting to turn bright red and was starting to strain, causing the veins in his neck to bulge but Emma seemed unperturbed by this.

Impressively, she stood her ground and laughed bitterly. “Ruin it for him? I’m trying to protect him from your stupidity, Jake!”

“You know what, Em? Why don’t you just go and fu-”

“Whoa!” I shouted, standing up to loom over the two of them. “What are you doing? You’re supposed to be my friends. God, I wish you wouldn’t argue.”

Jake and Emma fell silent and hung their heads shamefully. I went on.

“Emma, I’m going to go through with these interviews; it’s just something I have to do.” I told her and she looked up at me a nodded stiffly. “And Jake, get off of Emma’s back. She’s just trying to do something nice for me.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t have said anything if she hadn’t started on me to begin with.” he muttered darkly, averting my gaze.

“Jake!” I barked disapprovingly.

“Oh fine. Soz, Emma.” he grumbled quietly. She seemed pleased enough with this apology though and nodded once, if a little coldly.

I clapped my hands together, making them both jump and laughed loudly. “Right, well Jake, we should carry on with the interviews now. Em, I really appreciate your warning and I swear I’ll keep my eye out for any intruders.”

“Good. Don’t get hurt.” she commanded before hugging me quickly. She didn’t say goodbye to Jake and walked off across the quad.

Jake let out a low whistle. “Lord knows why you’re friends with that one, Andrew. Maybe you should try knocking her over again and see how that goes?”