Anything but Ordinary

This was getting weirder and weirder for Ember-Rose as she kept going to work with her mother, luckily, Ted didn’t bug her anymore. He didn’t even look at her, all he did was tell her to put the papers on his desk or whatever she was there for and get out. It was a relief that it was a onetime thing and nothing was going to become of it.

Brian however, hasn’t let up.

He has been relentless when it came to Ember and has tried to spend as much time with her as possible. Michelle wasn’t a fan of how he stared at the snow haired woman out in the open even when she was in his arms. She knew she was losing him and could feel him slipping away from her grasp and it frightened her even more.

That was it for Michelle; she wanted to put an end to this before it even started. She saw Ember with her mp3 player as her mother and the guys were on the other side of the hall. Ember wanted to be alone today which the older woman was grateful for as she sat next to the oblivious woman before poking her on the shoulder.

The white haired woman jumped before she took out her ear buds as she murmured, “Michelle?” she paused looking at the clearly distressed woman as she gave her a concerned look “Is everything okay?”

“No” Michelle shared with her as she looked at the woman that was clearly confused in front of her “You are well aware of Brian advancing on you, correct?”

Ember got nervous as she heard those words come out of her mouth, when it comes to Brian she rather not talk about it but on this occasion she knew she couldn’t ignore it. “I’m aware of it but he hasn’t done anything to me so you shouldn’t be worried” she trailed off not knowing how to feel.

The hazel eyed woman glared at the woman before her, “You can see it in his eyes, Ember. You can’t sit there and tell me the way he looks at you is anything but friendly. You know there is something going on even if you are pushing him away”

Ember won’t deny it and say she hasn’t felt anything when Brian talked to her; the way he looked at her…she couldn’t really put her finger on it. It was kind of creepy yet safe since it was so warm and inviting but all at the same time it felt wrong. Whatever Brian was doing was slowly getting under her skin.

“All I want you to do is clearly tell him you don’t want anything do to with him. Tell him forcefully because if you don’t he won’t take you seriously. Understand?”

“That seems kind of harsh doesn’t it? I don’t want to hurt his feelings” she mumbled as she shyly looked at the older woman behind her thick glasses. Ember bit her lip as she heard Michelle aggravated that Brian couldn’t pick a girl that he liked was a little more assertive.

“Who cares if you hurt his feelings? You need to hurt his feelings in order for him to leave you alone; don’t you want him to leave you alone? So he can finally stop giving you those stares, and flirty little lines that he tells you” Michelle was getting impatient seeing that she wanted this chat to be short but she wasn’t going to have her way as Ember was reluctant.

Ember-Rose was a total sweetheart and breaking someone’s heart in the process is something she did not want to do. Telling Brian she wanted nothing to do with him was really harsh in her eyes because she saw him as a friend and yet Michelle said it as the only way to get through to him. There had to be another way to get through to him other than telling him that.

“I’ll try” she finally agreed.

“No, Ember” the blacked haired woman gripped her shoulders as she turned her towards her giving her a look that wanted her to end whatever they had that was going on “I want you to do it, not try”

“Okay” she murmured.

Finally the woman let her go before getting up, “I better go before Brian sees that something might be up if he finds me talking to you” rolling her eyes as she picked up her purse and headed out of the door. Ember put her ear pieces in before listening to whatever music that was in her mp3 player as she stared at the wall thinking of ways to tell Brian that what he was doing was freaking her out and he needed to stop.

Finally time went by as she heard a knock on the door revealing Brian on the other side of the door; she tensed when he greeted her with a warm smile. “Hey, your mom said I would find you in here” shoving his hands in his pockets he walked in sitting next to her with the same look.

The same look that made her nervous.

The look that made her heart quake if that was even possible.

“You alright?” he put his hand on her forehead thinking she had a fever but as the heat rushed to her cheeks he muttered how warm she was before saying she needed to take it easy so she won’t get sick. Licking her lips she answered, “I’m not sick”

“If you say so, but don’t come crying to me if you do” he drummed his long fingers on his knee as he looked at the woman that was barely looking at him. “Did I do something wrong?” he queried. It worried him that she wasn’t looking at him and seeing that she was avoiding his gaze was nerve wracking more than anything at the moment.

“Y-Yes. You have” she spoke up.

It was time.

Ember needed to share what she felt about him once and for all so he can stop with everything that he has been doing to her. “You need to stop with what you are doing to me” she explained seeing the confused look on his face.

The brown eyes man gave her a look not convinced at her exclamation “Doing what to you? I don’t follow you”

“The way you look at me, the way you touch me and say those things to me…make me feel uncomfortable. I want you to stop doing those things to me” she whispered as he got closer to her. Her heart started to race as she inched farther away from the man as he wanted to be closer to her. It didn’t make sense to her that he was getting closer to her when she said that she wanted him to stop.

“You don’t mean that” he replied.

“Michelle-”

Brian sighed aggravated, “Michelle is up to this? I fucking knew it” he pinched the bridge of his nose before he breathed out through his nose “Look, Em, I don’t know why I feel the way I feel for you but I will let you know right now that it is real. Don’t let her dictate what you want. What do you want, Em?” he asked lightly touching her hand with his own.

Her purple eyes glanced down at the darker hand that was lightly touching her own as she bit her lip, what did she want? Did she want this? Of course, she didn’t. It didn’t make sense to want someone like Brian but when she looked into his eyes something told her that this might be the only time that she can tell him how she truly felt.

Before she knew it, Brian pushed her hair back leaning in and kissing her fully on her lips; they were softer than he had imagined. Ember felt elated as his lips moved smoothly over hers; it felt like a dream yet it was some type of nightmare as well. The feelings that she was having were swirling around in the pit of her stomach not knowing what to do.

Ember pushed her feelings aside and kissed him back timidly grabbing the front of his shirt as she delved in the feeling that she had. Then she realized what she was doing, pushing him back with the same hand she grabbed his shirt with; she looked at his brown eyes before she croaked “I gotta go”

Getting up from her seat frantically, she walked out of the room not wanting to face Brian at the moment. That talk with Michelle went down the drain as soon as she kissed back and it was then she realized that when Michelle told her that she needed to be harsh with him; she can see why.

The man didn’t take just any answer.

He would keep pursing her until she finally said something that would knock some sense into him but she hasn’t. The only thing she has done was added fuel to the fire that she wanted to burn out and looking back she saw Brian walking out of the room with a smirk on his lips that said it was far from over.

He was breaking her down and they both knew it. Stepping into the room where her mother and friends were, the hazel eyed woman looked up with worry “Em, are you okay? You look a bit flushed”

Ember touched her face feeling the heat emitted from her cheeks as she stumbled, “Uh, I’m f-fine. Just a bit winded from the run I took to get here”

“You ran? In the building?” Matt asked as he looked at her suspiciously like he knew what went on before she walked into the room with the rest of them.

“Yeah, my legs were getting a bit flimsy so I thought a light jog would get them going” her excuse was poor as she laughed nervously before sitting down. Keeping her lip shut tightly she kept her eyes down when she saw Brian’s shoes as he walked into the room. “That was the longest bathroom break anyone has ever taken. What were you doing in there? Giving birth to a child?” Zacky asked as he twirled a pen between his fingers.

Ember blushed as she heard Brian laugh, “No. I had to take care of something else before I came back”