Shattered Glass & Broken Hearts

Returning to Los Angeles for Emily meant not only that she was leaving Max in Las Vegas; it also meant that things were going to be changing in her day to day life. She knew she'd need to tell Hanna and Joss that she and Ronnie had kissed - that they were possibly going to try and fix things with one another. She wasn't so certain how they would react. Joss would probably be a little happier than Hanna would be about it, considering Hanna hated Ronnie's guts right now.

But that was besides the point, she realized. What mattered was that she needed to find a way to tell them.

"Em?"

The green-eyed girl was pulled out of her thoughts and she blinked, looking up to see Ronnie standing in the doorway of her bedroom with a small smile on his face. He'd slept over the night before and was clad in nothing but a pair of boxers. Any other girl would have felt a little alarmed; maybe even taken the opportunity to look him up and down and appreciate his sculpted body. But Emily had seen it all before, even if he hadn't been as muscled in high school as he was now.

"Yeah?"

"You're out of milk, and I couldn't find any cereal or bread, either," Ronnie murmured, biting down on his bottom lip. "I think you need to do some grocery shopping, or you're gonna starve."

She smiled at his attempt at a joke, but nodded as she pulled a red cardigan over her shoulders before she walked over to him.

"I'll go right now. Is there anything else you want me to pick up for you while I'm out?"

Ronnie shook his head, brushing some stray hands of brown hair away from her eyes before he closed the distance between them, pressing her body up against the opposite door frame before he gave her a quick kiss.

"Just you," he murmured against her lips, keeping his eyes closed as he kissed her before leaning his forehead onto hers gently. "As long as you come back to me and don't leave me here for too long, I'm good."

His words caused a light flush to color Emily's cheeks, and she bit down on her bottom lip before she took a few steps back, giving them both more room to breathe. She turned and started walking down the hallway towards the front door, opting not to say goodbye. If she and Ronnie were giving their relationship a second chance, she didn't want goodbyes to be a part of it because really, nothing ever good came from them. And besides, the last time he'd said goodbye to her had been while she'd been in a coma.

He hadn't come back to her, and a part of her was still somewhat afraid that it would happen again.

The drive to the grocery store didn't take her long and within minutes, she had grabbed a cart and she'd begun making her way down the first aisle, deciding she might as well take the time and do all of her food shopping in one trip so she wouldn't have to come back for a week or two. She knew Ronnie wouldn't mind being left back at her apartment on his own; Jacky and Ryan were still taking turns checking up on Charlie for the next day or two since they didn't know that Ronnie and Emily had come back from Las Vegas yet.

She'd been in the store for no more than thirty-five minutes when she heard a voice clear itself from behind her. She fully expected it to be a store staff person wondering if she needed help finding something, or perhaps a confused fellow shopper who was wondering if she could help them find a particular item. But when Emily turned her head, the last person she was expecting to see standing there was Max's most recent ex-girlfriend - and the one who'd broken his heart the most.

"Lexus," she spoke the girl's name with a fake smile, her entire body stiffening. "I didn't think grocery shopping was quite your activity of choice."

The dark-haired girl gave her a sharp, sarcastic smile before she folded her arms across her chest. "I heard about Max," she told Emily, voice louder than she probably realized. Or maybe she just didn't care that there were probably other grocery shoppers who could listen in on the conversation.

Emily's entire demeanor changed and her eyes narrowed. "Don't you dare pretend you fucking care about my brother," she hissed at the smaller girl. "You tore his heart apart, Lexus."

Lexus didn't say a word; didn't even flinch at the sharp words that Emily tossed at her before she sighed, looking once down at the floor before she lifted her gaze back to Emily's.

"Just...Tell him he's better than that, okay? I know you hate me, and you have every right to," she rolled her eyes, as if it was a chore for her to say the words. "But regardless of what you believe, I do care about him. I was hurt when I found out. Tell him to get better and stay strong, okay?"

"No, I won't," Emily snapped at Lexus. "I'm not passing on a fucking word of yours to him. You want to talk to him so bad? Try it yourself. I guarantee he'll kick you out of the hospital so fast you won't have time to wipe the dust off your ass when you fall."

She wasn't generally used to being that snappy with people, and especially not with Max's exes. Some of them had even been nice, and she still wondered why he'd broken up with a couple of them. But Lexus? She deserved every harsh word and mean thing that Emily could throw her way. She'd devastated Max, and Emily honestly believed that if it hadn't been for his relationship with the girl standing in front of her, Max never would have slipped as far into drugs as he had.

Emily didn't give Lexus a chance to say a word as she walked away, leaving her cart full of groceries behind as well. She didn't want to be anywhere near the other woman right now. She and Ronnie could go to a different store later on if he wanted, but right now she needed to get away.

She was more stressed than she had been in awhile as she drove back to the apartment, but when she saw Ronnie's vehicle parked in the guest area of her complex, she couldn't help but smile. Slowly but surely, Ronnie was starting to convince her that maybe this time, he really would stay for good.

When she walked into the apartment, she quickly realized that he wasn't in the kitchen or the living room. A quick check of her bedroom told her that he wasn't there, either. A small frown formed on her face and she bit her lip, wondering where he could have gone before she froze when she heard water running in the bathroom. She blushed, realizing that he must be taking a shower.

He was singing softly under his breath, and she couldn't help but walk over to the door, listening to the words he was singing. It reminded her of being back in high school, when he'd often crash at her parents' house and sleep on her bedroom floor or on the second bunk in Max's bedroom. She'd forgotten what it was like having him in her house domestically.

She realized that he wouldn't have any clean towels in the bathroom since she'd tossed the ones she'd used in the hamper, and she bit down on her bottom lip, knocking twice on the door to let him know she was coming in.

"I didn't realize you were going to shower," she told him, making sure her voice was loud enough that he'd hear her over the shower. "I'm going to grab you some fresh towels."

"Thanks!" He called to her, peering at her from behind the shower curtain with a grin. "Did you bring food back?"

She shook her head, her entire body stiffening up when she remembered the words that she and Lexus had exchanged. Ronnie noticed her change in demeanor and arched her eyebrow, wiping some water off of his face.

"It's okay," he smiled. "We can grab breakfast at the little pastry shop down the street."

She nodded, biting her bottom lip as she grabbed several towels from the linen closet, setting them on the top of the toilet next to the shower before she turned to smile at him.

"Do you need some fresh clothes? I washed the ones you took to Las Vegas."

He smiled a little softer and nodded, ducking back into the shower and going right back to the song he'd been singing. Emily blushed when she realized she recognized the lyrics as belonging to a song that he'd written about her for the first Escape The Fate album. She hadn't heard it in forever, and it made her wonder if he'd never stopped thinking about her the same way she hadn't stopped thinking about him.

She walked into the bedroom and grabbed a pair of clean boxers and a shirt for Ronnie, knowing he'd probably want to wear the same jeans that he'd had on earlier. She pushed her hair out of her eyes and bit down on her bottom lip, walking back into the bathroom. She froze when she came face to face with Ronnie, who was clad only in one of the towels that she'd set on the toilet.

"Oh," she squeaked. "I didn't realize that you were out of there already.

He smirked, almost as if he was amused by the blush that was now coloring her face. She bit down on her bottom lip and handed him the clothes.

"Here," she murmured.

"Thank you, sweetheart," he grinned before he pressed his lips to her forehead, grabbing her hand with his.

She blushed and squeezed his fingers before she turned to walk back into her bedroom, swallowing hard. She pushed her hair out of her eyes, trying to breathe deep as she sat down on the edge of the bed. She'd seen him with less than that and hadn't been as flustered as she was now. But she couldn't help but feel a little more than turned on right now. The way the water had run down his chest and had made all the different contours of his body stand out, and it had caused her breath to hitch in her throat.

She knew that the attraction was still there. And by the way Ronnie had reacted to her, he knew it too.