Remembering Sundays

“Excuse me, but are you the Zack Merrick? I like love you’re band! Can I get an autograph?”

“Go away Ben,”

He heard Ben sigh, “aw, how did you know it was me?”

“Because you’re not very good at pretending you’re a girl. And that is actually very surprising since you act like a girl most of the time.” Zack replied. He looked up from the magazine he was reading to see Ben holding the latest AP Magazine with him and his bandmates on it and snatched it from his best friend setting it back on the shelf hoping the short attention span Ben usually had would kick in and he would forget about the magazine.

“Aw you’re mean today,” Ben pouted as he grabbed the magazine and began flipping through it again. Zack just chose to ignore him once again in favor of going back to the article he had been reading before about new gadgets for basses that had just come out. “Why is Jack wearing a bra?”

Zack glanced up again to look at the pictures that were included with the article and laughed when he in fact saw the guitarist with nothing but a bra on and Alex reaching out to touch one of the cups with one hand and giving the camera a thumbs up with the other. “Why does Jack do half of the stuff he usually does?”

“Fair enough,” Ben shrugged as he continued to scan through it. “Why do you always look so socially awkward during these things?”

Zack blushed at that and looked away suddenly becoming more interesting in the random people in the café than his best friend. But suddenly he was actually very glad that his attention was unintentionally turned to the café since he spotted a familiar brunette sitting at one of the tables with a laptop and coffee cup in front of her. He could hear Ben calling his name, getting louder and louder each time, but he ignored him since he was scared that she would disappear once again.

He looked away quickly when she looked up from what she was doing and turned to face Ben so he didn’t look completely obvious staring at her like all the other times. Ben had his head cocked to the left with a curious stare and Zack could swear he heard the wheels turning in his head trying to figure out what was going on.

Zack just rolled his eyes and set the magazine down, losing interest as he pushed his friend farther into the aisle so she wouldn’t see him. “She’s here.”

“Wait who?” Ben asked and Zack gave him a look as if silently asking if he was being serious. “Wait, you mean she’s here? As in the girl you’ve been stalking for the last three weeks?”

“It’s not stalking and yes, she’s here.”

Ben rolled his eyes, “well then what are you waiting for? Go talk to her!”

Zack looked at him as if he was crazy before mulling over the idea. He had been wanting to actually make progress with her besides just seeing her and wondering why she had such an effect on him. Maybe this was his chance to finally talk to her and get to know her better. Yes the timing wasn’t perfect seeing as that he was leaving to go back to Baltimore in a week, but it wouldn’t hurt to at least say hi would it?

He looked at Ben, who gave him an encouraging nod and then took a deep breath, turning on his heel and heading over to the café which was right next to where the magazines were. They were in a local Barnes and Noble, wasting some time unlike she was since she looked as if she was doing some work. Which wasn’t all that weird since it seemed like a lot of people came to these sorts of places to do work. It had free Wi-Fi after all and good coffee so why not?

But that was the least of his concern as to why people chose this place since he was now watching the girl standing from her seat at the table and slinging her bags on her shoulder as she walked off. He debated whether or not to call after her, but she was too far away already and he didn’t want to make a scene.

He sighed as he slowed down from the power walk he had been doing since he had half a mind to catch up to her but gave up, and found himself standing at the now empty table where she had been sitting. This was getting ridiculous. This was the third freaking time he had seen her and somehow she had gotten away once again before he could talk to her. Was he ever going to get a break and actually… Wait, what is that?

His train of thought stopped just as he caught a glimpse of something shiny lying underneath the chair at the table. Stepping forward, he crouched down and reached under the chair, grabbing the silver object that somehow got under the chair. Looking at the object in hand, he gave it a curious look as he realized it was a oval shaped white gold locket…

~*~*~*~

“What do you think the letters EM mean?” Ben asked curiously, referring to the locket Zack had found.

They were now back at Zack’s place, both sitting on the couch with the TV on low as they contemplated the locket Zack had found. It was a old fashioned looking locket with the letters EM engraved in elegant cursive lettering on the front. Inside had a outdated looking photograph of a young man and woman smiling at each other. The woman wasn’t the girl who Zack thought it belonged to, being the woman he had been running into for the last three weeks, but they were defiantly related.

“Emma? Emily? Emeline?”

“You know just because it’s EM doesn’t mean that that’s the first two letters of her name. It could be a first and last name and it doesn’t even mean that’s her initials either. That locket could have originally have belonged to her mom or relative then given to her.” Zack added as Ben was starting to run out of ideas.

His best friend shrugged as he handed the locket back and grabbed the remote, “I know, just thinking outside the box.”

Zack just sighed as he put the necklace back into his pocket and tried to forget about it but could feel his pocket getting heavier as he failed. But apparently Ben wasn’t going to forget about it any time soon either since he turned his attention from the TV back to Zack as he began to continue to ask about the locket.

“What are you going to do with that?”

“Give it back whenever I see her again.” Zack replied back matter-of-factly.

Ben raised his brows, “what if you don’t see her in the next week?”

“Then I keep it with me until I see her next and return it.”

“You really like this Em don’t you?”

“Em?” Zack asked with an amused look.

Ben just shrugged again and nodded, “yeah, E-M, Em. Figured instead of referring to her as ‘her’ or ‘the girl’ at least give her somewhat of a name until you find out what her real name is.”

Zack smiled shyly, “yeah I like it.”

“Ugh, you’re already head over heels for the girl and you haven’t even talked to her properly yet.”

Zack just blushed more and turned his attention back to the tv hoping to drop the subject as soon as possible. All because it was painfully true. He was falling for the girl and didn’t even properly know her. It was ridiculous and insane but he couldn’t help these random thoughts and ideas that got into his head now that he had seen her for the third time. It was strange and he was dying to finally get his chance to talk to her. If only the next time he saw her would actually go his way for once and he could actually catch her long enough to start up a conversation…