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Emily opened her eyes slowly, trying to remember where she was. She was in an under furnished room, only containing a dresser, a night table, a desk, a desk chair, and the bed she was sleeping in. She noticed a hockey bag in the corner by the closet door. She sat up, looking at the clock on the night table. It read 10:38 am. She slid out of the bed, still wearing her jeans, jersey and Ryan’s hoodie. She opened the door, peering down the hallway. She heard voices from downstairs. She quickly tried to recollect how she ended up in Ryan’s room. She came up with nothing. She walked down the hallway, and down the stairs, following the voices into the kitchen. There were six people in the kitchen. Jordan and Taylor were cooking breakfast, while Sarah, Ryan and Steph sat at the table with Ryan Whitney, who was drinking a giant glass of tomato juice. Emily peered around the corner, catching Steph’s attention. She gestured for her to come and sit in the empty seat beside her. Emily was just about to ask her how she ended up in Ryan’s room, but she was cut off by a yelp from across the kitchen. There was a fire on the stovetop.

Steph jumped up and yelled, “BAKING SODA!” Taylor dropped the plastic jug of water.

“WHAT!” he yelled, panicked. Jordan tossed her a box of baking soda from the fridge, and she poured it onto the small stove fire. It went out instantly. Taylor looked confused, “how’d you do that?” he asked.

“I’m a fucking wizard,” Steph said. He glared at her. “Really though, if you put water on hot oil it spatters and hurts like hell if it gets on you. Baking soda doesn’t,” she said with huge amounts of duh in her voice. He shook his head.

“Well that was the last of the bacon,” Jordan said, “how about we go out for breakfast? Our treat?” Everyone agreed, except for Ryan Whitney.

“Restaurant breakfasts suck,” he whined, “I hate them.”

“You hate everything,” Steph pointed out. Jordan and Taylor laughed.

“She has a point,” Ryan said, looking at Emily, who had been quietly observing the whole time, and then to Whitney, who glared at him.

“Well, I’m down,” said Sarah, “where should we go?” A chorus of, “Denny’s”, “Smitty’s”, “Humpty’s” and “NO” followed.

“Then don’t come with us,” Taylor said to Whitney, “eat our burnt shitty bacon.”

“I just might,” he retorted, clearly annoyed.

Everyone decided to go their separate ways for breakfast, Sarah and Taylor going to Smitty’s, Steph and Jordan going to Denny’s and Ryan and Emily going to Humpty’s. They all left, leaving Whitney to be Mr Grumpy Gills with his tomato juice and burnt bacon.

They arranged to meet at West Ed at noon to hang out, before climbing into separate vehicles and heading to their restaurants.

Once Ryan and Emily reached Humpty’s, Ryan jumped out of the truck and ran to open Emily’s door. Emily smiled to herself, thinking that was the sweetest thing in the world.

“Thanks,” she said as she grabbed the hand he offered her to help her out of the truck. He held the door open for her as they walked inside. They sat down, and the waitress took their orders. Ryan ordered pancakes and hashbrowns, while Emily stuck with bacon and scrambled eggs. While they waited for their orders, Emily asked the burning question that she had been wondering for the whole morning.

“So, how did I end up in your room?” she asked, “I have absolutely no recollection of moving.” Ryan's eyes lit up, which Emily decided was super adorable.

“Well,” he started, “you fell asleep on me so I thought I’d move you to someplace where you’d be more comfortable. I carried you.” Emily smiled again.

“Well thank you,” she laughed, “my neck appreciates it.” He smiled, and took a sip of his orange juice. Their meals came, and they dug right in.

“Sorry for Whits being such a sourpuss earlier,” Ryan said after they had been eating for a moment, “he gets grumpy when he’s hungover and doesn’t have a lady to call his own.” Emily giggled, wondering if he was referencing the fact that Taylor and Jordan both had girls, and Emily was there with Ryan. Her heart started racing a little.

“It’s alright,” she said, “he seems like he hates everything anyways.” Ryan shook his head.

“You don’t know the half of it,” he laughed, “I bet Steph’s told you some good stories.”
“Oh yes,” she said, sipping on her orange juice.

They continued to eat, until Ryan broke the silence again.

“So, I have something to ask you,” he said. Emily looked at him.

“Um, okay?” she replied, unsure of what he was going to say.

“I heard you like Ed Sheeran,” he started. Emily nodded quickly.

“Love him!”

“Well, I have two tickets to see his show tonight, so, you know, um…” he stuttered, “would you like to go with me?” He looked at her nervously.

Emily panicked, not sure what to say, so she said, “like - like a date?” Ryan turned red.

“Uh, yeah,” he said quickly, “I mean, it’s cool if you don’t. I can drag Whits or something.”

Emily tried not to laugh at his nervousness, “no, no of COURSE!” she squealed, “I mean, I’d love to.” She could feel her stomach flip flop.

“Good,” he said, “because I don’t know what I would have done if you said no. Whits is no fun.” He laughed, which made Emily laugh.

They finished their meals, which Ryan paid for, and then got in the car to head to West Ed. The entire way, Ryan played an Ed Sheeran CD, which Emily sang along to the entire way. Ryan kept stealing glances at her, but she didn’t notice.

Once at the mall, they looked for the others. They found them by the dolphin lagoon. Emily looked at Steph, giving her the “we need to talk” look. Steph got the message and she jumped out of her seat. Emily took her aside.

“Did you tell Ryan that I love Ed Sheeran?” she asked excitedly.

“Yeah, I might have mentioned it in passing,” Steph replied nonchalantly, “why?”

Emily grinned, “because he asked me to go to the concert tonight!” she replied quickly. Steph’s face lit up.

“GO EMILY!” she said loudly, as Sarah came to join them.

“What happened?” Sarah asked.

“Emily has a date tonight,” Steph said enthusiastically, clearly more excited about Emily’s date than Emily was. She turned her attention back to Emily, “what are you going to wear?”
“Well I was hoping you’d help me with that,” Emily said, “it looks like you could use a new shirt too,” she said, referencing the large stain on Stephs’s white v-neck.

“Yeah, Jordan was drinking his juice and I said something that made him laugh, so I got a shower,” she explained, still amused. She turned around to look at the boys, who had just found out that Ryan asked Emily out. Taylor clapped him on the back. Steph gestured them over to where they were standing, and it was arranged that the girls would have a shopping day, while the guys would catch a movie and that they would meet at the food court at 4 o’clock for supper.

It was kind of nice to have a girls’ day together. Emily felt more comfortable around Sarah, and she finally felt like she was part of the group. They hit up Urban Outfitters, HMV, Urban Planet, Claire’s (for jewelry) and Payless Shoe Source. By the end of the afternoon, Emily had a new outfit consisting of high tops, black jeans, a purple v-neck, and a denim jacket, Steph had a new striped long sleeved t-shirt, and four new CDs and Sarah had a bunch of new necklaces. Emily could feel the excitement building up in her for the concert. She was going to see Ed Sheeran with her new boyfriend after a shopping day with the girls. Life couldn’t get much better than that.