I'll Fight My Corner

My mother was ruthless.

"Now, I don't want to control you and tell you to stop spending time with him completely, but it needs to slow down, Emmalee."

I looked at her with disbelief. "Slow down? Why would I have to slow down? We're moving just fine."

"You've never been this close to a boy before-"

My jaw dropped. "He's not a wild animal, mom. He's a boy. And he's a very nice one. He treats me just fine."

"Emmalee-"

"Mom, no, I -"

"Listen to me." The tone of her voice took on the strength of steel. "You think you know everything, Emma, but trust me on this. You don't. You need to slow down, because you're leaving. You're going to college. What are you going to do then? Where is he going? What are his parents like? Will he come over for dinner? How does he treat women? How does he treat people in general? Are his friends nice? Will he leave you when things get hard and never speak to you again?"

I flinched. She was referring to my father. I wanted badly to protest but I knew that she needed to get this out of her system so that she could give herself peace of mind.

"I knew almost nothing about your father other than his name, age, and how he was around me. I married him without knowing more than a few of his friends. I didn't know about his terrible drinking habits, or his drug abuse. I never met his parents. I was young, and I was stupid, and I regret that decision every day, Emmalee. He hid all of that from me until we eloped and things went downhill, fast."

"We're not going to get married -"

She cut me off, again. "I know. I just don't want you to get stranded by a boy that you gave yourself to. Emotionally and physically. My parents were never here to tell me to watch out, but I'm here for you now. If you choose not to listen to me, that's fine. You're almost an adult and you can make your own choices. But you can't come back to me and say I didn't try."

I stayed quiet and closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. She was right.

I looked her in the eye and said, "Look, mom, we're not - we're just friends. Okay? I'm sorry for worrying you," and walked towards her with open arms for a hug. She received it and hugged back just as hard.

"Will you have him over for dinner at least? So I can meet this boy you've become such good friends with?"

I chuckled and nodded into her shoulder.

Later that night, he called me like he promised.

"What are you doing?" I could hear the smile in his voice.

"Reading." I smiled back, hoping he could hear me, too.

"Reading what?"

"The Sound and The Fury."

I could hear him sucking in his breath through his teeth. "I still have to start reading that one."

I chuckled and shook my head. "You're still not going to read it."

"Read it to me, then."

My eyes widened and I let out a short laugh. "What?"

"You and I both know that I won't even attempt to read that book until the day before our essay."

"Yes, I know."

"And I've got a long drive home ahead of me."

In the background, I could hear Harry unlocking his car door. As he did so, I heard another voice saying, "What's up, Styles?" The voice was muffled, but I could still hear what it was saying.

"Hey, Garrett," Harry replied. I put the phone on speaker and waited patiently for him to finish his conversation and went back to reading, paying little attention to the phone.

I could hear them talking about basketball and the game this week. And then, the other boy said, "Ashley said she wanted to hang out with you this weekend."

I put down the book on my lap and looked at my phone. This seemed like a conversation Harry didn't want me to hear, and I contemplated taking the phone off of speaker.

But then Harry said, "I've got plans."

Garrett laughed. "With who?"

"This girl named Emmalee. You met her at the party at Becca's house."

Instead of laughing, Garrett scoffed and replied, "Your tutor?"

"Yeah. What's so bad about that?" Harry's tone changed quickly. It was defensive and low.

"Is she your girlfriend or something?"

"Is that any of your business?" He was trying to be as nice as possible, but I could hear his voice getting tighter.

"It is when Ashley wants to go out with you. She's one of the cutest girls at the school, and you're going out with your tutor?"

"My tutor happens to be a very nice girl. I'm sure Ashley is, too, but I just have other plans. Tell her that I'm sorry."

Garett's voice went away and it was just Harry and his keys going back into the car door and turning. I took the phone off speaker and held it back to my ear, letting out a breath of air that I didn't realize I was holding.

"Emma, I'm sorry about that."

I felt terrible. "Harry, if you want to hang out with that girl-"

"No, what?"

"I don't mean to ruin your plans-" I started to stutter.

"Em, no. I want to hang out with you."

I sighed. "But that girl-"

"Like you heard, I'm sure she's nice. But I'd rather hang out with you." I could hear the engine starting and the radio turned on, but he turned it off right after. "Nothing about that girl. Okay? You're it. You're all I want to see."

I shook my head even if he couldn't see me. I still didn't understand why he would rather speak to me than his friends, or those girls, but I decided to let it go and move on.

"My mom wants you over for dinner soon," I told him, my smile slowly coming back.

He chuckled. "I told you there wasn't a mom who didn't like me."

I scoffed. "Oh! That reminds me. At the party, you know when I said I was going to the bathroom?" I flinched at the memory but kept going.

"Yeah."

"I bumped into your cousin, and she said her dad wants to talk to you."

He sighed. "He wants me to start applying for colleges."

"And you don't want to?" A crease formed between my brows. Why wouldn't he want to go to college?

"No, I do." I tried my best to let my sigh of relief go unnoticed. "It's just that I don't know whether or not I should go home to my mum and sister."

My eyes widened and I shook my head again, still knowing that he couldn't see me. "Why not? You can get away from your dad and-"

"I like it here. My friends live here, and there are great colleges here, too. If I went home, I wouldn't even be living with them, I would be living on my own just as I would be here."

I was quiet. As much as I wanted him to stay here, with me, he deserved to go home.

"What's your situation with college? Are you staying here?"

I started to pick at a hangnail and sighed. "I don't know, really. I just want to go somewhere and be a new person."

"And what's wrong with the person you are now?"

"I don't want to be scared anymore."

He was quiet for a while, and I almost picked up my book again when I heard him say, "You'll be safe with me."

Now it was my turn to be quiet and I smiled slightly, running a hand through my hair. I realized that I was beginning to pick up the habit from Harry, and my smile got wider.

"Please read to me," he said. His voice was soft and I couldn't hear anything but his breathing and my heart beating against its cage, indication that I almost loved this boy.

So I sat on my bed and read to him about a dysfunctional family with a runaway bride and a boy who fought with time, about a man who lived off of memories and the idea that tragedy is secondhand.

In the middle of Sound And The Fury, I fell asleep with the phone still connecting my voice with his, and I woke up with a text message that said, "Goodnight, Emma .xx"