Chào các bạn! Vì nhiều lý do từ nay Truyen2U chính thức đổi tên là Truyen247.Pro. Mong các bạn tiếp tục ủng hộ truy cập tên miền mới này nhé! Mãi yêu... ♥

Chapter Six

Chapter Six:

My heart feels so full and heavy with sadness; more heavy than the piles and piles of books in my bag. I truly feel as if I'm a ticking bomb, ready to explode in a matter of minutes. After Tuesday, I avoided everyone completely: people at school, Emma, Drake, Sam, and obviously Luke. My friends, because it was incredibly painful that they'd lied to me for so long, but the pain of saying goodbye would outweigh that. No matter how much I longed to hug and forgive Luke in that moment in the hall, I couldn't do it. He knew all along, and he made me feel like everything was okay and normal, when in reality, it wasn't. He always says that I can tell him anything and everything, but what about him? Can he not tell me anything and everything? Does it not work like that? How hypocritical.

From what I've learned in the past week, they've known that we'll be moving for three months, and Mum has known for six. I know this because Luke was being lectured about organising and packing by her on Friday morning because he's had all this time and he had hardly done anything. When she slipped out the amount of months, her eyes immediately widened with realisation, and I wordlessly went off to my room. As I closed my door. The whole house shook at the same time I heard the main door slam as well. Luke. Angry Luke. I didn't need to ask the others, it's obvious they knew, as well.

Mr Simon and the "cool kids" weren't trouble because I avoided them at all costs. I had a detention with Old-Guy-Si on Wednesday because of the mess I didn't clean last Monday. But other than that, I didn't see him. As for the "cool kids", I basically hid from everyone in the school library for the rest of the week, reading or drawing. Napping or listening to music. I've actually been working on a new sketch, one I only work on during school hours. That's been keeping me busy and my thoughts on something else.

My hand is shaky as I struggle to put my key in the hole and enter the house. Calling it my house these days didn't feel the same. It isn't mine anymore. I'd sat and read at the Winston library for a couple hours after school, and I didn't need to take anyone with me because I walked there. No one spoke to me. Still, Mum would be so angry if she found out I was alone. I don't honestly give a shit right now.

I round the corner between the kitchen and living room and my shoulder suddenly slams against someone else's. I wince, wrapping my fingers around my arm.

"Sorry," Ethan says. He is standing in front of me, his hand on his shoulder, as well. Wide-eyed. He looks in the direction of the main door then back at me and just stares saying nothing. He appears to be kind of shocked to see me come home alone.

I glare at him and try to step around him. My bed is calling my name, but he doesn't let me by.

"Hey, Jess, wait just a sec," he orders, grabbing my hand.

I jerk my hand away from him and fold my arms over my chest. Whatever he is about to say, I don't want to hear it.

"I am really sorry, Jessica," he says just above a whisper. "That was rough."

My eyes are burning, I know he's not talking about my shoulder so I shove him away and make a beeline for the staircase.

"Jess, talk to me!" Ethan shouts, but I don't turn around. "Please." He almost sounds like he's begging.

I run up the stairs two steps at a time until I am in my bedroom. Alone, once again. I close my eyes, take a shaky deep breath in and out and again, trying to calm myself down. Leaning my back against the door, I punch the wall next to me out of rage but stupidly regret it not realising the full force of the blow. I fiercely rub my hand and see all the redness forming.

I throw my heavy bag of books on my floor. My bedroom, I haven't changed since I was ten years old. The boys and Mum redecorated everything when I was thirteen. Tyler, Ethan, Alex and Drake helped out our mum a lot. They were happy to change their rooms around, including the living room, but not me. Mine stayed the same, the way Mum got it decorated for me for my tenth birthday. It's not at all what a ten-year-old girl would usually have as her bedroom, more creative, aesthetic, grown up and sophisticated for a little girl. It's always been me. Navy blue wall panelling complimented with glowing white fairy lights hanging above the head of my bed. My bedding and the long flowy curtains between myself and my bedroom window are grey and purple. A painting of a million bright white stars of all sizes in the galaxy that I made a few of months ago outshining the rest of the artwork on my wall. Not only because the canvas is the biggest one out of them all because it's the most work and time I have ever put into a piece.

I still have the small shelves that I have collected all my books over the years inside next to my window, although I had to get another one, a much larger one since then to fit all my paints, papers and other art supplies on. Books that couldn't fit on my small shelf also go on there and I, around six months ago, added a nice fluffy white rug to cover the red juice stain on the wooden planks of my floor. I don't want to even think about changing this room. It's too perfect for me, let alone think about a totally new one.

I go to my bed and throw myself backward onto the memory foam mattress. Then, I hear a familiar jingle. My phone is ringing, and it's the song I have set up for Emma's caller ID. I pull it out of my front pocket and quickly reject it. She's been trying to talk to me for days, and my current mood isn't up for much interaction with any of my friends or relatives. I have had my uncle and aunt messaging me on top of Luke's efforts and Ethan hasn't exactly been trying to get me to text him back because he hasn't been messaging me. I think that shows how much he cares. I've been ignoring hers and everyone else's texts.

My phone rings again. This is the first time Emma has actually called me. Like in years. So the second time she rings I accept the call despite not feeling up to listening to her speak and being unable to respond.

I press the phone to my ear and I can hear her breathing heavily. I listen carefully, then I hear her voice. "Jessica, I need to talk to you so listen to me." she says, her voice breaking a few times. "I need you to know that I had no idea. I didn't know you were moving."

My lips tremble uncontrollably.

"I am so sorry," she sobs, "I only just found out last week. I am gonna miss you so much, Jess. We all will."

A tear slips from the corner of my eye and spills on my cheek. The first tear of the many that were to come.

"This weekend, let's go out. We will go to the mall, the cinema, bowling, anywhere. We need to spend as much time together as we can... before..." she trails off after ten minutes of nothing.

Although she can't see me, I nod in agreement, more tears rolling down my face.

"I will text you now," she sniffles, "so we can make plans. Please don't be mad at me, Jess. I-I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't. I promise you."

I want so desperately to tell her I'm not angry with her, but I opt to text it to her. I end the call and click on my keyboard to quickly say:

I am not mad at you, Em. I would love to go out this weekend, but it's going to be only me and you. They all have known longer than you have, they didn't tell either of us and I'm just not ready yet... I'm not ready to act like it's all okay. Because it's not okay.

With my shaky fingerprint, I send the text to her. I sigh, collapsing back on my bed again. My face is damp with my emotions, and I wipe them away with my dark shirt sleeve. I roll over and force my eyes shut. My iPhone chimes with a response from Emma, but I decide to text her back later. Moments later, I'm in a deep sleep. Dreaming of how life used to be, and how I want it to be again.

*****

That weekend, on Saturday morning, Emma picks me up from my house. As requested, she is alone. I have no idea what she decided for us to do, and I don't ask. I decide to let it be a surprise. The bus pulls up just outside at WINSTON, the local mall. We don't usually take the bus when we go to places, but because we wanted to hang out alone, and the only way to be alone, AKA, without the others, is to take public transport. I wish we could drive at our age, but now we have to be eighteen. Wish you could at fifteen. This is where we like going to buy the best food. Clothes, books stationary and a bunch of unnecessary crap. We are usually in a group, but not this time. Going inside, I find a seat in the pizzeria. Emma orders our usual which is a cheese pizza with extra cheese and two ice cream shakes. One chocolate fudge with an extra scoop of ice cream and the other banana. A while back, it only used to be three. Never five or never two. Three. I miss it when it used to be just plain three. Those times were less complicated and just blissfully simple. Calm.

Emma smirks at me from her side of the booth, "did you hear about what Luke did to the low-lives?"

I raise my eyebrows at her. Of course I've heard. And what he'd done to Jason, I'd witnessed firsthand last Tuesday. Raven fainted in the nurses station after Luke signed her up to give blood last Friday, and she happens to be deathly afraid of needles. Seth missed a few days of school week after someone hired someone else to dress up in a vividly creepy clown suit and chased him from the school, through the woods, and only stopped once he was at his house. And Kayla, Little miss perfect blonde princess, she was mortified in front of the entire school after someone messed up her Awards Day acceptance speech. She was the laughing stock of Winston High School. Even I was reluctantly silently sniggering to myself, biting my tongue trying not to bring any attention to myself

Even being far away from them, I still unwillingly knew what went on. People talk a lot, especially if it's to do with my family or friends. It's a curse, and I hate it. My brothers are very social and overall loud people so...

Emma takes a large gulp of her banana shake, eyes still on me as if she is waiting for a reaction. I force a smile, nodding my head then take a small sip of my chocolate ice cream, biting the plastic black straw in the process.

"It's really awesome, ya know, how he is so protective over you. He really cares about his little sister." Emma grins. It was never always this way, she knows that.

I wince by accident. If he really cares about me, why'd he keep secrets from me? I nod in agreement despite the conflicted expression on my face. Her eyes widen slightly and she stops sipping on her beverage. She knows I don't mean it, and she decides she'd better change the subject.

"So, um, on the bright side, you'll only be two-and-a-half hours away from here when you move. That means we can still have visits and I can sleep over often." Emma says, an uncertain look in her hazel eyes. Her hands start fiddling around with her ocean-blue colored nails although her eyes are still fixed on me.

I nod my head again, pulling my notepad from my bag. I scribble the words:

Yeah, I hope so.

I slide the notepad to her and she scans the page with her eyes as she's threading her fingers through her brown hair. She has a few streaks of red in, but it's not too noticeable because it's fading away. When her eyes reconnect with mine, she has a frown on her face.

"I promise. I will come to see you as much as I can. There's a bus that runs straight through town and the last stop is only a town away from your new house." She forces a smile.

I scrunch my eyebrows at her and scribble again:

How do you know all that?

"I talked to Luke," she explains, "he told me that."

He knows where our new house is?

Emma nods. So he's seen it? Maybe Mum, Ethan, and Luke all have. Together. Right under my nose. Maybe they've all already picked out their bedrooms and have the worst one assigned to me. I'm stuck with the terrible one, the one that's small and cramped with barely enough room for my clothes, shoes, books and art supplies.

The young friendly, freckled redhead male waiter brings us our pizza, and it looks delicious. It's sliced into eight perfect slices, steam is flying out of it, and the cheese dripping off of it makes my mouth tingle as my mouth waters. I know we won't be able to eat all of it in one sitting, but I'll definitely eat a pretty large chunk.

"Hey girls. How are you doing?" Ed the waiter asks us with a smile.

"Heya Ed." Emma responds, "We're okay. What about you?"

"Oh, you know, the usual. Busy, as always. So, is today a girls day? Where are the boys?"

"Yes." Emma responds quickly, completely ignoring his second question.

Ed has a perplexed expression on his face, but he doesn't push the subject. I know it must be strange seeing the two of us here without them. He smirks half heartedly and shoots us a nod.

"Well, ladies. Let me know if I can get you anything else," he says, placing our ticket on the table face-down.

I force a smile at him before he walks away. Emma and I take our time and eat in silence. Even when I'm out and I'm supposed to be having some fun, my mind only focuses on one thing. That soon, this will all be over. I won't have Emma to run to the mall with whenever life gets difficult. I'll have no one. I'll be alone.

I glance up at Emma, and though she's done very well hiding it from me today, I can see a glimmer of sadness peeking back at me in her usually bright eyes. Then, just as soon as I notice it, it vanishes.

Window. Door. Window. Door. Window. Door.

I pace around Emma's bedroom. It's nothing like mine at all. Hers is slightly wider than mine, painted a totally different colour, too.

Correction; colours. Two of the walls are plain baby pink, facing opposite each other and the other two are deep dark purple with a large spiral pattern on each one in white.

I helped Emma with the pattern. I did the splatting of the black paint over the wall, giving it the dripping effect, starting at the top of the tall stack of bricks and going willy-nilly and ending in random directions, too. Emma and I did this together last year and it took us a week and a half to get it done completely.

I've been at Emma's for over four hours now, during that period all we've been doing is talking. Some of the time we spent watching a few episodes of The Vampire Diaries while eating salsa-covered nachos downstairs in the living room.

I look back at Emma for a second, she is laying down on her bed, laying on her stomach staring at her laptop in front of her. She's finishing off her History homework for Monday.

I'm partly bored and partly anxious about wasting time. My thoughts keep leading back to the same thing, no matter what I do or no matter how I distract myself. I can't help it. They keep swimming towards the thought of me being without my only best friend and being in a new place without her. There's absolutely nothing wrong with Sam and Drake, but they aren't my best friends. They're Luke's. They are just friends of mine. He's shared everything with me, his time that he sacrifices to spend time with me. His sleep, when he catches me in the middle unable to get my own, he stays up with me. His rep and the time he spends with me when he could be out there socialising with his cooler school mates, the thought and time he puts into the pranks he pulls on my terrorisers. The detentions he gets if he's ever caught. It's unfair. I can't let him share his best friends, too.

I'll never meet anyone else like Emma Thompson. Never. She is truly one of a kind. The sweet and gentle understanding and caring person she is. She doesn't have to, but she would willingly go to the end of the world for me or anyone else in need. She selflessly puts others above herself. Sometimes, a little too above herself. Nevertheless, she is a wonderful person and deserves the best things in life. I only wish I could be around to witness her have her best life. There's no other individual like Emma out there.

Something shiny on the windowsill grabs my attention as I start pacing again. I stop for a moment. Thinking it looks familiar, I head over to the wide window. Picking it up, with my heart thumping fast in my chest, but it's cold, the English weather outside is practically freezing this small metal piece of jewellery. It's not just some silly jewellery, no, it's more than that, it's the bracelet that led to our strong unique friendship, the thing that kept us together.

If we were in any kind of huff or argument and needed to resolve it but the other wasn't willing to, refusing to. One of us would have said "Sparky Silver" holding onto the bracelet and the three of us would have to talk, reluctantly at first, of course, but later, it was all long forgotten. This was the friendship bracelet of Emma Thompson, Amber Richards, and Jessica Graye. The most special thing to us since we were seven years old.

Till this day, I still remember when we first got it. I saw it in Claire's, shopping with Mum and Luke, Ethan fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you looked at, had been at Tyler's house that day, so he didn't go with us.

A seven year old Luke was being loud and noisy, and silly and a real, real pain, teasing me, tugging really roughly at my hair, Mum had put them in pretty braids and he ruined them. Every chance he got to mess with me so the whole shopping mall could hear us. Basically, he was being himself.

"We're going to be the same age next week, Luke!" I grinned brightly showing him my teeth. "We are going to be twins!" To me that sounded so cool but however he became annoyed, not liking the idea all that well. He gave me an ugly look before pushing past me towards the wig and hairspray section of the shop.

I turned around to ask my mum why he'd become a grumpy no-fun pants, but she was occupied, speaking to one of the people who assisted at the shop. I did a bit of walking around the shop, too, looking at all the pretty jewellery and colourful hair ties. Little me sighed, bored and confused with my silly brother's behaviour. Why did he dislike me so much? Ethan liked me. Ethan played with me. I slapped my little golden sandals against the floor covered tiles of Claire's while looking at the small plastic cupcake keyring with pink swirling frosting. It looked good enough to eat.

One thing in particular caught my eye while I was skimming through all the bright and colourful stuff in the store. A bracelet. A sparkling new bracelet with four charms dangling from the chain, the first charm was a heart charm, the other charm was of a dolphin and the third charm was a tiara in rose gold and the last one was a silver tree. They all meant something. That I knew I had to somehow convince Mum to get it as it was far too pretty to ignore and not get.

"Mummy!"

Thinking of us three being together like before brings sadness and guilt, biting at me because I know it'll never be like before. Each of these charms represented us.

"Right, this is finally done. I just gotta print this out." Emma puffs out a sigh of relief and hops off her bed and runs her hand through her long hair. "Then we've got to get back to our date with Mr Damon Salvatore and Mr Stefan Salvatore. I'll go down make us the most irresistible sundae with cream and sprinkles and lots and lots of- hey what's up?" she pauses her agenda-telling, looking in my direction with her hand stuck in her messy mixed dark brown and red hair.

I shake my head fiercely before ducking it, my long, brown hair hiding my face as I'm quickly wiping my damp face with the back of my hand. I swallow hard and slip the bracelet back into the little pot with a little clink on the windowsill. When Emma's eyes catch what I put back on the window, she frowns.

"I miss her, too."

I suddenly feel myself start to shiver but I'm not feeling cold in the slightest.

*****
AUTHORS NOTE

Hi! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Let me know your thoughts.

Do you like milkshakes? What's your fave flavor? Have you watched TVD?

I LOVE milkshakes and my fave flavor has gotta be Oreo or the same as Jessica's. I have indeed watched TVD in fact I rewatch it several times a year. The same with The Originals!

See you next week for another chapter!

Sapphire xo

Here's a cupcake for reading!

Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: Truyen247.Pro