As if right on time, I see Emmaline walking into through the McDonalds door right in front of me, her long brown tresses swinging as she pulls the door open, her eyes immediately finding mine as she heads to the cashier.

A few minutes later, Emmaline joins me at the table with sunglasses perched on her head, a wrapped breakfast sandwich in one hand, and a smoothie in the other. "Fancy meeting you here," she remarks with a smile, taking a seat in front of me. Putting her sunglasses on the table in front of her, she squints at the sunlight breaching all the windows, before turning to meet my eyes.

"Almost like it was planned," I reply, taking a bite of my hash browns, "So what's this story involving McDonald's last night?"

Her facial expression contorts, "Are we not going to talk about why you're here with me when you're supposed to be with your friends?"

Having a sip of my smoothie, I tell her, "You are my friend," in an attempt to shut her down. It's also the truth, just not the answer to her specific question.

She smiles reluctantly, "That wasn't my point, but yes, we are. So I'm guessing you would like to hear about my little adventure after we parted?"

If I was a dog, my ears would have perked up. "Yes, please," I say, that's exactly what I would like to hear about. Why else would I be here?

Emmaline swirls the straw around her strawberry banana smoothie for a moment before she begins to speak. "Well, last night, after you guys left the party, Jordan was really my only friend there. And since we had both been drinking, we realized we were getting hungry. We didn't check if the restaurant was still open, we just started walking. We actually ended up walking through the drive through to get some food," she mentions, cringing a little at the memory, "Then, we sat on the curb and ate our food there."

"And how was that?" I ask, wanting more details.

She smiles softly, "It was good. We laughed a lot between bites. He was wondering how I knew who you were when I joked about him leaving me again."

"Leaving you again?" I echo, wondering how that came into play.

"Yeah, since the first time he took me to a party, he left me alone to make out with you. I told him that he should be thanking me though, since I essentially scared you into his arms," Emmaline explains, taking another bite of her sandwich.

"Hey! Who says you scared me-" I start to deny it before Emmaline cuts me off with a look. "Okay fine, you did. But I was actually looking for a distraction that night, so you really just sped up the inevitable. Not that the night went well for me after said distraction," I mention, the memory playing back in my mind. Mackenzie's hostile words that night, our fight barely an hour ago. In the long run, Jordan was really not worth it as a distraction, but it felt good at the time, so it is what it is.

At my remarks, her facial expression changes, becoming more curious mixed in with a little concern as she questions, "What happened after?"

This time it's me who takes a sip of her drink before answering. "Well, let's just say that Mackenzie has a little crush on Jordan that I didn't know about, but apparently I should have, and she found me when I was about to walk out of his bedroom door." I can tell Emmaline understands based on the tightness of her facial expression alone. "Yeah, so that wasn't fun. She hounded me about for it on the way back to her house. I would have been walking back to mine, except for the fact that Reagan defended me since she had been noticing differences in my behaviour for while."

"You mean since things ended with Zach?" she asks, obviously trying to piece it all together.

I give a forced smile before I say, "It's hard to be upset about something that no one else knew about."

"You never told your friends?" Emmaline exclaims, "Nothing at all?"

Shaking my head, I tell her, "Nope," emphasizing the 'p,' "They might have known something was going on when Carter confronted me in the hallway, but I never actually told them anything. I didn't want some lecture on being amoral, nor did I want them to take sides."

"Carter?" she questions.

Oh yeah. Guess I didn't tell Emmaline his name before. "Carter is my ex-boyfriend," I inform her, "His best friend Kaillie is the one who Zach is currently dating."

"You mean, the best friend you got jealous of?" Her eyebrows furrow as she tries to figure it all out. I'm also trying to figure out why Zach would do that, considering he was involved in the cheating too.

"Yup, that would be the one," I tell her, swirling the straw around the cup and slushing th eliquid around.

"That seems like a really bad idea?" she says. It's a statement, but it comes out like a question, due to all the complications.

SIghing, I explain, "I'm pretty sure it is. I would have told him so, but he wouldn't tell me who he wanted to see, probably since I would have blown up at him if more if I had known at the time."

"At least you acknowledge what your reaction would have been?" Emmaline tries, and I'm about to reply when a certain someone walks in.

Oh fuck. Speaks of the devil and he shall appear, apparently.

Zach walks through the door smoothly, his hand joined with Kaillie's. I can't help but notice that he's wearing a simple white v-neck that highlights his toned torso. The same one I used to touch. It looks like it should be under a leather jacket, and he should be a modern James Dean. Oh gosh. Sara. Focus.

"Sara?" comes Emmaline's voice through the haze, one of her hands waving across my sightline, "Did a cute boy distract you?"

The prolonged sound that comes out of my mouth is a side effect of my preoccupied mind, but the comment about a cute boy snaps my attention back to her and away from Kaillie's carefree smile aimed at Zach's matching grin. It's kind of accurate. Except this 'cute boy' comes with a whole bookful of complications.

"So where is he?" she asks playfully, not catching my drift, "What does he look like?"

Zach's eyes seem to look around the restaurant gleefully, and I lower my gaze down to the tabletop. I never noticed that it's a cool grey with darker spots. Maybe it's time to spill the beans to Emmaline. "He's tall, with dirty blonde hair and forest green eyes," I tell her quietly, "and his name happens to be Zach."

Her eyes go wide. "Oh shit," she exclaims, turning her voice to a whisper in the two short words, "Really? Should I look behind me?"

Looking up ever so slightly, I see Zach's eyes scanning the room, presumably for a free table. "Considering he's actively looking over here right now, I'd say not," I say slowly, before realizing his eyes are now locked on mine. Shit. He shoots me a funny look, crumpling his facial features and raising one of his eyebrows, which makes me feel automatically more embarrassed as I shot my eyes right back down. Maybe I should just stare at the ground while he's here, honestly. I think I can feel my face starting to burn. "He also just saw me, so there's that too," I update her, sighing.

"Well, that does explain why you're staring at the table again," Emmaline remarks smartly, "I think this is the first time I've ever seen you nervous. You didn't get half this nervous when you seduced a guy to make out with you."

After taking a sip of my drink, I tell her stubbornly, "That's different."

This seems to make her rise to the challenge, somehow. "And why is that, Sara?"

Okay, now I'm scowling at her. "You know why," I manage to say. Is she trying to be a therapist now?

"I do. Because your feelings are involved. But no one else knows," she points out, taking another bite of her breakfast sandwich. "Sara, why have you only shared your feelings with me, instead of anyone else? It can't only be because I'm not biased towards anyone but you."

"And Jordan," I add. She does have a point though, she is the only person who knows about a lot of this stuff. My jealousy over Kaillie and her relationship with Carter, despite the fact I know he would never cheat. Ever. Which expanded to the entire Zach situation, and my apparently now shamefully broken heart.

"Hmm. Maybe. Depends how I'm feeling about fuckboys who buy me McDonald's that day," she comments, making me laugh a little. I barely know this girl, yet she already knows how to make me feel better. She's even managed to distract me from the fact that the source of my broken heart is standing ten feet behind her.

"He bought you McDonald's?" I repeat, looking up to meet her eyes with a small grin, "You might want to keep him around then."

Emmaline just laughs, saying, "Maybe, we'll see." She pauses a moment, stirring her remaining smoothie, and I feel the air return to a heavier weight as if the humor was only a temporary fix. A bit of sunlight before the cloud cover returns, and the serious conversation comes back again. "Sara, have you ever hid things from your friends before?"

I wish I could say it takes a moment for me to think about this and answer, but it doesn't take me that long. "I have," I say quietly, turning my face down to the table, my hair falling to cover part of my face. It's not because I'm ashamed of my answer, but because it shows how shallow my friendships with my supposed best friends are. We talk more about boys and clothes than the things that really matter, an example being my pain about my mom. "I've buried my feelings to not bother them before," I tell Emmaline, mostly so I don't have to go into the details. But shouldn't I? Isn't that one of the reasons I'm here? Because I couldn't bear my soul and tell my friends things that matter, and that has resulted in me alienating myself from them? I take a breath and push my hair behind my ear before meeting her softened hazel eyes. "My mom died when I was younger, and they know, but I've never really talked about it with them," I mention, "Or the pain I feel more on that one day a year because I've always assumed they won't understand. I usually push them away, telling them I need space, which isn't always true." A single tear makes a path down my cheek, and I stop to wipe it away. I feel like I could really use a reminder why I'm talking about this at a table in McDonald's.

"Oh Sara, I'm so sorry," she says softly, "I didn't know." She briefly touches my hand in solidarity, and that somehow gives me strength. Which is probably good, since a brush on my shoulder warns me of Zach's close presence as my walls go racing back up.

"Thanks," I tell her softly, "Do you mind if we get out of here soon?"

"Yeah sure," she replies, as we quickly finish our meals. As we head out, the mood still somber, my eyes somehow find Zach's again. I can't describe the look, but it's like he understands, somehow.

---

Hey guys, how did you guys like this chapter? What do you think of Sara baring a little bit of her soul, or Zach appearing again? What about that look he gave her at the end? I'd love to know your thoughts!

Question: have any of you ever bared some of your soul in such a public place? (It doesn't have to specifically be McDonald's or a resturant of any sort)

Until next time,

Talia :)