Kelly's phone vibrated on the floorboards. He continued kissing Emily as he stretched his arm down to swipe around for it. When he finally found it beside his crumpled shirt, he pressed it to his ear. "Yeah, what?"

Emily heard John's voice cursing on the other end. She ignored the tiny sound and wrapped her arms tighter around Kelly's neck as she dispersed gentle kisses across his collarbone. Kelly buried his face back into Emily's shoulder to return the favor.

Then he lifted his face back up to bark back at John. "Enough already! We're coming!"

Her brother's voice rose an octave to yell with renewed vigor, and Emily stifled a laugh.

Kelly unlinked her arms and sat up. "You know I didn't mean it like that John."

Emily watched Kelly's chest heave, and his stomach clench and release, with each breath he took. "We'll be there in a minute." He wiped the sweat from his forehead and hung up.

"Everyone's been looking for you two for the past forty minutes," he said, imitating John's angry tone.

With a smirk, she wrapped her legs around him again. "They couldn't have looked very hard if they didn't check the car."

Kelly dropped his phone onto the back deck of the rear window, then ran a finger across the condensation that coated the glass. It left a perfectly transparent line in the milky film of moisture. "I'm pretty sure your brother didn't want to see this."

He smirked back at her before running his palms across one of her thighs and giving it a squeeze. Then he sighed and said, "Hand me my shirt."

Emily smiled at the same suggestive commanding tone he always had, and groped over the edge of the seat to retrieve his button-down. She found it, untangled her legs from his waist, and passed it over.

"Thanks." He shucked it across his shoulders, and with a frustrated grunt, struggled to get his damp arms through the clinging fabric.

Emily sat up, tucked in her tank, and began to weave the ribbon back through the loops of her shorts.

Kelly watched her closely as he buttoned up. "You don't really believe those things you said during the meltdown, do you?

She froze, fists clutching the two opposite ends of the unraveled ribbon. Staring at Kelly's hands as they worked, instead of meeting his eyes, she said, "In that moment I did. It's hard to explain. Rationally, I don't feel that way about myself. But during a meltdown it's a complete temporary collapse of... well... everything. It's like a short circuit where you are instantaneously sunk into a deep depression. You feel like a complete failure because you can't control your body or your brain just then. There is a total lack of self-esteem in that moment."

Emily made herself move again, to finish the task at hand and tie up the loose ends. She looked down at the bow on her waist and asked, "Does that make sense?"

Kelly put his hands to her cheeks and lifted her face.

She looked at his forehead, still sheened with perspiration. She looked at the tiny freckle that she just noticed above his right eyebrow.

He's trying to look in my eyes... I know that's what he wants...

When she wouldn't look him in the eye he dropped his hands and declared, "I wish you would be easier on yourself."

Emily leaned over his lap to pick up one of her shoes. "It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan," she recited to her foot, as she slipped it back into her wedge.

"What?" Kelly handed her the next shoe.

She took it from him. "It's nothing. Just something Eleanor Roosevelt said that I memorized. Never mind." She fastened her buckles and then opened the car door.

When Emily and Kelly walked up to the front gate a few minutes later, they found Jenny waiting there with Emily's bag.

Jenny's eyes grew wide at Emily's appearance "You okay Em?"

I hope I don't look too disheveled...

Then Jenny swept her glance up and down, taking stock of Emily and narrowing her eyes the same way she always did when working on a tough math problem. "John said you were ready to go. Geoff and Peter already walked down to get the car."

Before Emily could respond, Kelly took her bag from Jenny. "She's coming with me and John."

Jenny cocked her eyebrow and looked towards Emily. "To Jersey?"

But once again before she could answer, Kelly interrupted. "I don't mean to Jersey. We're gonna drive her back to Bay Ridge."

Jenny reached out to grip Emily's bag again. Without taking her eyes off of Kelly she said, "That wasn't the plan. Right Em?"

He didn't let go of the bag. Instead he narrowed his eyes, cleared his throat and said, "Well, plans changed."

Jenny didn't let go of the bag either. "That doesn't make any sense. It's totally out of your way. Plus, if you drive into Brooklyn then you'll have to pay the bridge toll."

Jenny's voice sounds way perkier than it usually does... And it doesn't match with the tug of war going on over my bag...

Peter pulled up to the curb beside them. Emily looked over at the car and saw Geoff in the backseat with a rainbow clown wig next to him. She reached out her hand to grip her bag too. Jenny and Kelly stopped tugging and both looked at her expectantly.

"I'll go with Kelly and John."

Jenny released the bag with a frown.

Emily stepped over to hug her friend . "They did drive all the way here to see me."

"Are you sure you're okay?" Jenny whispered as she squeezed Emily tighter.

Emily nodded. So Jenny let go, and stepped around Kelly to get into Peter's car.

"I'll see you tomorrow then," she said, before slamming the door shut

As the car pulled away, John strolled up to them from across the parking lot. "I thought you were going with Jenny. What did I miss?"

Kelly tossed the car keys at him. "We're taking Emily home and you're driving."

They didn't speak as they rode over the bridge. They didn't even play any music.

When they silently pulled into the hydrant space by her building, Emily reached over the seat to pat her brother's shoulder. "Thanks again for coming John. It meant a lot to me."

John twisted in the driver's seat. "Even though you two ditched me for most of the night, I still had some fun." He patted his sister's hand back.

Kelly opened the car door for her and escorted her to the stoop. "So... I think Jenny doesn't like me very much."

"She doesn't know you and was just worried about me." Emily pulled her keys from her bag.

Kelly nodded and took her hands in his.

Emily glanced around to see if any of the neighbors were outside. "Besides it's not like you two will ever really have any reason to be around each other again."

"Yeah I guess not." He frowned and squeezed her hands tighter.

Then Kelly leaned in for a kiss, but Emily only gave him a chaste peck on the lips.

He pulled back with a soft chuckle. "So that's it now huh? That's how it's gonna be?"

"Well my Mom is right upstairs and the neighbors..." She shifted her eyes across the street where Mr. Martinez was putting a bag of garbage in the can in his front areaway.

Kelly growled and leaned towards Emily again. "Screw the neighbors! Kiss me goodbye!" he insisted, with his lips against hers.

Emily felt his tongue hot in her mouth.

Like fire he consumes the oxygen in my lungs... It burns my chest the way it does when I swim for a long distance underwater...

Just when she felt like she would burst, Kelly pulled away and Emily gulped at the air.

"It's getting late. You should go in now," he said.

She nodded and walked up the remaining steps to unlock the first door. Then Emily waved down at Kelly before she slipped inside. Next, she tiptoed quietly up the steps. Her stomach knotted more with each step.

Thirty minutes past curfew... Mom didn't call or text... I'm fairly certain that means she's asleep... Still she'll expect me to wake her up...

"Hopefully she doesn't look at the clock," she mumbled to herself. "Or me," she added as she stood on the top landing and gazed at herself in the mirror that hung there.

I'm a total disaster of smeared makeup, puffy eyes, dilated pupils and rumpled clothes... It makes sense why Jenny was surprised and concerned when she saw me...

Emily unlatched the next set of locks as quietly as she could. Max meowed as she stepped over the threshold. She dropped to her knee, put down her bag and picked him up. "Shhhhh!"

He sniffed at her, sneezed and pushed off from chest to leap back onto the floor.

"Sorry. I do smell pretty bad I guess."

Max ignored her apology and padded down the hallway towards the bedrooms. Emily followed.

She knocked gently on her mother's door before she cracked it open. "I'm home Mom."

Maggie lifted her head from the pillow and turned toward the sound. She fumbled for her glasses on the nightstand for a minute before she gave up looking and rubbed her eyes instead. "How was the dance? Did you have fun?"

Emily spoke quickly, "Yep, lots of fun. I'm really sweaty from dancing so I'm gonna take a quick shower."

Maggie sighed and rolled back over. "Okay. Night babygirl..." she trailed off, falling into sleep again.

Emily slowly shut the door and stripped off her shirt as she went into the bathroom.

Crisis averted...