* a/n: girl to the left is Veronica + I love reading y'alls comments so don't be shy :)
Warning: the song of the chapter has a lot of cussing as does this chapter.*

Emma

* Three months ago *

Veronica's eyes darted back and forth on the paper in front of her. Her eyebrows slowly scrunched together the more frustrated she got.

"Got it!" She slammed her pencil down, causing heads to turn and the librarian to shush her. "Oh, get over it Brenda. I'm not that loud." I choked back a laugh at her forwardness.

"I don't think you're supposed to call teachers by their first names." Even though Veronica could make me laugh every here and there we were still polar opposites. She might not mind if we got kicked out but I would never be able to live down the embarrassment.

Veronica cocked her head and looked at me. "Sweetie, she's my aunt." She shook her head. "If only we could pick our family."

I studied the both of them, but the only thing they had in common was their raven black hair. Shaking my head I pulled myself back into reality and the test I was supposed to be helping Veronica study for.

"What did you get?" I asked, leaning over slightly to look at her answer. Begging myself not to start repeatedly pounding my head against the table I let out a sigh to replace the laugh bubbling in my throat.

"The answer is 2 to the second over 7h."

Her eyes darted back down to what she wrote on the paper. "Yeah and I got... 3." This time I wasn't able to hold back my laugh.

"Hey, no laughing at the one who's paying you!" Veronica's black manicured fingers typed away on her new IPhone. I looked down at my chipped fingernails and quickly hid them under the table. Hearing Veronica groan I quickly glanced down at her phone, curiosity getting the best of me. "Emma is so annoying sometimes. She wants me to ditch studying so I can go pity shopping with her."

My interest peaked mildly. There was only one thing I could think of that would make her sad. I hadn't had a chance to ask her about that night because she'd been avoiding me at all costs.

"You taking her up on the offer?" I asked nonchalantly.

"No way. You may have terrible fashion sense," I looked down at my faded green tee and khaki shorts and chuckled. "But you're not a bitch. I'm so over hearing Em complain about how Robbie broke up with her. Like seriously, get over it. Total karma."

My head spun at what had to be false information. Emma broke up with Robbie, not the other way around.

"I broke up with Robbie or at least I tried to."

"What do you mean karma?" I asked, nervous for the answer.

"You didn't hear this from me but she totally cheated on him. With his cousin too." My eyes turned to saucers.

"He'd been cheating on me and I have way to much respect for myself to ignore it, you know?"

"She told you this?" I continued to probe. Why would she lie to Veronica about cheating on Robbie? A couple reasons ran through my head.

1. She didn't want everyone to know that anyone would even think about cheating on her, let alone actually do it.

2. She was trying to cover for the night of the party.

At the end of the day, maybe she just didn't want to be embarrassed. I completely understood where she was coming from, but it all seemed so eccentric. What she needed was to deal with that night, not hide from it.

"You have got to me kidding me!" Veronica's fingers flew across the touch screen. "Now she wants to key Tyler—Robbie's new girlfriends car."

"Isn't that a little extra? I mean, even for her that's messed up." I shook my head at the thought of them actually going through with it. Now that I knew I felt like an accomplice and the last thing I needed was to be involved in anything illegal.

"She wants to ruin their relationship so that she can comfort Robbie and get in his good graces, and when Emma wants something she usually gets it. What's that saying? Alls fair in love and war?"

"Yeah-" I trailed off, caught up in a bottle of mixed emotions. It was one thing to lie about cheating on your ex-boyfriend but it was something on another level to want your ex back when he had forced himself on you.

"I begged him to stop. I-I begged him. I repeated no over and over and over again. He j-just, he wouldn't stop."

Everything in me was telling me I'd been made a fool of but I refused to jump to any conclusions. I'd assumed some stuff before and it'd only led me down a path to regret. Either way Emma had lied to one of us and I was going to figure out who.

"You think you can give me a ride to Emma's after this?" Veronica asked, her tongue laced with sugar.

"Yeah." I replied with a shrug.

"Thanks babes." I smiled as the perfect opportunity fell into my lap.

«•»

I parked next the curb and threw the car into park. As the seconds ticked away the colder it seemed to get. The weather app predicted a low of 79 degrees, so I idiotically threw on a pair of shorts. Shivering I ran my palms up and down my thighs, trying to generate warmth.

"Thanks for the ride." Veronica said as she reached for her purse and water bottle.

"No problem. Actually I was thinking about going in. I have something to talk to Emma about. As long as it's not a problem." I chewed on my fingernails afraid she was going to tell me to get lost already.

"It's fine as long as you get your fingers out your mouth. Seriously, were you raised by apes?"

I let out a slight laugh, even though I found her comment more on the offensive side of the spectrum.

As soon as I stepped through the doors I froze, mesmerized by all the art hanging on the walls and how everything else seemed to compliment their beauty. It felt like I was standing in a prestigious art museum not someone's home. Among all the art I was only able to spot one family picture. I couldn't imagine living here and for that I was grateful. Even though you could fit my house inside of this one twice, I loved its simplicity and homey feel.

I followed Veronica into Emma's room. Looking around I was surprised to find how much I liked it. In one corner she had a bookshelf filled to the brim and in the other a guitar resting against the wall. Not only did she appear to have a walk in closet but she also had a gorgeously decorated bay window, something I've always wanted.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Emma slid off her canopy bed and walked over to me. She looked more pissed than I've ever seen her, making me wish I was less stubborn.

"I just want to talk." I replied softly.

"Look here, bitch-"

"Woah, calm down Em!" Veronica interjected. "No offense, but if I knew the claws were going to come out I never would've let you in." She directed towards me.

Sighing I tried thinking of a way to get Veronica to leave the room so I could talk to Emma privately and get the hell out of here before she killed me, but Emma beat me to it.

She plastered on a smile that made me feel anything but safe. "Why don't you go get us some lemonade and snacks. Me and Lila here can sort this out ourselves."

"So," I started once Veronica left the room. "How are you?"

I cringed at the laugh that left her mouth. Excuse me for trying to be a decent person. "Really?" She cocked a eyebrow at me. "I'm annoyed and I want you to leave. How's that?"

"Look, I don't know if I'm the only one who knows about that night but maybe you should talk to someone. I know an amazing therapist."

"Of course you know a therapist." She leaned against the post on her bed. "I don't want to talk about that night with you or with anyone."

Shuffling from foot to foot I glanced around the room uncomfortably, trying to hide the fact that I had her exactly where I wanted her. "Fine, let's talk about the fact that you're trying to get back with him."

Her face immediately paled at my words. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Suspicions almost confirmed I continued. "How about the fact that everyone thinks you cheated on him?"

A smile bloomed on her face completely catching me off guard. "You want to hear me say I lied, fine. I lied. Happy?"

"How could you lie to me about that?" There were thousands of people out there actually going through something she thought it was okay to brush off. How deranged do you have to be to lie about being raped?

"God!" I yelled. Struggling to control my anger I blew out deep breaths.

Her once gorgeous hair resembled a birds nest, clothes were beyond wrinkled, makeup smudged, and a bruise on her wrist.

"Either way you were a mess that night. I mean, you had bruise. What really happened?"

"Not like it's any of your business but Robbie and I like it kinky." She wore a smug smile. "Afterwards he informed me that it was a goodbye fuck and that," She made a quoting gesture with her fingers. "he doesn't appreciate being cheated on. Whatever."

"What if I had told someone? They would've reported it and an innocent boy would've been falsely accused of a crime!" I was in complete disbelief at this point I barely knew what I was saying.

"It's not my fault you couldn't leave me the fuck alone! I asked you to leave and instead you decided to spill some sob story all over me. You were annoying the hell out of me so I played a little prank on you. Big deal."

"Yes, it is a big deal!" How could I change the way she acted when she didn't find a problem in her actions?

"Honey, I honestly couldn't care what you think of me. You hate me, boo-hoo. I'll live to see another day. Now if  you don't take your holier than me attitude out my fucking house you're going to regret it."

Some people weren't capable of being changed.

A/N
Sorry for not updating in awhile. As usual I had writers block. Anyways, what do you think of this chapter?