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Leaning into her, his breath leaves a moist sheen on her face as he speaks an inch away, “You should be more careful next time. Wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”
There is a menace in his voice and Raven feels a chill run through her core. Her voice catches in her throat and she can’t speak. A small squeak escapes her lips and he seems to relish in her discomfort.
He smiles as he begins to walk away, “See you around, Little Bird.”
Raven finds herself feeling weak in the knees and her head is buzzing with caution alerting her deeper senses. That boy is bad. Not even in just a bad boy kind of way. His presence carries a dangerous undertone in ways Raven has never felt before.
As she continues to walk down the street toward where Sam is waiting for her, she feels almost in a daze, trying to come to terms with how this chance encounter made her third eye instantly and instinctively recoil in a fight or flight kind of way. She’s met and spent time around him before, but never one on one and never up close. This was different and her soul did not like it.
As she approaches Sam, she notices the same kind of hazed stare on her face. They lock eyes and seem to communicate with no words. Sam feels it too.
But what can they do about it?
Some girls seem to live their entire lives in absolute certainty of what they deserve. They are bright and bubbly with all the right friends and guys begging to take them out. They laugh and giggle and flirt with ease. They make the social minefield that is high school look like a walk in the park.
Emily is not one of those girls.
Sitting here in the local library with Willow, she feels like she just doesn’t belong, but she feels a bit like that no matter where she is. Always questioning herself.
All of this is perhaps why she dove in headfirst when he asked her out. He was the first guy to ever show any interest in her awkward self and she was just so tired of overthinking. For the first time in her life, Emily took a leap of faith.
He was so kind and sweet to her, always saying just the right things to make her insides go to jello and her head spin with anticipation. He was THE guy too. The guy that didn’t date girls like Emily or any of her friends. He was a star athlete senior. They were sophomores with no social standing. He dated the preppy popular ones. The girls with trust funds and perfect hair. The fact that he even took the time to look her way had originally made her wonder if he was playing some kind of joke on her, trying to make her the “Carrie” in a cruel adolescent game. Once she realized he was for real, she was putty in his hands.
That had been it. Since that first date, they had become an official pair and spent almost every moment together. It is this crazy whirlwind. Things seem to be moving so fast. He can’t seem to keep his mind, or his hands, off of her.
Her friends are concerned. They have made it very clear that they aren’t fans, but Emily feels certain it’s only because he had been monopolizing so much of her time. That has never happened before and she understands how that could seem alarming to them. They only want what’s best for her and she is intent on showing them that he is good.
That is the whole reason they both decided together to give her time with her friends today. He wasn’t very happy with the idea at first, but he came around after she explained how important it is to her that they like him. He is still not thrilled to be away from her all day, but Emily is sure it’s just because he will miss her.
“Earth to Em… hello,” Willow waves her hands in front of Emily’s face. “Are you even on planet Earth anymore? I’m really worried about you, Em.” There is clear concern on her friend’s face.
She puts on her best smile, “I’m fine. I promise. Just tired. We were up really late last night.”
“We, as in you and the boy?” Willow asks with a raised brow.
“He snuck in my bedroom window last night and we hung out until really late.”
Willow sighs and shakes her head as she packs up her books, “Love, you know I want nothing more than for you to be completely happy. I just don’t know if the level of investment you both have in this relationship is healthy. It’s a lot and you’ve barely even really known each other more than a month or so.”
Emily reaches a hand out to touch Willow’s, “I know. That’s why I’m here today. I want to make sure you guys know that I’m still me. I still love you guys.”
Willow does not appear appeased by these words, but she tries to move on anyway, “Are you ready? The girls should be waiting for us by now.”
“I’ll meet you guys in just a minute. I want to check for a book my English teacher told me about. It will only take me a sec.”
“Okay, we’ll be by the fountain in the square,” Willow gives her a smile now, seemingly a peace offering.
Emily smiles back and then watches as her friend walks out the door. Once she is clearly gone Emily quickly digs her cell phone out of her pocket. She has no intention of asking for a book. Her phone has been buzzing nearly the entire time she has been talking with her friend. She knows it will be texts from him and sometimes he gets upset when she doesn’t respond right away, but Willow would have lost her shit if she knew he was already texting after just having left her a few minutes before.
Scrolling through his stream of increasingly irritated messages, she gets to the first one. “I love U”. She begins typing a reply when she feels someone’s presence next to her. Looking up she sees Callie Meadows standing at her side looking down at her.
“Hi, Emily.”
Swiftly closing her phone, Emily snidely replies, “Hi. Can I help you?”
Callie blushes and looks down at her feet, “I was just wondering if you had time to think about what I mentioned to you the other day?”
Emily glares at this perfect girl before her, “I didn’t need to think about it. He’s not that kind of guy and I wish you would just let us be. We’re happy.”
