30 Days To Fall In Love

Day Twelve - Jake

***Jake***

What was that noise? It was shrill and ringing and it woke me from a beautiful sleep. I rolled over onto my side, trying to cover my ears with my duvet but it only got louder. My phone! I searched for it blindly, my hands fumbling over the mattress hopelessly. Finally I found it. Emma was calling me.

For a moment, I treasured the moment. Emma was calling me at 4 in the morning. But then I thought to myself: this could be bad. Maybe Darren had hurt her?

"Hello?" I whispered into the phone. 

"Jake," Emma breathed. The relief in her voice was unmistakeable. She was happy to hear me speak! Funny to think that here we were on the phone in the early hours of the morning when two weeks ago we didn't even know the other existed.

"What's up?" I asked. I wanted to sound like I was casual about everything when really I was incredibly tense. I wanted to ask her a million anxious questions.

"Jake, I ran away from Darren's house. I'm at Anna's now-" she began.

"You did?! Emma, you do not know how proud I am of you!" I said with a smile. Thank God! She'd gotten away. Now I didn't need to worry about her anymore.

"But I left my Facebook logged in at his house and now he's changed my password. Who knows what he's been saying," she said. I could picture her sat curled up in a ball, her hands wrapped tightly around her knees, and chewing on her lip.

"Oh," I said. "So that message you sent me yesterday about the library was from him?"

"What message?"

"You - or Darren - sent me a message to say to meet you at the library today before the concert," I explained.

"Oh, God. Did he want to batter you some more?" Emma sighed. "How are you, by the way?"

"I've been better," I smiled.

"I can't wait for later," Emma breathed.

"Or me..." I said, trying to stifle a yawn.

"Sorry, you must be sleepy," Emma said. Her voice was like syrup.

"No, no... It's fine," I said. "Let's arrange where to meet."

"I'm at Anna's house," Emma said. She told me the address - it wasn't too far for me to walk.

"I'll see you around 10 tomorrow then?" I suggested.

"Wonderful," she whispered.

I didn't want to be the first to hang up and I guess Emma didn't either. It could've been an eternity before one of us did. Then I drifted off to sleep, dreaming about what would happen in just a few hours time.

*

I got ready quickly and reached Anna's house. I waited after ringing the doorbell for what felt like forever. I just kept shuffling from one foot to the next feeling impatient.

Anna opened the door, "Hi Jake!" She had the biggest smile in the world and it looked as if her eyes might pop out of her skull. Her eyebrows seemed to have taken home closer to her hairline than her eyes. She was very happy!

"Hello," I said quietly. "Where's Emma?"

Anna shrugged, "Finishing getting ready... Soo... What's your favourite song by The Script then? Like what one do you most want them to sing today? Ooh! Imagine if, like, they sang, like, all of their songs! Or! Or! If they, like, dedicated one to you and you could, like, go up on stage! Oh wow!"

I blinked at her. Was she done at last?"

"Sooo...Which one do you like?" she was staring at me with narrowed eyes. I was quite anxious about choosing.