you're mine

Chapter 15

Luca's Point of view

When I hear someone call her name, my heart beats 100 mph. Who is here? Does he know her from the news? Is he a cop?

Emily seems just as confused as me until her head turned to meet the man.

"Henry?" Her voice is relaxed with a tone of happiness. "Oh my god, hi." She giggles.

"Hi, it's been forever." He goes in for a hug and to my surprise, Emily blocks him.

My eyebrows raise, my interest now peaked at the unexpected action by Emily. Then the boy, Harry or whatever his name was, looked over at me with a look of realisation.

"Oh, you have a boyfriend now? It was just a friendly hug, don't worry." The unimportant boy speaks. Although he seems unimportant to me, to Emily he seems quite the opposite by the smile that hasn't left her lips since laying eyes on him.

"Yeah she does." I smile in his direction, my arms leaning against the table.

"Henry, this is Luca. Luca this is Henry. We went to school together, we were pretty close back in elementary." She grins which almost makes me lose focus of the words leaving her mouth.

"So what are you doing up here, Em?" I cringe at the nickname he gave her, even if I sort of done the same.

I did think it was strange he called her Emily at first, when everyone else in her life called her Emelia.

"We are just-"

"On a roadtrip." I cut her off with a smirk.

"Nice! I remember how you always wanted to leave Colorado." Henry nods.

"Yeah, I always did, huh? And you said 'why ever leave? This place is perfect.' " She reminds him of the memory, making me feel a hint of jealousy.

"So, Luca, was it? How did you two meet?" The boy looks at me through his round glasses, that annoyingly suit him.

"Well, she was obsessed with me, couldn't stay away. Of course I didn't mind, I mean look at her." "I laugh. "So I took her on this little road trip down memory lane, showing her landmarks of my child- hood. But I guess, parts of her childhood are here too."  I turn my head to the side.

"Yeah, well after Em decided she was more of a loner, she dumped me." Henry laughs.

"That is not how it happened!" Emily shakes her head whilst defending herself. "I simply dedicated my lunchtime to reading and after that, we grew apart. And then we went to different schools after sixth grade; or that's what I gathered but here you are in the middle of nowhere."

"Yeah, my parents wanted to move to a less populated place. I have to get going I'm meeting someone but it was so good to see you again, Emily. You look really well. And nice meeting you Luca."

I don't reply to his words directed to me, but Emily thanks him and says something along the same lines he did.

Just as he is about to walk out the door and I think I am finally getting rid of him, he turns back around, looking directly at Emily. "Oh and Em?"

"Yeah?" Emily smiles warmly.

"Happy birthday."

With that, he walks out of the bakery door and my head turns to Emily with piercing eyes.

"Birthday?"

"Uh, yeah my birthday is coming up." Her eyes fall to her coffee.

"Coming up? Coming up when?" I question her.

"Tomorrow."

"And you didn't think this was the type of thing I should know?" I raise an eyebrow to her and my jaw clenches automatically. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I'm afraid of you! Your idea of a birthday gift is probably the head of a random person that said hey to me once on a silver plater."

"That's what you think of me? That I wouldn't get you a real gift for your birthday?"

"That is exactly what I think of you." She spits.

I nod at her and finish my meal in silence.

.

Emily is stubborn, if I don't talk to her, she wont talk to me; And I haven't talked to her in over an hour.

her head is stuck in her book and mine is concentrating on the road; with the odd thought of her.

After we finished in the bakery café, we both used the public bathroom and left the small town named Cratbridge. On the way there, we stopped at a gas station. Emily used the toilets whilst I bought necessities such as tooth brushes and toothpaste, water, snacks and gas.

Emily seems to be warming up to me lately, but maybe I just convinced myself as much.

When she gets to chapter seven in her book, I decide its time to speak up.

"I have a surprise for you, a birthday surprise." I wink which makes Emily shiver.

"I'm fine, I don't want your birthday surprise." She doesn't look up at me, instead her eyes stay on the book. Not reading just... staring.

"You don't have a choice. I got the idea when we were sitting in the bakery. I remembered this memory I have of when I-"

She cuts me off sighing. "I don't care!"

I feel a small twitch in my chest when she says this. I cant identify the feeling, but its there. "Oookay." I smile and stop talking.

I wanted to share the memory of me and my grandad visiting Cratbridge when I was staying with him. We went there to buy wood for my 'secret house'. He claimed cratbridge had the best wood in the world and they had to drive almost two hours for it. I didn't see what made cratbridge wood different to every other wood but I didn't oblige considering the small road trip gave me extra comic book reading time; which ten year old me deeply appreciated. Although, when we got there,  the road back had been closed due to 'a flock of sheep blocking it'. So for three days, we stayed in a tent and camped out. We ate food bad for our bodies and grandad told me stories from his childhood, and then his years travelling. We stargazed most of the dark hours too, and we ate at a diner where I got a stack of chocolate pancakes every morning. After the trip, I wanted nothing more to brag to everyone about it. Because even to this very day, when sitting with the woman of my dreams by my side, the short period of time spent in that tent was the best days of my life. I still don't know if there really was a flock of sheep or if he just wanted to camp out with me, afraid I would reject him; Though he didn't know camping was something I had always dreamt of. To my expectations, it was as perfect as I imagined.

I always came back to the memory, but each time I came back to it, I had no one to tell. I guess it is one of those things that will always stay between me and him.