30 Days To Fall In Love

Day Nineteen - Emma

***Emma***

“Emma!”

Oh my God. It was him - it was Jake. How did he recognise me? I started to back away in panic. I hadn’t been expecting this. Yes, I wanted to see him...but now?

I turned and bolted, running in the complete opposite direction to my ‘home’. The pavement stuck to my shoes and my lace untied so that I stumbled and fell. A huge gash cut open on my knee. Desperately, I tried to hobble away, but it was no good. Jake’s legs were twice as long as mine and he was already knelt beside me.

“I can’t believe it’s you,” he said, shaking his head in amazement.

“Yeah, well,” I shrugged.

I looked at him for a while, taking in his every feature and trying to memorise it. I missed him, but I didn’t even know him. I wanted to say I didn’t love Darren but no words could come out of my mouth.

“You look different,” he commented, taking a strand of my now black hair and tucking it behind my ear.

“I look awful,” I corrected him.

“Not possible,” he said. My heart slid down to my stomach and somersaulted.

“I’m...I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean any of it - I didn’t love Darren. I-” I stopped. Did I love Jake? Raven thought so, but how could she be so sure?

He nodded, crawling closer to me and letting his lips touch mine. It was just for an instant, but it felt like an eternity. A beautiful eternity. The sort of moment you’d be okay with living forever. Everything was perfect. The sun glowed blood orange in the distance, hiding behind a hill as it drifted to sleep. Jake’s fingers grazed my cheek, their touch like electricity. My eyelids fluttered close, lips tingling, heart racing.

“I’m sorry...” I said again as we parted.

He shook his head, “It doesn’t matter.” Something flickered behind his eyes - guilt? But it was gone before I could understand.

“I wanted to go back as soon as I left...But I’ve been with these people, these amazing people! I couldn’t leave them! They’re wonderful and they’ve looked after me so well. And I can’t go back to Mum and Dad. I certainly can’t go back to Darren. Even if I found somewhere to live, I’d never cope at school. I’m on the news! Look at my face on every lamppost!” I cried.

Jake bit his lip, “That was Darren’s idea.”

“Darren?” I gasped. Why would Darren do something like this?

“Yep! Darren. Anna and I helped too. We’ve all formed a sort of alliance,” Jake laughed.

“But my parents...Why were they crying on the news like they cared? Didn’t you tell the police that they kicked me out to start with?” I said sounding much angrier than I’d intended. In fact, I was only worried that now that Jake had found me I’d have to go rushing back to their loving embraces and be featured on more newspapers, forever tortured by one mistake.

“I told them,” Jake said.

“It’s nice to see you,” I told him, because it was - so nice, more than that. I wanted to lean in and kiss him again and run off into the sunset with him. But this was no fairytale.

“What are you going to do now, Emma?” he asked me. “Why were you here? You don’t look like someone who wants to go home.”

I ran my hands through my hair, “I don’t know...”

“So are you going to come back with me?” he asked.

“I don’t know. I didn’t think-”

“You’re not going to stay out here are you?” he asked with wide eyes.