Love Me Back To Life (Preview)

Face Your Fears

Chapter 9

I roll over, glancing at the time on the clock on my nightstand. I smile, remembering the events of last night. Grace and I ended up in the park. We swung on the swings for a while before we walked down to the wishing well about both tossed in a coin. We didn't have to ask to know what the other wished for.

I close my eyes, taking it all in. I never imagined that I'd come home and bump into a girl as amazing as Grace. She's changing me... bringing me back to life in a sense. I don't think I've smiled, laughed or enjoyed myself this much since the beginning of senior year. My mind instantly taking me back to a place I wish it wouldn't.

--

"I'm dancing like a penguin Kenz look!" George shouts over the music as he opens his stance wide, his feet pointing out and he moves from side to side. He looks ridiculous. McKenzie and I both laugh at him and in his drunken stupor he probably thinks he looks good.

"You're never gonna get a girl dancing like that!" McKenzie shouts. George stops dancing, moving closer to her.

"I don't want a girl, I want you." George slurs his words. McKenzie's breath hitches as my eyes go wide.

"What?" McKenzie seems to sober up a bit to ask.

"I want you McKenzie Diaz. Can't you tell?" George tries to balance himself as he declares his love for the girl he's liked for almost five years. I stand back, watching the scene unfold in front of me. McKenzie looks genuinely dumbfounded. It could be the amount of alcohol she's consumed or she might have really not known. But how could she not know how easy it is to fall in love with her? Her sassiness, her inability to lie to you even if she knows the truth will hurt your feelings, the way she speaks Spanish only when she's upset. There's nothing about McKenzie that isn't loveable.

"George I--"

"Don't you dare tell me don't feel it." I don't know why I'm subjecting myself to this right now. I should just leave. Just walk away. But I can't, something is keeping me rooted in this spot. I watch as George moves closer to her, I know what's about to happen. I know what he's going to do. He's going to kiss her and as much as I want to stop him right now I can't. I can't because she doesn't know. She doesn't know how I feel and that's my fault. But I can't watch this. I need to leave.

As George moves in for the kill I close my eyes, the sharp intake of breath hurting my chest. I can't be here, move Emma. Walk away. Just go! I open my eyes, pulling myself away from them.

"Emma wait!"I think I hear McKenzie shout, but that can't be, because right now her lips are being dominated by a set that aren't mine.

--

I shake my head, forcing the memory to stop. I can't go back there! I just got a little bit better. I bite my lip as I mull over a way to make sure my negative thoughts don't consume me. I reach over to my nightstand grabbing my phone. A small smile appears as the other line picks up.

"Good morning." Grace's voice fills my ears and every bad thought that I had just floats away.

"Morning." I reply as I sit up against my headboard. It's only seven-thirty in the morning but I can tell Grace's been up for some time by the tone of her voice.

"Why are you up so early?" She questions as I hear papers rustling in the background.

"I was gonna go for a run." That's not entirely a lie. Now that I'm up I am gonna go for a run.

"Ah okay, going over hills and over dales, hitting those dusty trails?"

I erupt in laughter and shake my head at the wit on this girl. "Yeah rolling along with those caissons and such."