The Exhibit

Pt 9

"Thank you." She says lightly before leaving.

They eat breakfast together, reminiscing about the night before, minus the kissing part.

"Thank you for having me over, but I should get going. Have some errands I need to run."

...

Emily gets home from running her errands and puts everything away, taking a long hot shower to quell the ache in her head. She wrings the shampoo out of her hair and reaches to pull the hair from her necklace when she realizes it's not there. She sighs, not wanting a reason to go back to his place. As much as she had fun, she needed time to process. But that necklace meant too much for her to leave, so she called Tsukishima after getting out of the shower.

"Hey," she says as he answers, "I left my necklace at your place. Could I swing by and grab it tonight?"

"Sure, you don't need an excuse to come back to see me, you know." He teases.

"I know. I'll swing by around 8ish." 

...

She knocks on the door, trying to avoid acknowledging her growing nervousness.

He opens the door and ushers her in. She awkwardly stands in the living room as he closes the door.

"Do you want some tea?" He could see her thinking, a worried look began to develop on her lovely features.

"No," her voice was soft.

He walks away to the kitchen, Emily takes a seat on the couch, sitting on the edge of the cushion. Shortly he joins her, sitting on the opposite end. A steaming mug in his hand.

The feeling of needing to throw up started to grow, her anxiety multiplying with each passing second of silence. She began to pick at her nails, bouncing her leg to quell those feelings.

He watched her starting to unravel, becoming hesitant to tell her what he knew would shatter her to pieces. However, he made a promise. Something he took seriously.

"Emily," he says, trying to make sure she was ok.

"Mmm?" she hums back, looking in his direction but not at him directly.

"Can I tell you everything? About Bethany."

A lump began to form in her throat, her eyes beginning to burn. She nods, trying to keep the emotions at bay.

He began to tell the story about how he and Kuroo met Bethany at a bar downtown and how the three of them decided to come back to his place and 'get to know eachother better'. That's how he phrased it.

Emily looked down at her hands the entire time he spoke, trying to not imagine the three of them together where she was sitting on his couch.

He continued to speak. He decided to bring her to work to give her a tour of his job and that's when she had helped come up with the idea of this exhibit and how she convinced Kuroo to be in on it as well. He claimed he had no idea that Emily and Bethany worked together and that when he saw her at the hospital that day he knew she wouldn't keep her mouth shut.

Whether or not Emily was listening to his story was hard to tell from his view of her. She couldn't bear to look at him, closing her eyes and placing her head in her hands.

The story kept going. He found out a few days after solidifying the new exhibit that Bethany had started seeing Kuroo and that upset him so he stopped talking to her. That, he knew, was a lie.

He didn't want to admit that she was here only a few days prior, or the fact that Bethany was laying in his bed when he called Emily on that Sunday morning. It wasn't right. Emily had been so honest, and up front with him. She had told him her deepest secret and trusted that he wouldn't hurt her. But now, she was sitting in his living room, listening to the most heartbreaking story there was to tell.

"Do you still see her?" Emily's voice trembled.

In all honesty she didn't want to know, but her heart needed to.

He paused, contemplating his answer. Before he had made his decision she spoke again.

"I see. I should get going, I have to.." she trailed off, not wanting to be there any more. The tears in her eyes had yet to fall. She stood, walking towards the door.

"Emily, wait." He intercepted her, standing between her and her exit. "Can we just talk?" He was tempted to touch her hands or her shoulders, something to get her to look at him. But he couldn't bring himself to. Her deflated demeanor made her look like cracked glass; one touch and she would fall apart.

"I can't do this." she hugged her arms.

"Please Emily." he pleaded, his eyes starting to form tears.

"Kei."

Until now, she hadn't said his name since that night at her apartment. Hearing her say it made a wave of guilt shoot through him. He wanted her to stay, to make it up to her, to promise he would stop seeing Bethany and that they could be together.

"Let me go," her bloodshot eyes finally met him, tears streaming down her face. Her shirt was wet with tears, the makeup on her eyes smudged. The glimmer she had in her green eyes was gone.

In one fell swoop she grabbed her keys, opened the door and left. Leaving Tsukishima standing there, his tears now falling.