Teacher's Pet (OUAT)

Chapter Seventeen

Love covers you up in a landslide

Love pulls you under like a riptide

Love's when you crash trying to hang glide

Love's when you run and then there's no light

....

Now, the next task at hand was to get passed her parents' questioning and any risk of them noticing her puffy eyes. Perhaps, if she were to walk slowly enough, the swelling would go down and she could avoid such problems. But, it was just her luck that she could feel the familiar pull on her eyes with a blur in her vision.

Just walk quickly, she advised herself, walking as fast as her legs could carry her. The happenings of tonight were all too much for the blonde. Her idiocy and Killian's persistence were enough to tip her over the edge and hurt not just one, but two, people in the process. Why did she ever allow him the satisfaction of believing that he had won her over? And why hadn't he accepted what she had said?

Was he really just so dense, or did he not believe her?

Whatever the reason for his actions, Emma could not forgive him. Those very actions had hurt the person that the blonde had cared for the most and, worst yet, resulted in something that may never be fixed.

But maybe that was just Emma's overemotional mind speaking at the moment. All Regina needed was time.

But, oh god, time seemed to be agonizing to think of. Emma wasn't even able to talk to the brunette, let alone see her, before Regina's disappearance. That made her heart just ache and squeeze in her chest so painfully. It was like a thousand needles pressing into her, pinning her to the harsh realities of life and the true meaning of heartbreak.

It hadn't even been an hour since, but that was enough to feel like a lifetime. It was enough to bring the blonde's entire world around her, crashing, breaking at her feet. Short memories clouding her mind, both significant and not, playing on repeat. Each a turning point in their relationship, that Emma had dubbed to be rather major.

Meeting Regina was the first. Then their first lunch. Their first real talk. The first time that Regina had brought Emma home, and the events beforehand in the diner. Their first kiss, that special night in the Mercedes, parked in front of her apartment. The first time she had ever gone to Regina's, and their first date there. And then the trip to Boston and every special event that happened there; their first time being the one that stuck in Emma's head the longest.

Especially when they first said-

"Honey, what's wrong? You look like you've been crying." Mary Margaret's voice pulled Emma from her thoughts. The blonde hadn't even realized that she had made her way upstairs and into the apartment until she took a good look around. It was like she hadn't noticed that she had stopped crying, and a while ago, too, telling by the dried tears on her face. It wasn't like she had cared, anyways.

"I'm fine." Emma shrugged and tried to push passed her adoptive mother. She could feel the urge to break down and cry rising with every breath. It always seemed to happen when she had such an emotional thought on the brain while others were talking to her. Usually it was only with Mary Margaret or David. It must have been that internal urge to confide and get comforted by someone close to her.

"You aren't fine. Something's wrong. Please, Emma." The pixie-haired woman pleaded, but it was David who had pulled her back, letting the blonde escape towards the kitchen.

Emma tried her best to keep from any eye contact with the two of them as she shuffled through the fridge and pulled out a small container of kumquats before running off upstairs. As she ascended each step, she could hear the two of them urgently talking to one another- no doubt about her questionable state.