Borderlines

Chapter 1

Everyday was always the same. She awoke at 7 a.m. for her shift at Greg's Grocer's, and on the way there she would hum along to the songs on the radio and bite her nails, forgetting that her New Year's resolution was to get rid of the habit, but it was already February so any changing will have to wait until next year. Zoned out at the stop light and chewing on her nails, a car honks behind her, and she puts her hand back on the steering wheel and watches as the windshield whippers clear the raindrops from her vision.  Emma has always hated the rain. It makes her hair wet and she hates it when her hair gets wet because wet hair makes her hair frizzy, and then Blake and Andrew ask her if she's Merida from Brave.

Emma quickly rushes through the store, passing her boss, Ron, to make it to the bathroom. She looks in the mirror before deciding that her hair doesn't look as terrible as she thought it would. "I'll just rush outside when my shift is through," she thinks to herself, and she leaves the bathroom to begin a long day of scanning groceries and wondering what her future husband is doing today.

****

"I told you not to get a ship as your first tattoo." Emma hears her sister say. She continues walking inside the barely-lit tattoo parlor, and she looks passed the desk and into a dimly lit room, where she sees her brother-in-law lying on chair on his stomach.

"Oh! Emma, you made it!" Her sister Stephanie leaves her husband's side as her boys quickly run to see Emma. "Boys, stop running around. Andrew I told you to be careful. You were being so good just a minute ago."

"What is Daniel doing?" Emma inquires as she kneels down to give her favorite two nephews (her only nephews) hugs.

"He's getting a tattoo like I told him not to do." Stephanie loudly replies, annoyed, as she turns her head to look back at her husband.

"Here's their overnight bag; their toothbrushes and pajamas are crammed in their somewhere," she kneels down just like Emma had done to look at her children,"I want you boys to stay on your best behavior. No ice cream and no staying up past nine." Hugs and kisses are exchanged between Stephanie and her two boys before they leave with Emma. Emma was always having to adjust her life around her sister's, not that she cared too much, but it made her wish she had a life of her own.

She drove back to her apartment to the sound of her nephews' chatter and laughter. She couldn't wait to go home and wash her frizzy hair because then it would mean that her nephews' were in bed and she could finally catch some sleep. She struggled to see as the rain kept pouring. It had poured all day and with each hour it seemed to get worse. Customers had even stayed in the store rather than attempt to make it back to their cars.

Emma quickly hurried her nephew's into the apartment building and up the elevator to the floor she lived onto make it out of the rain. For once, the cramped elevator that smelled like hot glue didn't bother her. She just wanted to be inside where it was warm.

"We had one more floor to go." She thought to herself as the elevator doors dinged, and on came a man, or at least who she thought was a man. Her head was down, so all she saw was the baggy denim pants and the tennis shoes and assumed that the person stepping on was a man.

"Emma? Emma Morley? Is that you?" She lifted her head to see that the person that stepped on was man like she had thought, but that he didn't look familiar at all.

"Yes, that's me. Why do you ask?" She slowly replied, careful not to reveal too much. For all she knew, he could be some kind of a stalker.

"It's me, Ryan, from high school. You probably don't remember. We had English together every year. You were really quiet."

"Oh! Ryan, yeah I remember you." She lied. She honestly didn't know who he was. "How are you?"

"I'm good, I'm good, just heading up to a party. You should come."

"I would," she lied, "but I can't. I have my nephew's with me and this is my floor."

"Ok, cool. We should hang out sometime." Ryan suggested, and then bravely asked for her number, or at least Emma thought it was brave. She never understood how people just boldly ask for something that could result in rejection. "I'll text you tomorrow." He smiled before turning around to go to the party a few doors down, and Emma thought she would never see him again.

3.16.17

The chapters will get longer, I swear. 💗