When You Least Expect It

Chapter Five

I hear the front door slam open and shut, footsteps on the stairs, and groan. I know who it is before they even barge into my room.

"Emmaleigh Marie, get up. You are not going to blow me off another damn day. I will not have this, and Shauna would not have this." Jace stomps around my room, throwing curtains open left and right, "it has been six months. Shauna would kick your ass if she were here." I stare at the thread on my blanket, the one she got me. "If she were here, I would not be in this situation," I grumble, to which he yanks the blanket off me and pulls me to my feet, "get. Your. Ass. Up. Take a shower, get dressed, and lets go. Don't make me come back in here." Then he walks out, waits a second, then pokes his head back in, "I'm giving you twenty minutes." He flashes me a goofy grin, then not even thirty seconds later I had the fridge open.

I reluctantly get up, knowing Jace is being serious, and take a shower. He's right, and I know it. Shauna would be furious if she knew that I isolated myself from the world, from my parents. She'd hit me with her astronomy book and tell me I was being ridiculous. That I'll see her again, I just won't recognize her. And she strongly believed that when you die, you just become someone else, you start over. She used to tell me that was the reason for deja vu, and I used to laugh, and tell her she was silly.

I sigh, and blow dry my hair, throwing it up into a messy bun and slip on a pair of sweatpants and Shauna's favorite shirt. As I make my way downstairs, I'm assaulted by the smell of bacon. "Why do you always eat all our food?" I pout, as the rest of the family shuffles downstairs, yawning. All except for mom, who is in her scrubs, ready for work. She glances up from her phone and drops it. I watch it bounce down each step until it hits the hardwood flooring. Then everyone was staring. I don't blame them, I have hardly been out of my room for six months, I have bags under my eyes, and I probably looked sunken in from hardly eating. I muster up a small smile, "hi guys, Jace made me get out of bed." Mom starts crying, and runs to hug me, "oh honey! You look horrible! I'm so glad to see you. I'm so sorry." She wails, until dad puts a hand on her shoulder, "Amberlin, honey, stop before you scare her back into her room and she never comes out." Brayden snickers and I laugh a little bit. Jace hands out plates of bacon, and everyone sits down to eat.

I push the bacon around on my plate, while everyone is waiting for me to take a bite. Eat. I tell myself, just eat. Take a bite, it'll be okay. I sigh and take a small bite.

One bite was all it took. One bite for me to feel sick, one bite for me to feel ravenous. One bite, and I wanted to puke and eat more all at the same time.

I go to stand up, until I feel a light touch on my shoulder, a soft chill goes down my arm, starting at my birthmark. "Eat, Em. Be happy. Please be happy." I look around frantically trying to find where her voice was coming from. "Eat for me. I'm right by you. Always." The soft wind, unnoticeable to everyone else, blows through my hair and tickles my ear. And I ate. Hearing her voice was enough to make the ache dull down just a little bit, even though the ache in my heart, where she belongs still throbs.

"So where are we going?" I whine, struggling to keep up with Jace. He smiles, "school. There's a foreign exchange student, Em. I tried calling you, you never answered. She's amazing! Em, she's my soulmate!" I nod, "Jace, that's great and all, but I don't feel like going to school. I don't feel like walking where she's walked, or sitting where she sat." He scoffs, "stop being so bitter. You have no choice but to be where she's been. She lived here as long as you did."
I guess he's right, but the thought of it still forms a lump in my throat.

School passes by painfully slow, every one state's at me, the girl who lost her soulmate too soon, the one with the dull, sad eyes. The girl no one has seen for six months. "Em, are you listening?" I look up from the table, to realize there's two people standing in front of me, Jace, and some girl. "No, sorry. What?" I say as someone walks by, "It looks like she's on drugs." They glance at me, then giggle. Jace rolls his eyes at the two girls, then slowly, deliberately says, "Emmaleigh, this is Mariana, she's the foreign exchange student I told you about." He gestures towards her like he's performed the greatest magic trick ever. I look at her, and smile back at her, "it's nice to meet you. How are you liking it here?" I ask her, anything to get my mind off of Shauna.

"It's good!" She dives right into a story about when she first arrived and blah blah blah. I feel a light touch on my shoulder, tracing my birthmark, and I shiver. I bolt up out of my chair when I see her. Her smile, her eyes, and then, just like that, she's gone again. Vanished. "Em, are you okay?" Jace asks as my head starts to spin and my breathing becomes shallow. I see him run towards me as my vision blurs, and then goes black.