strangers // jp [mphfpc]

december 6th, 2015

~ daddy issues - the neighbourhood ~

jacob bent his knees to sit in front of his friend, his long legs touching her hip. jacob stretched his arms out and touched emily's shoulders. 

"emily..." he softly spoke. she raised her head and looked at jacob with puffy eyes. man, why does she look beautiful even when she cries? "emily," jacob whispered, "please don't cry." he pleaded. that only made emily start crying again. jacob sighed and brought his arms around the girl's shaking shoulders.

when her cheek met his shoulder, he could feel through the fabric that her cheek was cold, despite her dripping hot tears. jacob scooped emily in his lap and she grasped onto the boy's jacket, sobbing.

they sat like that for a while, in the middle of the street and held onto each other. jacob had his back and arms bent around emily's shaking body, almost like a protecting armour. but there were a few other things he'd wanted to do to emily then. things that would arouse confusion if without an explanation.

go ahead and cry little girl

nobody does it like you do

i know how much it matters to you

i know that you got daddy issues

when emily's eyes were dry and tired from crying, silence fell. only the distant sound of cars was heard. the teens couldn't even hear their own breaths, they were so quiet.

jacob pulled emily a bit away from him to see if the girl had maybe accidentally fallen asleep. no, her dreamy eyes were open and looking somewhere far in front of her. 

"emily?" jacob whispered and after a few seconds, she looked up at him. "hey, you alright now?"

emily shook her head, letting it fall against jacob's chest.

"i'm sorry for bursting out at you like that." jacob said. "i just... i needed to understand why you "disappeared", i still do. i'm not necessarily angry at you, it's just... it's eating me up."

i tried to write your name in the rain

but the rain never came

so I made with the sun

the shame, always comes at the worst time

ask me what I'm thinking about

i'll tell you that I'm thinking about

whatever you're thinking about

tell me something that I'll forget

and you might have to tell me again

"i'm sorry, too." emily said. "i'm sorry for not responding, i... don't really know what came over me. you're still my friend, jacob, i just... never mind."

"what?" jacob asked. "you just what? is there something wrong?"

"no, it's just..." c'mon, emily, tell him something big. "my parents took my phone away and i didn't know where they hid it and after we had the argument i found my phone while they weren't home and i..."

"shh," jacob said when emily started to sob again and he pulled her close to him. "shh, okay. i understand, emily, it's fine." he said and a few moments later emily calmed down. "thank you for telling me."

emily nodded and smiled at him shyly. "i was just... well i thought maybe you wouldn't count that as a reason to not text you, that maybe you thought that's a stupid reason."

"emily!" jacob laughed. "i could never. i trust you too much, okay? and i totally think that's what your parents would do." emily chuckled. "why did  they take your phone away, tho?"

"well, they found out about that huge money i spent on your birthday present."

"emily, i swear..." jacob sighed, making emily chuckle. "that's what happens when you spend a big amount of money on your best friend's birthday present." 

"yeah but it was worth it, wasn't it?" emily asked. 

"of course!" jacob said after a while and hugged emily tight to his chest with a smile. 

"then it's not a problem." emily said. "jacob?"

"yeah?"

"mom said..." emily started and sighed, remembering about the fight. "mom said that you came by on friday and said something. like, you told them something. did you?"

"yeah, i just told them... you'll have to forgive me about this, but i told them to go easy on you. i told them you feel things."

"if that's what you said then there's nothing to be sorry about." emily said.

"but that was rude of me to do that. i mean, they're your parents and i'm a total stranger  to them. just me saying that was very rude."

"you can apologise to them, not me." emily said. "cause i'm not offended." she looked up at jacob again. "i'm fine. besides, that's what i told them later."

"oh?"

"yeah, that's what the fight was about."

"was i the cause of it?"

"of course not," emily said, "how could you be? you're an innocent boy, portman."

jacob chuckled. "still a stranger, though."

emily laughed at their inside joke and bent down her head. 

"hey stranger?" jacob asked.

"yeah?"

"wanna get some coffee?" 

"of course, i'm always up for coffee."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

yEAH BOY