Bumps In The Road / Paul Lahote

3. Catch Ups

"A little! It sounded like Embry finally get himself some late night action" Jared responded, sending Embry a wink.

"What?" Emily exclaimed, stopping her mixing to stare wide eyed at Embry. Sam frowned at Embry too. I suddenly feel a bad vibe come from Embry and I snapped my eyes in his direction. I watched as Embry took a step forward and swung his arm, making contact with Jared's face. It felt like slow motion in the moment and then everything went back to normal. Emily and I gasped.

"Shut up, dude! Nothing happened!" Embry raised his hands into surrender. Sam and Emily's eyes switched to me.

"Wow, nothing was it." I turned my eyes to Jared to send him a wink, holding back the grin as Emily's eyes widened further.

"What the hell! Embry!" Embry's eyes widened as he looked down at me speechless.

"K—Kira!" Jared and I finally released the laughter that we were trying so desperately to hold back and fell into a fit of laughter. We both received unamused expressions from Sam and Emily.

"We're joking!"

"This is why I'm not letting you two be friends" Embry huffed. Our laughter died off, when I felt my phone ping with a notification. I pulled the phone from my pocket to read the text.

Hope your feeling better.

I smiled at the message from Jacob. After a moment, I replied to the message to let him know I'd see him tomorrow in class.

"I thought we'd decided not to talk to him?" Embry whispered from over my shoulder. I slightly jumped, not realising that he'd taken a peak.

"That decision wasn't unanimous" I reminded him, turning slightly to face him.

"He doesn't like us."

"Well, I'm not you," I sent him a pointed look. "Also, it's rude to look over people's shoulder, buddy."

...

I walked into the computing classroom, the day that followed the Paul debacle, and found a seat beside Jacob, who had perked up the moment I'd stepped into the room. Even though I'd only been absent a day, I'd noticed a physical change in Jacob from when I'd seen him last. To the naked eye, most of his peers wouldn't spot a different, but my more inquisitive eyes picked up the slight stretch in his top, as if he'd woken up bulkier. There was also slightly different about the energy that he gave off, it wasn't noticeable enough that I could put my finger on though. I frowned, wondering if I was just over-speculating. Before it gave me a headache, I pushed the drifting thoughts to the back of my mind and sat down beside him, offering a smile.

"Hey, you okay?" I asked, watching, as he relaxed slightly in his seat.

"Hey, yeah, I'm good. Are you alright?" Jacob wondered, his brows pulling confusion. I nodded.