Written In The Stars

Chapter Thirty-Six

Another chapter!  I'm actually amazed by how much I'm posting. I'd say this is just a filler chapter but it has Emerson's POV  in so enjoy!

-lotte

"Ardella, you get back here right now!" My mother's screams fade out from my ears as I keep climbing the stairs, one foot after another, faster and faster, until I'm storming through the hallways towards my room.

She follows behind me but I'm too fast. I'm too fast when I barge through my wardrobe with my suitcase on the bed, too fast when I grab whatever clothes I can see off there hangovers, too fast when I'm cramming them all into the suitcase, along with the few photo frames I kept on my bedside table. And I'm too fast for her to stop me.

"What? Do you think you can just pack a bag and run away from home? Stop with this nonsense," I hear her scowl even though I'm too focused on collecting everything that ever had some value in my life so I can take it with me. But then something inside of me is snapping. I'm like a creaky floorboard that someone keeps on jumping on top of. I'm slowly breaking, and I'm crying out.

"Home? You call this a home. It's a fucking nutshell! I can't stay here. It's driving me to the brink of insanity." Where did I put my bracelet? I need my bracelet.

"It's over now. It happened. And we're all heartbroken for-"

"Don't you dare. Don't you dare say that," I warn her in the most daring voice I can muster, pinning my mother down with a glare for the first time in my entire life.

"Heartbroken? You wanted it! You wanted this to all be over and for things to go back to how they once were. I disgraced you. You fucking wanted this so don't you dare look me in the eyes and try and sympathise with me." The first tear flies free and I know in just a few moments I won't be able to control the rest.

"He isn't good for you! You were ruining your life with him!" And now she's screaming, we're both screaming, and the rain is coming down outside so heavy it's rattling the roof of the house, but I'd rather be outside in it than in here.

"I love him! I love him and you've ruined that. You ruin everything. Why do you ruin everything?" The first sob. The first cry of pain that I've shed since three days ago. I finally let out every emotion I've been harbouring in side my head for three days, but she still doesn't understand. And then she asks me a question in the most stone cold voice I'd ever heard from my mother.

"Where do even plan on going?"

"Ardella?"

"Mom." I said, frowning. Dad was further back where the mini bar stood, sipping whiskey neat as he avoided my eyes. I knew he didn't want to be involved with whatever confrontation was about to go down. He looked well, crisp suit as always, and the stress lines that he'd once had failed to show up on his face. I wondered if it was because I was no longer in his life. I'd eliminated myself and thus eliminated the stress.

And Polly? She'd changed her hair since the last time I saw her. Blonde highlights had turned to caramel, four inch heels turned to eight and I wondered if she had changed just as much as her appearance. But a smug smile supporting her lips gave me the answer I was looking for.

I couldn't help but notice how close she was to Emerson, barely two feet away.

"What are you doing here?" I couldn't help but ask, and it wasn't in a way that sounded like I was happy with the surprise. The defensiveness was clear in my voice. There was no mistaking that I still despise my mother.

She smiled. That condescending smile that told you she was in more than smug about this. I could tell she was rolling in delight at the thought of ruining my night. "Haven't you heard? The family's reuniting."

EMERSON

I wanted to take her away from all of this. I wanted to take her away so I didn't have to see the deadness in her eyes, so I didn't have to watch her hands tremble as she stared at the people who were supposed to love her unconditionally. I didn't know why, and I didn't know when it had happened, but I knew they had to have done something fucked up to make Ardella cast them out of her life.

But I didn't ask. I didn't take her away like my arms were telling me to do. I just stood there, a champagne glass in my hand whilst I watched her fall apart. I knew her and I knew that right in that moment, her brain was cloudy with so many questions, and the smoke must have been blinding her. Why are they here? Why is Emerson here?

Why was I here? Not because Darlene, Ardella's grandmother, had contacted me out of the blue yesterday noon and invited me to spend dinner with them. Apparently Ardella had filled them in on our little reunion a couple months back. Of course I'd accepted. Darlene had been the most sweetest women back when Ardella and I were teenagers. She had been the one to snap me out of whatever funk I was in and head straight for the stars. The stars had been Ardella.

I thought it would be nice to have a catch up with them. I hadn't seen them since the split, back when I was eighteen. But deep down I knew that wasn't the only reason I was attending. Not just for some overdue catch up, but so I could see her again. It seemed like five days a week just wasn't enough for me. I craved more of her presence and I hated myself for that.

I had thought Ardella had known that I would be attending, but clearly she hadn't.

"Ardella? Sweetie?" A soft voice perked up over the tension that surrounded us all, a frail hand resting on Ardella's bare shoulder. Darlene. She had worry written all over her eyes and I knew immediately what Ardella was going to do to. She was selfless that way.

A forced smile lifted up on her lips as she met her grandmother's eyes, trying to pretend that her family's presence wasn't bothering her as she wrapped her arms around her. "Gran, grandpa, I missed you." When I heard the crack in her voice, I knew it had been a while since she'd seen them.

"We missed you too, sweetie. In fact we missed all of you, so I thought why not have the whole family around?" Ardella nodded despite the look in her eyes that told me she wanted to protest. I know she didn't want to ruin the evening for her grandparents.

Her eyes met mine for a split second before she returned them to Darlene, her voice hushed but from where I stood, I could just about make out my name. "Emerson?"

"I figured it would be a nice catch up." Despite the fact that Darlene was facing almost all the way away from me, I still caught the mischievous glint in her eyes as she smiled at Ardella, almost as though she had a secret that only she knew.

"Shall we eat?"

Everyone perked up as though they'd never been so thrilled to escape a tension just like that one, entering the dining room one after the other. I stayed behind until last, although Polly had been insistent on me sitting next to her, I'd told her to save me a seat, begrudgingly.

And then there were two of us in the foyer. Just me and her. And neither of us spoke until the silence became too long for any of us to bear. She was the first to break it. "What are you doing here?"

It wasn't thrown at me aggressively like I feared she would of done, if anything she sounded relieved that I was here. She clearly didn't want to face her parents alone.

"Gran invited me."

"Did you know my mom was going to be here?"

"No."

She sighed, nodding her head as she stared on at the opened doors to the dining room, knowing that a riot was brewing in the atmosphere. "This dinner isn't going to be pretty. I'm giving you a free pass to leave. I'll tell my gran you weren't feeling too good or something."

"Have I ever left your side throughout all the unpretty things?" I'd have liked to say I hadn't, but the look of brief hesitation passed over her face and suddenly I was second guessing myself, but I ignored it. Even when I knew I shouldn't have.

"I'll apologise in advance then."

I gestured my arm outwards, preparing myself for whatever disaster awaited us inside that room. All I knew was that I wanted to be by her said when it all went down. Something about not being there didn't feel right. "After you."