How To Be Intrepid

m a h a l o ☾

"Here's your chance." Claire pats his arm reassuringly before jogging to meet the others, her bag making various noises as she goes.

After stalling for a few minutes by drinking an entire water bottle from his pack and wiping the sweat from his face with a towel he brought along, Emerson moves slowly towards the blonde currently being bothered by Alex and his antics. Looking over at Claire, he begs with his eyes not to make him do this but the hardness in her own is a clear demand: do it now or else.

Releasing a large breath, Emerson stands before Rosalind and Alex, coming in on the tail end of a conversation.

"Wow that's a uh...very interesting, Alex. Who knew someone could do that many reps in one sitting? One could even think it humanly impossible." Her sarcastic tone practically flies over Alex's head, his smile widening, while Emerson does his best not to laugh.

Alex opens his mouth to say something else but Rosalind holds up a single finger, "I believe Emerson wants to speak to me so maybe we could pick this up later?"

Looking between the two of them, Alex gives Emerson a subtle jealous glare before nodding and walking off to talk with his brother.

She faces him with an expectant smile, "Yes?"

Emerson's jaw ticks as he observes Rosalind's calm expression before she crosses her arms, her light hair now pulled up into a bun, strands of shorter hair surrounding her face. "Well..." He begins, doing his best to swallow his pride.

"Stop." She sighs, his brows furrowing in confusion, "Look...I now understand why you were asking me those questions and I realize that, as a professional, I should have simply answered them and held no offense. I can now see that you meant no offense is what I'm trying to say." Emerson can tell that this was as painful for her to say as it was for him to walk over there.

Pressing his lips together, he rocks back on his heels and nods once, "Thank you for recognizing that."

She blinks at him, her blue eyes narrowing, "Is that all you have to say?"

"I mean I was going to come over and say that - "

"Excuse me, I need to borrow Emerson for a second."

"Alex, I have to - "

"No, you really don't. We'll be back." Alex smiles widely at Rosalind, her eyes rolling as he drags Emerson away by the arm.

"Dude, what the heck! I was supposed to - "

"I call dibs." Alex cocks his chin, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Would you please stop interrupting me!" Emerson exclaims, looking over at Rosalind who is now occupied with the laces of her boots, looking extremely perturbed, "Whatever, I tried." He mumbles before looking back to his friend with an unamused expression, "Why exactly did you feel the need to drag me over here just to call dibs? You couldn't wait two more seconds?"

"Two seconds is too long. You know the rule of dibs, Emerson."

"Yeah." He rolls his eyes in reply, "You get first try at her but you're missing the fact that I don't want anything to do with her." He expresses in frustration, "I was just trying to apologize."