Reaching Emma

32.

The next few days of winter break were pretty uneventful, especially compared to celebrity parties on the beach. I spent time with my family and a few nights babysitting my sisters, which I didn't mind since we mostly watched TV anyways. 

Chloe suggested that we all meet up for dinner to tell her about our trip so we all planned to go to our favorite diner. Noah couldn't make it, so I offered to drive Emma. Although, I did have an ulterior motive; I got Emma a Christmas gift and wanted to give it to her before the holidays and preferably not in front of all our friends, because I didn't get anything for Anna, Chloe or David. 

I drove to her apartment and glanced at my small gift sitting on the passenger seat. I spent hours trying to figure out what to get her and after some suggestions from my mom and sister, I decided on a silver necklace with a small circular pendant with small diamond flecks. It looked like something I thought that Emma would wear, it wasn't too bright or flashy. I was nervous because the necklace wasn't super expensive or high-end like she was probably used to, but I really hoped that she would like it.

I pulled up in front of her building and could see her waiting in the lobby talking to the older man behind the reception desk. I smiled, she was always so nice and happy to talk to anyone. She waved goodbye to him when she noticed my car outside and came bouncing towards my car. 

"Hi Luke!" she said, opening the car door. I grabbed her present off the seat before she sat down, holding the small wrapped box awkwardly in my hand.

"Hey! Long time no see," I joked because I saw her less than a week ago. "I, uh, got you this, for Christmas." I muttered, handing her the box. She tentatively took the box from my hand and looked up at me before opening it. 

"What? You didn't have to get me anything, Luke!" She said, just a smile was tugging at her mouth. She slowly opened the box and I watched nervously as she ran her fingers over the delicate silver necklace.

"Wow, this is beautiful." she said genuinely while examining the necklace. "Will you help me put it on?" She asked, moving her hair to one side. I nodded and unclasped the necklace, reaching over to place it around her neck. 

She looked down at it and smiled, reaching over to put her and on top of mine, "Thank you, Luke. I love it! I'm sorry I didn't get you anything..."  I was relieved that she liked it and smiled at her reaction. 

"I'm glad you like it! And you don't need to get me anything. You've done so much already, the basketball game and Miami trip were both amazing." I replied, turning my hand over to take hers in mine and intertwining our fingers. I gave her one last smile before starting our drive to the diner. 

After we ordered our food, we told Chloe all about our Florida trip, she was even more upset that she couldn't have come, especially after Anna told her that Shawn Mendes was there. Chloe talked about her visit with her family a bit, but didn't seem to have too much fun with them. 

"Ugh, I'm so bummed that I couldn't make it, but we have to hang out more over break, I'm getting so bored. My family is driving my crazy" Chloe said while munching on her fries. 

"Oh, we should see that new movie with Zac Efron!" Emma suggested. We all knew which movie she was referring to because she's been talking about it nonstop since we all watched the trailer a few weeks ago. We all agreed to see it sometime this week and moved on to talk about what else we wanted to do before classes started again.

"Are you guys planning to go to Andrew's New Year's Eve party?" David asked. Everyone nodded. I was excited, it should be a really fun party. 

The rest of dinner went by quickly, we even stayed for ice cream but had to leave soon after because the restaurant was about to close.