Reaching Emma

34.

I made a lap around the living room with no sign of her. I spotted David and Anna in the kitchen and walked over to them.

"Hey guys, have you seen Emma?" I asked desperately.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Anna replied, sounding annoyed and walking away. I furrowed my eyebrows and looked at David for clarification on what just happened.

He clapped his hand on my shoulder, "Luke, Luke, Luke... uh- Emma left." I jerked my head towards David as he continued, "What were you thinking? Kissing Chloe!?"

"I didn't kiss her! Well, I mean- yes, we did kiss, but I didn't want to. She kissed me and I pulled away." I tried to explain, realizing that I sounded crazy before a realization hit me, "Wait, did Emma see? Is that why she left? No, no, no..." I ran a hand through my hair frantically looking around for her.

"Yeah, she saw you two and looked pretty upset. I think she had Thomas or Noah pick her up." he told me.

"Shit, I have to find her and explain" I rambled, thinking about how to get to her place. I didn't drive here and almost nobody here was sober enough to drive either. I pulled out my phone and called an Uber, which was arriving in two minutes.

"I gotta go, " I told David distractedly.

"Good luck, man. You'll need it" He muttered as I walked towards the front door.

I texted Emma a few times, telling her that I wanted to talk and it wasn't what it looked like, but it didn't even look like she read my messages. My Uber pulled up a minute later and dropped me off at La Modern. The doorman let me up, he had seen me enough times to recognize me, which I was thankful for. I checked my texts again, still left on delivered.

I knocked on the door a few times until Noah popped his head out.

"Hey Luke, what's up?" Noah asked, looking at me with his eyebrows raised, but showing no other emotion.

"Is Emma here? I really need to talk to her" I pleaded.

"Sorry, she's already asleep... " Noah replied, starting to close the door. I could tell that his voice was guarded, of course he knew what happened.

"Please! Please, Noah. I need to talk to her." I begged, stopping the door with my hand.

"I don't know what to tell you, she was tired tonight and I'm not waking her up," he said. I could tell he was annoyed with me, but I didn't care.

"Please, I-" I kept asking, but Noah closed the door on me and I heard the lock click into place. I sighed and slid down the door until I was sitting in their hallway. I put my head in my hands, feeling defeated.

The night was going so perfectly, how could I have ruined everything so quickly. I felt so shitty, I didn't mean to hurt Emma. Even just thinking about hurting Emma made me feel worse than I had since I heard about what Jeremy had done to her. I wiped away a few tears, thinking about what I should do next. Should I stay in the hallways and talk to her in the morning? My parents would kill me if I spent another night away from home, especially with such late notice. So instead, I called an Uber and headed home with plans to return first thing in the morning. I sent Emma a few more texts throughout the night, all left unread. I was up all night tossing and turning, I hoped Emma didn't hate me.

As intended, I drove over to Noah's right after I woke up the next day. I didn't think anything of it until I stepped into the fancy lobby, but I hadn't showered and probably looked incredibly disheveled, but I couldn't care less right now, I just wanted to talk to Emma. I greeted the doorman, but he stopped me from going up this time.