Reaching Emma

41.

Emma had already left for brunch by the time Chloe and I went downstairs the next morning. We plopped down on the couch, joining Anna and David.

"Is Noah still asleep?" I was surprised, he seemed like an early riser. In Miami, he was usually up first making breakfast. 

"I think he went to breakfast with Emma's family" David replied absentmindedly flipping through channels on the TV. Jessica made us breakfast; we didn't even realize that she was making it until she came to tell us that everything was ready, but we weren't complaining. She was an incredible cook. 

I had just finished eating when we heard the front door open. We all stood up and cautiously walked towards the entranceway in anticipation of meeting Emma's elusive parents. They were all laughing at something Noah had said as they came inside. 

"Ah Emma, are these your friends that I've heard so much about?" her mother exclaimed, walking towards us.

"Uh yeah. Mom, dad, this is Anna, Chloe, David and Luke" Emma said introducing us as we shook hands with her parents. Her parents were not at all what I was expecting. I imagined that they were more neglectful and careless of Emma with how little I've seen of them since I've known Emma, but then again, she once told me that her parents had to take a lot of time off work last year after Emma's incident and had to make up for it now. We all sat down in the living room and talked for a while before our flight. Emma's parents were really nice and fun; they were very similar to her.

After about an hour, we realized that we needed to head out to make our flight back to Wisconsin. I helped pack our bags in the car and said goodbye to Emma's parents. 

We were all just about ready to go when I noticed Emma lingering behind. She hadn't said anything since we got outside. Her parents turned to her, she was the only one they hadn't said goodbye to. She slowly stepped towards them and wrapped her arms around them in a big hug. I could hear Emma sobbing and watched as they talked quietly. It felt personal, so I nudged the rest of our group to get into the car and give them a moment of privacy. 

After a few minutes, Emma joined us in the car, her tear-stained face was red and her eyes puffy as tears continued to fall down her cheeks. I wanted so badly to put my arms around her, but Noah was there for her instead. We waved to her parents as our car drove towards the airport.

I sat next to Chloe on the flight home. She watched downloaded Netflix shows on her phone most of the way and I fell asleep almost immediately. Staying up almost all night had finally caught up with me.

"Lukeie... Luke?" I vaguely heard and felt nudging against my side. When I opened my eyes and saw Chloe looking back at me. I rubbed my face and looked around feeling confused, for a second I forgot that where I was. I blinked a few more times and noticed everyone around us was packing up and leaving the plane.

"Come on, Luke," Chloe urged as she picked up her stuff. I quickly grabbed my bag and followed her off the plane, still feeling a little disoriented. 

Thomas was waiting for us outside and the ride back to our houses was pretty quiet, everyone seemed pretty tired from our trip. I was happy that I got most of my homework done before our trip because I did not want to work on it tonight.

"Hello, I'm home!" I yelled while hauling my bag into my house and closing the front door.

"Hey sweetie! How was your trip?" My mom asked, greeting me as I walked into the living room. I plopped down on the couch next to her, still feeling tired after a long weekend of traveling.

"It was really fun! But I'm exhausted now" I replied, yawning. My parents had a ton more questions and we spent a few more hours talking about my trip before I headed upstairs to my room. I turned on the TV, but fell asleep almost immediately.

Even though I went to bed early, I was still tired the next day at school. I kept yawning in class and didn't fully wake up until after lunch. I had a few group projects in my classes, which made my day go by relatively quickly at least. 

We had a lab in Chemistry so Emma and I were busy most of the hours. She was relatively quiet as we worked on our lab assignment. I mixed two solutions together the swirled them around in the test tube while Emma read over the next steps. She glanced up at the mixture I was holding and furrowed her eyebrows together.

"What color would you call this?" She asked, still starting at the liquid in the test tube.

"Bluish green?" I replied. Emma nodded in agreement and wrote our observation down in her lab book.

"The trip was really fun, by the way" I said as Emma finished writing.

"Yeah, it was a great weekend" she replied. "Um, so next we have to test the acidity of the new mixture." Emma reported, after reading the next step on the instruction sheet. 

I nodded and got up to get the acid testing sheets from the back of the room.

"So how's basketball going?" She asked when I sat back down.

"It's actually going really well. David's really whipping us all in shape. The team's gotten really good and I think we have a real shot of going to the state championship this year." I replied.

"Wow, that's awesome! When do you find out if you are going to state?" She asked, looking genuinely interested.

"We just need to win the game this Friday to qualify and then the championship game is in a few weeks."

"That's exciting! Good luck this week" She said turning back to her lab notebook and recording the acidity level from the paper that I had just tested. We were able to finish our lab just as the bell rang.

"Have a good practice, Luke" Emma commented as she walked towards her locker. I said a quick goodbye before heading to my locker to grab my basketball bag. 

I walked towards Chloe's locker to talk to her before practice started, but didn't see her there. I stopped and looked around the hall, I saw her talking to Andrew at his locker a few feet away. I didn't feel like interrupting their conversation so I just decided to head to practice early.