Sooner or Later (Feat. 1D and 5SOS)

12. Football and Fangirls

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, the kind of morning where you just wanted to lie in bed and waste the day away. On any other Sunday, Emma would have done just that, but on this Sunday, she had a very important mission: she had to get to the park and find Harry. Her entire life's happiness depended on it.

Now, in order to successfully complete her mission, she needed the perfect partner. After all, she couldn't go to the park alone. Losers went to the park alone. Creepy old men in trench coats went to the park alone. Not Emma Walters. No, she needed a friend.

Michael Clifford was her first choice. She figured he wouldn't have anything better to do since his mother grounded him from all technological entertainment. However, when she called him that morning at ten o'clock, the boy yawned and mumbled, "Fuck off" before hanging up the phone. Apparently, ten o'clock was too early to be waking him up.

Heidi had a similar reaction when Emma called her. Thankfully, she was kind enough to hear her out before rejecting her:

"It's Sunday morning and you wanna go running in the park. Not for extra credit but for fun. God, you're one of those people now? Emma, you hate running. Hell, you hate walking. The only reason you'd ever run is if you were being chased or chasing after ... Wait a second, who's gonna be at the park, Emma? Who are you trying to impress?"

"What? Nobody! I just wanna get some fresh air. Is that so hard to believe?"

"For you, yes. You're a terrible liar."

"Okay, fine," Emma surrendered. "I wanna go to the park because Harry's gonna be there." As soon as those words left her mouth, she braced herself for Heidi's answer.

"I'm hanging up right now."

"Heidi, please!"

"No, Emma, I told you to stay away from him! I'm not gonna help you get your heart broken by Evenwood High's biggest womanizer. You can do that on your own."

"Heidi, please," Emma begged. "You owe me for Friday night."

Silence.

For a second, Emma honestly thought Heidi had hung up on her, but then she heard her friend's muffled voice on the other end. She was murmuring incoherently to herself, as she often did when she was making up her mind about something.

Heidi sighed. "Fine, I'll go."

"Really?" Emma squealed into the phone. "Heidi, you're the best! I'll meet you at noon, okay? Beardsley Park. West side, by that playground we always used to go to when we were little. Sound good?"

"Yeah, whatever."

At ten to twelve, Emma's mother dropped her off at the park. Heidi hadn't yet arrived, so Emma decided to sit on a bench and wait for her. For almost an hour she sat there, watching the kids laugh and play, and then she saw the Hoffmans' car pull into the parking lot.

"What took you so long?" Emma asked as Heidi casually strolled toward her.

"I was finding the right outfit," Heidi answered, her blue eyes glued to the shimmering gold rectangle that she held in her hand. After years of begging, her parents finally caved and bought her a cell phone. "This is seriously the best gift they've ever given me. I don't know how I managed to live without this, Emma. I feel like I can do anything now."

"But it's just a phone ..."

Heidi threw her head back and gave a dry, patronizing laugh. "No, Emma, it's so much more than that. You won't understand until you get one. And you need to get one."

Yeah, that definitely wasn't going to be happening any time soon. Over the summer, Emma had tried to ask her parents for a phone. After clearing the table and washing the dishes, she'd subtly sprinkled the idea into her parents' conversation.