Before It Ends • Hessa • Emery Scott

ᠻⅈꪜꫀ

"That's cool. Is she busy right now?" He asks, and I'm about to answer no but Hardin interrupts.

"Yes." He says rather harshly, and it takes everything inside me not to yell at him in front of them for lying. "She's with her boyfriend."

Ha, clever Scott. Making him think she's taken. This reminds me of when guys would speak to me. "Cool." He nods rather awkwardly. "Hey mom, I'm going to go back downstairs..." he trails off, turning and shutting the basement door behind him.

I try my best to smile without showing my awkward nerves. Hardin just leans back in his seat, obviously angry about something. He should lighten up! I only made a friendly suggestion, and he seemed like a good enough kid anyways.

"Well, I think we should go. Thank you for being so kind and welcoming, and I hope you enjoy your cookies!" I say, standing up. Hardin immediately stands beside me, already heading for the front door.

"No, thank you for being so welcoming! We'll have to get together sometime and hang out a bit." Kelly smiles and I nod my head.

"That would be great!" I say. I twist around to find Hardin waiting impatiently by the door. "Hardin..." I trail off.

"Bye." He waves, a small decent smile on his face. I say my goodbyes too, and we part ways back to our house just beside theirs.

It's silent as we approach our house's driveway, and as I turn to go towards the door Hardin grabs my wrist and pushes on walking down the street. "Hardin..."

"We need to talk." He says roughly, and I roll my eyes at his attempt to be stern.

"Okay, then talk. Why are you so mad right now?" I ask him, walking quickly to catch up with his angry fast pace.

"Why am I mad? You know exactly why I'm fucking mad!"

"I do not know why, Hardin. I don't know your every thought!" He stops abruptly, twisting himself around to face me as he points at me.

"I don't want Emery around that fucking kid!" He shouts, and I roll my eyes. I've already been through so many fights with him, and this is nothing compared to how it used to be.

"Why?"

"Because I don't! I know how guys are, and he will only use her to fuck her. It's better if they just don't even meet."

"Oh so you're going to keep her away from every guy then?"

"As much as I can. Plus, he's way too close to her. If they do become friends do you want her going over there and hanging out in the fucking basement with him?" He begins walking again, waiting for an answer.

"I don't know. At least we'll know where she is." My voice is very calm compared to his. His tone isn't angry like it normally is when we fight. At least, it's not directed towards me.

"No! Fuck no, Tessa! Even after all these years, you're still so naive!" Oh, there's the angry tone... "He could hurt her, Tessa. He could take advantage of her. I'm not allowing it."

"How do you know he will if you don't know him?" I raise my voice.

"I know him enough." He shakes his head and I can tell he's getting tired of arguing about this.

"You can't expect him to be like you, Hardin. What if he's nice, and isn't sex crazed like you think?" I ask calmer and he shakes his head, he stops and looks at me with his furious eyes.

"That's the thing, Theresa. All guys are fucking sex crazed. I've known enough of them to know." He says calmly, suspiciously calm... and he quickly begins back towards the house, letting me know he's done talking. And honestly, I'm afraid to say anything else. He hasn't called me Theresa in a very long time. He only calls me that if he's either angry or teasing me, and I know he isn't teasing me.

I sigh, slowly making my way back to the house, making sure I'm at least 10 feet away from him.

When I get back to the house, Hardin is no where in sight, but Emery is eating a cookie while she scrolls through her phone. I guess Hardin gave her phone back. She must be finished with her chores. "Hey, Em. Where's your brother?"

"He's upstairs. Dad just went upstairs to help him with homework." she says through bites, and I nod.

"Oh..." I bite my lip, looking around the room. "Do you have anything planned tonight?"

Emery rolls her eyes, "why?" She questions and I shrug. I never know where she goes, but she seems to be staying inside tonight. It's 6:30, and she usually is already out the door by now.

"I don't know. Maybe we could have a family game night?" I ask timidly. I'm treading lightly on thin ice. One wrong word and she'll be storming upstairs.

"Maybe..." she shrugs, and I silently cheer.

"Tomorrow is Monday. Are you ready for school?" I ask, and she sighs.

"Yeah, mom." She says impatiently and that's my time to stop talking. I slowly walk over and sit on the couch, sifting through the tv channels.

◉‿◉

𝙰𝚞𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚛'𝚜 𝙽𝚘𝚝𝚎

   I didn't really like the dialogue in this chapter... I might go through and fix a bit in the future.

   I am posting book characters right after this. If you don't know, Cole is going to be a main in this book.

Chapter five: sept. 27, 2020