Before It Ends • Hessa • Emery Scott

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I open the window, and wait for him to say something stupid.

"Hi." He greets, and I try not to let out a laughing at his awkward smile.

"Hey, neighbor boy. What are you doing up this late?" I ask, although it's not late at all. It's 10:30. He just looks like the type to go to sleep and wake up at crazy fucking hours. Even though I saw him up last night, I want to tease him a little bit.

I await his reaction, and am disappointed when all he does is shrug, "this is normal for me. What's your name?" I lift my eyebrows at him, surprised that he's getting straight to the point. Maybe he doesn't know I was teasing him?

I laugh a little. "Emery Scott."

"Cole Matthews." He replies, and I smile softly.

"Two first names, huh?"

"Yeah, you too though." He points out and I shake my head.

"Emery isn't a normal name." I look down and wipe some dust from the rim of the window.

"It's not? Isn't it a bird or something?"

"No." I laugh, "It's a rock, and it's a band. Very shitty band if you ask me."

"Oh, alright. Cool." It goes quiet, and I twist my hip like I do when I'm nervous. Not that I'm nervous around him, I just hate awkward silence. The one thing I got from my mom.

"I met your parents today." He speaks up, and I lift my brows at him.

"Yeah? They are a lot to handle."

He nods, "but they were nice. Kind of."

I'm surprised at his add-on. Kind of? Does that mean they weren't nice? "Aww, did my dad intimidate you?" I ask in a teasing baby voice.

He chuckles. Oh, so he can laugh! "No! But he wasn't very nice."

Fuck, I was kidding. But I guess dad wasn't too kind to him. I try to suppress my laugh. "What did he say to you?"

"Well your mom brought up she had a daughter my age," he points to me, "and then to be polite I asked if you were busy, and then he said you were with your boyfriend." He nods, "but he said it so harshly." He then shakes his head, looking down at the grass below his window. We are at least twelve feet off the ground.

"Ahh," I nod, "I don't have a boyfriend."

"Oh..." he trails off and I'm quick to give my reasoning.

"No, but that's because I don't date. So..."

He lifts his eyebrows. "Why is that?"

I shrug, not feeling comfortable talking about anything personal with him. "No reason. I'm going to bed." I say quickly, shutting my window and closing the curtains.

It takes everything in me not to pull the curtains and check if he's still at his window. I don't though. It's better if I listen to my dad. I shouldn't get close to this Cole Matthews. Maybe my dad is right.

I roll my eyes and get back to my book, relieved that my parents have finally quit yapping.

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I wake up bright and early the next morning, aka mom came in and forced me up so I wouldn't be late for stupid fucking high school.

I ate her home made waffles, put on a bunch of makeup to hide my insanely pale— literally ghostly pale— face. And put on my normal black ripped jeans and white tank top, although I have been experiencing with colors lately, I feel like wearing black and white. Fucking sue me, why don't you? I know my mom wanted to. She looked at me with furrowed eyebrows.