Chapter 1- Aren't You Going to Apologize?
Emma's Point of View
The way you move is like a full-on rainstorm
And I'm a house of cards
You're the kind of reckless that should send me
“Emma Jacobs!”
I let out a short gasp as I look up from my iPod. “Wha?” I mumble softly before I notice that my English teacher, Ms. Thompson, is glooming over my desk with an angry frown on her face.
“No listening to music in my class,” She scowls, gesturing to the ear bud that she had just pulled out of my ear and rudely interrupted Taylor Swift’s voice of magic. “You know the rules, Miss Jacobs.”
I send her a sheepish and what I hope looks like an apologetic smile. “Sorry.” I squeak, realizing that everybody in the classroom is looking at me now, and I sit in the back of the room, so it’s kind of really embarrassing. It’s not like people haven’t gotten caught with their headphones in before, I don’t know what the big deal is. I also don’t know how she caught me, since today we are reading independently from The Great Gatsby, and I already read it so I don’t see the reason for reading it again for Ms. Thompson’s benefit.
She gives me one last dirty look before moving back to the front of the class room where her desk is while I pause my music from my phone and stuff my ear buds back into my pocket as my best friend, Claire, sends me a teasing ‘you got in trouble’ smirk that I stick my tongue out at. She’s gotten in trouble way more than me this year, so I don’t know why she’s being all smirky.
Soon, the bell rings and I’m free from Ms. Thompson’s wrath. I don’t like that woman.
“I can’t believe you got in trouble.” Claire snickers as we walk side by side down the hallway towards lunch. Finally, food. We have lunch sixth period, the last period of lunch of the day, and it’s agonizing to a food enthusiast like myself. Not only do we have to wait until 1 p.m. to get lunch, but we get the left-overs from the other three periods of lunch. It’s cold most of the time and it’s just no fun to have cold pizza after starving for most of the day.
“I know!” I wail. “I’m a good kid; she’s just a cranky old lady.”
“Ms. Thompson isn’t old.” Claire points out. “She’s young and she’s actually really pretty.”
“It’s to hide her bitchiness.” I tell her matter of factly. It probably is true, too. Ms. Thompson was one of the youngest teachers in the building, yet she was also one of the meanest, which makes no sense. Everybody knows that young teachers are supposed to be the nice ones. She’s breaking a very strict cycle of tradition and that’s just not cool.
“Yep, that’s it.” Claire agrees sarcastically. “It couldn’t be that you were actually caught doing something wrong or anything crazy like that.”
“I already read the book!” I claim. “I don’t need to read it again, I know how it ends and everything. She’s just a stupid person.”
“What’s up with the frown, baby face?” Mason’s voice breaks into the conversation on our way across the school to the cafeteria. Mason’s another one of my close friends, even though he insists on calling me baby face which makes no sense to me. I think he does it just to get on my nerves, and most of the time, it works.
“She got yelled at by Ms. Thompson.” Claire sings teasingly as she scoots over to the left to allow Mason to squeeze in between us as we walk through the throngs of busily rushing students on their way to their sixth period classes.
“Everybody gets yelled at by Ms. Thompson, she’s mean.” Mason points out, defending me.
“Thank you!” I cheer, sending an ‘I told you so’ glare towards Claire while she’s spinning an auburn curl around one of her fingers carelessly. I swear, my best friend is the definition of perfection, looks and personality wise. I think being friends with her is seriously terrible for my ego. She has bright red (yet, totally natural) hair that fluffs out into curls framing her face and down her back. She resembles Merida from Brave, in my opinion. She has bright green eyes that could kill a person if she’s angry at you, but are so easy to fall in love with, and many guys have. She had a thin figure, thanks to her heavy duty varsity cheer practice schedule and not to mention her 4.3 GPA. See? I told you, she’s perfect. She wanted me to join cheerleading with her, but I’ve heard enough horror stories about the jocks via my older brother to drive me away from that department. I mean, the cheerleaders and football players aren’t like what Mikey said that they were like at his high school, but I’m traumatized just hearing his terrible stories.
“Okay, whatever.” Claire mumbles, clearly understanding that she’d lost this round. “Anyway, why are you walking with us? Don’t you sit with your girly friend for lunch?”
Mason nods. “Yes, but Jen is sick today, so I’m eating with you guys.” Jen is obviously Mason’s girlfriend. They’ve been dating since like, the first month of school and it’s now December, so you do the math. I think they’re a really cute couple and Jen is nice. I don’t really associate with her too much, but the few times that I do talk to her, she’s been nice, and she’s really pretty.
“So we’re your backup plan?” I tease.
Again, he nods. “Exactly.”
“Well then, who said that we want you to sit with us?” Claire questions with raised eyebrows. “I am not a backup plan, thank you very much.”
“Yeah, we replaced you.” I lie. “So there’s actually no room for you.”
“And you’re a terrible liar.” Mason laughs right as he swings open the clear door to the cafeteria. I don’t know why the cafeteria has walls anyway, since they’re just made of glass windows. You can see through them clearly, and the doors are windows too, so it’s really pointless to have walls if you can see right through them. Sometimes, people call it The Bubble, because it’s like a bubble in the middle of the school.
“Okay, that’s true.” I sigh, walking towards the like with my two friends. “But I think that Harper really misses you, so maybe you can stay for more than a day or two.”
“Harper will get over it.” Mason shrugs.
“Oh!” Claire exclaims as we walk far enough up the line for food so that we can see what’s for lunch today. “We get mozzarella sticks today!” We high five in much excitement and grab our trays. I know that people say that school lunch is gross, and most of the time it is, I’ll give them that. However, our school really knows their stuff when it comes to mozzarella sticks, because they’re the best things ever.
“You guys are really weird.” Mason mumbles, picking up a hamburger and an apple, along with a tray of fries.
“Cheese sticks and fries?” I yelp in pure obese excitement. I’m not fat, and obviously, Claire isn’t either, but I have no idea why not, because we seriously eat like diabetic whales, all the time. Sure, Claire’s a cheerleader, but I’m just as lazy as a whale too, but hey- I’m not complaining. “Double whammy!” I exclaim, high fiving Claire again in a very manly way.
“Dude, whammies are bad.” Mason points out as he pays for his lunch.
I grab my cheese sticks and fries and then get a water and a chocolate chip muffin, which is overly sized and just the best baked good I’ve ever had save for Caroline’s cupcakes. Once I pay for my food, I wait outside of the lunch line with Mason until Claire pays for hers and then we’re off to sit at our table with the rest of our friends.
“Shut up and stop being technical.” Claire tells Mason, causing me to laugh and then slide into my chair between Claire and Harper, another one of my close friends. Across from me, sat Melody and then beside her, her boyfriend, Luke.
“What are you doing here?” Harper asks Mason when she sees him sit down beside Luke, who seems happy to see him, since Luke has been the only guy at our table for a while now, and I think it’s starting to get to him. Last week, he used the word ‘totally’ like, ten times. We’ve warned Mel that he may be turning gay, but she won’t listen to us.
“We’re his backup for today.” I sigh, zoning out the conversation that no doubt turned into a debate on whether we were his backup friends and why we should let him sit with us. Even before Mason got his girlfriend, Harper and him never really got along, they used to fight a lot. Now that he’s gone most of the time, the fighting has decreased, but I could sense the fire starting already, and it was going to be a long lunch.
“Did you hear about Jace Parker?” Mel asks me with a harsh kick under the table to get my attention, as she was also ignoring the two arguing people sitting at the table with us.
Just the mention of that name brings our table to a complete silence with all eyes on Mel. “Jace Parker?” Claire echoes, now hungry for the new gossip just as hungry as I was for my cheese sticks- and that’s saying something. “What about Jace Parker?”
“I heard,” Mel begins in a hushed whisper as I try to ignore her, but it’s nearly impossible because she’s sitting right across from me. “That he has a girlfriend.”
Harper gasps at the news and Claire frowns with a small shrug. “Untrue.” She determines immediately. “He’s never dated, and he never will. You’re information is wrong.”
“How do you know?” Harper questions, leaning farther into the table as if somebody could over hear her speaking. “It’s possible.”
Jace Parker is probably the scariest person that I’ve ever met in my whole entire life. In fact, he’s the scariest person at our school, which is why he’s such a hot topic of gossip. He has two friends, and they’re both equally as terrifying, but he’s kind of like the ring leader, I guess. Which makes him the scariest. I’ve heard all of the rumors about Mr. Parker and his friends, and that just makes me even more scared of him. He killed a cat, he mugged an old lady, he drugged a lady with cancer, and he blew up a McDonald’s. None of them are very likely, but I have no proof that they aren’t, so I shall believe them until they are proven incorrect.
However, unlike my airheaded yet loveable friends, I am not interested in his nonexistent love life. For being popular, Jace sure is a loner. Like I said, he only has two friends, and they really keep to themselves in their leather jackets and torn pants. However, due to his incredibly unfair good looks, he’s admired and drooled over by 99.98% of the student body. That .02% including me and those testosterone filled males who resent him for being so… attractive.
“What do you think, Emma?” Melody asks me, breaking me out of my mental processes.
“Huh? Oh, um, yeah, I don’t really care.” I mutter honestly, finishing off my cheese sticks and then mentally mourning the loss.
“She’s not a Parker fan.” Claire reminds her. “Although, I don’t know why.”
“Because he’s just a person.” I respond, standing up from the table to throw my trash away. “And he obviously wants his privacy and it’s really none of my business if Jace Parker has a girlfriend or not.”
I throw my trash away in the bin and then start back for the table which isn’t that far from the trash bin, however there is an obstacle in the way of me returning to my table and that is my clumsiness. As I spin around from the trash bin, I hear a loud thump and realize that it was me thumping against another person- unless the school decided to build a wall between me and my table in the last few seconds, it had to be a person.
I open my mouth and prepare to profusely apologize to the person who I just ran into, but when I look up, I think I about stop breathing altogether and I’m unable to say anything. Apparently, neither is anybody in the cafeteria, because every single person in the room goes silent.
I can understand why though, because towering over me is none other than Jonathan Carter. One of the two scary minions of Jace Parker.
To say I am frightened would be an understatement in the least. I’m shaking out of my skin in pure petrification and mentally saying goodbye to everyone I love because I’m positive that these are my last moments of life. I’m done for. A goner. Over with. D-E-A-D, dead. He’s staring down at me with a slightly angry glare, which is just making me shake even more in my skin. I don’t think he’s too happy with me right now. And that’s why I’m going to die.
“Aren’t you going to apologize?” He asks me with a short, yet deadly, scowl.
Without even thinking, I just vigorously start nodding my head, letting my dark brown hair shake around my face as I’m doing so. However, no words leave my mouth because my air passages have definitely closed up. This is what happens when you’re about to die, right?
When he realizes that nothing was going to come out of my mouth, he just raises his eyebrows at me. “Is that a no?”
“I, um,” I miraculously find my voice, although it’s not very intelligent. “I… yeah, okay.” I whisper before hastily backing up and escaping the terrible situation by running- yes, I run- back to my table where my friends are sitting and watching the whole ordeal go down.
Full of pure embarrassment, I bend over the table and hide my face in my arms as I hope and pray that Jonathan doesn’t follow me over here, or worse than that, bring his friends over here to murder me in front of everyone.
It takes the cafeteria a full five minutes to recover from the incident and begin talking amongst themselves again, and that’s when Claire finally speaks up for my benefit. “You handled that very well.” She chirps.
“Don’t talk about it.” I grumble, mentally replaying the incident over in my head again and feeling the pain in my tummy of the embarrassment and the remaining fear.
“Well, at least you’re still alive.” Harper adds softly.
“Shut up.” I growl from inside of my comforting arms, not even thinking about looking up because I’m slightly positive that the whole cafeteria is talking about me and if I look up, I’ll get a lot of looks that I don’t want. So if I just keep my head down, they don’t exist.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, talks to those guys, Jace, Jonathan, and the third member, Chace. They’re lone wolves. Loners, but the hot and popular kind. People who speak to them are never seen again, and the way that I had spoken to Jonathan Carter…I’ll be lucky to survive the school day without dying of a massive heart attack before he murders me.
Today just isn’t my day at all. First, I get yelled at, which never happens to me. Like, ever. I am such a good kid! And then, to make things worse, I have a run in with Jonathan Carter. Nobody runs into Jonathan Carter and lives to tell the tale, it just doesn’t happen. And then, to top it all off, it was in front of the whole cafeteria, and I’m very easily embarrassed.
“At least it’s Friday.” Mel chirps. “During the weekend, everyone will forget about this; high schooler’s have attentions spans of mice.”
I ignore her and don’t look up from my arms until the bell rings, ending sixth period and leaving us only two more periods until the day is over and I can escape the pain. I know that my face is red from being suffocated by my arms for half of the lunch period, but I honestly don’t care because I’d much rather have a red, splotchy face for about ten minutes than have to face the school full of gossipers and people who are ready to laugh at my eminent demise.
“How was school, Em?” My big brother asks when I get home.
I lazily throw my bag of school stuff onto the small table beside the door and then plop down beside Mikey on the couch. “Terrible.” I groan, hiding my face in the cloth of his shirt. “I’m a dead woman.”
“You’re dead?” He questions, turning the TV down in front of us. He was watching football or something, but he seems to be more interested in my god awful Friday than the rerun of a game.
I nod but don’t look up from where my face is smothered by his shoulder. “Yes.”
“But you’re right here…” Mikey says slowly.
“Yes, for now!” I exclaim dramatically, moving to sit up so that I’m not leaning into him anymore. “But before Monday comes, I’m telling you, I’ll be in a body bag.”
“Don’t say that, Emma.” Mikey scolds me. “You’re fine, you’re just dramatic.”
I sigh heavily, knowing that I can’t explain to him my problems because he just wouldn’t understand. “You just don’t understand.” I voice my thoughts. “Old people don’t understand.”
“Old?” He echoes with unbelief.
I nodded with a teasing smile. “Is your hearing going now, too, old man? Yes, you’re old.”
“I’m not even thirty!” He defends as I stand up from the couch and begin to make my way upstairs
“Thirty is old.” I laugh, hopping towards my room.
“Yeah, you can cram it.” He teases. “When are you leaving tonight?”
“Around six.” I answer just before stepping onto the second floor of the house and making my way into my room. Our house is fairly large, thanks to one: our mother’s will, which gave Mikey full control of her two million dollars and two: both Mikey and Caroline have really well-paying jobs. However, Mikey spends his money intelligently and the first thing that came out of that two million was college for him and me. He tried to pay for Caroline’s education, being the gentleman that he is, but she wouldn’t accept because her parents are well off and didn’t have any trouble paying her way through.
Once I’m in my room, I turn on Pandora on my phone and turn it to Ed Sheeran’s station because, I mean, really- who doesn’t love Ed Sheeran?
I change out of my school outfit- simple jeans and a t-shirt into shorts and a tank top before I organize my outfit for tonight. I always dress way better on Friday nights than I do any other time. I wear dresses and blouses and even heels on a good day, as opposed to my sneakers, jeans, and old t-shirts that I wear to school. I know that at the café that I go to every Friday night, I need to make a good impression, so I try my hardest to do so.
I decide on a cute sundress and gladiator sandals but don’t put them on right away since I still have a few hours before I have to head out of town to the café.
To waste the hours, I begin to text Claire and a few of my other friends. Harper asks me if I want to go to a party tonight, but I lie to her and remind her that every Friday night is family night at our house because Michael is just that weird. Claire is my only friend that knows about what I do on Friday nights and she is really good at keeping secrets. Of course, I have never told her what café I go to because I know that she’d find it and surprise me with a visit someday.
When I’m about to start getting ready to leave, there’s a knock on my door and I know that it’s Caroline by the softness of the knock.
“Come in!” I call, shutting my laptop and sliding it under my pillow where I keep it when I’m not using it. I have a king sized bed and I only sleep on half of it, so I keep my laptop on the other half, so I don’t lay on top of it or anything.
The door opens and Caroline’s dark black hair peeps into the room with a small smile. “Hey, kiddo, what’s up?”
I shrug and stand up from my bed. “Just about to get dressed.”
“Oh, okay.” She says with a nod. “Well, I’m sorry we couldn’t talk before you left, work kept me pretty late today.”
“It’s okay, Carol.” I assure her. “We talk every day.”
“You’re right.” She laughs. “Anyway, Michael and I are going out tonight, so we probably won’t be here when you get back, just a heads up.”
“Alright.” I move over to where I placed the dress and shoes and prepare to go into the bathroom to take a quick shower. “What about Carter?”
“Oh, he’s with my parents.” She informs me. Carter is Mikey and Caroline’s three year old son, my nephew. He obviously lives here with us, and Caroline picks him up after work from the babysitter, so he should be home by now. Unless, of course, Mikey and Caroline are going out and need somebody to babysit.
“Well, have fun.”
“Thank you.” She chirps. “Good luck tonight, I’ll let you get ready now.”
I wave a goodbye at her and then she leaves the room. I’m right behind her, going into the bathroom across the hall from my room. My shower takes fifteen minutes and then I dry and fix my extremely dark chocolate brown hair into curls. I leave them down and then start on my makeup, just some light eyeliner and mascara but nothing too overboard because I’m not much of a fan of makeup, really. When I’m happy with my appearance, I get dressed in the floral sundress with a color scheme of purple, pink, and black and the black gladiator sandals. When I return to my room, I look in my full length mirror that’s on the back of my door.
The dress goes down to right above knees and is strapless, it’s really cute, I think. My hair moves past my shoulders, even when it’s curly, and my brown eyes are encased in the dreadful makeup, but only enough to show that I put an effort into my appearance.
When I’m completely satisfied with my whole outfit, I grab my purse and guitar case and head downstairs.
“You look so pretty.” Caroline coos when I enter the living room where I see Mikey and Caroline on the couch.
“Thanks.” I chirp. “I thought you guys were leaving, though.”
“We will be soon.” Mikey informs me. “Be careful.”
I playfully roll my eyes at my brother, he tells me that every week, to be careful. He doesn’t like the fact that I go a whole town away by myself, but Caroline is on my side and he’s whipped, so I easily won that argument when it came across.
I say my goodbyes and then head outside to my car and hop into the driver side after putting my guitar in the backseat and placing my purse in the passenger side.
The drive to The Seaside Café is only maybe half an hour, which really isn’t that bad, I don’t think. It can be a lonely drive sometimes, but I have my radio to keep me company, so it’s okay. When I pull up to the front of the café, I see that I’m ten minutes early, which is good, because I could totally go for a hot chocolate right now. I really don’t like coffee or anything related to it, so all I drink at the café is orange juice and hot chocolate, but they have really good donuts, too.
“Hey, Emma!” I’m greeted as I walk into the café by both the barista and the busboy who is on the other side of the nearly empty café, washing off one of the booths.
I smile at them both and head towards the small stage. It isn’t really a stage, just an elevated part of the café, only by like, six inches, but on Friday nights, it’s a stage. And because it’s only seven and the performers don’t go on until eight, the café was bound to be empty.
“Hi, guys.” I chirp once I’m on the stage. The barista, Mr. Hervey, is really nice and he’s so adorable. Adorable as in old adorable, not cute adorable. He was a co-founder of the café oh so many years ago and he’s like a giant teddy bear. The busboy, Jarrod, I don’t know him very well because he’s not really here all the time, but I’ve spoken to him a few times. He’s a college student and he’s pretty nice, I guess.
I go through the door that’s on the back of the ‘stage’ and enter the room that’s made kind of like a lounge that nobody’s allowed in unless you’re performing or you work there. I place my guitar in the corner where I always put it and then reappear in the open room, making my way over to Hervey.
“Hey, Herv.” I grin.
“What can I get you, baby doll?” He chimes, cleaning of the cash register, then looking up at me with a smile.
“Just a hot chocolate.” I sigh, leaning against the glass case where the pastries re-displayed in the case. “You make the best.”
“I know I do.” He gloats teasingly. “One hot chocolate coming right up.”
I thank him and once I get my hot chocolate, I stay at the counter since there’s seriously like, five people in the café and nobody really needs Hervey to do anything right now, so I stay and strike up a conversation with him.
“I’m thinking of doing something different next week.” I inform him, sipping on my steaming cup of perfection.
“Yeah?” He questions with raised eyebrows. “Too bad I won’t be here.”
“You’re won’t be?”
“Nope. My grandbaby is getting married next weekend in Nevada, so I’m going to be gone. However, I’m sure my replacement will love your performance.” He tells me with a smile. “He works here during the week, so I don’t think you’ll know him, but he’s quite the nice boy.”
Soon, other performers are coming in and as the hour quickly passes, the crowd begins to really form. I say goodbye to Hervey and then go back to the lounge thing to tune my guitar. It doesn’t take very long because I keep my guitar well-tuned most of the time, and when I return to Hervey, he’s crazy busy with all of the people coming in to see the performers. You see, every Friday, the Seaside Café has this thing called “Show Your Talent” it’s not very original, but it’s really popular with the people of Crawson. Some people come every week to sing or dance or do their standup comedy act, but others only come once or twice and then disappear. Hervey welcomes everybody.
I stand by the counter since now, all of the tables are taken and there are people standing around everywhere just to squeeze into the café for the night. I watch people sing and dance for quite a while and it’s really a lot of fun to watch, because they’re all so incredibly talented, and it’s amazing to see all of these people do what they love, whether it be sing or dance or make people laugh or even read a poem.
When there’s a few people left, I make my way into the lounge because I know that I need to start getting ready for my turn. I close the night every Friday, Hervey lets me close every time, which is kind of amazing.
I hear the person who goes on before me say their goodbyes as I pull the guitar over my shoulders and then the DJ guy announces my name, so I emerge from the back and onto the stage. Everyone claps for me like they do everybody else and I grin at the heavily crowded café. I like to think that they clap even more for me than they do for all of the other acts, but I think that’s just in my head. I know that sounds egotistical, and it kind of is, but I don’t know, I think it’d be really cool to be noticed, I guess.
I say my normal greeting and then the DJ starts the background music as I take my cue and start strumming my guitar and then when it’s time, I sing into the microphone, letting my heart and soul out into my voice and display it out for the whole café to hear.
I sing Fireflies by Owl City, so I don’t really need to use my guitar that much, but it’s a nice touch, I think. I know the song is old and everything, but it’s one of my favorite songs because it’s so uplifting and cute, so I sing it every once in a while.
As I sing, a huge smile spreads across my face because this is what I love to do- sing. I love being able to transfer a message to people with my voice, even if it isn’t my message, it’s somebody else’s because I’m only doing a cover of somebody’s song, but it’s still the same concept. Maybe, if I get brave enough someday, I’ll write my own, but not anytime soon. I love the feeling of having everybody looking at me, listening to me and seemingly enjoying it, since they are dancing and smiling to the music. I hope that they like this, that I maybe change something in at least one of the people that are listening to me singing.
I just hope that I can make a difference.
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Author's Note: Millie_ here! This is my and writerbug44's new story and in case you can't tell, it's the spin-off to Broken! We hope you like it! Please comment and vote! And fan too, please! We'd really appreciate it! writerbug44 will be writing Emma's POV- (the odd numbered chapters) meaning she wrote this one, and I'll be writing Jace Parker's POV- the even numbered chapters. Emma (Dianna Agron) over to the side!