di·vulge
verb
make known (private or sensitive information).
Even though thoughts of what Emilia might have done along with the words of warning from his mother, Jonathan found Emilia at the end of the day with a smile on his face. The thoughts were forced to a further corner of his mind, not to be brought up or mentioned as he repeated the mantra that they meant nothing. When he was happy, when he was with Emilia, it didn't make sense to bring up anything that might tarnish such things. Why let others infringe on the one thing that he looked forward to every day? He knew how he felt about Emilia, and did not let that get in the way of their friendship. Carol was plain rude, Jonathan knew that first hand. And his mother, well, she wasn't the best person to be giving him relationship advice.
"I have an idea," those were the first words Jonathan said to Emilia. They were well past the small talk, even if it was still hard to get Emilia to talk. Somehow, it was as if they could convey so much without words. His main goal was not to win her over, regardless of how he felt inside. No, his main goal was still to make her happy. To do that was a challenge, but he suspected that he was doing a good enough job as she stuck around, and she smiled a lot more.
"Oh yeah?" Emilia closed her locker, brought her hands instinctively to the camera around her neck. She fingered the protective clasp around the lens. "And what big idea does Jonathan Byers have today?"
"I didn't say it was big," he furrowed his brow, and then realized the words he had spoken could have another meaning. His cheeks reddened as he saw Emilia's eyebrows raise, and then she looked away. Jonathan steered away from even correcting himself, back to the idea. "The pool is half price tonight, I thought we could go."
Emilia recoiled from his words; swimming meant bathing suits, and bathing suits meant revealing her stomach. She had not gone swimming since the accident, and had no desire to. Something twisted inside of Emilia as she wondered if Carol had mentioned something to Jonathan, and he wanted to see for himself if her scars were as ugly as she said. Her mind jumped back to the other day at Jonathan's, when she had taken her sweater off and her shirt had clung to the sweater. Her stomach had been revealed then, and he had mentioned nothing. Had he seen her marks? She wondered, nervous as ever.
"I don't know..." She pursed her lips together.
There was something about his expression -that modest puppy dog look that crossed his face more than once every single day- that made Emilia cave. She dropped her defences and agreed to it. When she arrived home, she was surprised to find her dad there. Home earlier than she expected, or perhaps he had never bothered leaving yet, Emilia decided to approach him head on with honesty. Ignoring him and neglecting to talk to him had not been successful thus far, and something inside of her had changed since formally meeting Jonathan. She felt braver, stronger, as though her pieces were coming back together. She never knew that was possible, but it felt good.
"Dad," She called as she crouched down to unlace her boots. "I'm going out tonight, when do you want me home?"
There was a groan followed by a shuffle, and he appeared at the end of the hall, leaning against the wall. "Goin' out again?"
She nodded, "I'd like to, if that's alright."
His eyes narrowed, "With who?"
"My tutor, Alyce," she lied, thinking of the first person that came to mind. She sat next to Alyce in English, although they had never actually talked.
"And your grades?" He walked down the hall and was only a few feet away from her now. He reeked of beer, but she was used to that.
"I'm not failing anymore." She felt a bit of a glow in her cheeks, "I thought it would be cause to celebrate."
He made a face, but then he nodded as he began turning around. "Sure, be back by nine."
"Thank you," she meant it, too.
--
She stood in the change rooms at the pool. A few children were babbling in the change rooms while their mothers tried to get their swimsuits on or off. A couple of older women chattered back and fourth about how good it was for them to be getting the exercise, and how the water helped their joints and other sore body parts. Emilia stood in front of the mirror, fogged up and with marks from Sharpie pens stating initials of who loved whom. She wore a white shirt over top of her bathing suit; the only one she had was a simple black bikini that didn't cover her stomach. She knew the white shirt would quickly go see through once she was in the water, but her scars would still remain hidden so long as she kept her torso under the water.
She had her dark brown hair that looked black when wet down, it reached half way down her breasts and sat in elegant waves for now. She brushed her hair behind her ears and told herself that she'd spent too much time stalling, and that Jonathan was probably awkwardly waiting for her now. Leaving the change rooms, she stepped into the large pool area. Rough tile floors scraped the bottoms of her feet, the humid air warmed her quickly, and she noticed Jonathan standing by the men's change room. Jonathan spotted her and smiled; it was more of her than he had ever seen before, but he found himself unsurprised by the fact she was wearing a shirt. From the scars he had briefly seen and from Carol's snide comments, he suspected this was one of Emilia's biggest personal issues, and he had already decided he wouldn't bring it up or make any notice of them.
"Let's start with the hot tub?" She suggested, wanting to sit in the warmth and bask for a while.
They sat across from one another at the end of the hot tub, and were pleasantly surprised with how dead the pool was. Only a handful of people were there, and Emilia felt as though she was finally free. Free from feeling hidden away, from feeling the need to remain behind a wall of her own protection. She was out in the open, as much as she was comfortable with, and she was with Jonathan. He was the reason she was becoming so comfortable with herself, forcing her to step outside of that protective bubble and learn that the world was not so scary. Not anymore; it was time for her to come out of her shell.
"Thanks for making me do this," she started, kicking her feet back and forth underneath the water, just in front of the jets that were blowing fiercely. Her hands were hovering over her lap, her fingers clasped. The bubbles of the hot tub hid her nervous fiddling of her thumbs.
He shrugged, sinking slightly underneath the water. It was at his shoulders, only his neck and head over the water. "I didn't make you do anything, you agreed to it."
She smiled, he was right. There never seemed to be any pressure put on her for anything by Jonathan, and that sat right with her. With her head slightly cocked to the side, she realized that she didn't want to sit there in the pool, she didn't want the distance between her and Jonathan. A part of her had feared being close to someone for a long time, although the true fear came half a year after her mother had died. A close encounter, a bad decision, it had all led her to denying the fact that she was only human, and had human desires. When she looked at Jonathan, someone she had only been friends with for a two weeks but it felt like months, she realized that she wasn't afraid with him.
Crossing to his side of the hot tub, she watched as he sat upright, his chest above the water level now. His body tensed ever so slightly; it was clear that he didn't know what she was about to do, but he had a suspicion. She felt her legs touch against his, and her hand sunk underneath the water and touched his thigh. She nearly recoiled, not expecting his leg to be there, but she continued to carry through with the actions she'd intended to. Now that she was this close, she felt her heart racing in her chest, and so she acted quickly before she flaked out. She kissed him, half missing his lips as she had little control over her movements with how nervous she was.
Jonathan had imagined kissing her, and it was so much different than he imagined. It wasn't perfect like the movies, it had a feeling to it that he had never felt before. It made him freeze and forget his motor functions for a split second, before he let his hands touch her sides underneath the water. The kiss only lasted a few seconds before Emilia pulled back, sunk down in the water and kept her shoulders and head above the water. She looked nervous, anticipating some sort of denial, her hands waving in the water on either side of her.
"Why'd you do that?" Of all the combinations of words in the English language, those were the ones that came out of Jonathan's mouth.
"I guess I kinda like you," she divulged before she felt a smile tug at the corner of her lips, pulling them into a side smirk.
So they finally kissed for real! I asked a question in the last authors note and no one answered :P Today's question, when was your first kiss?