Everyone wants to fall in love. I think people are more in love with the idea of it than the feeling of it. When I fell in love, it felt like falling with a parachute. It was frightening, yet exciting. When I fell for Emma, I'd not only fallen for the idea of love, but the idea of falling in love with her.
"Do you really think this is a good idea?"she asked, squeezing my hand so hard I wanted to scream. But I just smiled through the pain.
Ha, I'm not depressed, don't worry. Mostly.
"Positive." I squeezed her hand back, twice as hard, and she yelped. "Ouch, what was that for?!"she shout-whispered.
I shrugged, trying to ease the smile off my face. "At least we know it's not going to hurt as much as your hand."
Em chuckled. "You're an idiot."
"An idiot you love,"I added smugly, resting my head on her shoulder. We looked through the window of the support group, hoping nobody saw us while we waited for Emma to stop being a chicken and work her way through her nervousness. I mean, what could go wrong? It was just a group of depressed teens talking about their depressing lives and what to do to get out of being depressed. Sorry to be blunt, but hey, isn't the first step to happiness acceptance? Besides, we all knew we needed a place to vent out. What better way than to talk to people who knew where you were coming from?
Actually, it would be pretty creepy if they knew where I was coming from. I bet you could stalk loads of people from that huge-ass window.
"Em, that one's looking at us!" I whispered, pointing at a redhead seated next to Ava. Emma shoved my hand down. "Don't point at her!"
I rolled my eyes. "We can't just watch them from here forever, you know. It's pretty creepy. Hey, look! Ava's saying hi. Wave to her!"
"Put your hand down!" Emma hissed. She made a face at me, clearly flustered. I cupped her cheek. "They probably have too much crap going on in their own lives to bother judging yours."
Emma smiled. "I love my crap,"she said, kissing me on the cheek.
I grimaced. "I take that back. I'm judging you. Very, very hard." A new light had entered her eyes. She was calmer now. Braver. She looked like she could conquer the world.
Not that she could, though. How could she conquer me?
I'm starting to think like Dad. More like a wannabe Dad, though. His jokes are kind of funny. Just kind of.
Without another word, I watched Em open the door and enter the room with her head held high. Everyone was too engrossed in Ray's sob story to take notice of her, but I did. And I was proud.
Also, can I leave now? This support group stuff is most definitely not my forte.
"Do you think I should introduce myself now or something?" Emma asked, at the exact moment Ray had finished talking. There was dead silence in the room and I'm pretty sure not one person had missed out on what Emma had said to me. Way to make a first impression, I'm telling you.
"Yes, doofus, I think you should."
I heard a round of chuckles ripple and I caught the redhead snickering at me. Emma turned scarlet and stuck her tongue out at me in frustration. I stuck mine out too, and Ava indiscreetly began to fangirl over us.
Seriously, all Emma and I ever did was bicker. What was cute in that?
Well, then again, what involving Emma wasn't cute?
"Hi, um, I'm les-I mean, Emma. Emma,"she repeated, as if trying out the name for the first time. I chuckled. Ava shot me a look that told me to shut the hell up, which made me want to laugh even harder. Again, support groups were not my forte.
The redhead was watching me with interest. She looked at me for a few seconds, then turned to whisper something about me to Ava. It's not even like she was being discreet about it. I mean, hello. I'm right here.
Finally, she turned towards me, her fascination etched onto her features. "We meet you at last, Alora."
I raised my eyebrows, turning towards Emma. "Ha, I didn't even have to introduce myself." Emma threw me an impatient smile. The others watched us in interest. "Veronica,"the redhead said with a smile, looking back and forth between me and Emma. "You two are seriously adorable."
Emma and I scoffed, then looked at each other and laughed. "The two of us?"I asked incredulously. "No, it's just Emma," I said, at the same time that Emma said,"No, it's just me."
The others laughed at our constant bickering for the next ten minutes, in which time Emma had managed to pour out her life story. It was nice, hearing her talk about her problems with ease. She'd embraced her insecurities and imperfections; she no longer felt violated when she had to pour out her heart. She was proud of who she was. If the others criticized her, they weren't worth her time.
Emma and I had changed immensely since the moment we'd met. Our first conversation was so heart-wrenching and intense. As we became closer, we realized that although both of us had too much depth for normal people to handle our late-night talks, we preferred to converse about the little things that happened in our lives rather than live within our problems.
Our relationship thrived on insults, pun wars and brutal honesty because we didn't believe in sappy romantic moments. I mean, sure, we both loved compliments and boxes of chocolate as much as anyone, but we saved those for the special days. If we were nice to each other all the time and made doe-eyes at each other 24/7, wouldn't it get boring? If we poured out our love for each other in every sentence we uttered, wouldn't it lose its value?
We preferred challenging each other. Our love was passionate, maddening and all-encompassing. Overall, it was exhilarating.
Suddenly, all eyes were on the door. My back was facing it, so I couldn't see who had entered, but the sudden shift in atmosphere told me this wasn't going to go down well. "Thea? What are you doing here?" I heard a voice coming from behind me. I turned to find Ted, Ava's ex (I hated saying that word. They couldn't just break up; they were my OTP!) staring at me in confusion.
"Wow, you look a hell lot like my sister, Lor,"Ted remarked. Emma chuckled. "But Thea's better looking." Emma blew me a flying kiss and I pretended to swat it away.
Ava, meanwhile, looked like she wanted to fly away. I was very tempted to take out a pen and say Wingardium Leviosa to save her the trouble.
"Welcome, Ted. How's your week been?" Ray, who was the one who'd brought this group together in the first place, asked awkwardly, trying to make everyone feel comfortable. Unsurprisingly, his comment had the opposite effect.
"Why are you here?" I demanded, rising from my seat. He was making Ava uncomfortable and I hated seeing her that way. This was supposed to be a safety valve for her, not a place for ex-boyfriends to come professing their love for her.
"Lor, calm down,"Emma whispered soothingly. Ted looked directly at Ava. "These meetings are important to her, so they're important to me."
I'd never seen Ava more uncomfortable, upset or angry in my whole life. She didn't even have it in her to scream at him. Normally, this would be the moment when Ava would, for lack of a better word, combust. She'd lose her temper and would start arguing like her life depended on it. But now, she'd surrendered. She was done fighting. So I was going to fight this battle for her.
"She clearly doesn't want you here,"I pointed out, not even bothering to be nice about it. What. An. Idiot.
"Lor, leave him alone,"Emma said, hushing me. I gave her an irritated glare. "Why are you supporting him on this? They broke up, Em. He can't just follow her around everywhere and expect her to be okay with it!"
"Point for Alora,"Veronica announced, holding up her right index finger.
"But she had no reason to break up with him in the first place! She doesn't trust him. That's the problem,"Emma declared defiantly. Honestly, Ava had been pretty suspicious regarding the whole matter. She didn't give me details on what exactly Ted had been doing, and I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know either, so we'd just left it out. What I did know was that Ava wouldn't let go of a great relationship unless something serious had come between them.
"Point for Emma,"Veronica stuck up her left index finger now. Ava glared at her, and she muttered a quick apology, but still kept the finger up. Oh, so we're fighting now, are we? It's on, love. It's so on.
"Ted gave her all the right reasons for her not to believe him." I said, then changed tactics before anyone could question my accuracy. I needed to shift back to a topic I was comfortable talking about. "But listen, that's not even the point. Why they broke up is for the two of them to decide, not us. We're not in a place to question either of them about it. Him following her, however, is not okay. Ava made it very clear that their relationship is over. What gives him the idea that stalking her is going to win her back? What sort of deluded cliches are you reading about, Ted?" I asked, failing to suppress a smile.
"Point for-"
"He's in love, Alora! Doesn't love make you do crazy things? I'm not justifying what he did. He's an idiot, yes, but you've got to see where he's coming from. He has good intentions! Let him chase her until he wins her back."
I remained silent for a few seconds, then looked straight at Ava, who looked like she may burst into tears any second. "You mean let him chase her until he realises that he's lost."
Everyone sucked in their breath, not daring to look at either Ted or Ava, who both found the floor particularly fascinating that day. Veronica looked impressed. "Alora wins. Ted, go home."
He didn't have to be told twice. Silently, Ted rose from his seat and left the room and didn't look back once.
Huh, and I thought support groups weren't fun.
Later, Emma and I lingered outside the building to finish a conversation much due. "M&M, you know I didn't mean to hurt you when I said those things, don't you?" I asked softly, playing with her hair.
"Of course I know that. And you know I think Ted's a doofus. I love him, but he makes pretty bad decisions. Ava was the first good decision he ever made. I just needed to take his side to balance it out. Besides, playing devil's advocate is highly entertaining because you're adorable when you're flustered,"she said, kissing my forehead.
"I love you, les-I mean, Emma."
. . . .
A/N EEEK I LOVE ALORA AND EMMA. What would their ship name be? Emora? Aloma? Comment your preference!
Please don't be a silent reader! <3
~Via