And that's how it starts.
Emma's failing biology now, she's sure of that. She swears she's trying but maybe she just wasn't as smart as she thought she was. That has to be it. Sometimes you can feel really confident about something and then you realize you had no reason to at all. It's why she stopped playing the piano and gave up soccer. Her other classes aren't great, but they're not as bad. French was extremely hard to sit through. It felt like it dragged on and it bored her. Most days just felt long until she got home.
It had been a week since she returned to school. Emma had spent that first weekend around the house. She cleaned behind the fridge and under the oven. Kay was ecstatic to see the house the next morning. Monday comes, Tuesday comes, so on and so on, it's all the same. The same goddamn routine in motion. The same three dreams repeating. The same fluorescent light flicking above her during third period.
Emma doesn't know what she expected to happen. Part of her anticipated returning to school and acting like it never happened. Roman hasn't even tried to contact her. He doesn't look at her and if he does it's with disgust. It's almost like he's mad at her. The audacity.
She wants to throw away everything related to Roman in her room. She can't. The first box she pulls out has a picture of her, Roman, and Roman's dad in it. They're sitting at his desk at the tower. She barely remembers his dad, but she knew she loved him. Emma never loved her own dad.
She could never understand why his dad killed himself. He loved his son, loved his daughter, it broke Emma's heart even now. The picture behind it is just of her and Olivia at an early Godfrey Gala. They're wearing almost matching red dresses, Olivia only wore white now. Behind that photo was one of her and Roman at the awkward age of 13 or so at the pool.
She couldn't look further.
Her phone vibrates from the side table. It keeps going and going, and finally, she answers the unknown number. "Hello?"
"Emily Parker," she recognizes the voice. "Party at my place, you in?"
"Of course. See you there, Scotty."
"See ya."
It's almost midnight when she finishes making the long walk over, and it is a long walk. She's never made it before, always pulling up in the Jag. Emma enters the party and it's absurdly crowded and hot. She can feel a light gleam of sweat appearing on her body.
She looks around the living room until she sees Ally waving her over. Emma pushes her way through the crowd until she makes it to her friends. "Didn't think I'd see you here!" Ally yells over the music. "Didn't think you were paying attention at lunch today!"
"Scotty actually called me and asked me to come!"
"Scotty?" Ally questions and Emma nods. "That's cute! I like him! He's cool."
"He's nice," Emma agrees.
"Look, I left your tequila at my place, but you can have some of mine tonight."
"Thanks!" She takes the bottle from Ally's outreached hand and takes three giant swigs.
"Drink up!" Ally giggles and takes another drink when she gets the bottle back.
"Hey, Al.." Ally looks to her. "Do you uh- do you know-"
"Roman's coming. He might be here already, but I haven't seen him."
"Cool, cool, thanks."
"I'll keep an eye out, be a watchdog," Ally says, but looks like there's more to say.
"What?"
"I was just wondering... Y'know, what's going on?"
"What's going on?"
"You've never gone this long without talking to Roman. The longest fight I've ever seen you have is like two days." Emma doesn't respond. "Just y'know, you okay?"
"I'm fine," Emma assures, "just sick of him, that's all."
"Good for you Em, you show him," Emma forces a smile and nod.
"I'm gonna go grab a beer."
In the kitchen, she digs a PBR out of the sink filled with ice. "Shotgun it," she hears from a voice behind her. She turns to see Scotty.
"Bet!" She laughs. "Give me something to stab it with." Scotty hands her his pocket knife.
"Good luck," he chuckles and she pushes the knife through the tin car. She brings it to her mouth and tries to keep up with the alcohol pouring into her mouth. Emma starts falling behind and struggling. Scotty grabs her hand finishes it for her, beer pouring on both during the movement. "Sorry about that. Can't have a girl die at my party."
"Thank you for your assistance."
"You smoke?" He asks and pulls out a carton of cigarettes. She shakes her head. "Well I need a smoke, but I'll see you around, yeah?"
Emma grabs another beer and manages to make her way back to Ally who is exactly where she left her. "Tyler's here tonight," Ally grabs her arm. She's sent off into a long spiel about how he had given up on Letha and how that weird freshman girl tried to get his attention but it doesn't matter now.
"Good luck with that whole mess," Emma laughs at her friend.
"Warning, Em," Kim pulls her sleeve. "Roman Godfrey at 11 o'clock."
"Who's he here with?" Ally asks. "Don't turn around, it's obvious."
"He is here with..." Kim stands on her toes to peek over the crowd. "Himself, he's here alone."
"I'm gonna go out back," Emma says, "get some air."
"Want me to come with you?" Ally offers.
"Nah, go get your man!" She nods toward Tyler.
Outside the patio is littered with red solo cups. Emma makes her way to a chair and takes a seat and sips her beer. Maybe she should just go home, she thinks. Being alone sounds really nice and maybe a nice warm shower. Her thoughts are interrupted by the sound of a chair scraping the concrete. "Hey, Emma right?"
"Yeah," she looks up to see the vaguely familiar boy take a seat. "I'm sorry, I don't think I know you."
"I'm sorry, I'm Beck... Stevens. We had geometry together."
"Oh, yes!" She remembers the lanky boy from the second row. He always thought he was cooler than he was. Beck was high up there for sure, but he would never achieve his dream of being the it boy. He would never be Roman Godfrey. "I thought you graduated last year?"
"I did, I came back home for the weekend," he explains.
"Where do you go again?"
"Penn State."
"How's it going?" Half of her wants him to walk away and leave her alone with her drink, but the other half kind of likes the attention- likes that he remembered her.
"It's good, it's good," he takes a sip from his cup. "It's an adjustment for sure."
"I'm ready to go."
"You'll miss it when you're gone. you'll miss your friends, your family." Emma highly doubts this. "But the new people are great. You get to be whoever you want to be."
"Sounds nice," she sips, "I'd like to be someone else right now." It slips from her drunk mouth.
"I like you the way you are, you've always been cool." She smiles into her cup.
"Thanks."
"Wanna go back inside?" He asks. "You've gotta be cold in that dress."
"Yeah, let's go." Beck stands and holds a hand out to her. When she stands it fully occurs to her just how drunk she is. She stumbles within the first few steps and they both begin laughing about it. "Don't judge me, please."
"I am not, we've all been there," he holds her steady until they get inside. The house has only grown hotter as more people have arrived and weed fills the air. The music is louder. Beck assists her to an empty part of the wall in the hallway for her to lean back on. "See? Not too bad right?" She giggles.
"I would like another drink."
"I can't condone that," he stands in her way.
"Why?" She asks, yelling over the music.
"Because you're already pretty drunk and I wouldn't feel comfortable kissing you if you got drunker."
"You wanna kiss me?" No one's ever said that before. He nods. "Catch up with me then," she taps his drink. He downs it pretty quick.
"I'm going to get another then I think we might be even." He leaves to make his way back to the kitchen. Emma peers over into the living room to see if her friends are still here. Ally sits on the couch snuggling up to Tyler. Emma rolls her eyes at the girl, never knowing what's good for her. On the other side, she sees Roman running his hands up and down some girls waist. She's never seen the poor girl so she assumes it's a freshman. "I will chug this in your honor," Beck scares her when he returns.
"Chug! Chug! Chug!" She shouts as he pours the drink down his throat. He coughs and can't finish. "Aw, can't take it?"
"It's mostly vodka," he hands it to her and she takes a sip. She scrunches her face at the surprisingly high content of alcohol. "Wanna go upstairs?" She nods and follows him to a bonus room above the garage. "Me and Scotty are pretty chill so can't go into anywhere too private. Wouldn't do that to him."
The words have barely left his mouth before Emma's pulling at his hair to bring him down to her height. She violently brings his lips to hers. He pushes her to the wall, she smiles at the force and wraps her arms around his neck. "Fuck me," she whispers. He shakes his head eagerly.
The moment he breaches her, just barely, she has tears coming to her eyes. She knows realistically that it's been long enough that no injuries remain and she's pretty sure she's wet, but it still feels physically impossible. Like there's a barrier there and it does not want to be disturbed. It fucking hurts.
He doesn't move any further and just looks down at her. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm just- I don't know."
"You're a virgin," he continues before she can correct him, "it's going to hurt. It always does. You'll bleed-"
"I'm not a virgin," she snickers at him.
"You're not?" She shakes her head. "Sorry, I just thought... You've never had a boyfriend so I thought.." He grows silent then attempts to push in further. She clenches her jaw.
"I can't, I'm sorry, I can't."
"What?"
"You have to stop I can't do this. I'm- I don't know what's happening, but it's not- I can't," Emma can't quite find the words to explain it to him. He nods and pulls out giving her body the chance to relax. Beck reaches towards his pants. I disappointed him she thinks to herself before grabbing his arm to stop him. He turns to her surprised then excited as she leans forward and puts him in her mouth.
When he's finished she adjusts her shirt and stands to leave. "You're wrong, you know that?" He cocks his head at her, not understanding. "It didn't hurt and I didn't bleed."
Emma wakes up to a loud knocking on the front door the next morning. She's incredibly hungover but runs down the stairs to answer it before it wakes her mom up. She yanks the door open- pissed that someone would knock so early. "What?"
"Hi, I'm Dr. Chasseur, I work for Fish and Wildlife Services. Are you Emma?" The woman asks and sticks out her hand for a shake. Emma doesn't return it. She had seen her around town but never thought anything of it. Maybe she should have.
"Yeah. Why are you here?" She gets to the chase.
"Well, I just wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Could I come in? It won't take too long."
"No," Emma rolls her eyes and shuts the door. Dr. Chasseur stands facing the door shut. She gets ready to knock again, she'll talk to the girl even if it takes involving Sworn. The door reopens and Emma appears with a jacked. "Mom's asleep, she works nights... Can't wake her up," she steps out and takes a seat on the porch. She grabs a cigarette from her pocket and lights it. "What do you need?"
"Well," Chasseur takes a seat next to her, "I spoke to your friends a few weeks ago, but I thought you might be helpful."
"Friends?"
"Uh yes, Peter Rumancek and Roman Godfrey."
"I'm not friends with them," Emma shakes her head. She puts out the cigarette and stands to go inside. "I'm sorry, I don't think I'll be of much help."
"You were there the night they dug up Lisa Willoughby, so I know you were friends and I know you have information so sit," Emma turns around and stares at her. "Is Peter a werewolf?"
"Look lady, I don't know what drugs you are smoking but you're talking like a nutcase," Emma calls her bluff, "and if you keep talking that way I might have to call Norman Godfrey and see what he has to say." This stuns Chasseur.
"Are you threatening me?"
"No, just offering proper mental health advice. Do you have any legitimate questions to ask or did you just come here to ruin my Saturday?"
"What do you know about Roman Godfrey?"
"More than I would like to," she goes in and shuts the door. She's been on a no speaking streak, but this calls for an exception.
To Peter: When were you going to tell me about Dr. Chasseur?
She sees he's typing then it goes away. No response.
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I just wanted to say a really big thank you to those of you who are reading this. I hope you all like it and as always I would love constructive criticism.
Also next chapter will be more from Roman's POV so I'm very excited about that!!!
Much love