The fury was immediate. How dare he have the audacity to show his face at my family's home, as if he were still a close family friend?
No, that title was revoked the second he betrayed my trust and twisted my own words against me, making me look like a fool in front of everyone I knew in my home town, in front of my entire family...in front of the person that I was just about to get justice from.
"Harvey, you remember Lydia. I believe there was something you wanted to say to her?"
His wiry gray hair and dark green eyes that were yellowing in the corners stared into my own and then I was back there in the court room, everyone'e stares pinning me down as he fired question after question at me before I could even answer my own. I was just trying to tell the truth but everything that came out of my mouth he twisted until it seemed like I couldn't be believed, like it was my fault.
I had lost all of my control once before, and I couldn't stand the fact that this man was trying to take it away from me again.
"Uh, yes. Lydia, I am truly sorry about how things went down all those years ago. I've stayed close with your family to try and make amends but Adsila told me you were never ready to hear it."
"That's right, I wasn't ready for your apology then and I never will be. You know in your heart that what Christian did was wrong, you know he was guilty, and yet you destroyed my credibility in front of everyone, making me seem like some- like some common whore in front of my entire family! You could have settled out of court, but you wanted to tear me apart on the stand just to prove a fucking point. You are despicable. You and your son destroyed my life, and that is something that I will never forgive you for. And you-"
I turned my heated glare to my mother, the anger rolling off of me in waves. She gulped with fear in her eyes as she took a step back.
"How dare you allow him to stay in touch with you, with our family, after knowing what he did? You sat there in that court room while he berated me, degraded me, and humiliated me in front of all of our friends and family who were there to support me?! You know how much that process destroyed me and you just didn't even care! You thought it was Nate that drove me away from you? No, it was this behavior right here. You never cared about my struggles, you always wanted me to just 'move on' and put everything past me like nothing had ever happened. Well guess what? Your daughter is damaged goods, and no matter how hard you try to shove the facts under the rug, the fact is that nothing will ever change that."
I was panting with the effort of my outburst and had it not been for the fact that I was an adult and could be charged with assault, I would have smacked the shit out of Christian's father then and there.
I felt Lucas and Emmett's presence behind me, but I didn't have to say another word.
They followed me out to the car, but not before I not so gently brushed past my mother with my shoulder slamming into hers. She was speechless after what I'd said, not that I didn't blame her. It was something that had been brewing for years, I just didn't have the nerve to spit it out. But that was then, and I was suddenly imbued with a new power that I hadn't had before.
I didn't know where that power came from, but it was like a fire that filled me up from the outside in. It was a burning light that sizzled the nest of pain in my chest.
Once we were all buckled in, Emmett dared to speak. We were both seated in the back on opposite sides of the car while Lucas drove.
"Well, that was an eventful family dinner. Your dad agreed to help us out and figure out the case number tomorrow, so that's a plus."
He didn't ask about the meltdown. Either Lucas had already filled him in or he simply didn't want to pry into my personal life. It still felt like I owed him an explanation.
"Look, about what happened back there-"
"No no, it's cool. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I can tell that you're still really worked up from it, we can talk later if you still want to tell me."
"Thanks," I said, the fluttering in my heart coming from somewhere other than the massive amounts of adrenaline that was quickly leaving my body.
Our eyes met in the backseat, passing headlights illuminating his bright eyes and for a moment I imagined what it would be like to lose myself in them.
The thought of his hands running up and down my body, his lips on my own, traveling down my neck to my chest...
A burning in my cheeks reminded me that I probably shouldn't have been fantasizing about Emmett while staring longingly into his eyes, lest he find out the contents of said fantasies.
I cleared my throat and tore my eyes away, even if it was the second hardest thing I'd done that night.
I couldn't believe my mother, bringing Christian's father to our home like that. He was running for the Senate and my mother was trying to get my dad voted to be police commissioner, so I assumed she was trying to get on his good side.
What a total miscalculation on her part. If anything, I had completely and totally derailed her plans to get my dad voted into any public office. There would be no way that Harvey Berks would support his run after the things I'd just yelled at him.
I still couldn't believe her complete and total disregard for my feelings in the situation. There was once a time, before all of this drama had occurred, that we'd been best friends.
We used to always go shopping after school every Tuesday. We'd go to the local mall and she would let me pick out any top I wanted, and later we'd go have ice cream and cookies in the food court.
I remembered our trips to the nail salon, our numerous family vacations...it was always us against the world, until it was me against her.
But then boys happened, and I became too enraptured in trying to get their attention that I'd let my guard down...and the rest was a history I knew all too well ingrained in my memories.
"Hey, you okay?"
We were in park back at the rent house, and the guys were waiting on me to get out.
"Yeah, fine," I said, forcing my arms to open my door and then my legs to exit the car.
"Lydia, I have to go to bed because I have a huge project due tomorrow, are you going to be okay tonight, after everything that happened?"
"I'll be fine Lucas, thanks for going with me tonight."
"Love you sis."
"You too."
And then there were two.
I shuffled into the kitchen to grab some ice cream and cookies when a shadow descended upon me.
"Want some?"
His towering frame was even more intimidating when he was standing over me, his eyes filled with a passion that I was sure mine mirrored back to him.
"What flavor do you have?"
I showed him the label and he cracked a smile.
"Gross."
My eyes grew wide in faux horror as my hand reached out to playfully smack his arm. An arm, I might add, that felt chiseled from stone.
"Mint chocolate chip is the best ice cream flavor ever invented, you can't convince me otherwise."
"Oh great, now you're about to say The Notebook or Titanic were the best movies of all time."
"Hah, well no not exactly. Dirty Dancing takes the cake for that one."
"Dirty Dancing? Sounds like my kind of movie."
"You haven't seen it?"
At the shake of his head in response my eyes really did widen in true horror.
"Well we have to remedy that immediately. Come on, I think I saw it on Hulu the other day," I said, grabbing some extra spoons while shoving him forcefully from the kitchen into the living room.
"Go grab the blankets in the drawer," I bossed to him while he simply complied with my orders, a rueful smile on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing. You're just cute when you're bossy."
My cheeks must've heated up to a million degrees from the blush that crept its way up my neck but I ignored it, finding the right movie on the streaming platform that I was looking for.
Soon the wonderful sounds of Baby narrating her story about finding her first love at a summer camp filled my ears as Emmett plopped down directly beside me, not too close but just enough that I wished he would scoot closer.
It was the moment where you wished the guy would make the first move, but then being scared that if he did, it would ruin everything.
So there we sat, legs barely touching as the movie drug on, but all too soon and it was almost over.
"Okay here's the best part."
"What? You've said that like ten times already."
"Shh, watch right here, this is the part where he says it-"
"What? 'Nobody puts Baby in a corner?'"
"Shh!"
My hand flew over his chest and lingered there for a few moments, and I was about to pull away until his fingers interlaced with mine and he tugged me closer to him so that I was tucked into his side.
Those damn butterflies were swarming in my stomach at that point.
The iconic featured song from the movie began playing as a megawatt smile found its way onto my face.
Emmett's free hand which was resting against my side began drawing intimate circles on my skin, forcing my heartbeat to quicken and my lungs to temporarily stop functioning.
The cast on screen were dancing to the beat, and then when it was time for the lift, Emmett's hands stopped.
"Holy shit, they actually did it? I thought he was gonna drop her for sure!"
We both laughed at his outburst, but I was caught off guard by the vulnerability in his eyes when we finally locked gazes.
I wanted him to lean in so badly that I almost did it myself until a door opened and Reed came barging in.
"Guys, its one in the morning, can you either take it to your room or just go-"
He stopped short when he saw the close position we were in. I tried to scramble away but Emmett held firm.
"Oh. I'll just uh...yeah, keep it down. Thanks."
When he was gone we dissolved into fits of dying laughter until there was no sound besides the credits playing in the background.
"Well I should probably get to sleep. Thanks for watching my favorite movie with me."
"Yeah, no problem. It was a lot better than I thought. But hey, next time we're watching my favorite movie."
I stood up reluctantly from my spot on the couch, Emmett's eyes trailing up my exposed legs as I did so.
"Oh, and what movie is that?"
"The Back to the Future series."
A laugh escaped me as he walked me to my bedroom door.
"That's three movies, not one."
"I know. Guess you'll just have to suffer through about six hours of movies with me, then."
"I guess so."
"Goodnight Lydia."
His words were saying one thing, but his eyes were saying another.
"Goodnight, Emmett."
And then I disappeared behind my door, terrified that if I didn't say goodnight then that I would have closed the distance between us and made this whole roommate thing a hell of a lot more complicated.