Disclaimers: None of this is mine
She knew the minute he walked into the store. Somehow she always knew when he was around. She tried to ignore him and focus on her friends. It had been forever since they could all get together and she was only home for the weekend. But as much as she was enjoying spending time with her friends, her thoughts kept turning to him.
She'd known him for as long as she could remember. And had had a crush on him for nearly as long. Somewhere along the way, though, that schoolgirl crush had matured and blossomed into real love. Love that was, unfortunately, one-sided. He only saw her as a friend, a buddy to hang out with. So she kept her feelings carefully hidden, from him and from everyone else, all the while wishing things could be different between them.
The temptation to look over at him grew stronger until finally she couldn't resist anymore. Flipping her hair back over her shoulder, she used the movement to mask turning her head just enough so she could look at him out of the corner of her eye. Only to see him looking like he'd just been run over by a humvee. It hit her like an almost physical force and she suddenly had this feeling that she should go over and talk to him. Before she could, though, one of her friends started tugging her in the general direction of the door. She hesitated a moment, then stopped resisting as she shrugged off the feeling. It wasn't like it had anything to do with her anyway. Emmalin Holden trailed after her friends without a backward glance and could only hope that one day Jeremy Sherwood might return her feelings.