A/N: Hey! I'm back, and I'm writing (for now and until my inspiration dies.) I figured since I'm not a fan of Austin and Emily, I may as well write my own Damon/Emily story. So here goes.

Note: I know this was short. But it's not horribly short, is it?

(Main) Inspiration for this story/chapter:
-Ocean Wide; The Afters (of course ;))

-Beautiful Disaster; Jon McLaughlin

-Breath Me; Sia

-Coming to Terms; Carolina Liar


Emily rests her head against the window, breathing shallowly, like she was about to have a panic attack. How could Damon kiss Kaylie? He must've known Emily still had feelings for him. God, the whole situation was stupid.

The song 'Ocean Wide' pops up on her shuffle and Emily suppresses the tears that come too fast to her eyes. This was the song Damon would croon in her phone to say goodnight and always made her smile like she was in love… Which, technically, she was.

Everything had come on really fast, and she wasn't expecting any of it. She had a lot on her shoulders right now, and she needed to let it out. So Emily made a deal with herself to cry for the remainder of the four minute, thirty second song and then be done. She could cry more when she got to Rita's. The tears rolled down her cheeks, but as soon as the last note sounded, the brunette wiped her tears and started thinking of positive things, like her mom. Her brother. Rita, who was a lot like Momma Kmetko. Payson. Hell, even Lauren. Razor. Music. Her inner book nerd. Gymnastics. Sasha. Her vault that got her onto the Worlds team. But no, thinking of Worlds wouldn't help, seeing as she wouldn't be going to Rio anyways.

Way to get your hopes up, Em, The girl scolds herself and changes her shuffle to a calmer playlist, in hopes that the soothing (and boring) music would calm her to sleep.

345

When Emily woke up, she had a pain in her neck and eight missed text messages. There were only three or so more hours until Vegas, according to the talkative blond next to her. Emily smiles in thanks and massages her neck with one hand, checking her texts with the other. Three from Damon, two from her mom, and one each from Lauren, Payson, and Kaylie.

She starts with her mom's and quickly scrolled through the texts that basically says that she missed Emily.

Next up were her friends. Same thing with Pay and Lo, but Kaylie was apologizing profusely.

And last, but oh, not the least, Damon's.

From: Damon

Fly me to the moon, fly me to the moon

Let me play among those stars, let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars

In other words, hold my hand, in other words baby kiss me

Fill my heart with song and let me sing forever more,

You are all I long for, all I worship and adore

In other words, please be true, in other words, I love you.

From: Damon

So many of us fear tomorrow or regret yesterday, but I won't fear tomorrow if I get to be with you, and I don't regret yesterday 'cause one yesterday I met you.

From: Damon

Some of us think holding on make us strong;

But sometimes it is letting go.

And I can't let go of you, Miss Kmetko- where are you? I miss you, please respond.

Emily snaps her phone shut angrily, but hesitantly opens it again to respond to her mom, Payson and Lauren. She ignores the last two people and starts humming in a desperate attempt to drown out her thoughts.

Of course, it didn't work, and the talkative blond next to her starts shooting her dirty looks. Emily grimaces back at her and stared out the window for the rest of the ride.

345

The doors of the bus opens, startling Emily awake. She quickly stands up and grabs her dingy blue duffel bag, walking hurriedly off the bus. She whistles for a taxi and finds one about five minutes later. Getting in, the brunette tell the driver where to go, and looks around the car. She's surprised when she sees another figure on the seat to her left, and shoots a quizzical look at him.

"The taxi driver gave me a ride, and I convinced him to give me one too. You looked pretty desperate." He explains. He has black hair with bright green and orange stripes in it.

"Gee, thanks," Emily said sarcastically, but sticks out her hand in greeting. "I'm Emily."

"Scott. Nice to meet you, Emily," He shakes her callused hand firmly. "So where are you from?"

The girl shoots Scott a look, raising an eyebrow. "I've known you for two minutes. I am most certainly not sharing where I am from with you, Scottie dear."

Scott appraises her and his eyes land firmly on her stomach, noticing the tiniest curvature there. "Auditioning for Sixteen and Pregnant?" He asks sarcastically.

Emily glares darkly at him. "For your information, I'm seventeen, thank you very much. And no, I'm not looking for attention. Besides, how do you know if I'm pregnant or not?"

He chuckles and winks. "I have sharp eyes. Okay, since you don't want to share your background, how about I share mine?

"I'm seventeen as well, and I come from-"

"If you honestly want my opinion, Scott, I'm in no mood to hear a stranger's life story. Okay? Thank you." Emily snaps at him, in true Lauren fashion.

"Okay," The other teen laughs again. "Go back to your book or whatever else you do. Just know that I am offering a shoulder to cry on, a friend, and I bet you don't know anyone else here. Huh, airport girl? Where are you running to? Who are you running from?"

A tear falls out of Emily's eye. "Everyone." She whispers hoarsely. The brunette doubted she'd cried this much in her entire life as she had in the past few days, but she was pregnant, and allowed to be hormonal. Right?

Scott reaches over and tentatively puts an arm around Emily's shoulder."Shh. It's going to be okay." He murmurs, and Emily looks up at him.

"You really think so? I mean, I ran away from everyone I knew and loved, my ex-boyfriend kissed one of my best friends, and the only person I know in Vegas is you and my godmother." She sits tense under his arm but allows it anyways.

"I think, that you will be fine. You seem pretty strong if you came all the way to Las Vegas knowing really no one here. Besides, you've got me!"

Emily giggles half-heartedly at his attempt at teasing. All of a sudden, Scott's phone rings, and his happy face turns guarded.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" The brunette asks, confused.

"No," Scott said, lips thin.

She was worried about him, for sure, but she let the subject go because her own phone buzzes with a text- Damon again. Scott raises an eyebrow but dropped it.

They didn't speak the rest of the ride.

After all, they were just two strangers in a city of thousands.


Review?