Puttin' my defenses up
'Cause I don't wanna fall in love
If I ever did that, I think I'd have a heart attack
Emma Swan shoved the apartment door open, gazing around at what was now her new home- at least, until she moved on into the next city- and set down her bags, listening for any signs people.
"Hello?" she asked, while giving the room a quick once-over. It was a fairly large apartment, much larger then what she had actually thought when she looked at the ad online asking for a roommate. The floor was brightly gleaming, dark-red wood with absolutely no rugs whatsoever, which nicely matched the rather gloomy, black walls. The furniture matched the floor, being almost entirely cherry red, giving the entire place a darker, more mature theme. Emma stepped a little further into the apartment, evaluating each room as she passed it. First, there was the living room with a black couch and matching chairs surrounding a flat-screen TV, then the adjoining kitchen, a bathroom, and two bedrooms, all of them all with the same color scheme. Privately, this was starting to creep Emma out. Who was this person that lived here, a vampire?
"You must be Emma." a clear, sharp, but not entirely unfriendly voice snapped Emma out of her thoughts, making her head instantly snap in that direction. A figure with shoulder-length black hair and commanding brown eyes stepped into view, wearing, unsurprisingly enough, a black sweater and jeans. Did this woman even know there were colors other than black and red in this world?
"I am. And I'm guessing you're my roommate." Emma stated, already knowing the answer.
"Yes, I am. My name is Regina Mills." she held out a hand, and Emma clasped it and gave it one firm shake. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Swan."
"You as well, Miss Mills," Emma murmured, hoping Regina wouldn't be able to see through her lie. In reality, the less people she knew, the less that could eventually turn on her and betray her, as they all inevitably did, so she did not like meeting new people.
"I'm going to leave you to settle in, Ms. Swan," Regina added. "By the way, several of my friends wanted to meet you tonight. If you aren't too tired, we would all enjoy your company." Emma inwardly groaned. She wanted to stay as far away from people as possible, but she did need a job, and maybe they wanted to meet her at bar or restaurant that she could get a job at.
"Sure, that would be fine," Emma once again lied, breaking eye contact briefly. "Where did they want to meet me?" Regina looked down briefly at her watch.
"You probably haven't heard of the bar the Enchanted Forest, but our group likes to meet there every week on Friday nights at around 7:30. I can give you directions, if you like." something in Regina's almost icy tone threw Emma off for a moment. She hadn't done anything to offend Regina to her knowledge. Then Emma rolled her eyes at herself. Since when did what people think affect her?
"No, that's fine. I'll find it by myself."
"Great. My apologies, but I have to go to class now. Don't forget; the Enchanted Forest at seven thirty." without waiting for a reply, Regina turned and dashed out the door, leaving Emma rather dazed and tired. Picking her luggage back up, she checked out both bedrooms and, after throwing her bags onto the ground next to her bed, threw herself onto the latter, the jet lag from the change in time zones between Phoenix and Boston catching up quite quickly with her exhausted frame. Within moments, she was asleep.
Emma glanced down at her watch, cursing at the 7:48 that stared back at her mockingly. Even though impressing random people she had never met before was not very high on her to-do list, being late never seemed to work out well. Especially when it happened to be your monthly, she thought dryly. Been there, done that, never going to make that mistake again. Finally, the sparkling green-and-brown Enchanted Forest came into view, making Emma sigh with relief. The moment she opened the door, however, she froze, shock written on her features. She had never seen a bar quite like this before. Instead of the normal dim lighting, or occasional dartboard, this bar really looked like an enchanted forest. Real, live trees grew inside, while the brown wood floor looked so much like a regular forest floor Emma had to look twice. Ivy seemed to grow along the ceiling and walls, along with winter creeper and other wall-growing plants. Even the bar and tables seemed to fit for they were made out of wood.
"Nice to see you here at last, Ms. Swan," the rapidly becoming familiar voice once again disturbed her out of her thoughts. Emma winced as the words sank in; she had overslept like she often did, and like usual, she was paying the price.
"Sorry I'm late," she finally muttered awkwardly. "Jet lag." a fleeting expression of understanding crossed Regina's face, before she motioned to the large group next to her.
"Everyone, this is Emma Swan. Ms. Swan, this is Mary Margaret Blanchard-" motioning to a pixie haired brunette with a sweet smile- "Her fiancee David Nolan," pointing to a handsome, fair-haired man, "Ruby Lucas," nodding at a dark haired, green-eyed beauty who winked at Emma, "Belle French..." the introductions went on and on, and Emma began to zone out, at least until Regina got to the last two, "Milah Gold, and her boyfriend, Killian Jones." Milah shot Emma a glare, while her boyfriend looked at her appraisingly, eyes lingering in some places. Emma felt an unwanted pink tinge rise to her cheeks, even as she tried not to look him over in the same way, instinctively knowing he would make some kind of remark about it. Walking over to the group, she looked for a seat, only to realize the only available one was right smack dab to the left of Killian Jones. Groaning inwardly- because guys as hot as he was were always bad news- she sat down next to him and ordered a beer (thanking her stars she had the sense to wait till her 21st birthday before moving here).
She had just begun to relax when Jones glanced her way once more.
"Why so stiff, love?" he asked, and she felt her eyes widen in horror at his deep, timbre voice and accent. This guy was seriously the definition of 'sex on legs', she cried inwardly. After a moment of silence, apparently assuming she had already fallen prey to him, a smirk began to gather on his face. Emma heaved a disgusted sigh.
"And let me guess, you're willing to offer your services to help me relax?" Emma shot him a glare, annoyance increasing as his smirk widened.
"I am most willing to offer my considerable services for the lady," he purred. Emma shook her head, thoroughly disgusted.
"You're openly flirting with a girl that literally just got here and is completely jet-lagged, and you have a girlfriend, too. You are disgusting." she stood up, needing to make a retreat. Killian's smirk fell for a moment.
"Where are you going, love?"
"Not your love."
"Where are you going, Emma?" inwardly shivering from the way he said her name, she shot him another disdainful glance.
"To fix my make-up. Is your group not allowed that privilege?"
"And yet, your make-up looks perfectly fine," Killian countered smugly. Emma took a deep breath. She would not be annoyed by this idiot. He would not affect her.
"You may think that you can pull off the smudged eye liner look, but to tell you the truth, you can't, and I can't either." without waiting for a reply, she strode off to the bathroom, almost running into a stall. Why did the hot guys always have to have such a flawed personality, she wondered. And why did they all have to turn out to be manipulating scum that stays long enough to gain your trust, then either sets you up or disappears out of your life forever. Or both. Taking a deep breath, she promised herself that she would never do that to herself again. She would never fall in love. And most especially, she would not fall in love with Killian Jones.
She snorted. Like anyone could actually fall in love with a self-centered, egotistical bastard that flirts with other girls with his girlfriend right beside him like that. At this moment, she could not think of anyone she cared less for than he. She already loathed him in every sense of the word, and to be told that she had to sit there with him every Friday night? Personally, she would almost rather gargle with acid.
"Emma?" an unfamiliar voice snapped her out of her thoughts this time.
"Yes?" she asked, wondering who had come after her.
"It's me, Mary Margaret," Mary Margaret said softly. "You've been in here a long time, I was getting worried." Emma heaved a sigh. This was why she didn't do relationships. They worried needlessly, tried to help where you didn't need it...
"I'm fine," Emma snapped.
"Emma, you can be truthful, you know. Was Killian getting on your nerves? I noticed you were speaking to him before you left." Emma sighed again. She might as well just tell her. She was going to be around long enough for that information to be important, anyway.
"Yes, he was. I can't believe you're friends with him. He's a self centered prick who only cares about himself," Emma said, before wincing. "Sorry. That came out harsher than I-" Mary Margaret started laughing.
"Oddly enough, that was my first opinion of him, as well. Once you get to know him, he's not half as bad, I promise."
"Mmmhhhmmm." Emma wasn't convinced.
"Now come on, the others are probably getting worried now." Emma slowly opened the door, carefully wiping at the tiny smudge in her eyeliner that had allowed her her getaway, and followed the other woman out the bathroom door. To her surprise, their table was no quite lively.
"Probably playing 'Truth or Dare'," Mary Margaret said quietly, noting Emma's confusion. "It's a tradition." Great, Emma thought with a sigh. Just great. As she rejoined the table, she heard Victor ask Milah, "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth," Milah said. Victor thought for a moment.
"Have you ever been to a strip club?" Milah shot Emma a glare and answered, "No, but I have my own one almost every night. She glanced meaningfully at Killian, leaving Emma confused and disgusted all at once. Why was Milah glaring at her? The rest of the table erupted into laughter, and Emma forced her own laugh, then listened intently as Milah asked Killian, "Truth or Dare?"
"Dare," he answered calmly.
"I dare you to text your mom that you are currently at a concert completely naked." Killian instantly whipped out his phone and did so, smirk easily sliding into place, before he turned to Emma.
"Truth or Dare?" she felt panicked. He could very easily tell her to go and kiss one of the guys here, or sit on their lap, or... she gulped. If it were up to her, she would never touch another male in her entire life; she had been touched by them entirely too often. But truth was even more dangerous. They could find out about her childhood abused years, or about Neal and the baby, or about her prison sentence. What was she going to do? She couldn't do dare, she couldn't do truth. Then she realized she had said the last word out loud.
"What song do you privately listen to that you would never tell anyone about normally?" she breathed an inward sigh of relief at the easy question.
"None. I'm not ashamed of any song that I listen to," she said coolly. Without looking at Killian one more time, she turned to Regina. "Truth or Dare?"
It was sometime past midnight when Regina and Emma finally made it home, before collapsing into bed. Thankfully, they had only done two more rounds of Truth or Dare, and she had picked dare both times. Killian's dares had both not been very humiliating, as one required her to text her family an embarrassing story (She had no family) and the other, give your crush a prank call (Crush? What crush?). But in order to remain under the radar, she had texted and called two old contacts that she had no idea how they were still in her phone, forcing a laugh and trying to look humiliated. She had been relieved when they finally stopped and started to play another much safer game.
Emma peeled her shirt and jeans off, replacing them with pajamas, and after brushing her teeth fell once more into bed. Tomorrow, she would try and get a new job at a bar- maybe even the Enchanted Forest- and settle in. And avoid Killian and his weird girlfriend, Milah. She still had no idea why Milah seemed to hate her so much; she hadn't even said anything to her but yet the dark-haired beauty had spent her time either glaring at her or snogging Killian in front of her, as if she expected Emma to care. Like she would care if the annoying girl that seemed to already hate her, kissed her self-centered, inappropriate boyfriend that just happened to also be insanely hot.
She rolled onto her back. Well, if Milah thought she was jealous of her relationship with Killian, then she might as well show her most definitely that she was not. With that, she closed her eyes, her breathing evening out as she dropped off. Her last thought was of black hair, an infuriating smirk, and brilliant blue eyes.
