A/N: So, here's the second chapter. I hope you like it.
Admittedly, this chapter was done long before I even published the first one. But I was hoping I'd get a bit more feedback before publishing it. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.
Thanks to everyone who followed, favorited and/or reviewed. You've made me happy!
You can check the end of the story for more notes.
So, without further ado, let's get on with the story!

Previously on Unexpected Distractions:

"This one's already paid for."

Emma looks at him quizzically, "Paid for? By whom?"

The bartender points to the other side of the bar, where the guy from before raises his glass to her in salute. "By that guy over there, his name is Killian. Killian Jones."

While Emma slowly sips at her second beer of the night (Technically one and a half, since that Jones guy made her spill the first one, what a douche), Ruby appears at her side with an inexplicably delighted expression and a wolfish grin on her face.

"Emma, did I just see you talking to Killian Jones? THE Killian Jones? As in Captain of the swim team, hottest guy on campus, oozing bad boy vibes with leather jacket and combat boots Killian Jones?" she manages to get out between her squeals of glee.

"Technically, I wasn't talking to him. I was only explaining him in detail where he could shove the drink he offered to buy me," Emma deadpans, less than amused with the conversation they are having.

"He offered to buy you a drink?!" Ruby practically shouts with poorly contained excitement.

"Yeah, after he basically ran me over and made me spill my drink all over myself," Emma retorts. "Seriously Ruby, just because he's good looking, it doesn't mean he gets to be a prick."

"He can pour a drink all over me anytime he likes," Ruby sighs dreamily, but then she sobers up and grins at Emma smugly, "Wait a second, so you do think he is good looking!"

"Well, Red, I am a 21 year old woman with a pulse, of course I think he is good looking," Emma admits, "But his good looks don't deceive me, I can see the arrogant jerk underneath the façade clear as day."

"Whatever you say, Ems," Ruby smiles at her knowingly, which infuriates Emma because there is nothing to know.

They spend rest of the night drinking, dancing and joking around (The topic of Killian Jones decidedly doesn't come up again), and by the time they are walking back to the dorms, despite the unpleasant start to the evening, Emma is glad she went out tonight.

Emma wakes up in the morning with a roaring headache and an awful taste in her mouth, and she's not so sure anymore if she's still glad to have gone out last night. She quickly pours herself a glass of water and takes two Advils in hopes that it'll help with the headache.

Luckily, the headache shrinks into a dull pain in the back of her head after half an hour and she decides that what she needs is decent coffee and chocolate chip pancakes. She throws on a pair of black leggings and a burgundy hoodie that reads "the only one who saves me is me" (it's one of those hipster-y things she saw everyone wear and she'd always internally mocked them but this was a Christmas gift from Ruby and she'd actually teared up at how well her friend knew her when she first read what it said) and goes to check on Ruby before she leaves.

When asked if she'd like to come with, all Ruby manages to get out is a disgruntled sound, which Emma interprets as a no. So she leaves a glass of water and two tablets of Advil by her bedside for when she wakes up and quietly leaves the house.

She decidedly makes her way to Granny's, which is a diner just outside campus with the best chocolate chip pancakes in the entire city. She's been coming to this diner regularly for the last two years. Everyone calls the owner Granny and she has a close relationship with all of the regulars, including Emma. She settles in one of the stools at the counter and the old woman behind it smiles knowingly.

"The usual, I presume," says the woman.

"Oh, I'll trade hot chocolate for coffee this time, if you don't mind. I have one hell of a hangover." Emma manages to smile at the older woman. The woman returns her smile, though hers is more of the maternal sort and it tugs at something in Emma's heart.

"Chocolate chip pancakes and black coffee, coming right up," she announces and moves towards the kitchen.

As always, Granny is quick with her order and even the smell of coffee does wonders in relieving her of her hangover. She takes a huge sip from the steaming hot coffee and doesn't even flinch; she's been drinking boiling hot coffee for years so she doesn't feel the burn anymore. Feeling better than she's had all morning, she starts to happily munch on her pancakes when someone takes the seat to her left on the counter.

"Morning, Duckie," says a male voice from next to her and she doesn't have to turn her head to know exactly who it is. She rolls her eyes at the nickname. Apparently calling her Swan wasn't creative enough for Graham.

She slaps his hand away when he attempts to steal one of the blueberries Granny always adds to her plate whenever she orders pancakes and he chuckles. Finally, she turns to face the man sitting next to her.

Graham Humbert is an old friend of Ruby's (He's practically family, Ruby had said when she'd first introduced him to her in freshman year), he is also one of the few people Emma considers her friend. He is tall, fit, and handsome in a boyish way with chestnut curls and brown doe eyes. He is wearing a white t-shirt, dark jeans and, of course, his trademark brown leather jacket. His hair is in a disarray, which no longer throws Emma off; apparently combing it every once in a while is too much effort for Graham.

"Good morning to you, too, Humbert," Emma replies with a smile playing in the corner of her lips. She hadn't seen him since before the finals and right now she realizes she's missed him.

He motions for a cup of coffee and one of the waitresses complies, all the while fluttering her eyelashes at Graham. Emma is used to it by now, wherever they go, Graham is always popular with the ladies.

Graham seems to be oblivious to the waitress's attempts at capturing his attention; instead he takes a look at what she's having and remarks while smiling knowingly, "Nursing a hangover, I presume?"

Emma snorts at that, "Like you wouldn't believe. Ruby made me go out with her last night, and you know how she can be."

"Trust me when I say that I do. I was a victim to her unstoppable partying long before you ever were," Graham says, sympathy mixing with amusement in his eyes and they both laugh over their respective cups of coffee.

This playfulness comes easy to them, though what they have is entirely platonic. In freshman year, they looked down that road and said no, thank you, after sharing a kiss one drunken night. After sobering up, they both agreed what they had as friends was enough and Emma cherished every moment of being his friend ever since.

"So how was the night," Graham inquires, "Other than the hangover it seems to have left in its wake? Have you met any cute guys?" He waggles his eyebrows at Emma and she fights the snort trying to escape her throat.

Instead, she huffs before replying in a sarcastic tone, "Oh come on, you too?! You know I'm above all of the brainless dirtbags that go to this school."

"I'll try my best to not feel insulted, Duckie, although I am pretty sure someday you'll meet someone and then you'll have to watch what you're saying."

"Yeah, whatever you say, Humbert," Emma replies disbelievingly, and after a moment she adds, "Can we talk about something else? Like, how are swim practices coming along?"

Emma sees Graham's face light up, as it always does when something he is passionate about comes up. (He joined the swim team in freshman year and proved to be a very valuable asset to the team by winning a golden medal in the first tournament he attended.)

"Oh, it's great Ems; we have a tournament coming up next month. You girls will be there to cheer for me, won't you?"

The boyish excitement she can see in his face warms her heart. "We wouldn't miss it for the world, Graham," she answers, smiling in earnest.

A month passes by very quickly and soon enough, Emma and Ruby are trying to find decent seats at the stands to watch Graham kick ass. Ruby even made t-shirts for them that read "Team Graham" (Seriously, what is it with Ruby and printed tops?) and Emma begrudgingly put hers on, only because she knew it would make Graham happy.

As they settle in their seats, the swim teams come out of the locker rooms, take their shirts off, and start stretching by the pool. Emma is quick to spot Graham. She waves at him when his eyes fall on them and he gives them a huge grin. He points to their shirts and gives them a thumbs up, to which Emma replies with a shrug of her shoulders and a look that says "I had no say in the matter."

Graham then turns away to stretch and warm up so that he doesn't pull a muscle in the pool. In that moment Ruby, who was suspiciously quiet the whole time, nudges Emma with her elbow and silently points at a spot with a smirk plastered on her face. Emma follows Ruby's line of sight to where she is pointing at and her eyes fall on none other than Killian Jones. The blonde huffs in irritation.

"I forgot he was part of the swim team," she says.

Ruby waggles her perfectly manicured eyebrows at her and retorts, "I am sure you did."

Emma, in fact, hadn't thought much of the infuriatingly arrogant and good looking guy, now standing thirty feet away from her. It doesn't mean she can't appreciate the sight in front of her as Killian Jones takes his shirt off, displaying a dusting of chest hair, a toned torso and magnificent abs.

"You are drooling," Ruby teases her and Emma snaps out of the trance she seems to have fallen under.

"Am not," she says indignantly.

"Are too," Ruby presses with a smug smirk on her face.

"Oh, come on. What is this, the third grade?" Emma retorts, not liking it in the slightest that she was caught staring, even if it's by her best friend.

"It's okay, I'd be worried if you weren't ogling him," Ruby comments, smirk still in place. "I, however, have my eyes set on another guy," she adds.

"Oh, pray tell, who is the poor soul?" Emma asks jokingly.

Not fazed by Emma's sarcastic tone in the slightest, Ruby points at another guy not far from where they are. "His name is August; he's in my American History class."

Emma studies the guy intently. He, too, has a swimmer's body, which is always a plus. Other than that, he has dark hair, a stubble and kind looking blue eyes. Emma concludes that he seems like a nice guy. She watches as August jokes with Killian and they both throw their heads back in a roaring laughter. She can't help but notice that they both have equally dizzying smiles.

She turns to Ruby and says, "Fine, you have my permission to like him."

Ruby wraps her arms around Emma and giggles like a school girl and Emma can't help but join in with her excitement, completely unaware of the blue eyes staring at her with a somewhat awestruck expression from across the pool.

August, however notices Killian staring into distance and following his line of sight, discovers what's captured his attention.

"The blonde or the brunette," he asks after getting up into Killian's personal space which almost makes Killian jump out of his skin.

"Jesus Christ, August, I've told you a thousand times not to do that," he says exasperatedly.

Not fazed by Killian's obvious exasperation, August repeats his question, "Which one were you daydreaming about, the blonde or the brunette?"

"The blonde, if you must know," Killian replies gruffly. "Although I must say I do not daydream. I've met her a month or so ago at the Rabbit Hole. She's a feisty one."

"Oh, good, because I've kind of had my eyes on the brunette for some time, I wouldn't want to have to challenge you to a duel." August says with a mock-serious expression.

"Of course you wouldn't," Killian retorts with a smirk, "Because you know you'd get your arse handed to you."

"Whatever makes you sleep at night, buddy," August says, "I will, however, further inquire you about the blonde after this thing is over, have no doubts."

However, the team wins the tournament and the inquiry August has promised Killian is forgotten when the heady feeling of victory clouds every other thought they've had.

"Did you guys see how great I was in that final lapse," Graham beams at Ruby and Emma. He was, in fact, pretty great, playing a huge role in the team's victory.

After being congratulated and assured by both girls about how great he really was, Graham asks with a boyish grin on his face, "Listen, a bunch of us are going to this celebratory thing at one of the guys' apartment. It won't be a huge party, just a gathering to drink some beer and get wasted. Wanna come?"

Emma is reluctant to accept but Ruby insists that they should go. (She is probably hoping August will be there).

"Fine, we'll go," Emma says, once again not being able to say no to her best friend.

"You're the best, Emma. I promise I'll buy you pancakes for a week!" Ruby says with excited giggles bubbling out of her throat.

It's interesting to see Ruby get all excited about a guy; usually they fall at her feet before Ruby even decides she likes them enough. "I wonder what is so different about this one," Emma muses to herself. She expects she'll find out soon enough.

They make their way over to the party in Graham's pickup truck. As they enter the apartment, two sets of eyes fix on them with various levels of excitement. Unaware of said eyes, Emma looks around the apartment and sees a familiar leather jacket hung at the coat rack by the door. Not wanting to believe this could be happening, she desperately looks around, trying to identify the owner of the leather jacket, hoping it belongs to anyone but who she thinks it belongs to. But then she hears someone shout that one sentence that takes away all of her hopes.

"Excellent choice of beer, Captain!"

So she leans over to Graham to hiss in his ear, "Why didn't you tell me the party was at Killian Jones' place?"

A/N: Oh, Emma, you walked right into this one…

I couldn't help but throw in a little the Flash reference in there, only because I love Felicity. Leave a review to let me now if you catch on to it!

Lastly, I know swimmers shave their chests to reduce the resistance in the water or whatever, but I couldn't sacrifice all that glorious chest hair, I'm sure you understand ;)