Face Value Wisdom and Happy Lies
It had been three days since Ben showed Emerson the small library he'd discovered. She spent every night there until someone told her it was getting late. Usually Ben, sometimes Tom. Emerson was enthralled by all of the hardback books lining the shelf. The varying array of titles and genres suggested to her that whoever created the library did so out of fear that all the books would be destroyed in the ensuing invasion. All types of works were represented. Classics such as Pride and Prejudice and Tom Sawyer lined the shelves. Young Adult novels were among the titles. Popular ones such as Twilight and The Hunger Games and The Outsiders. What made Emerson giggle was the collection of trashy romance, her mother used to call them. The novels with obscene sexual content and description. Nora Roberts was there and so were Sandra Brown and Danielle Steel. The Southern Vampire Mysteries was one of a few set of complete series. She remembered there being a TV show based on the books. The girl from the X-Men was in it with that actor that resembled that one Australian doctor from "House".
Of course there were several supernatural creature trashy romance books. She rolled her eyes at the description on the inside flap of one of them. They were all the same plot. Some sinister being is trying to get the good guy(s) on their side while the morally conflicted protagonist falls in love with some down-on-her-luck beauty. The only thing that ever changed was what type of creature the good guy was and the chosen career path of the lucky lady who fell in love with him. Emerson snorted as she stepped a few rungs down on the ladder and perused the next shelf.
Aliens, though, there weren't a lot of books on aliens. The 5th Wave was among the YA titles and there was that one book, The 100, but that was less about aliens and more about people returning to Earth after a hundred years in space.
She rested her chin on the rung in front of her and sighed. If she thought about it, she kind of felt like her life resembled a supernatural romance novel suddenly. The mysterious, misunderstood hero sweeps in and catches the heroine of guard while simultaneously falling for her charm and intelligence. All the while there's some bigger problem raging around them but they manage to find peace and tranquility in the chaos around them.
She shrieked when she felt a hand on her knee. She jumped up the ladder a full rung and kicked out at whoever had touched her. "Holy shit, Em! It's just me!" She looked down and stared at Ben's startled expression. She released the breath she was holding and put her hand to her forehead. "Jesus, Ben. Warn me next time." Ben chuckled and watched her slowly climb down the ladder. "I called your name four times and you didn't seem to hear me." Emerson rolled her eyes as soon as she was planted on the ground. "Well, forgive me for being lost in thought." Ben laughed again and licked his lips, staring around at the several piles of books scattered throughout the room.
"I see you've been busy." Emerson followed his gaze. She decided to undertake the task of alphabetizing the books. Just in order by title. She couldn't remember specific authors well enough to organize them first alphabetically by author and then by title.
She nodded and leant down, picking up the small stack at her feet and turning to cross the room. "What are you doing here?" She asked. She didn't see Ben shrug as he slowly followed her. "I asked around for you until someone knew where you were. I wanted to ask you something." Emerson looked up when he came into her line of sight. He smiled at her and she returned it, blushing. "What did you want to ask me?" Ben lifted his shoulders and settled them back into place. "What are you doing tomorrow morning?" Emerson sucked on her teeth as she leafed through the book in her hands. Horns by Joe Hill. "Uh, I'm teaching." Ben rolled his eyes. "Before that." She lifted her eyebrows in surprise. There was a reason she didn't teach earlier than nine. It was a miracle if she rolled out of bet at nine let alone before and he was asking her about it. "Sleeping?" Ben smiled mischievously and slowly shook his head. Emerson sagged. "Don't wake me up too early or I'll be a terrible bitch to you." Ben laughed and shook his head. "Fine but just remember that you essentially gave me permission to wake you before class."
She absently waved her hand over her shoulder as he left. "Fine, whatever." She heard him laughing all the way down the hall until the door closed in his wake. She turned back to her shelves. She hadn't even finished finding all the books that started with 'A' yet and she only had seventeen piles. She pursed her lips and directed her eyes to the untouched shelf.
.
"So, what does he want to do that early in the morning?" Emerson shrugged when Lourdes directed the question at her. She and Maggie and Emerson had started having girl nights at least once a week. It usually happened on a different day every week since they were all so busy but they tried hard to get together as often as they could to ease the stress and tension in all their lives.
"I don't know. He just came in and asked me what I was doing tomorrow morning." Maggie snorted and pushed her hair back from her face. "Do you guys even have a name?" Emerson drew her eyebrows together. "A name? What does that mean?" Lourdes giggled and scooted closer to both women. "She means, what are you guys?" Emerson's eyes widened. "You know, I don't know. We haven't ever talked about it."
Maggie nodded like this was obvious information. "Well, what do you want to be?" Lourdes asked. Emerson pursed her lips and sat back in her chair. "I mean, I like him. A lot. I want to spend time with him. I don't know." She blushed and took a drink of her canteen. Maggie licked her lips. "Do you know how long it took me and Hal to get together?" Emerson nodded slowly, watching the older women intently.
It was easy for Emerson to listen to Maggie. She knew that Maggie had much more experience when it came to life's events, both pleasant and unfortunate. She knew very little about the actual events but she was aware that Maggie hadn't had the easiest life before the invasion and her life after the invasion started out pretty shitty, too.
"I didn't want to get involved with Hal for a lot of different reasons. He was younger than me by quite a few years. He's only just now 20 and I've got more than five years on him. He'd also been seeing Karen right before we got together and I didn't know how much of his emotions were linked to her recent…capture. I was open to a relationship but not a rebound one. I didn't want him to be disappointed in what he did or didn't get out of our potential relationship. I didn't want him to waste his time on someone like me." Maggie looked down absently at her hands, twisting her fingers together.
Emerson leaned forward, resting her hand on Maggie's. "I've seen the way Hal looks at you. You're the most important person in the world to him. He'd be lost without you and we all know that."
The mood was broken with their laughter and Maggie met Emerson's eyes, smiling. "What I'm saying is don't waste your time worrying over the small stuff. You have feelings for Ben, Ben has feelings for you. That's all that matters. The other stuff will work itself out." Lourdes nodded, agreeing and Emerson sighed. "First I have to sort through all these emotions to figure out what they mean."
Lourdes and Maggie both nodded, understanding.
.
She was comfortably curled in her nest of blankets in her room when she was shaken awake. She moaned and pulled roughly away from the hand against her shoulder and curled back into her blankets. The hand didn't let up and it shook her again, harder this time. She moaned louder and rolled over, farther away from the hand. "You asked for it." She heard before the blanket was ripped away from her and across the room. She shrieked when the cold air assaulted her bare skin and she curled up into a ball.
"Go away!" She mumbled against her pillow. He chuckled and sat on the edge of her bed. "Not so much. Come on, I want to show you something." He wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her to a sitting position. She didn't help him at all and he had to pull her up on his own which wasn't really a difficult task for him.
He smiled at her and stood up. "Get dressed or you'll miss it." She blinked blearily up at him and nodded once. "Alright but you're the one who voluntarily decided to deal with me this early. What time is it anyway?" Ben shrugged and looked around the room like there was actually a working clock nearby. "I don't know like 5:30ish."
She stopped and her eyes widened. "You woke me up at 5:30 in the morning? Ben, when you said before class, I was thinking along the lines of seven thirty. What is so special that I needed to be up before my early expectations?" Ben smirked and jerked his head to the door. "Get dressed and I'll show you." She rested her hands on her hips. "You have to leave first in order for me to get dressed, dumbass." He smiled evilly and sauntered forward. "It's not like you don't want me to see it anyway."
She blushed at his innuendo. "Get out so I can get dressed." He smirked and turned around. She smiled and picked up her discarded jeans from the night before and slipped those on. She pulled on a pair of knee high socks and old fashioned leg warmers slipping on her black boots.
She looked over her shoulder and saw him still standing with his back to her before she slipped her bra on under her shirt. She snapped it and stuck her arms through the straps before adjusting from there. She tugged her black hoodie over her arms before slipping on her worn leather jacket. "Okay, let's go." Ben turned and smiled at her. "I feel like you just stepped out of a Terminator movie." She rolled her eyes and nudged him with her elbow. "Ha ha, very funny. Wasn't there something you woke me up to see?"
Ben led her quietly through the still halls of the building, passing guards around every exit and nodding their greeting. A few of them she knew and gave her curious looks for being up so early. She paid them no mind and followed Ben up several flights of stairs and to the roof.
She raised her eyebrows at him. "The roof? This is what you got me out of bed for? The roof?" He sighed dramatically and nudged her towards the door. "Just go." She smirked and pushed it open, marveling at the sight before her.
The sky was painted a pale yellow with tendrils of orange and pink lining the edges of the clouds. The sun was just barely peeking its head above the hills and it illuminated the dilapidated buildings of downtown Charleston. She could feel the early licks of warmth on her face as it rose up above the hills.
She turned her head when she felt Ben come up behind her. "I've watched the sunrise every day for a month and today was the day I finally had the courage to ask you to watch it with me." She snorted. "You didn't so much ask as demand." He poked his elbow into her ribs and she hissed at him. "I always thought of how I'd want you to be up here with me when it rises but I'd never thought to ask you until yesterday." He shrugged and smiled down at her.
She turned back to watch the sunrise with Ben standing behind her.
