Somebody To Love
"I gotta get out of this prison cell
Someday I'm gonna be free, oh
Somebody, oh somebody
Can anybody find me
Somebody to love?"
Queen
"Johnny."
Ember struggled not cry as she stood stiffly behind Johnny. Lately, trying not to cry was all she ever seemed to do. Ever since The Event, she'd been like Aunt Stephanie whenever she'd been pregnant with any of her six kids. She wasn't constantly crying, but it was enough to make her feel uncomfortable. Ember didn't cry. It just wasn't her.
A junior girl sitting with Johnny gave Ember an ugly look. Her cheeks burned with shame. Clearing her throat, she tried again. "Johnny? Can I talk to you?"
He turned around slowly, reluctantly, giving her a long look. Again, she flushed a hideous, ugly red. "Now?"
"Um, yeah," said Ember awkwardly. She stared straight at him, concentrating very hard on not making eye contact with any of the juniors at the lunch table. After a moment, Johnny slowly stood up. If she hadn't been so confused, so furious, she would have been relieved.
"What's up?" he asked as he followed her to the far corner of the cafeteria.
She took a deep breath, reminding herself it would do nothing for her to kill him right now. "What's up?" she hissed, turning around. "What's up is that you haven't even said hello to me since Kendall's party."
Johnny clearly knew what she was talking about; his pasty face darkened a shade, and he quickly became absorbed in his shoes. "I dunno what you're talking about."
She glared at him, then looked away. The sight of him was quickly become painful.
There was a very awkward pause as each of them desperately tried to think of an ending to the conversation. Because, Ember was quickly realizing, it was going to end. And with it, whatever Johnny had given her.
She, however, was never getting back what she'd given him.
Thinking about that, she gritted her teeth, her anger bubbling up inside of her like an experiment gone wrong in Biology. Her head snapped up just as her mouth opened. "You know what? I don't frickin' care. You're a loser, Johnny, and that's all your ever going to be. Waste your life with Krissy or whatever the hell her name is -"
"Kitty," he murmured under his breath.
"- but I have bigger things in mind. The band doesn't need you! It never did, the only reason you're in it is Dave!"
Johnny looked up, hurt and shock splattered all over his face. "Ember, I'm sorry! I just... didn't feel anything." He reached out to touch her shoulder, but she jerked away.
"Don't touch me," she snarled. For the purposes of now, she ignored the absurdity of that statement (what was one little touch compared to three weeks ago, that awful pre-Christmas week?) "It was a mistake, and that's all it's ever going to be."
Then she turned her back on him and stalked out of the corner of the cafeteria, just in time to hide her face from him as she dissolved into tears.
She wanted her virginity back.
