"Emma where the hell have you been?" Mary shouts and rushes over to Emma when she sees her walking towards the team. She was getting really irritated by Emma's lack of motivation.
"I'm sorry, I lost track of the time. I didn't mean….." Mary stops her by holding up her hand. "I don't care. If it happens again you are of the team." She turns around and stalks back to continue the practise. Maybe some tough love is what Emma's needed. So that's what she gave Emma and she include the rest of the team. She yelled and made them run tracks and do backflips until they were all a breath away from death.
When practise came to an end Emma was sweating and wanted nothing more but to get home and take a shower. Mary had other plans for her.
"Hey Emma! Wait up for a second." She shouts and runs after Emma. She links their arms together and walks further. Emma raised her eyebrow in confusion, not even a second ago Mary had been yelling at her to run faster and now she was back to being her best friend. Something was defiantly wrong with Mary.
"I'm sorry for raising my voice to you and showing you some tough love. You need to understand that I'm the captain and I need to install discipline in the team. I can't favour someone over another." Emma nods.
"Alright but that's was not what I wanted to talk to you about." She says and takes out her phone. She shows Emma a picture of a redheaded girl.
"This is Merida. She's our age and she likes watching Harry Potter." Mary explains but Emma can only frown at her not really knowing or not wanting to know where Mary is going with this.
"She's gay and she has agreed to meet you for a date this weekend." Emma feels herself stiffen. Did Mary just set her up for a date? Emma didn't like this at all, she wasn't some little teenage girl, she could pick her own dates.
"And when did I agree to this?" Emma asks irritation slipping through her voice and Mary laughs ignoring Emma's upset behaviour.
"I told you I was going to set you up at some point."
Emma shakes her head. She looks at the picture again and must admit that the girl is really cute. Maybe she should go it will take her mind of those dangerous feelings she sometimes has when she's around Regina. Isn't that the expression, get over someone by getting under someone?
"Alright I'll do it. Where are we meeting?" Mary beams.
The next time Regina and Emma talked to each other was on the phone on Saturday. A few hours before Emma was supposed to meet Merida for their date. Emma was nervous and she needed to hear Regina's voice to calm her nerves. She had asked Milah for some fashion advice but it only made Emma even more nervous.
"So what's wrong with what you are wearing?" Regina asks. She was in her bedroom reading a book while her parents had gone out groceries shopping.
"It's not me." Emma told her while looking in the mirror. She was wearing a jeans skirt with a soft pink blouse. Her hair was loose and curly and it was the only think that was feeling right.
"It's to girly and I don't want to be someone I'm not."
Regina understood where Emma was coming from. She just didn't understand why Emma was asking her advice. She had never gone on a date, never been in a relationship.
"I don't think I'm the best person to give you advice on this." Regina told her truthfully. "What would you like to wear on this date?" Regina asks. She had mixed feeling over this date. She was happy Emma had found someone she might like but she was also scared that Emma was really going to like this person and that Regina would lose her friend.
"I would like to wear some skinny jeans and maybe a fresh washed tank-top. Not like I'm trying to much but also not like I'm not wanting to try. You know what I mean?"
Regina just hummed and hope she didn't need to really answer that question. Because she didn't know what Emma meant.
"That's sounds nice. You should wear that, I think this Merida girl will like you no matter what you are wearing." Emma laughed.
"I hope so."
Emma was standing outside of grannies and looked in. She saw Merida sitting at one of the booths. The girl was pretty there was no denying that. Emma took a deep breath and gathered up enough courage to open the door and enter grannies.
"Hey you must be Merida." Emma slides into the booth across from Merida who was startled from Emma's sudden presence.
"Yes and you must be Emma." Merida laughs and holds out her hand for Emma to take.
Regina didn't know why but there she was standing outside of grannies and looking inside to where Merida and Emma were seated. She felt really pathetic hiding in bushes watching how Emma was laughing and how Merida was touching her arm. It seemed like the date was going pretty good and Emma was enjoying herself. So why wasn't Regina glad? A good friend would feel happy.
Regina shook her head and climbed out of the bushes. She can't think like this she has to be a good friend and I good friend will wait until Emma calls and be happy for her when she tell her all about her perfect date.
Regina was walking down the street when her phone started ringing. She look and saw Emma's name. Was the date already over? She had just left the diner five minutes ago.
"Hello?" Regina asks.
"thank god! Regina I need your help, can you please call me back in five minutes?" Emma asks whispering into the phone.
"I guess…"
"Good, I hear you in five minutes." The call was cut off and Regina looked down at the phone in confusion. What kind of game was Emma playing? Regina sat down and watched the minutes tick by when five minutes passed she dialled Emma number again.
"Hello, Emma."
"Hello Milah." Emma answered quickly.
"No It's Regina!"
"Alright Milah, I'll come home don't worry. I'll see you soon."
"Emma? I don't know what you're talking about?" Regina asks even more confused.
"Yes will talking later." And the line was cut off again. Regina stared at her phone in her hand and didn't know what the think. What just happened? Deciding to not break her head about it Regina slid her phone in her pocket and started walking back to her house.
Around ten Regina was lying already in bed. Her parents had gone to sleep as well because the following day they would go with pastor Gold to a convention. She couldn't sleep, she felt restless. She was feeling hot but even when the covers were of her body she still felt too hot to fall asleep. She let her mind drift off to the day's events. The way she felt when she saw Emma with that girl, she didn't understand how she can be so jealous. Emma was her friend, her very gay friend. And being gay was a sin, or maybe it wasn't. She never felt this jealous when Daniel started dating Graham, she was happy for him.
She didn't understand why she was feeling like this. Did she like Emma more than a friend? How does it feel like when you like someone more than a friend? And Emma was a girl, even if she liked Emma more than a friend did this mean she was gay as well? And how did she turn gay? Did Emma turn her gay? She didn't understand all of these feelings.
Regina jumped up in bed when a loud knock sounded coming from her window. Regina squinted her eyes and was shocked when she saw Emma smiling at her. She climbed out of bed and opened the window.
"What are you doing here?" Regina whispers just in case her parents could hear her.
"Hey." Emma smiles and climbs through the window. "Just wanted to explain the call to you today."
Regina switches on the light on her nightstand and sits down on bed. She pats the spot next to her and waits for Emma to take a seat. Emma doesn't really take a seat but jumps on the bed next to Regina.
"So first of all thank you. You saved me from a bad date." Regina frowned. It didn't look like it was a bad date when she was there. What could have happened in the time she had left the diner.
"What happened?"
"Well I know that her name is Merida, she moved here with her family from Scotland three years ago. She likes horse riding and archery. Her mother is very strict and her father wanted a boy."
"That doesn't sound that bad."
Emma chuckles and lies on her back. "Now it doesn't but it would have been fun if she actually wanted to know this about me. She just kept talking and talking. At one point I wanted to grab some fries and shove them up her mouth, just to make her stop talking."
Regina chuckles. She would have loved to see that. "So that's why you called?" Regina says fitting the puzzle pieces together. "You wanted me to bail you out of the date. I didn't understand it first."
"Yeah I should have explained things better to you. You didn't mind did you?" Emma asks looking at Regina who was perched on the edge of the bed her body stiff. Was she feeling uncomfortable with Emma here?
"Are you okay? Does me being here make you uncomfortable?" Emma asks sitting up and putting her hand on Regina's shoulder. Regina looks at her and shakes her head.
"No, I like you being here. I don't feel so alone anymore."
Emma takes Regina's hand and plays with her fingers. Their soft and look well taken care off. "I talked to Graham. He told me some stuff about you." Regina looks down at their hands. There are a few things that Graham could have told her and they can't be any good.
"What kind of stuff?" Regina asks and her voice is so small making Emma feel guilty by bringing it up. But she needs Regina to know that she's on her side.
Emma takes the sleeve of Regina's pyjama and slides it up her arm. Emma traces her fingers of the large vertical scare. Emma had seen the scars of other girls who self-harmed. Most of their scars where small and horizontal, they would bleed and feel the pain. Regina scar wasn't like that, it was one to stop the pain.
"He told me about Daniel and you. I'm sorry about what happened to you and I want you to know Regina that I'm here. I can't make the bullying stop completely but I'll make sure you will never feel like you need to end things ever again." Emma doesn't know what makes her do what she does next but before she can stop herself she presses her lips against the large scar on Regina's arm.
Regina gasps at the soft press she feels. Her heart is ready to welcome Emma's friendship. They talk for a little while before Emma has to take her leave. When Regina is back in bed she falls asleep right away and this time without any nightmares or demons waiting for her.