"Neal, will you please sit still, I am trying to help you." Emma said, holding a cotton ball with medicine on it, near Neal's eye.
"It hurts, why can't I just put a band aid on it or something." Neal complained.
"If you do that, I am going to start calling you a pirate." Emma joked, laughing slightly at Neal's disgusted face.
"Emma, you don't need to take care of me, I can take care of myself." Neal stated, standing up from the chair he was sitting in, walking to the other side of Emma's dorm.
"Neal, I know you can, but you did something brave and wonderful. I want to repay you for saving Regina's life!" Emma boosted.
"Emma…" Neal trailed off, looking down at the floor.
After a few moments of silence, Neal straightened up a bit and grabbed the first aid kit from Emma's bed and began fixing up some cuts on his face, hearing Emma give out a small sigh in defect.
When Neal was all clean and bandaged up, he closed up the first aid kit and placed it on Emma's desk, refusing to make eye contact.
"Neal…" Emma started, standing up, making her way over to him.
"No, Emma!" Neal said sternly, looking over at the door.
"Please, please just stay." Emma pleaded, earning her a sad look from Neal.
"Okay." Was all Neal could say.
"Lets, watch a movie or something and then you can go." Emma said quickly, trying to figure out why Neal was pulling away from her.
"Okay, that sounds good." Neal said softly, walking over to her bed, sitting down, waiting for Emma.
Emma had picked the longest movie she could find. " How about Titanic?"
"Good." Neal stated quickly.
Half-way through the movie, Emma was no longer concentrating on the movie, instead she was concentrating on Neal. Trying to figure out a way to keep him here longer, hoping if he stayed longer than he would eventually open up and talk to her, instead of pulling away. An idea finally struck Emma.
"Hey Neal?" Emma spoke quietly.
"Yeah?" Neal asked, still looking at the TV screen.
"Kiss me."
With a moment of hesitation, Neal turned his head and kissed her. Once their lips locked, Emma lifted her hand and placed it on Neal's cheek, deepening the kiss. Soon their kiss became more passionate and neither one of them were caring to finish the movie. When the credits began to roll, Emma and Neal were laying down, facing each other under the covers, their clothes on the floor below them.
"Oh, wow." Emma breathed, still catching her breath, wrapping her arms around Neal, feeling his chest rise and fall with every breath he took. She closed her eyes, savoring this moment, hoping it would last forever.
"Hey Emma?" Neal asked, rubbing her arm that lay across him.
"Hmm" Emma hummed in response.
"I need to talk to you about something. It's kind of important." Neal said.
Opening her eyes, Emma looked over at Neal who was staring at her. "Everything okay?" She asked.
"That's difficult to answer right now. How about we get dressed and I will talk to you about a couple of things." Neal suggested.
Nodding, Emma rose from the bed and looked for her clothes. Once they were both fully dressed, and sitting at the edge of Emma's bed, Neal took a deep breath in. "Okay."
After a few moments of silence Emma decided to speak. "Neal, if you want to tell me what is wrong, you are going to have to speak." She tried to joke.
"I'm leaving." Neal blurted out.
"What do you mean leaving? I know you are graduating very soon, are you going back home?" Emma asked.
"No, I got a job offer and it's a really good job that has to do with why I came to school. I think that I am going to take it." Neal confessed, looking down at the floor.
"Neal, that's great! Where is it?" Emma asked, relaxing a little.
"Tallahassee." Neal said, finally looking at Emma.
Emma felt like her world was coming down. Was he really going to move to the bottom of the country? Her heart began pounding in her chest, and she was doing her best to hold in her tears. "Oh, I mean, that's great, but where does that leave us?" Emma asked sadly, cursing the tear that escaped her eye and was now rolling down her cheek.
Neal walked over and wiped the tear off her cheek before cupping her face with his hand, looking down at her smiling. "That's actually what I wanted to talk with you most about." He said, a small smile still resting on his face. "Would you like to come with me?"
"Wha…" Emma was trying to wrap her head around what he had just asked her. "You…you want me to move with you to Tallahassee?" Emma asked.
"Yeah! I mean why not? You have always wanted to travel, and we practically live together as is. I have clothes over here and you have clothes over at my place." Neal began to ramble on about the benefits of living together.
"Do you think we are ready for that?" Emma asked, still uncertain, a million questions buzzing through her head.
"I believe we are, Emma, I love you and you love me. I have a great opportunity waiting for me down there and I really want you to stay in my life. We can work out the details later, but right now, you are what is important to me. If you don't want to move, I can find a job closer to here, and we can move in when you graduate in 4 months." Neal said, rubbing his hands up and down Emma's arms.
"Okay." Emma whispered.
"Okay?" Neal asked, his smile growing wider and wider.
"Okay, let's do this. Let's move to Tallahassee!" Emma said, smiling. She was beginning to feel excited, but there was a small pull of something, but shouldn't place what it was.
"Really! Oh, Emma!" Neal exclaimed, pulling her in for a hug. Once she was wrapped in his arms, he lifted her up slightly, sighing happily once her feet were back on the ground. Emma saw his eyes light up, and she decided to ignore the nagging feeling she was getting. "I can't wait to tell everyone!" Neal said.
"I think that we should wait, wait until we know that I can move down there. I want to try to transfer my credits to a different school and possibly find a job. Once those are all taken care of and everything is set in stone then we can tell people." Emma said, feeling slightly nervous to tell her friends and family about moving.
"Okay." Neal said, still with the biggest smile Emma had even seen painted on his face. Moving forward, Neal gave Emma a kiss on her forehead. After a few moments Neal pulled away and looked at Emma. "Em, I am really glad that we are doing this. I have to go though. I am going to call my dad and tell him the big news."
"I am glad that you guys are working things out." Emma smiled. "Okay, go have fun!"
When Neal left, Emma sat down on her bed, the feeling of dread started to sink in. What was she going to tell her family and friends? Regina was never going to forgive her if she left. Maybe this new job was a great way for him to never have to touch drugs again. Emma's mind began to wonder, weighing the pros and cons, but one thing she knew for sure, was she was not going to live in a place with drugs. With that in mind Emma went to her computer and began searching for college in Tallahassee.
After a couple of days of searching for colleges, Emma had applied to a couple of different schools that she liked, and started to apply for jobs and looking for apartments they could afford. Emma was starting to feel better about moving once she started working on the details of moving. Emma was still struggling with the idea of telling everyone, but decided that it was time to mention the idea to her parents at least.
Sitting on her bed, after having dinner with her friends, Emma decided it was time to tell her parents. Nothing was permanently set in stone yet, but that way things were looking, it was going to be soon. After a moment of hesitation Emma dialed her mother's number.
After a couple of rings Emma heard the high-pitched yet sweet voice of her mother "Hello?"
"Why hello Snow White." Emma said, chuckling slightly.
"Oh Emma! I was hoping you were going to call! I am so glad you did. I have to tell you, guess who I ran into the other day?" Mary Margaret's voice, beamed through the phone.
"I give up, tell me." Emma insisted, more than happy to have the conversation steering in a different direction than she originally intended.
Emma listened to her mother ramble on about some she knew who she ran into at the grocery store. How she hadn't seen them since Emma was a little girl. "Oh Emma, it was so cute the first time you met him, he had a small beard that was beginning to turn white, and I was fearing you were going to call him Santa, but you ran right up to him and called him Gepeto! Oh gosh Emma, you have always loved naming people after your favorite fairy tales." Mary Margret gushed.
"I wasn't very original was I?" Emma joked slightly. "Hey, mom? I kinda need to talk to you about something, it's really important." Emma said, a wave of anxiety hitting her.
"It's okay Emma, you can tell me anything." Mary Margret said, hoping to ease her daughter.
"So you know how I told you about Neal?" Emma asked.
"Right, your boyfriend! Are you guys still together?"
"Yes, we are. Actually, he is going to be graduating early and already has a really good job opportunity waiting for him. When he graduates, he has asked me to move in with him." Emma said, liking the way it sounded.
"Oh Emma! That's amazing! I do ask your father and I meet him before you do that, but Oh gosh I am so excited for you! Have you guys picked out apartments yet?" Her mother asked.
Guilt suddenly hit Emma. Taking in a shaking deep breath, Emma revealed to her mother where they were looking. "Um... Tallahassee." Emma mumbled.
"I'm… I'm sorry, did you just say Tallahassee?" her mother asked, causing Emma to jump slightly, even though her mother wasn't yelling, only questioning.
"Um, yeah. Neal got a really good job opportunity down there. He offered to turn it down and find something closer up here, but everyone knows I'm not going to live up here much longer. I didn't want to be the reason he turned down a job. I thought about transferring schools, or just meeting him down thereafter I graduate." Emma said, suddenly like the sound of finishing school up here than moving when she was done. "I have even started applying for jobs. Nothing is set in stone yet but it's an idea with a plan." Emma rushed out, anxiously waiting for her mother's response.
"Well, it seems as though you guys have really thought about this. Your father and I will support you in any decision you make, but we only wish you will finish school. You said something about transferring schools, have you looked at any yet?" Emma noticed her mother's voice was not as excited as she hoped it would be, but understood why.
"Yeah! I found a great school down there, it's called Keiser University. It has a great Criminal Justice program, and they want me down there. I sent over my transcript and credit to make sure they will all go through. I am making sure my scholarships will go through." Emma said, grateful she is able to report all of this to her mother.
"Oh Emma! We are really going to miss you!" Emma could hear her mother crying on the other end of the phone.
"Oh Mom! Don't cry! I will come home for the holidays and hopefully birthdays and big events. I promise!" Emma tried to soothe her mother's crying.
"I know you will." Her mother sniffed. "You seem to have everything figured out which is great. Oh!"
"Mom? Everything's okay?" Emma asked after hearing her mother exclaim.
"Oh, yes! Sorry, there was a knock at my door." Mary Margrete confessed.
"Answer your door, and we will talk about all of this later okay. I love you Mom." Emma said, smiling into her phone.
"Oh I love you too my little Princess." Her mother said before hanging up.
After hanging up her phone, Emma realized she had been crying. After sitting on her bed to calm herself, Emma decided to check her Email, to see if she has heard back from Keiser University yet.
After opening her Email, Emma could only sit back and take in the message she was sent not even five minutes ago.
Dear Ms. Swan,
We would like to thank you for your interest in Keiser University. Unfortunately at this time, some classes you have taken at Salem State, we do not offer here. We would only be able to honor 60 out of your 100 credits you have earned so far.
We do hope to see you in the Spring,
Zoey Kingsley
Financial Administration
Keiser University