Chapter 4

The Middle…..

Emma sat and looked at the computer screen in front of her. She had been sitting in the MI lab for several hours now, and was honestly fatigued from all of the emotions that went through her as she sat writing her story. Her initial plan, the one she had come up with all those days ago, called for her to write out her story in one day, and then once she could make sure that it made it into the right hands, leave, and never come back. But now, after typing away for hours, and only getting the beginning done, she realized she may need to make some adjustments. The parts that she had put onto the page were nothing compared to the rest that she had yet to form into words.

Manny eyed her warily from the back of the room. Emma had been too engrossed in her task to notice the eyes of her ex-best friends that had been on her for the past half hour. The two once inseparable girls were currently not on speaking terms. The fight they had was still being whispered about in the halls. To say that they had both been brutal was an understatement. Both girls had been inconsolable for days following the altercation. It had been a month since the blow-up, and Emma had still not spoken to Manny, which broke the brunette's heart. She and Emma had their fair share of fights and arguments over the past ten years, but this was the longest that they had gone without talking and making up. Manny was starting to get desperate, but she knew her best friend enough to know that pushing Emma before she was ready would likely end with an even bigger fight and the two still not speaking to one another. Resigned, Manny gathered her things and rushed out of the room. She was on a mission. She didn't care who she had to talk to or what she had to do, she was going to get to the bottom of what was going on with Emma, and she knew just who she was going to start with.

Hearing the door click closed, Emma was pulled out of her reverie and looked around the empty classroom. With a sigh, she saved her project on her thumb drive and gathered her stuff to go. She knew that she was not going to be getting any more writing done today. The end of their senior year was closing in, and the school was pretty much deserted this time of day on a Friday, with all of the seniors out getting ready for graduation, and the underclassmen gearing up for summer break. As Emma locked up the classroom, she felt a pang of sadness roll through her. This had been Snake's domain, and being in here without his presence made her feel even more hollow than she already did. At this thought, a twinge of guilt rushed through her as well. She hadn't thought about Snake in months, the realization making her even more tired. With that final sad thought, Emma made her way out of the school and began her walk home.

Sean Cameron was not having a good day. It started with his car not starting this morning, causing him to get to work late. By the time he made it in, his boss Tony told him that if he couldn't come in on time, to not even bother in the future. This was not what Sean needed right now. His life, as of late, had become so stressful, and he was barely holding onto his sanity by a very thin thread. The day proceeded to keep spiraling downhill when at lunch, his card was declined when he went to pay for his meal. He was thankfully saved by his ex-best friend, who was ordering food behind him when he handed the cashier his card and said to add it to his order. Sean did not know what to make of that. Jay had barely spoken to him for the past year, and yet, here he was, buying Sean's lunch without saying so much as a word to him. When Sean thanked him, the other boy simply nodded and grunted, and walked away to pick up his order. Thankfully the rest of his day at work went by without too much incident, but as he was leaving for the day, his bad luck threw him another curveball.

Manny was sitting on the hood of Sean's car, arms crossed, looking ready for a fight should it come to that. Sean tried to ignore her, and walked straight to the driver's side door, when Manny stepped in the way, glaring down at him. The two stood there for a moment, eyes locked, blaring with a promise of pain for several minutes before Sean finally broke the silence. "Just tell me what you want, Santos, so I can get in my damn car and go home. It has been a fucked up day, and I don't particularly feel like dealing with the high school bullshit this evening," he snarled through clenched teeth. Manny eyed the boy for a few moments. While she always knew that Sean was a looker, seeing him, all fired up, and greasy from work, was doing things to her that she didn't have time to examine right this minute. She had a best friend mission to work on, and would not let herself get distracted by a pair of biceps, no matter how good-looking they were. She quickly shook her head and began to speak. "Have you talked to Emma lately?" she asked, a little more edge to her voice than she had intended. Sean just looked back at her incredulously. Seriously, this is what she was here to ask him about; if he had spoken to Emma? He could hardly believe it. He and Emma had not had any contact in about six months, and the fact that Manny didn't know that was telling. "I haven't talked to her in months!" He shouted, "What, she hasn't told you? Is she acting like I'm the bad guy in all of this, 'cause that is fucking rich coming from her!" Sean finished with a snarl. Manny stood there, eyes wide with suspicion, and surprise. Huh, so she doesn't know, sean thought to himself. You could practically hear the wheels turning in her head as Manny attempted to piece together what he might mean. As she started to open her mouth, Sean held up a hand and cut her off, " I am not going to explain; if you want the whole story, you can go get it from her, because I am done talking about this, and I am through talking to you." With that, Sean jumped into his car, and rushed out of the parking lot, leaving a stunned and confused Manny standing alone in the parking lot.

Unbeknownst to Manny, someone else had been standing in the shadows near the back of the building, watching the whole interaction. The man stood there in deep thought. He thought that by now, Emma would have at least told Manny what had happened, and his heart constricted when he realized that she hadn't. It only solidified his thoughts that none of it ever mattered to the girl, if her own best friend was never brought into the loop. He stood there for a moment more, fighting an inner battle with himself. A part of him wanted to go over to Manny and talk if only to hear any news on Emma, but the other part of him, the one that was heartbroken and hurt, prevailed, and he simply walked back into the building and turned off the lights.

AN: So this was the first chapter in real-time to what is happening in our characters' worlds. I know it is still moving kind of slowly, but as the storyline is becoming more firm in my mind, it should pick up the pace soon. This was also the first chapter where we weren't seeing everything purely from Emma's POV. Essentially, all of her chapters are when she is writing our her story. I am going to do my best to make sure to make it clear when this happens, but in this one, I felt it was pretty cut and dry. I hope you are enjoying it so far, and on to the next one.