CHAPTER 83

Immediately, Emily recoiled from him. It was like she had just been clobbered by a baseball bat. Her throat started to close up and she was having trouble breathing. Her mind spun. So Miguel was planning to leave her?! She edged away from him.

"W-w-what?" She stammered. Miguel raised his hands up.

"Look, I don't want to. It's just… I might not have much choice." Miguel stated. Confusion took over her.

"Huh?" She grunted, perplexed. Miguel took a deep breath. He knew he was going to have to tell her about his issue at some point. Might as well be now.

"Hey, um… just wait here a second, okay?" He said, walking back into his trailer and emerging a few moments later with the papers. He handed them to Emily and she quickly read them, her eyes skimming through the pages, before they looked back up, fearful.

"So, what? They're just going to drag you from your home and into some group home?!" She exclaimed. Miguel nodded.

"Guess so." He murmured.

"There's no way they can do that!" She stated, vehemently. Miguel shrugged, defeated.

"Evidently, they can." He grumbled in reply. Emily shook her head furiously.

"No! You can't! You can't just leave me!" Emily cried, tears flickering in her eyes. She couldn't believe it. After everything they'd been through together, Miguel was suddenly going to be ripped out of her life, to potentially never see her again. Her heart shattered with the mere thought of it.

"Well it's not really my choice now is it?" Miguel snapped, annoyed, before sighing. "Look, I'm sorry. I'm not pissed at you. It's just fucking frustrating. I'm about to have my old life ripped away from me and there's nothing I can do about it."

"That's not necessarily true." Emily replied, reading through the document again, this time more thoroughly. "It says here you can keep your old life if you find someone to agree to be your guardian."

Miguel scoffed.

"Yeah, not as easy as it sounds. In case you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly the most popular guy in the world."

Emily shook her head.

"Maybe not, but there's got to be someone you can ask. What about Johnny?" She suggested. Miguel couldn't help but laugh.

"Haven't spoken to him in about a month now. In fairness, he tried to help me so many times but when I emancipated myself, he kept trying to convince me to make up with my mom so I just started ignoring him and pushed him away. Highly doubt I'm his favorite person in the world right now."

Emily nodded.

"Okay, fine, who else could you ask?" She wondered aloud.

"Literally no one, Emily! That's my point!" Miguel snapped.

"So, what? You're just going to let yourself be taken away and not do a damn thing to stop it?" Emily spat back at him.

"I told you! I. Have. No. Choice." Miguel growled.

"Bullshit!" Emily exclaimed, finding her voice louder and more confident than it had been since she had been kidnapped. For the first time since, she had something to fight for. Her mind wasn't just filled with the horror memories of the past. In fact, she had pushed down all those memories in the heat of her emotions. "You have a choice! You just aren't willing to try!"

Miguel stayed silent, partly because he wasn't in the mood to argue further, but partly because he knew she was right. He was kind of sitting back and letting life sweep him whichever way the wind blew, unable to do anything about it. Because fact was even if he was going to ask someone, there was nobody he trusted and cared about enough to do so.

"I don't know, Em. I mean I'll keep thinking about it and try and find someone." Miguel murmured. Emily nodded.

"Well how long do you have? Did the Child Services person say?" Emily asked, nervously.

"She said she'd be back to meet again in a month and if I didn't have anyone then, she'd start the process to have me added to the foster care system." Miguel replied. Emily nodded, her mind whirring. Though Miguel had said he'd try and sort things out, Emily knew him well enough to know that he was lying through his teeth. He had seemed to have accepted his fate, so Emily knew that it would be up to her to try and help him.

The two talked for a while longer about nothing much in particular, before they got back into the car and began to drive back to Emily's house. The sun had completely set at this point, the night sky taking its place. As Miguel drove, he suddenly heard a quiet snoring beside him. He glanced sideways and saw that Emily had fallen asleep. He couldn't help but smile faintly. He could tell from the bags under Emily's eyes and her yawning every couple of seconds that she wasn't sleeping well at all, so he was happy that she was finally getting some rest. They arrived at Emily's house shortly after, but by the time they arrived, Emily still hadn't awakened. Miguel didn't want to wake her up as she was sleeping so peacefully, so he got out of the car alone and rang the doorbell. When Emily's mom and dad answered it and opened the door, Miguel walked back to his car and quietly opened it. He unbuckled Emily's seatbelt and carried her out the car. She was light as a feather, worryingly so, so it wasn't hard for him to carry her into the house and up to her bedroom. Still dead asleep, Emily was placed gently on her bed, Miguel pulling the covers over her before walking back out of the room. In the hallway, he was then greeted by Emily's parents.

"Hey, sorry we were a bit late getting back." Miguel apologised. Emily's parents shook their heads, smiling.

"Oh, it's absolutely fine." Emily's dad said. "You managed to get her out of the house for the first time in a month. We have to thank you for that."

"Yeah, no problem at all. It was fun." Miguel murmured.

"Do you want to stay here tonight?" Emily's mom asked.

"Oh, that's really nice. Thanks but I don't want to be trouble. I'll just bike home." Miguel replied. Emily's mom shook her head.

"Don't be silly! No trouble at all!" She said. "Besides, it's way too dark for it to be safe to bike home. Come on, I'll set up the guest room for you. Stay here tonight."

"I, um… thank you so much." Miguel eventually relented. Emily's mom smiled.

"No problem! I'll just get the room set up. I'll be just a minute." Emily's mom said, walking over to the guest room, Emily's dad following shortly after, leaving Miguel alone in the corridor. As he stood there, he slowly turned and walked back into Emily's room. It was pitch-black, but he found his way over to Emily's bed, where she was fast asleep. As he looked at her, so at ease, so peaceful, a tear rolled down his cheek. Emily was right. He did feel SO much guilt for her being in her situation. After all, they had only gone after Emily to try and get to him. But was that the reason he had decided to help her?"

"Hey, Em." He whispered, barely loud enough for her to hear him. In fact, a small part of him was kind of hoping she couldn't. There was no way for him to tell anyhow, as her eyes were still closed. "I realised I never answered your question earlier. Why am I helping you? You know if I said I didn't feel guilty for what happened to you, I'd be lying."

Miguel swore he heard the quietest of hitches in Emily's breath, but as she continued to remain motionless, he continued to speak.

"But that's not why I wanted to help you." Miguel resumed. "I wanted to help you because I… I still love you, Emily."

Not a word from the beautiful girl lying fast asleep.

"I've loved you from the day we met in January and I haven't stopped." He said. "That's why I blamed myself for what happened to you. And when I didn't come and see you for the past month… a lot of it was because I was scared you didn't feel the same way anymore. Maybe you don't. Maybe you never did. Honestly, it doesn't even matter. I did, I still do, which is why I gathered the sack to come and see you. And it's why, so help me God, I'm not going to let myself get taken away by foster care. I'm going to stay right here beside you, no matter what happens to me in the process. Because I love you so much nothing else matters."

Miguel's voice trailed off as he eventually stopped talking. His heart was pounding at this point as he tried to make out whether Emily was awake or not. Whether she had heard what he had said or not. Absolutely no way to tell.

"Anyways, I'll let you get some sleep. See you tomorrow." Miguel whispered.

That was when Emily finally moved, her eyes slowly opened and staring right up at Miguel, an unreadable expression on her face. Miguel, who had begun to turn away from her, stopped dead in his tracks. Time seemed to slow to a halt as Miguel desperately tried to guess her reaction. Would she reciprocate his feelings? Would she be angry? Upset?

Miguel thanked his lucky stars it was the former. Emily's arms slowly reached out and pulled him down to her level, kissing him gently.

"I love you too." She murmured against his lips.

Immediately, stars burst through Miguel's heart with a combination of joy and relief. She loved him too! She felt the same way about him!

"Hey, Miguel…" She mumbled quietly, her hand still holding his as she lay down on her bed and Miguel sat beside her.

"Yeah?" He said.

"Can you stay with me tonight?" She asked him in a small voice no louder than a whisper. Miguel nodded, slowly climbing into the bed beside her and instinctively wrapping his arms around her, pulling her into a warm, protective embrace. At that moment, their limbs intertwined with one another and their bodies sharing in each other's warmth, it felt so right. Miguel felt calmer, less troubled than he had in so long, and Emily felt safer than she had in so long. They both almost immediately drifted off into a deep sleep. Mr. and Mrs. Cahill slowly opened the door a few moments later as they finished setting up the guest room. As they saw the couple sleeping peacefully together, Mr. Cahill was about to say something but Mrs. Cahill stopped him, pulling him away and slowly closing the door behind him…