Exile in Main St.

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The road to Mystic Falls was not as Emma remembered it. Everything was different, and even with the aid of the signs, the young woman ended up getting the route wrong twice. She was a good driver, and the car she'd managed to buy as soon as she landed in the States was pretty decent, despite the low price. The truth was that she had never driven to her hometown, the last time she set foot in Virginia she was only 14, which made the drive something entirely new.

Sighing with relief, she spotted the town's welcome sign in the distance. She had spent the last 48 hours deciding whether to make her return a surprise to her family or whether it was better to give them notice of her arrival. Not that she would be staying with her remaining family members, but it might be prudent to let them know of her presence. Emma gripped the steering wheel firmly with her left hand and bit her lower lip as her right hand searched for her mobile phone inside her handbag. It would be difficult to get used to the steering wheel on the left side of the vehicle again. She took advantage of the fact that the entrance to the city was fairly empty and dialed Jenna's number.

The call didn't even complete before Emma dropped the mobile phone on the floor of the car and grabbed the steering wheel with both hands, swerving the car to the side in a jolt.

"ASSHOLE!" She screamed with her head out the window at the blue car that overtook her at high speed and narrowly missed tearing off her side mirror.

Honestly, who still drives a camaro? Emma thought, huffing. As soon as she reached the first closed traffic light, she leaned forward and gathered up her mobile phone, realising that the call had not even completed. The green light indicated that the way was clear for Emma, and she followed the path to Jenna's house. She used the route she knew, even if it was longer, after all, she didn't want to take the wrong way again.

She pulled out her mobile phone and called Jenna again, activating the speakerphone button and placing the device on the car's dashboard. She wasn't going to risk having an accident by holding the phone in her hand. Her aunt's number called four times until she finally answered.

"Hello?" Jenna's voice answered.

"Hi Jenna, how's everything?"

"Emma? Is that you?"

"If you mean your niece Emma, then the answer is yes" Emma joked, and Jenna laughed.

"She's the only Emma in my life, how are you? You haven't called in ages! Is that your new number?" Jenna started machine gunning her with questions "Wait... Is that an American number? Are you back in the States?"

"One question at a time, Jen, geez" Emma replied amused "To be more exact, I'm in front of your door".

"WHAT?" Jenna exclaimed and as soon as Emma pulled on the handbrake and took off her seatbelt, the front door of the Gilbert house opened in a jolt and Jenna emerged holding her mobile phone to her ear. The woman, seeing her niece getting out of the car, dropped the mobile phone on the ground and ran to the chestnut girl, taking her in a hug "Oh, Emma! How I missed you!" The woman broke the hug and held her niece by the shoulders, analyzing her "How you've grown, and you're beautiful!"

"Oh, please, Jenna, you're only two years older!" Emma snorted and Jenna laughed.

"Let's go in, please! We have what? Three years to catch up on?"

"Sort of" Emma replied, smiling weakly, as Jenna led her by the shoulders to the entrance of the house.

As soon as she entered the house, Emma felt a comfortable sense of home. She remembered when she used to spend some Sunday lunches there in that house when everyone was alive and happy. Emma missed that time very much, and sometimes regretted leaving Mystic Falls to follow her silly dream of studying literature. In the end, she didn't get the career she wanted, even though her academic record was impeccable, and she ended up so far away from her family that she wasn't even missed in their lives.

Jenna was the only person with whom she kept more contact, perhaps because of the closeness in age between the two. The woman was the youngest sister among three siblings: Elena and Jer's mom and Emma's father. Emma's father, Jack, raised her alone after the early death of her mother, and eventually also passed away shortly after she turned 18. Emma had always been quite independent, and it was after Jack's death that she decided to move to England for good after getting a scholarship.

Elena and her had never been very close, Emma remembered Elena was just a child when she entered her teens, and constantly the chestnut had to run away from her cousin to spend an afternoon in peace. That memory wrenched a smile from her. Jeremy, even younger, was Emma's favourite. Jer had always been a quiet child and was even younger when Emma used to frequent that house. The truth was that the younger cousin was the living doll of the young woman, who used to dress him up in ridiculous costumes and teach him to get up to some mischief when the adults weren't looking.

Emma passed a large dresser full of picture frames on her way to the kitchen, and smiled sadly as she saw a picture of the Gilberts together. Jenna put the kettle on to warm up and opened the fridge, reaching for something for the two of them to nibble on.

"How's it been living here again?" Emma asked, pulling up a stool and sitting down by the kitchen island "You were the first to kick off when you turned eighteen".

"To be honest? Hard" Jenna confessed, "Living in Mystic Falls is nice, the problem is... It's complicated being responsible for Elena and Jeremy. One day I was a young adult with no plans to have children and the next... Boom, two minors entirely under my responsibility".

"It's unfair" Emma commented, unconsciously pulling some of the skin off the corners of her nails, which were already peeling off their burgundy nail polish. She always kept her nails painted because, otherwise, she would end up biting her nails to the flesh in moments of anxiety. However, not even the nail polish could stop her from continuing her habit of pulling out cuticles with her teeth or fingers. "I mean, aunt and uncle passing, Jer and Elena left alone, you giving up on your independt life. It's so unfair".

"Things are the way they are, Emma" Jenna reassured her, smiling sympathetically, "How did you know I was here? You've been unreachable for three years if I'm not mistaken".

Emma shifted uncomfortably in her chair and awkwardly opened a tea bag and put it into a cup.

"I received your email after the accident, when you asked if I could be present at the funeral" Emma explained, still brushing the task her own hands exerted on the cup "I didn't reply because... A lot happened and I... I'm sorry, Jen".

"Hey" Jenna pulled a stool to Emma's side and took her hands in hers. "I'm glad you came to visit".

"Actually, I came to stay".

"Really?" Jenna raised an eyebrow.

"I finished my degree almost four years ago, even got a major" Emma hurried to explain, "I thought I'd come home and maybe teach here at Mystic Falls High. What do you think?"

"Emma, that's great news!" Jenna cracked a sincere smile "Elena is up and down with her boyfriend right now, so I don't think she'd really like sharing a room. But you can stay with me, there's no problem".

"No, no. I've been looking at some flats online and found two with a lot of potential. I'm visiting them tomorrow, so for today the couch is more than fine".

"Are you sure?"

"Jenna, I'm not going to take away your privacy, much less Elena's" Emma spoke up and smiled debauchedly. "Does our little Elena have a boyfriend, huh?"

Jenna giggled and got up to get the water that was already sizzling in the kettle. She poured them both and Emma positioned her palms against the opening of the cup, a quirk she had while waiting for the herb to infuse.

"Yeah, Elena's already a woman" Jenna smiled "The boy's pretty decent, Stefan. He's a good guy, even though he's a bit of a weirdo".

"Nerdy wirdo or panty sniffing psycho weirdo?" Emma asked, laughing.

"Emma!" Jenna scolded her, but fell into laughter.

"What? It can happen" Emma explained "Do you remember Adam? He totally sniffed my panties during that party when dad was out of town".

Jenna almost fell over backwards from laughing so hard and the two of them spent long hours reminiscing about their teenage years, family lunches, talking about the courses Emma took abroad, the places she'd been and Jenna's life before and after taking on custody of her nephews. The two of them sat in the kitchen for so long that they didn't even notice when Jeremy came home and, strangely hearing laughter from the kitchen, entered the room with an arched eyebrow. Jenna, who was facing the door, was the first to spot the boy.

"Jer, guess who's here?" the aunt spoke, smiling at the boy, and Emma turned to the door, her eyes widening at the sight of her fully grown cousin.

"Emma?" Jeremy asked for confirmation, already with a half smile on his lips.

"It's a shame you don't fit into the costumes I bought anymore" she joked, and he ran towards her and took her in a tight hug, making Emma almost fall off the stool. She broke the hug and held the boy's face between her palms "You're huge! And beautiful! I always knew you'd be the best looking Sommers-Gilbert".

"I can't believe you're here!" Jeremy replied with a smile, despite his red cheeks and ears. "We've missed you so much! Or at least I did".

The boy pulled up a stool and sat down practically glued to his cousin. Emma had always been a kind of heroine to the boy. Despite the big age difference, the girl was the one who always took care of him, played with him, and even when she left Mystic Falls she kept writing to him for several years. Emma's influence on the boy was so great that he spent most of his life saying that he would live in England as soon as he finished school. He had missed her terribly in the last three years, especially after his parents passed away. He remembered sending his cousin several letters asking her to come back, but she never even replied.

He held a lot of anger towards her in the first months for abandoning them, for abandoning him. But now that she was there, he simply couldn't not be happy. She was there, and that was what mattered. Maybe then everything would be less crazy than it had been in the last year with the whole situation with Vicki, Elena, Stefan and the whole underworld that was taking over Mystic Falls like a plague.

"I missed you guys, especially you" Emma replied, ruffling Jeremy's hair.

"How long are you staying?" he asked.

"It was a one way ticket" she answered with a sincere smile.

"Really?" Jeremy grinned from ear to ear, and she nodded "Are you gonna live with us here?"

"I'm renting my own flat, but since Mystic Falls is basically a town from The Sims, you could say I'll be your neighbour" she replied with a wink, and he laughed.

Emma was genuinely happy to see Jeremy, and was relieved by the warm reception. However, she knew that her cousin was not quite well. She hadn't seen him for years, but the signs were noticeable. The dark circles under his eyes, the nervous movement of his hands and the visible sweat on his forehead. Jeremy was possibly using drugs, or was in the process of detoxing. Whichever it was, honestly, who could judge him? She remembered when she lost Jack, how much his loss affected her and left wounds that were never fully healed. And most of all, Jer was a teenager. What teenager never smoked pot? By God, she and Jenna had smoked hidden on top of the roof on more than one occasion. She shrugged, after all, if Jen hadn't commented on anything, there was probably nothing to worry about.

Jeremy spent the rest of the day glued to Emma, telling her about his life since the Gilbert's passing. On more than one occasion, the young woman noticed that he restrained himself before he said something he shouldn't say, and she was left wondering what it was that made him so afraid to speak. He spoke openly about his grief after the death of his parents, which didn't match Jenna's version that Jeremy had put up an impenetrable barrier and that the boy didn't usually share his problems or even anything from his private life. The two were sitting together on the couch watching television. Jenna had gone out with her boyfriend, apparently a teacher at Mystic Fall High, and Elena was at her boyfriend's house. Emma was looking forward to seeing Elena again, but knew that at her age, being with her boyfriend was infinitely more interesting than seeing a cousin who had simply disappeared from her life for twelve years.

"You have her eyes, you know" Jeremy commented, and Emma swallowed the popcorn she was chewing and stared at her cousin with an arched eyebrow "Mum's eyes, I mean. You're much more like her than Jenna".

"Is that why I've always been your favorite?" she teased, and he grinned, pulling another handful of popcorn from the bucket she was holding.

"No, you've always been my favorite because you sneaked me dessert before meals and taught me how to do that trick where you put the magnet in the salt shaker"

Emma giggled.

"Oh, the magnet-in-the-salt-shaker trick. It never gets old" she joked.

"And you lied to me that you were Magneto. I actually believed it and spread it around the school that my cousin was a mutant, you know?"

They both had a good laugh. Emma remembered the day Jeremy was referring to. She was fourteen, a few months before she was to leave Mystic Falls, and the boy was five. Emma spent the day telling her cousin that she was leaving because she was called to become an X-Men, and when he asked her to prove to him that she really did have powers, the teenager held the garage control behind her back with her right hand and extended her left arm towards the gate. Carefully, she pressed the button while mimicking the reactions of the comic book mutant, and Jeremy was slack-jawed when the gate did, in fact, open.

"Emma?" Jeremy suddenly asked, frowning "Are you going to your flat tomorrow already?"

"If I like either of the two I'm visiting, yes. Why?"

"No reason, just... Don't invite people you barely know into your flat, okay?"

"Okay..." she replied, arching her eyebrow "Any particular reason?"

"You're a woman" Jeremy replied quickly, mentally thanking himself for having thought of an excuse fast enough, "And you're new in town, you know how it is when something new comes along in a city this size".

"Jer, I'm hardly new in this town, I was born here" she commented, "But I see your point. I'm very careful about that, don't worry".

As soon as the movie was over, Jeremy went upstairs to his room and Emma was soon asleep. She tucked herself under the covers, grateful for the mild Virginia weather, and closed her eyes. She didn't even wake up when Jenna arrived from her date, and the woman had made no effort not to make any noise, since she was completely drunk. As expected, Jenna also threw herself on the bed, still wearing the clothes she had worn to leave the house, and blacked out.

At three in the morning, Emma woke up in a jolt, feeling the drops of sweat dripping from her forehead. She was panting and felt her heart thumping against her body. The room was lit by the moonlight coming in through the window, and the young woman threw the covers aside and stood up quickly from the couch. She walked briskly to the door and checked the lock. She walked towards the windows and checked if they were locked. When she finished checking the last door, which was the kitchen door, she sighed with relief and headed for the bathroom. She dipped her face under the running water and then dried herself. Calmer, she returned to the sofa and slept until the next morning.