Chapter 5, part 1: Gently

Yes, I will stay here for a while,
For I need the break. A break from the
Pressures of life, and everything
That lays in the palm of life's hands.


I am so stressed right now. Can you believe that one of the damn interns misplaced all the paperwork for the Women Against Violence march?! I have to re-submit everything to get all the permits back. Ugh! Like I didn't have enough work to finish, let alone starting almost everything all over again. Plus, I'm running late for my 'date', although it's not really a date, at Tristan's. I didn't even have time to get home to change, and I'm not really in the mood to deal with Manny and her third degree right now.

"Em, you're here. I thought you stood me up." Tristan jokes, allowing Emma to step into his house.

"Me, never, I wouldn't do such a thing, but I do need a ride home, I took a taxi." Emma gives him a small smile.

"Good to hear." Tristan states, placing his hand on her back, guiding her up the stairs. Emma makes it to his bedroom and flings herself down on his bed. "What's wrong?" Tristan asks her before seating himself next to her on his bed.

"Totally stressed. I have to redo all my work for the march." Emma tells him. She takes a deep breath, slowly letting it out.

"What march?" Tristan asks, looking down at her.

"Nothing important, just something I have to do for work." Emma tells him. He never remembers anything. I must have told him about the Women Against Violence like twelve times. Tristan doesn't have time to remember that kind of stuff, he's got his band, his gigs... his drugs...

"Okay... so you need something to get your stress level down?" Tristan inquires. He looks at her, waiting her approval before getting up and rummaging through one of his dresser drawers. He pulls out a plastic baggy. "I have some pot left, it will make you feel a lot better." Tristan opens the bag, but puts it down on the dresser. He opens up the same drawer he took it out of and looks for some papers. Tristan carefully distributes the weed onto the paper, pulls out a dollar, and rolls the joint. He searches his drawer, his pockets, and the top of his dresser before finding a lighter. He lights it up, takes a hit and passes it to Emma.

It's just pot, nothing extremely harmful. I can just experiment, what is one time going to do to me? It won't be a big deal. I really am stressed, and lighting up sounds pretty good to me right about now, whether Tristan listens to me or not. Emma slowly reaches her hand out to take the joint from Tristan. She takes a slow, steady puff and waits a second before releasing. She handed the joint back over to Tristan. Before Emma knew it, they were passing it back and forth. Emma must have taken four hits before Tristan got up to make another one, which they split. Emma began to get really giggly, and enjoyed how stress free she felt. She hung out at Tristan's for another couple hours before she even thought about getting back to her apartment. Zack (lead singer) drove her home. Emma thanked him repeatedly, not remember that she had already said thank you. She walked up to her apartment door, fumbling with the keys, only to have Manny open the door from the other side.

"Hey Em, I didn't think you'd be back tonight. How was Tristan's?" Manny asks, allowing Emma to step inside the apartment.

"Fine." Emma tries her hardest to suppress a giggle, but it soon escapes her lips.

"Are you okay?" Manny asks, trying to get a good look at Emma. Emma just nods, trying to avoid Manny's eyes at all costs. "OH MY GOD, you are high!" Manny exclaims, covering her open mouth with her hand.

Chapter 5, part 2: New Disaster

A hurricane. A tornado. A forest fire. A falling piano.
From out of a window. Where ever she goes. Pure disaster surely follows

"What on Earth is wrong with you!" Manny yells at Emma.

"Nothing!" Emma yells back, trying to keep her giggly behavior under her skin.

"Nothing!" Manny repeats, "Well then why are you HIGH?" She asks, standing with her hands on her hips.

"It's not THAT big of a deal, so I tried some, everyone tries something." Emma shrugs, trying to not yell back at her best friend.

"You, Emma Nelson, are not everyone. I can't believe you. It's that damn boyfriend of yours isn't it?" Manny asks, giving her a hard look, her arms now folded across her chest.

"Leave Tristan out of this." Emma says sternly, shooting Manny an even harder look.

"Tristan, right, so you got weed all on your own, figured out how to roll a joint, or use a bong, or whatever, and smoked it." Manny says aloud, not really expecting an answer. She shakes her head back and forth, trying to relieve herself of the anger flowing through her. "This is something... well its something I would do, not you."

"Well I wanted to try it, and I did. Nothing bad happened and you have no reason to be angry with me." Emma retorts. It was just a one time thing. Why can't I just try something? It's not like I'm automatically going to become a pot head or something. How come when I do something, or make a mistake, every single person I know jumps down my throat. You are supposed to learn from your mistakes.

"I can't deal with you right now, especially like this." Manny grabs Emma's arm. She swings the front door open, walks out, pulling Emma behind her, and pounds on Sean's door. She waits for someone to answer, and when the door doesn't open a mere five seconds later, Manny starts pounding again. Finally the apartment door swings open.

"Jeez, is there a fire or something?"

"Where's Sean?" Manny demands.

"Not here."

"Well he has to fix her." With that said, Manny thrusts Emma into Sean's apartment, slams the door, walks three steps to her apartment, and slams that door too.

Jay looks down at the girl who was just thrown into his arms. Oh man... that girl I saw... was... Greenpeace. Unbelievable. She looks... hot. Damn, Nelson... when the hell did she fill out. Wait, Manny and Emma live next door... and Manny wants Sean to fix her... fix her... what the hell does that mean? If Sean was dating Green, he'd surely tell me. She looks kind of nervous... but she has the slightest smile on her face... almost like she's suppressing her laugh. Her eyes are kinda bloodshot... no way...

"Are you high?" Jay asks her, tightening his hands around her arms, trying to look at her face.

"What... me... no way..." Emma trails off, trying her hardest not to giggle, but it slips through.

"Well, I'd never thought I'd see the day." Jay smirks, still looking down at Emma, who finally looks up at him.

"Oh shut up." Emma retorts. She keeps his eyes locked on his. Something strange takes over her as her head leans up to meet Jay's. She lays her lips on his, pulling her body even closer to him. Jay adapts quickly, kissing Emma back as fiercely as when she had kissed him. Slowly his hand inches up her leg, bringing up the hem of her black vintage party dress, while his other hand holds her hip. Abruptly, Emma pulls back from the kiss, a shocked expression on her face. Jay looks down at her, a little confused as to why she stopped so suddenly.

"You okay?" He asks Emma. She still has the shocked look on her face. She takes a small step back, her hands covering her mouth.

"I c-ch-eated o-on my b-b-boy-f-friend." Emma stammers. I can't believe I just did that, and with Jay. What was I thinking? I guess now I will learn from this mistake: no more drugs.

"I'm sure if you tell your, uh, boyfriend, he'd understand... I mean, he's probably the one who got you high." Jay tries to reassure her.

"Why does everyone assume that?" Emma asks, looking up to meet Jay's gaze.

"Because you're Greenpeace." Jay states simply. Emma looks down, totally ashamed with herself. Even Jay knew that the real Emma would never do something as stupid as drugs. "Why don't you lie down in Sean's room." Jay says to her. Emma doesn't move so Jay lightly tugs on her arm, bringing her over to Sean's bed. Reluctantly, she lays down, curling herself into a ball under the covers. Is it me... it must be me. I let Tristan talk me into doing drugs. When have I ever given in to peer pressure? I am such an idiot. I have to talk to Tristan. I can't do this. I can't do drugs. Hopefully he'll understand that I didn't mean to kiss Jay...