Chapter 4

After reading the text, Emily stopped in mid step staring at her phone. Oh my god. Why won't they leave me alone? She looked around to see if anyone was standing around watching her. She caught Maya's eye through the car window.

Maya rolled it down. "You commin'?"

"Yeah," she looked from side to side again as she responded. Emily, get a hold of your self. It's just a stupid text.

"So," said Maya once Emily was in the car. "You wore the scarf."

She didn't even realize she had put it on. "Oh, yeah. Thanks."

Maya ran her fingers over the scarf's fabric. "It looks good on you." Emily smiled. They looked up, and for a moment just looked each other in the eyes. Both the girls giggled. Maya started up the engine. "Where are we going?" She asked pulling out the drive way.

Emily realized she was still looking at her and looked through the front window. "The community center."

"What's at the community center?"

"It's a surprise Maya," Emily smiled.

"God!" she made an "I'm so irritated" noise that made Emily laugh. "I hate surprises."

"Trust me, you'll enjoy this one."

Maya glanced at her and sighed. "Fine. So what's up?"

"Alison's memorial is next week."

"Yeah, I heard." She took her right hand off the wheel and held Emily's left.

"Ali just seemed immortal. No one could bring her down. I don't know. It's just hard to deal with.

"I can't even imagine." Maya parked her blue car in the parking lot.

Emily shook her head. "I have to move on.," she sighed then looked at Maya. "Ready to see your surprise?"

/

Emily held Maya's hand guiding her into the room. "Okay, open your eyes."

A smile slowly spread across her face. "Emily, is this an LGBT meeting?"

"I just want you to know that I'm trying not to care about what people think. How am I doing so far?"

Maya leaned over and placed a kiss on her cheek. "I'm proud of you."

"Emily!" Lauren came up and gave her a hug.

"Hey. Maya this is Lauren. Lauren this is Maya."

Lauren's smile faded. "Oh, you brought a friend." Maya, who had offered her hand, put it back down.

"Umm, yeah. I hope that's okay."

"Yeah..." The smile suddenly came back. "Yeah! It's fine. We're about to start class so pick a seat."

"Okay." Maya nodded. Once Lauren was gone Maya started laughing. Emily gave her a confused look. "What? You don't see it?"

"See what?" They picked two chairs next to each other in the circle.

"Lauren's got the hots for you."

"What? No, she's just being nice."

"She totally does! I mean, who can blame her. You're gorgeous." Emily looked up and saw Lauren sit on the other side of the circle.

Lauren stood up and addressed the group. "Okay. How is everyone doing tonight?"

"Good," the group answered back.

"So to start off the meeting, I would like to talk about the dance that is coming up." Everyone cheered. "To you new comers, this dance is not held in Rosewood. It's at the Rainbow Bar just north of here in Perkasie. People from all over the county come and have a great time every year. So bring a date," Lauren glanced at Emily and Maya. Maya gave Emily the 'I told you so' look. "I'll see you guys there on Saturday." Everyone clapped. "We have some people who have never been here before, so let's start the name circle. How about, you." She pointed to Maya. "Will you start us off?"

"I'm not really sure what I should say."

"Let me give and example. "My name is Lauren and I'm a lesbian."

"Hi Lauren." The group said.

"Got it?" Lauren asked with a smirk on her face.

Maya looked over at Emily then stood up. "Hello my name is Maya St. Germain, and I'm not a lesbian, gay, bisexual, or a transgender."

Lauren looked confused. "Then what are you?"

"I'm just me." She started to sit down but came back up. "But I do like girls... a lot."

Everyone clapped, except for Lauren. Maya took a bow then sat down. Lauren calmed down the group. "Okay, okay, that's enough. Emily, it's your turn." She sat down.

Emily stood up. "Hi, my name is Emily, and I'm... I'm unsure. And I'm okay with that."

"Hi Emily." She sat back down and Maya grabbed her hand and gave it a little squeeze. They smiled at each other.

The counter clockwise rotation continued. Emily noticed Lauren looking over every 20 seconds. "She's jealous of you." She whispered to Maya.

She snickered. Lauren looked away.

/

It was the end of class and everyone was leaving. Emily and Maya were walking out of the room, hand in hand. "I have to use the restroom I'll be right back." Emily stood at the entrance and waited.

"Hey." Lauren said walking out of room.

"Hey. I never got to thank you for giving me the flyer."

"It's no problem. So are you going to the dance?"

"I'm thinking about it." They made eye contact for a moment.

Lauren smiled. "A couple hours ago I would have asked if you would go with me. But I think you're going with someone else." Emily blushed. "So now, I just have one request. Save me a dance."

Emily nodded. "Okay, one dance."

Lauren smiled. "I'll see you tomorrow." She walked to her car.

Maya came back. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, and I think I know who I'm taking to the dance."

"Oh," Maya smiled opening the car door. "Do I know them?"

"Oh I doubt it," Emily sat in the passenger seat. "See, I wanted to take her to homecoming but things got messy."

"Ahhh." Maya nodded. "I see."

"I'm just not sure if she'll say yes. Since I flaked on her."

Maya was about to put the keys in but stopped. She leaned over and gave Emily a kiss. "Trust me, she'll say yes."