A/N: So I have had more free time and got this whimsical-like chapter done for you guys :) Enjoy!
"So should I even ask how your exams went, or is it the obvious 'great as always' like it was in high school?" Neal jokingly asked after a moment of awkward silence. "My friend said that it's exam week or finals or something, I don't really remember what she said."
"Oh, erm, yeah I guess they went good, I studied and crammed until I couldn't fit any more information in my brain." Emma was playing with her chain necklace, trying not to look so drained. "I actually had my last one today, kinda why I'm going out tonight."
"Yeah, sorry about the bad timing. Where are you going to?" His brows narrowed as he looked down after asking his question.
"I'm actually not fully sure yet, we haven't decided. Just know that we want drinks, so probably multiple places." she wondered when he was going to tell her what he wanted, why he decided to randomly show up at her door.
"Oh, that's cool. That's the best way to do it. Try out different bars, feel the vibes. I get it." He was so tense, so obviously tense. What the hell is wrong with him? What does he really want to talk to me about? Who the hell told him where I live? Where are the girls and why are they taking so damn long? With every word that came out his mouth, she would nob. Make an impression that she was listening and interested, rather than eying every gesture his hands made, his posture, the way he squirmed in his seat. "So you graduate this year, right? That's pretty gre-"
"Why did you come here, Neal?" She hated small talk and he knew that.
"Right, I forgot who I was talking to for a second. Still hate conversations I see. I wanted to know, if by any chance, if maybe..." knock knock. "or never mind." he forced a fake laugh before standing up. "I should go anyways. I will call you or text you and we can talk more then." He stared at the floor as Emma stood and they walked to open the door.
"Hi, Emma! Annnd, Neal?" Mary Margret's expression dropped from excited to confused when she saw Neal standing by Emma. "I did not expect to see you here, are you going to join us?"
"No, actually he was just leaving. He just stopped by to say hi." Emma quickly answered her friend before Neal had a chance to consider it. She had an idea where he was going with his question, and did not want to deal with that tonight.
"Nice to see you again Mary Margret, how's David?" Neal politely asked, even though he and David never saw eye to eye. "Hey there, Ruby. How are ya?"
"Hi Neal, been good. We're all good." It was easy to say that Ruby was all for team-David when it came between the two. Him leaving Emma just made her dislike him more.
"Yeah, David's doing great actually. Engaged now actually." She smiled and lifted her hand by her face to show the ring.
"Wow, that's great, congratulations to you both. Well, I should go. Bye you guys, I'll see you around. Bye, Emma." He stared for a couple seconds before looking back down while leaving. She could already hear her friends interrogating her over his little visit, so she walked straight to the couch and sat down.
"Well?! What the hell did he want? How did he even know where you lived?" Ruby was basically demanding answers.
"He said a friend that goes here told him, he didn't really get to what he wanted, he was about to say what he was doing here when you guys knocked and caught him mid-sentence." she slightly amused at her friend for asking exactly what she expected her to.
"Oh. You're welcome, then." Ruby flopped back onto the chair she was on with a big grin taking over her face.
"Oh, Ruby! Sorry if we had bad timing, Emma. You know how I always show up early everywhere." Mary Margret's sweet sincerity was so refreshing to have to balance out Ruby's bluntness. Both so honest, with such different approaches, viewing every situation at different angles.
"No, I think he wanted to ask me out, so you guys got here right on time. I can't deal with that right now." Emma sighed out, relieved that he didn't get the chance to get through asking his question.
Just then, they heard Regina finally come out of her room. She wore black jeans, a sleek black top, black flats, and a red belt to match her red lipstick. "Okay, all ready! Are the girls here y- Oh, hey guys!" Regina didn't realize her friends were right in front of until she looked up from her phone. "Great, we are all here! You guys all ready?"
They all looked at each other, nodding to one another before getting up and heading out.
The girls went to three different bars before deciding to just stick to their usual go-to pub, The Rabbit Hole. They each ordered a drink and laughed, danced, and enjoyed themselves. They finally had a complete girls night out together, they could feel Emma's presence starting to grow and be more present than it was in the apartment. Emma could feel it also. She still wasn't doing good, but she was okay. She felt okay with her friends, just knowing that they know her situation and they still love her and they don't blame her like she blames herself. There was a type of energy at the pub that night, like it was the right place to be; as if it was a stepping stone to being good. She was begining to feel the buzz from all the alcohol she drank and thought it was time to slow down and get some water. She ordered a bottle for herself and as she walked back to her friends she noticed that one was missing. She started to look around while she chugged down the bottle, but there was no sign of Ruby anywhere. Crap. Emma got worried about Ruby disappearing, because every time she disappeared before ended in trouble. "Where's Ruby?" she asked her two already more than buzzed friends who were dancing and singing together.
"She met some guys and they went outside to smoke I think?" Regina could barely let out her words without smiling or laughing, while Mary Margret chugs gown her jack and coke.
"Emma you are so pretty, I love you sooo soeerr much. You have such beautiful hair, like sunshine or bananas! Reg-Regina look at Emma's hair" Mary Margret was, of course, the happiest drunk Emma has ever met.
Regina then grabbed a big lock of Emma's hair and put it on her head. "Hey guys, it's me Emma!" The two girls went hysterical.
"Guys, we should find Ruby, and maybe call David and Robin?" Emma sternly said, she felt odd being the more sober one that night. Mary Margret was usually the responsible one to limit her drinks and take care of the others. Out of no where they hear some girl yell outside. Hoping that it wasn't her friend, Emma left Mary Margret and Regina sitting down at a booth and ran outside to find Ruby.
"You stupid bitch! You puked all over my shoes!" a red headed girl wearing a tight white dress and silver heels cursed at Ruby, who was hunched over getting ready to puke again. "Get the hell up and clean them!"
"Hey! Can't you see she is obviously drunk and didn't purposely throw up on you?" Emma tried to be as civil as she could to a girl who just called her best friend a "stupid bitch" but that could only last so long. "There are bars everywhere with bathrooms, rinse out your precious heels in one of them. I could even help dry them if that will help you be quiet." She held Ruby's hair and had her go over a trash can, rubbing her back to try and soothe her. Thank God I decided to stop when I did.
"No. The idiot in the black dress is going to clean up HER throw up from my new designer pumps." the girl hissed back to Emma. And that was the last straw.
Emma left her friend balancing on the trash can and began to yell back at the rude girl. "Call my friend an idiot one more time, I fucking dare you. No, call my friend anything, and I will leave your face as bloody red as your hair." Just as she was getting ready to march even closer to the vulgar stranger, she felt somebody grab her shoulders. Caught off guard, she jolted up and turned around only to find Killian standing there.
"Easy, lass. The girl has enough problems with her shoes to clean herself than to add a hospital bill to the list." Killian calmly told her, glancing at the girl and giving her the chance to leave and hurry into a bar across the street.
"You should have let me kick her ass, maybe it would have stopped her from running her mouth so much. What are you doing here?" Emma said crossing her arms angry, adrenaline still pumping.
"Uh, you are very much welcome by the way. I just saved you a trip to jail. And Regina called me. Well, actually Regina called me thinking she had dialed Robin, and was yelling out 'Robin! Robin!?' and after me telling her that it wasn't Robin about twenty times, she finally asked why I hadn't taken her waffles to The Rabbit Hole for her and Mary Margret to eat, I decided to wake up Robin and come down and help, and that, love, is when I saw you about to hurt that poor girl, and Ruby here who seems to have had quite the night herself. Robin ran inside to grab the other two."
"Oh, wow. Well thank you then. I guess I owe you one for the help, or else I would have had to try to get them all home by myself." Emma felt a bit of guilt for such a rude hello, but more relieved than anything. "I think I am going to just have them all at my place to take care of them, do you think you can drive my car though, and have Robin take yours? I may be the most sober of us all, but i don't think I should be behind the wheel. You can take me and Ruby and he'll take Mary Margret and Regina?"
"That sounds like a plan, I will let him know, you try to get Ruby off that garbage can." Killian gave her a reassuring smile, kind and soft.
It was a hassle to get the girls into bed and comfortably laid on the couch and chair, but between the three of them they managed to only have three vomit incidents in the bathroom and one in the kitchen sink. At least we remembered to wash the dishes before leaving. "I can't thank you guys enough, I didn't think tonight was going to end like this." she apologized to the guys who graciously helped her. "And thanks for not telling David, he gets very protective and would have gotten angry if he saw Mary Margret that drunk and me about to get into a fight."
"No problem, Emma. Glad that we could help and got there on time" Robin smiled, calm and relieved that they were able to get the girls settled in. "I am going to check on Regina and say good night, excuse me."
She was left with Killian alone standing by the kitchen table, not knowing what else to say. He was staring at her, examining her. He was doing that thing again, he was trying to read her. "Thank you, again." she broke the silence with a cough and a shaky voice. She had her arms crossed, trying to hold herself up and from being so exhausted.
"Like Robin said, love, it was no problem. I am glad too see you out and not shunning us all out." His voice dropped at the mention of her distant behavior. "How are you, Emma? I hope I didn't do anything to make you hate me or not want to talk to me." she noticed that he was sincerely worried and even a little sad about it all.
"I am fine, it wasn't you. Thank you for worrying, but you don't have to anymore, Killian, I'm okay." she didn't lie, she was okay. She knew she wasn't close to good, far from great, but she was okay. "But really, I don't think I would have been able to help these girls all up here on my own. You guys saved me a huge hassle on my back." she laughed out. Which caused an amused smirk on Killian's face. Whoa. She knew he had an alluring smile, but that smirk was more than enough to fill up her stomach with butterflies and she did not like it. She couldn't handle this right now.
"I am so happy to see your lovely laugh didn't fade away with all the studying." his eyes staring into hers, she could feel his gaze so strong that it could pick at her brain and know all her secrets if he wanted. That was, until Robin came to them ready to leave, breaking Killian's focus and Emma's stomach clenched into a tight ball. "All ready then, mate?" Killian asked him.
"All ready, you?" Robin asked with a smile, glancing back and forth from Killian to her. Killian's eyes darting straight to his, furrowing his brows and then looking down and replying to his friend.
"Aye." he seemed sad once again before he pulled himself together and looked up back to Emma. "Good night, Emma. Sleep well and I hope to see you soon."
"Good night, Emma. I will probably see you tomorrow if that's okay? I will bring breakfast and drinks for the hang overs to come." Robin was so caring and polite to them all. Thank goodness Regina found herself a good one.
"Yeah, that would be great, Robin. Thank you again, we will see you tomorrow." Emma smiled as she let them out and said good night.
Well tonight was not what I thought it was going to be. Not even close. She had fun before the craziness, was glad she was able to yell at someone and let out some steam(even though she still wishes she could have taken at least one swing at that girl), and she didn't have to deal with the crazy drunken fiasco alone. She was okay.
A/N: I've wrote a lot about Emma being hurt, the girls feeling worried and sad because they wanted to help Emma, so I decided to have a bit of a fun/amusing chapter to lighten things up. Please let me know what you guys think with favoriting, following, and/or reviewing this!