Emily rolled over pulling her phone out of her pocket, knocking JJ down onto the floor.
"Ow." JJ rubbed her arm, and Emily chuckled pulling her back down on the couch with her. "You dumped me." JJ pouted.
"I'm sorry, I got a text."
"Oh? From who?"
"A friend," Emily said reading the text, JJ pulled on her arm till the cell phone was in front of her so she could read.
"Alexandria? Who is that?"
"Just a friend."
"With benefits?" JJ asking looking Emily pointedly in the eye.
"No, with my brother, she wants to know when Mom wants everyone over for dinner."
"Oh… Sorry."
"No, I understand, I'm in college, why wouldn't you think I was with someone else."
"Were you?"
"Yes…" Emily answered truthfully.
"Why?"
"Because I wanted to fall in love for someone else so I wouldn't have to worry about you… it always back fired. I ended up feeling dirty, and like I was betraying you." Emily said looking down at JJ, tears rimming her eyes.
"I'm sorry."
"It's alright, I've fixed it now." Emily kissed JJ lightly. JJ smiled into the kiss before standing up.
"The kids will be home in a little bit." She pulled Emily to her feet, before Emily wrapped her arms around JJ again. She lent down and kissed JJ again.
"God I missed you." Emily smiled resting her head on JJ's.
"JJ!" Marry came running into the house, "I passed that math test…Emily!" Marry wrapped her arms around Emily, Emily looked down at Marry smiling she grew in the two years since she last saw the little girl.
"Hey Marry." Emily was shocked that the girl was almost up to her shoulder.
"Where'd you go?" Marry looked right at Emily hands on her hips.
"Yeah, Where did you go?" Erica stepped into the room, her words so cold they were cutting Emily right to the bone.
"She went to school guys, let her be." JJ said, she had taken a step away from Emily, when Marry and Erica had come in to avoid conflicts with her two younger sisters.
"So I'm the one that has to say it?" Erica looked between the girls after a few moments of silence. "Fine." She focused on Emily. "That's a crock of shit and you know it. You left us even though you promised not to!"
"Why don't we talk?" Emily took Erica's arm leading her outside. Leaving a stunned Marry and JJ to watch from the window.
"Alright, go." It felt just like old times for Emily, she knew how the middle child felt and would let her rant about anything for however long it took.
"You left us! You always promised not to. Didn't answer calls, texts, letters, emails, nothing. Mom worried, JJ was a wreck, hell dad went to find you!" The last shocked Emily. "What? Shocked? Really? We were your family! We needed you! You gave up on us!"
"I didn't give up on you."
"I wanted you there when we buried family, and Max. What were you thinking when your mother sent you that not saying Max died?" Erica glared at Emily. "He loved you so much."
"I feared coming home."
"Why Emily? We loved you." Emily feared why Erica was using past tense as she spoke, had she messed up enough that it was unforgivable?
"Because I changed."
"So did we, but we never stopped loving you."
"I wasn't able to handle myself?"
"What? With JJ?" Emily nodded. "She knew she loved you back, but how was she to tell you? You know she went with dad to find you, she was prepared to tell you that she was a wreck without you that she wanted you there, because she wasn't just loving you, she was in love with you." Erica was almost screaming at Emily. "And you promised me that you'd be there." Emily nodded.
"Tell me what happened."
"She spiraled, stopped seeing Phil, stopped going to certain classes, threw herself into soccer, mom thought she'd end up dead. Marry just didn't know and kept asking for you. When grandpa died, Yeah the one you loved, the family needed you. We called, visited, did everything, you no longer are welcome in the house." Erica had turned around and ran right into her mother.
"You have all ears now Erica, so you better explain and quickly."
"She left us."
"To a lost, love sick teen it was all she could do." JJ's mother stood next to Emily. "She will always be welcome here." JJ's mother looked at Emily and couldn't help but see the little kid that was dragged over by Andrew to meet them. The child she saw fight for respect and love from her family, who loved her children like family and that now understood what she needed to stand up for.
"I don't think we should welcome her into our house so willingly." Erica stated.
"Do you think I could turn my back on my family?"
"No,"
"Then why would I turn my back on Emily?"
"Why wouldn't you?" Erica knew her mother; she wouldn't talk to her own sister because she had left her son.
"Because she is righting her mistake."
"How?"
"She returned, she allowed us back in and I hope you do the same."
"Em…" Emily looked up to see JJ standing there Marry in front of her. Emily smiled as JJ stepped over to her, Emily wrapped her arms around her, holding JJ close.
"Oh, now I get it." Erica said, Then looked at her mother. "You don't want to tell her no… You don't want to see JJ hurting anymore. Good job mom."
"Erica, calm down, I know you needed me, so I'm here now."
"You're here, but for her…"
"Not just her." Emily looked at Erica. "I thought about you, a lot. I couldn't sleep much because I didn't know if you would ever forgive me. I wrote you letters, begging for your forgiveness. I cried all the time and had the phone in my hand to call but I just couldn't."
"What changed? You couldn't stand living with out JJ?" Erica's voice still sent chills down Emily's back.
"I saw a photo of us, you, JJ, Marry and myself. At a summer get together, smiling… I couldn't stop crying and had to come home." Erica looked at Emily, the anger slowly leaving her eyes. Emily took the photo out of her pocket and handed it to Erica. She unfolded it and laughed. There they all sat, around the fire pit, Emily and JJ just about the same size still, Emily in JJ's lap, Marry in Erica's Smore's in everyone's hands, the remnants of the previous ones on their faces. Erica nodded and handed the photo back.
"Hurt her and just remember you haven't seen what I can do, its been two whole years."
"Don't worry about it…for some reason I don't see myself leaving her." Emily smiled kissing JJ's neck.
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
So After sitting up till 1 am (ok so that's not that late, I normally am not in bed yet) my school never showed up on the closed list… My old school did… Damn them. So I figured I'd post this. Along with the longest a/n ever. Ok besides the point. I should be doing about… a chapter a day. I have four so far the fifth I have scarped 4 times because I cant get down my thoughts. So since I don't know how long this is going to be I'm going to go back to old habits and name the chapters after songs, if you haven't read my other fics, they have nothing to do with the story just names. And if I have tomorrow off, (I got my fingers crossed) then I should book out any where between 0 and 10 chapters… I know crazy right? Depends on when I wake up. Ok ok I'm shutting up. Review if you like, and if you feel the need (please do if you find this annoying) tell me to shut the hell up, I ramble. Hope you enjoyed! :D