Chapter Seven: Tell Me, Honestly

"There is nothing to talk about." Mike replied.

"Of course there is! You just said that you love Emily, how can you think that's nothing?" Mia responded, upset.

"Hey, if you and Kevin can wait, Emily and I can wait, too." Mike said.

"Mike, I'm not kidding anymore, this is not something you can just laugh off. We need to talk." Mia said.

"What do you wanna talk about? Huh?" Mike said angrily.

"I want to talk about you and Emily. This is serious." Mia replied.

"Yes, I like her. What more is there to talk about?" Mike said.

"Mike. Tell me, honestly, do you love Emily, not in a sisterly way, but in a girlfriend/boyfriend way?" Mia said questioningly.

"Yes I do." Mike responded.

"Then why haven't you told her?" Mia asked.

"Because, I'm way too nervous. I can barely talk to her, much less tell her how I feel." Mike said sadly.

"You never know, she may like you too." Mia said.

Mike's face lit up after Mia said this. His eyes were sparkling, and he had a big goofy grin plastered all over his face.

"You think so?" Mike asked hopefully.

"I honestly don't know, but you can always hope, can't you?" Mia said.

***Taken***

Jayden let Ji leave to see if he could find a building anywhere that matched Emily's description. It wasn't much, but Jayden was confident Ji could atleast narrow it down to a few locations. He walked out of the common room after Ji had left.

He walked back to Emily's room and knocked on her closed door. At first he heard nothing from inside, but then he heard a very quiet sob coming from inside. He slowly opened the door and saw Emily lying down in her bed crying. She had crawled under the sheets and was burying herself inside.

Jayden walked over to her bed side and kneeled down next to her so they were at eye level.

"Emily, are you okay?" Jayden asked with a worried expression on his face.

"Y-Yes." Emily whimpered from underneath the blankets.

"What? I can't hear you through all these blankets." Jayden said jokingly.

"I'm fine. Now go away." Emily said, still buried under her covers.

"Em, what's wrong? You can tell me." Jayden reassured his crush.

"Nothing is wrong. Just leave me alone!" Emily demanded.

"Not until you tell me what's wrong." Jayden replied.

Emily slowly peeled back the covers so that Jayden could see her tear stained face. He could tell she had been crying, her face was red, her cheeks were wet, and her nose was stuffed up, with her sniffling every 10 seconds.

"I l-let him get me Jay. I was weak…" Emily said, the tears starting to flow again.

"You are not weak in any way. In fact, I think you're one of the strongest people I've ever met. Even after being hurt by Dekker numerous times, you're still smiling. You could have given up when you were held captive, but you didn't. You stayed strong through all of this shit. Ji even told me that if you hadn't held on and fought like you did, you might not have made it." Jayden said.

"He really said that?" Emily asked.

"Yes. Really, now why don't you come out of the covers and start being happy old Emily again. It'd make us all feel better. And it might even help find the others." Jayden encouraged.

"Okay. Thanks Jay. I know I can always count on you." Emily said with a smile on her face.

Jayden smiled when he heard this. He then helped Emily to sit up in bed, as her back was still too wounded for her to walk around. Jayden was about to walk out of the room when something Emily said stopped him.

"Hey Jay. Tell me, honestly. Do you think we're gonna find them?" Emily asked.

Jayden walked back over to her bed and kneeled down in the same position as before.

"Of course we will Em. Don't worry about it." Jayden reassured her.

Jayden then got up, and walked out of the room to give Emily some alone time. He walked out, and gently closed the door. As soon as he was outside of her room he saw Antonio.

"So, how's your girlfriend doin?" Antonio asked mockingly.

"She's not my girlfriend." Jayden replied.

"But you wish that she was. Don't deny it." Antonio joked.

"Just because I wish she was doesn't mean she is. It doesn't matter anyway. I'm pretty sure she likes Mike." Jayden said sadly.

"Are you kidding me? Yeah, they're friends sure. But have you seen the way that she looks at you?" Antonio asked, finally getting serious.

"What do you mean?" Jayden asked curiously.

"Dude, she looks at you almost the same way you look at her. It's actually funny how oblivious you are sometimes." Antonio laughed.

"Really? You think that she likes me?" Jayden said hopefully.

"If she doesn't, I think I need to get my vision checked." Antonio said.

***Taken***

Emily was lying in bed when she heard people talking outside the door. She slowly sat herself up and listened. She could barely make out the voices and heard it was Antonio and Jayden talking. She couldn't hear the entire conversation, but she heard bits and pieces. The first sentence she could make out was 'I'm pretty sure she likes Mike anyway.' Coming from Jayden. She then heard Antonio respond with, 'Have you seen the way she looks at you?' She then heard nothing but silence from the other side of the door. Soon the conversation continued, but Emily couldn't hear enough to make sense of anything.

So Emily started thinking, who was 'she'? It had to be either herself or Mia. When she heard 'Have you seen the way she looks at you?' she figured it might be Mia. She knew that Mia had a small crush on Jayden, and she had for a while. But Emily wasn't sure if she still felt that way. But then she thought, what if it's me? Emily too had a crush on Jayden, but she couldn't tell Mia that. And when she heard 'I think she likes Mike anyways.' It all started to make sense. Jayden and Antonio were talking about her.

It made sense because Emily used to like Mike, but when she realized they weren't going to get past the 'friend stage', she stopped liking him and she began liking Jayden. Antonio must have seen her staring at Jayden before, and had now told him that she liked him.

Emily began to worry. What if Jayden didn't feel the same way? What if they could never be friends again? What if he did feel the same way? Emily, being from a small town and picked on a lot by other kids, had never had a boyfriend. She had never even had her first kiss. She was very nervous now.

She figured the best thing to do was to calm herself down, and get some sleep so her body could heal up. The sooner she was better, the sooner she could help look for her still missing friends. So Emily layed back down and fell asleep.

***Taken***

Mike's good mood was then disturbed when Dekker walked back into the room. He walked in with no emotion on his face, completely blank.

"Rangers. I have come to talk to you about your yellow friend." Dekker said.

"What about her?" Mike asked defensively.

"She," Dekker started, "she doesn't give up does she?" Dekker asked.

"Never, but why does it matter to you?" Mia asked.

"Perfect. I will see you all tomorrow for training. I must practice for my duel with the red ranger. By now yellow must have given him hints as to where you are. Hopefully he will be here soon." Dekker said as he walked out of the room, a smile now on his face.

"What do you think that was about?" asked Mike.

"I don't know, but seeing that smile on his face when he talked about Emily, it can't possibly be good." Kevin said nervously.

"Let's just forget about it. Get some rest. We have training tomorrow." Mia said.