Chapter 9

Emily walked into the ladies' room and noticed that JJ was sitting on the counter between the sinks. Emily checked the rest of the room and when she saw it was empty save for her and JJ she turned to lock the door, frowning when there was no way to lock it. She closed the door and hoped no one came in.

Emily walked to stand just in front of her blond girlfriend and she looked at JJ sitting there, tears in her eyes. It broke Emily's heart to see JJ crying and she hoped she could cheer the blond up. "Jennifer?"

JJ looked up silently, not trusting herself to talk yet.

Emily took two steps closer, coming to a rest a few inches from JJ's knees. "Jennifer, baby, what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Emily asked softly, her hand moving up to cup JJ's face and moved her so she was looking into her eyes.

JJ looked at her girlfriend, standing in front of her, asking her why she was crying. JJ's reaction to hearing Emily say her name was dwarfed by the jealousy she still felt. Seeing Emily standing there, so obviously concerned about her, made JJ's jealousy seem childish. After all, Emily was her girlfriend; she was standing here with her now-she wasn't out there looking at Jo Marlowe. JJ had never thought that she could be the jealous type but then, she'd never felt this way about anyone before.

Emily stood silently watching as her girlfriend processed whatever was running through her head at the moment. She knew that she would have to be patient and that Jennifer would talk to her when she was ready.

JJ looked at Emily, and she took a deep breath, "it's stupid and silly and childish but...I didn't like it." JJ's voice tapered to a whisper as her mind conjured up the memory of Emily's face as she was looking at Jo.

Emily frowned, a little confused and hoping that JJ wasn't talking about them and what they had done the night before...the line they'd crossed. "What didn't you like, Jennifer?" Emily finally asked when it was clear JJ wasn't going to explain.

JJ looked away, not able to look at Emily when she revealed just how insecure, childish and stupid she was being. In a soft, low voice JJ explained, "I didn't...I didn't like the way you were looking at Jo."

Emily barely heard the words and when she did, she needed a moment to understand them. It took a moment but when she finally got it, Emily had to fight not to grin. Jennifer was jealous! Emily couldn't remember if anyone had ever been jealous over her before. Emily looked at Jennifer and it hit her that this wasn't a laughing matter. Jennifer was seriously jealous (even if she had no reason to be) and Emily realized that JJ was worried about losing her to the other blonde.

Emily lifted her hand and cupped JJ's cheek, slowly moving the blonde's face until she could look into those beautiful, but currently tear filled blue eyes. Emily moved closer until she was standing between the blonde's legs. Emily forced her tone to be serious, calm and firm as she said, "Jennifer, you are the only one I want to be with. There is no one on this Earth who could ever take your place with me. You have no reason to be jealous of anyone else Jennifer, because I don't want anyone but you."

JJ heard the words and as she looked into Emily's eyes she knew they were the truth. She knew that Emily wasn't going to leave her for Jo or anyone else. But there was something she was still curious about and she decided to ask while she had the chance. "Then...why were you looking at her like that?"

Emily took a breath, knowing that she was going to have to come clean about Gina and that it would undoubtedly change the way JJ looked at her, if not how she felt about her.

"A few years ago, when I was 15 in Rome...there was a girl. Her name was Gina and she was my first girlfriend. There were some...things that I am not proud of doing when I was with her. Jo...Jo looks a lot like her and the resemblance threw me off."

JJ took in Emily's words and felt a tiny stab of pain. Although rationally, JJ knew that Emily had to have had other girlfriends, she knew now she'd been hoping not to ever have that confirmed. JJ wanted to be Emily's first girlfriend-just like Emily was her first girlfriend. But JJ knew, that growing up all over Europe had given the other girl many more options than she herself had in this small town.

JJ looked Emily right in the eyes as she asked her next question, "are you...are you still in love with Gina?"

Emily knew that as bad as the truth was going to sound, Jennifer deserved the truth and Emily had made a promise to herself the night before that she wouldn't ever lie to Jennifer. So she took a breath and opened her mouth to answer, when the door to the bathroom opened and someone walked in.

Jo, Rebecca, Dani, and Lizzie had slipped away from the rest of the pack and went off to the bumper cars tent. The guys had decided to ride the rollercoaster and Monique had followed them. The girls walked together, laughing over a joke Dani had heard from one of her brothers.

Rebecca and Dani were walking together in the middle with Lizzie next to Dani and Jo next to Rebecca. Jo turned to Rebecca and smiled, "So Becca, did you notice Olivia and her friends during lunch?"

Becca turned to Jo and gave her best glare as she said, "yeah, how could you miss them? They're always together."

"Oh come on, you're not fooling anyone with that attitude. We all know you have it bad for Olivia. It's just too bad that Alex got to her first huh?" Jo liked to tease her friends about their crushes on the "popular" kids. They all gave as good as they got and she took her fair share of teasing about her own crush on Elliot. But she couldn't really help it...Elliot was just hot.

Rebecca lightly punched Jo's arm, trying to deflect her own feelings at the mention of Olivia Benson. "Alex can have her, I got over her a long time ago Jo. Try to keep up." Rebecca lied, almost convincingly.

Jo knew her friend was lying but she also knew that sometimes, being a good friend meant believing the lie until the truth was ready to be spoken again. Jo shrugged, "whatever you say Becca."

Becca felt a tug on her arm and she turned to see Dani looking at her, the smile the blond wore seemed a bit forced but Becca didn't comment on it.

"Don't let Jo get to you hun. She's just frustrated because Elliot is taken and she knows she has no shot with him...right Jo?" Dani said, raising her voice near the end so that Jo heard. Jo wasn't the only one who could tease.

Dani wondered if she'd ever have the guts to tell Rebecca that, sometimes-only sometimes-she wanted more from her friend than what they had...which was little more than friends with benefits. Sometimes, Dani wanted more. But she knew Rebecca was still so hung up on Olivia she'd never give her more.

Jo turned to Dani and grinned, "Don't be so sure about that Dani-it's senior year. Anything can happen this year. Little Miss Kathy Walker just might find herself single before New Years' Eve." Jo said, a slightly cocky tone in her voice as she tried not to reveal the plan she had up her sleeve to finally break up Elliot and his cheerleader girlfriend, Kathy once and for all and grab Elliot for herself.

Dani, Becca and Lizzie, who until now had preferred to remain silent, content to listen to her friends tease each other, all paused a moment before they laughed. Lizzie recovered first and said, "Jo, come on get real. If it hasn't happened by now, it's not gonna. Those two are going to be together through graduation. You've been trying for three years now to break them up and it never works. I think it's time to move on Jo."

Jo got angry that her own friends didn't believe in her. She started walking a little faster and said over her shoulder, "You'll see. By New Years' Eve...Elliot will be mine!"

The girls stopped in their tracks and watched their friend walk away in a huff. Becca was the first to break the silence, "you don't think she'd do anything...you know, drastic or illegal do you?"

Lizzie and Dani looked at each other then looked at Becca and just shrugged. Sometimes, predicting how far Jo would go to get something (or someone) she wanted was like trying to predict how many chances you had left to survive in a game of Russian Roulette.

After a few minutes, the three friends took off after Jo, determined to try to find out what made this year different in Jo's quest for Elliot, and maybe see if she would slip and reveal her plan.

They never even noticed that they were being watched by someone who silently vowed, 'that one...she's the one...' An evil looking grin split the face watching them and the person carefully turned and went back the way they'd come, blending in so perfectly with the people at the fair that no one even spared a second glance, despite the grin that lingered.

TBC...

AN: There's the update. Hope y'all liked it. I decided to play up some drama and a cliffhanger. Lemme know if it worked...lol