Stealing Emma

Chapter 9 - The English Patient

Emma walked into her apartment feeling completely baffled, guilt-stricken, light headed, and pretty damn giddy. She couldn't believe she had thrown herself like that at Max. What the hell had gotten into her? But she couldn't make herself feel bad for kissing him because it had been hands down the best of her life. And the way he had been so sweet with her all night...he had simply stolen a piece of her heart.

He had a way of taking her into this whole other world. He just made her feel so different, so wanted. Even now she could still feel the effects of it and certainly couldn't get it out of her head. Hell, she felt like she could still smell his cologne around her.

She headed to the bathroom and decided it would be best if she showered. Maybe that would make her snap out of it. She quickly stripped and as the steam of hot water first hit her back, she realized she did in fact smell like him. It was then that reality hit and she started feeling plain horrible about herself. She was a horrible person and human being.

She quickly finished showering and got ready to go to bed. She didn't want to think anymore and sleep was the only thing that could help with that. She went to grab her phone out of her jacket, remembering she needed to charge it. She powered it back on and was surprised to see she didn't have any messages from Roy. Her last message to him had been pretty nasty as he had stood her up to go partying. Shrugging it off, she found the glow in the dark stickers from Max and put them in a drawer in the living room where she kept a few keepsakes she had brought with her from L.A.

Despite her sullen mood, that brought a smile to her face as she turned off the lights and balled up under the covers on her side of the bed. She thought she had barely fallen asleep when she heard her phone ringing. A quick glance at the clock revealed it was nearly three in the morning.

"Hello?" she answered with a groggy voice.

"Emma? It Tony from class. Where Max live?"

"What? I don't know Tony. Why are you calling me?"

"Think, Emma. It important. I need to give him some paper."

"At 3am? What the hell is going on, Tony?"

"Do you know where Max live or not?" he demanded.

It suddenly occurred to her that she did indeed know and sighed into the phone. "Ayala 89, apartment 2B, as in boy."

"You da bomb Emma. Bye bye!" she heard before the line went dead.

What the hell was that? When she looked at her phone, she saw that it was actually Max's number who had called her and had a few missed calls from him as well. She immediately called him back but there was no answer. Weird.

She went to delete the call history and on a whim decided to change Max's name to Maria under her contacts. Just in case he called her and Roy was back, she didn't want to raise any suspicion. Yes, she was definitely losing it now and becoming paranoid. Taking a deep breath, she headed back to sleep.

She woke up early the next morning to a snoring Roy. He was still fully dressed on the bed and reeked of alcohol. She tried to wake him up so he would at least change or stop snoring, but he didn't move an inch. He was completely out of it. Not being able to stand the smell or snoring, she went to get out of bed when his right hand caught her eye underneath the pillow.

His knuckles were completely red and purple...and swollen. She grabbed his hand to inspect it further and it looked like there was dry blood on it too. She swallowed hard, instantly thinking the worst. The phone call from Tony asking for Max's address. Had they gotten into a fight? She didn't think Max would be going out yesterday, but what if he did? Oh, no.