The weekend flew by quickly, and Emma kept busy with Kale and Natalie most of the time. She'd only run into Ryder once, thank goodness, when she and Kale had been walking across the sand of The Pit on Saturday afternoon. He'd been with Abigail, Courtney and Phoebe, three girls who attended the same school as Emma, and he wasn't wasting a second of their attention.
Emma hadn't met his eyes when he'd yelled "Blondie", but not because she minded the nickname. She'd seen Abigail's half-disgusted, half-curious expression and immediately tuned out.
"Hey, Blondie!" Ryder had greeted her. "What's up?"
"Hi," she'd quietly replied, looking out at at the water as her eyes subconsciously met Abigail's grey ones.
The other girl stared at Emma with a mixture of distant longing, jealousy, and an underlying contempt. They had been friends once, Emma and Abigail, before a series of fallouts, one really bad experience and personality clashes exposed the latter's true colours.
Emma hadn't had a decent conversation with Abigail James in over a year, but she avoided her like the plague. Their strictly civil, mostly unwanted (usually on Emma's part) and perpetually forced exchanges had quickly become a normality among their mutual friends. Natalie and Savannah always bugged her about it, but the truth was, Emma's feelings towards the girl she'd once loved as a sister were far more complicated than she could ever explain. She'd much rather stay in her circle.
Abigail, on the other hand, always claimed that she had no idea what'd she done to deserve the cancellation of their friendship. She had the petty habit of dragging up Emma's past at the most inopportune times, saying things her former best friend had disclosed to her in confidence, and used her far more outgoing personality as an emotional harpoon headed straight for Emma's heart.
"Emma."
"Abigail," she'd replied coolly, and that was it. On either side of Abigail, Phoebe and Courtney had watched on with interest.
"Fancy seeing you here," Ryder had approached Emma, but she stepped back and right into Kale's chest.
"Ow!"
"I have to go," Emma had whispered. "Come on, Kale."
"But we just got here!"
"I just remembered my mom asked me to help out at the clinic."
Next to Ryder, Abigail had scoffed, and Emma had reflexively sent a hateful glare in her direction. Kale'd immediately grabbed her arm.
"Nice seeing you guys," he'd told them, before dragging Emma away.
He'd said nothing of that afternoon since.
Following up on Natalie's research, Emma recruited her brother to assist her in the quest to figure out what had planted someone as popular as the national 2-time high school football Most Valuable Player in a place as out of the way as Misty Vale.
"He's really taking this gap year seriously," Emmett told his sister as he scrolled to the bottom of yet another article. "The guy's been literally MIA since last September."
"For a sports prodigy, he certainly keeps a low profile," Nat added from across the room. She was on a beanbag, Kale reading a magazine at her feet.
Emma shrugged. "That still doesn't explain why he'd come all the way out here."
Frustrated, Emmett dropped his phone on the mattress.
"Why don't you just ask him?" He held up a finger to pause her before she could speak. "More importantly, why do you care?"
"I don't know," Emma admitted. "I mean he's a total douchebag, but at the same time, he's pretty interesting. Come on, Emmett. How often have you seen an outsider around here?"
"Chica, he's a person, not a historical artifact," Natalie chastised her friend. "If you find him so interesting, stop acting all high and mighty and go talk to him."
"That's the thing! He completely clams up whenever people start asking questions."
"Then don't ask questions, dumbo," said Emmett. "Guys don't like people prying. Best way to get him to open up? Be yourself, and don't push for anything he's not ready to offer."
"How am I supposed to know what he's ready to offer?"
Her brother frowned. "Didn't think that deep, Em. I'm fresh out of advice."
Emma rolled her eyes. "Thanks a lot, dear brother."
"Just promise me you won't get attached," Natalie pleaded. "Whatever this social experiment is, I'm not gonna let you get your heart broken again."
"I'm not a china doll!"
Natalie went silent. Emmett and Kale made eye contact, took the tension as a sign to get out of there, and quietly made their way downstairs, leaving the girls alone.
Emma flushed red with anger and took a few deep breaths to calm down.
"I'm tired of being cautious, Natalie. I'm tired of feeling so fragile."
"Emma, none of us want to see you get hurt. Especially your brother. He's still blaming himself for what happened-"
"I know," Emma cut her off. "Don't you think I know that?"
"We're trying to protect you!"
"I'm not doing this," she said quietly. "I'm not going to sit here and listen to the same lecture over and over again. I'm okay, Natalie. I've been okay for a while now."
"Are you really? And what happens if you let your guard down again?"
"I don't know!" Emma turned on her friend, exasperated. "I don't know, okay? The only thing I do know is that I can't go on living under a rock and running away from every little thing that scares me! I won't spend the rest of my life as a victim, Natalie, I won't do it!"
The girl was speechless.
Emma's eyes were very blue in that moment. They always turned blue when she was upset, giving her an almost uncanny resemblance to her father.
She collapsed on the bed and buried her face in the pillow. They didn't get it. None of them did.
On Sunday afternoon after church, Charlotte brought the salad bowl and a plate of baked potatoes to the table. The centre was already filled with chicken broth, fried fish and saffron rice. Emmett followed her in with a plate of garlic bread, taking a seat next to his sister.
"Let's pray," said Charlotte quietly. "Emmett?"
"Dear Lord, thank you for waking us up this morning and keeping us throughout this day. Thank you for family and for life and love. Bless this food and the hands that have prepared it, and may it do our bodies well. In Jesus' name, Amen."
"Amen," Charlotte and Emma said in sync, before Emma grabbed the TV remote and switched it on, turning the channel to, believe it or not, Discovery Kids.
Sure enough, The Backyardigans was playing.
"Emma, really?"
"We're not watching anymore LMN in this house, Emmett, so shut up and eat your food," Emma told her brother, sticking her tongue out.
