The Final Hour

Chapter Nine

So, it's Monday. In Biology again. What fun? Of course this means that Seth looks occasionally over at Rachel awkwardly. After their hook-up, he feels strange to be in the same room as his girlfriend, Emily, and his sex buddy, Rachel.

Rachel got up from her desk and walked around the room to Seth.

"Sit down, Miss Cassidy." the teacher scowled at her.

"I was, uh-- just asking for some lead.." Rachel replied.

The teacher looked at her. "Well, hurry up."

She walked over to Seth's desk and whispered in his ear.

"Hey, baby. What's going on?" she said.

"What are you doing?..." Seth said, turning around to see that his girlfriend, Emily, was staring.

"Can I have some lead? My pencil broke." Rachel said, bending over to where her the collar of her shirt fell, so he could see down it.

What a skank!!

"Okay, Rachel. Have a seat now." the teacher said.

She got the lead and walked away, back over to her desk.

"Oh, by the way, thanks boo." Rachel said across the room aloud to Seth.

His face turned red with embarrassement. Emily stared over at Rachel. She wanted to burst over to her and smack her in the face. How could she diliberately say and do all of these things to Seth right in front of his girlfriend?!

The bell rang and Emily went up to Seth.

"Hey, look, I'm sorry. I can't ger her away from me. But trust me, nothing will ever happen between me and her." Seth said.

"...Okay." Emily responded. Everyone had walked out of the room except for Rachel and Emily. Rachel got her stuff out of the classroom. Emily hurried behind her.

"Rachel." Emily said down the hallway, blankly.

Rachel turned around and rolled her eyes.

"What do you want?" Rachel said impatiently.

Emily walked up to her and grabbed her arm.

"If you haven't noticed, Seth is my boyfriend." Emily said.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize that." Rachel shot back.

Emily grit her teeth furiously. "Well, it's time you recognize, Rachel. You see, you can hang all over him and get all in his face all you want. But you will never be anything more to him than a pathetic whore. Keep dreaming, sweet cheeks, because Seth will never be yours." she said.

"Oh...you sure about that?" Rachel said, pulling out her phone.

She clicked through her photos, then held up her phone to Emily. On the screen, Seth was kissing Rachel on her bed.

"Is that proof enough?...What about this one?" Rachel said.

She changed the picture and held it up again. This time it was Seth, snugged up to Rachel's naked body, still oblivious to the phone.

Emily stared in shock.

"What's the matter, Em? Not who you thought he was?" Rachel said, smiling. "Ouch. Competition is getting rough nowadays. Might wanna step it up a little, babe." Rachel said, then she walked away, laughing.

Emily wanted to grab her. The Emily inside of her wanted to yank her back by her seemingly perfect blonde hair and punch her. She wanted to beat her face in, like her heart now was. But she just couldn't. All Emily could do now was burst into tears. She fell to the floor, crying.

...And that's where I come in. I'm walking down the hallway, as I approach Emily crying.

"Um, Em? You okay?" I say, full of care.

"Josh?...uh, yeah. I'm fine." Emily says between sobs.

"Doesn't look that way to me..." I responded.

"You wouldn't care, anyways. So just don't worry. Thanks though." Emily says.

"You'd be surprised..." I said. I got down on the floor and sat beside her. I wrapped my arm around her.

"Tell me anything, I'm here." I said.

"It's Seth...and Rachel. They--" Emily started to cry again.

"Shhh..it's okay. Don't cry." I say, rubbing her arms. "It's going to be okay."

"Why are you here, Josh? Why do you care about me?" she said.

"...Because I can't stand to see a beautiful girl cry." I replied, smiling.

And that's it. For the rest of the lunch period we just sat in the hallway. She fell asleep in my arms.

It's not that I like Emily of have any feelings more than friendship towards her. I just knew that something had broke inside of her. Seth broke her heart. And I just knew she would never be the same again.