Emberly Emerson world is turned around when she learns her best friend is coming to Beverly. While she is excited about the arrival of her friend being there, others not so much. With these new changes, comes new problems and Emberly has to go throu...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
LISA HAD BEEN IN TOWN for a little over a day now—maybe two—but it already felt like she'd been there for weeks. It wasn't a bad thing, not exactly. Lisa had a way of filling up a space, of making her presence known whether you were ready for it or not. She was loud, opinionated, and completely unapologetic about it. From the moment she stepped through the door, she had made herself at home, reminiscing about old times, poking fun at them, and slipping into their lives like she hadn't been absent for years.
Emberly had expected it to be... harder. More awkward. She'd braced herself for the forced conversations, the surface-level small talk, the long silences where no one knew what to say. But somehow, Lisa made everything seem natural, effortless even.
Lisa talked their ears off all night about her adventures—some wild, some hilarious, and others so revealing that Emberly had nearly choked.
There was Evelyn, who was soaking up the attention. If Lisa wasn't around much, she made up for it with grand gestures, spoiling Evelyn with gifts, slipping her cash like she was a teenager sneaking out for the first time. It was no surprise that Evelyn enjoyed every second of it.
For Emberly, it was different. Lisa wasn't just a fun, sporadic relative who came and went. She was a link to their father—one of the few left. She caught glimpses of him in the way Lisa laughed, in the way she smirked when she thought she was being clever. In the way she always had to have the last word. It made Emberly ache in ways she didn't know how to put into words.
At Beverly High, Emberly walked down the hallway beside Spencer, her gaze flicking toward him as he tapped furiously at his phone. Again.
It had been a week since Coop was arrested, and while the cops had her as a person of interest for Tyrone's murder, Coop wasn't nearly as worried as she should've been. Spencer, on the other hand, was practically unraveling over it.
His shoulders were tense, his jaw locked, and if his thumbs moved any faster on that screen, he was going to wear the letters off the keypad.
With a sigh, Emberly reached over and snatched his phone out of his hand. "Seriously? You need to stop. You've left Coop, like, four messages already."
Spencer shot her a look, immediately taking his phone back. "Yeah, and she still ain't hit me back." His frustration was evident as he shoved the device into his pocket. "She not taking this Tyrone stuff serious."
Emberly folded her arms, slowing her pace slightly. "Or maybe she is taking it seriously. Maybe she's overwhelmed." She knew Spencer meant well, but sometimes his worry turned into control. Coop needed space.
"I hate feeling helpless," Spencer muttered. "I gotta do something, like—like call her parents."
Emberly sighed. She understood why he was spiraling. Spencer needed to fix things. It was in his nature. But this wasn't like football. He couldn't just grab the ball and force his way through.
