Life Lessons and Love

Chapter 8: Martinus's POV Afterward

When we get home, Marcus and I head straight for Emma's room as soon as we get into the house to find her lying on her bed and--is she sulking?

"Hey, Emma," I say to her.

She looks up at me, frowns, and turns her back to me. "Go away, I don't feel like talking."

I ignore her attitude and sit next to her, "Mum told us that you're sad. Wanna tell us why?"

Emma sits up and looks at me. I can see struggling in her eyes and then she bursts into tears.

Marcus makes his way onto the bed, pulls our sister close to him, and whispers softly, "It's OK, everything's going to be alright,"

"I...I..." Emma sniffles, trying to get herself under control.

"Ssshhh, you can tell us. Take a deep breath," my brother soothes.

        She does as she's told and manages to choke out, "There's this boy...I like and I...told him how I felt...and he...he s-said that he didn't like me...the same way and...he said I was crazy if I...ever thought he would like me back...!" then she broke into uncontrollable sobbing and buried her head in Marcus's chest.

"Oh, Emma, I'm so, so sorry that happened," I crooned and took a turn hugging her. "But you shouldn't dwell on it for very long, you'll need to move on sometime."

"I...I d-don't th-think I can," she stammered.

"You make feel like that now, but you'll get over him soon," Marcus told her.

"I-is that how you got over Zara?" He says nothing for a minute and then replies, "Y-yes, I got over her eventually,".

        The person Emma was referring to was Zara Larsson. Mac used to date her until they broke up and it took him forever to feel better again.

Emma sniffs, "I'll try to get over Zack, but I can't right now," she was no longer sobbing, but tears were still streaking down her cheeks and she was breathing deeply.

I cradled her in my arms and rocked her back and forth, "It's OK, Emma, you can do this. It happens to people all the time."

I mouth to Marcus, "Follow my lead!" he looks confused but after I sing, "You said, 'why am I holding on, baby?' oh-oh I would never back down, are you walking out of my life?" he catches on and joins in.

"Saying you really don't love me, oh-oh baby, you don't mean that, you remember all that we had. I took it for granted that you loved me the same but I, gotta keep on talkin," And we sang "Heartbeat" till the very end when Emma fell asleep in my arms and we tucked her into bed and slipped quietly out the door.

         Suddenly, I remembered what happened at Amelia's house and said to Marcus, "Oh, my gosh, Marcus, that was too close!"

"Huh?" He looks at me with a confused expression.

"At Amelia's house! We almost got discovered! We should have been more careful!"

"Oh, yeah, that. I was scared to death that she had found out but I guess we shouldn't do our handshake around her anymore." He wipes his forehead in relief.

"We'll do better next time, Marcus. It's OK, we didn't realize what we were doing,"

Marcus nods and then walks to his room and shuts the door. I do the same and lie on my bed just thinking about stuff. My mind wanders back to Marcus and my confrontation with Emma, "It's OK, Emma, you can do this. It happens to people all the time." I had told her.

Then I thought about Mia and how I had a crush on her, how she's so different from all the other girls in school and maybe even the whole world! She's practically always late to first period, she doesn't act all snobby and perfect or gossip the way the other girls do. Amelia is nice, shy, caring, understanding, joyful, and beautiful all in her own way. She stands out from the crowd and I'm so happy that I'm friends with her☺️.