Who You Are (Liam Payne)

Chapter 1

"I'm so excited!" Emma squealed as she popped down on the empty seat next to me.

"For what?" I looked at her emotional face.

Our conversation was interrupted when a girl ran toward our direction in high heels, making a constant annoying noise in the cafeteria. When we looked up, we were faced with a very happy-looking girl, the type who would put a ear-to-ear grin on her face.

"What's that face for, Soph?" Emma asked without even looking at her, instead at her lunch.

Sophia clapped once joyfully. "So it happened in English class, first period. There was Mike. He was sitting in front of me, and..."

"Stop beating around the bush and get to the point!" Emma raised her voice a little, annoyed.

"Okay, okay," Sophia inhaled more than necessary, preparing to make what seemed like a huge announcement. "So Mike asked me to go to England with him during spring break."

"Oh phew, I thought you were gonna say you were pregnant," Emma broke out a joke instead of commenting on her news.

Sophia pouted and crossed her hands in front of her chest. "Mean."

"I was just joking," Emma said in her girly voice.

"So what did you say?" I finally joined their conversation.

"Of course a yes! He's my boyfriend! How could I have said no?" Sophia questioned rhetorically.

When a guy, who seemed to be her boyfriend, called her name, she winked  and waved at us before turning away and making noises again.

"Have fun!" Emma yelled.

"How are you even friend with her?" I asked curiously. For such a smart and all time serious person like Emma, I didn't understand how she could talk to Sophia.

Emma wiped her mouth off with a napkin. "You mean "friend"?" She gestured the quotation mark with her fingers.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh you know, you just have to have these kind of people in your life," she collected all the trash scattered on the table in her tray. "It's easy to break but hard to form."

"Friendship?" I was lost in her wisdom.

"Yes, that's what it is. You gotta have all good and bad people in your life. You can't just block someone from your life just because she's a show-off like Sophie."

"Hmm," I gave her a response, showing her that I was listening.

"Yeah. Life is mysterious. You might need her help one day. You will never know." Her face was now very different from a few seconds ago, looking serious. "Just because I said that, I'm not only maintaining our friendship so that I can use her one day."

"What else do you do then?"

"I help her too, of course. I give a hand to whoever, I think, deserves it."

"So Soph deserves it? I thought you hated her."

"For your first question, sure, why not? It's true that I do find her annoying, but it doesn't mean she deserves hate. It's just her personality that she is acting like this. And you can't change that."

Woah.

I observed her eyes that were perching on something behind me. When I followed the direction of her stare, I was a little shocked because it's what she had been looking at since the beginning of her speech.

"Why are you staring at Jack and Jen?"

"Don't you find them adorable?" She still kept her eyes on them.

I turned around for the second time just to see Jack pecking Jen's cheek. "Hmm."

"Don't you want a boyfriend?" Emma brought my attention back to her.

"What?" I was caught off guard by her question.

"Don't you, for a second, want to be in Jen's place?"

"Are you okay, Emma?" What she was saying confused me. All I knew was that Emma was that kind of person who was perfect at everything. Carefree and independent were the two adjectives I would use to describe her.

"Yeah yeah. I just think... I don't know," she sighed. "I think I feel alone."

"Emma, I'm sorry," I put my hand around her shoulder and gave her arm a gentle squeeze. "But you always talked about being free and since when you've changed your mind?"

Damn it. I couldn't believe I just asked her that. I knew clearly how terrible I was at soothing people, yet I couldn't improve myself. May be that's what she was talking about. I can't change my personality.

"Then you don't know me well yet," Emma held her head with her hands on each side and looked down.

I shoved her shoulder and turned her body toward me so that she was facing me again. "What do you mean?"

"I meant that you have only seen half of me, the happy half," she looked like she was going to break down anytime soon.

"And this is the other half?" I asked even though I knew the answer.

She nodded slowly. I reached out for her hand and squeezed it like I did to her arm. But, this time, I decided to take further action. 

I grabbed our lunch trays with one hand and tossed them in the trash can before I gave her a smile. She looked at me with puzzling eyes. Oh, she had no clue what was about to happen.

Before she could open her mouth, I started running toward the main door of cafeteria, holding her hand tightly so that she couldn't escape and dragging her along.

Not knowing what was going on, she yelled my name so loud and I noticed people watching us. But, I couldn't care a bit about them. The only thing I had in mind at the moment was to help my best friend like she had always helped others.

"Where are we going?" Emma called out from behind. Her voice was lost among other people's as we stepped out of the building. "Alexandra!"

Word Count: 979