Heartstrings

Chapter 2: Moonlight

Jake's perspective

I climbed the stairs slowly, my muscles aching every step of the way. Coach made us flip tractor tires across the practice field today after school, and I couldn't wait to just crash onto the shitty pull-out couch in the common room. It wasn't the most comfortable "bed" ever, but it was better than going home.

For the past couple of years, I'd spent most nights here at Sam's house. It was the only surefire way of avoiding the empty vastness of my own house and more importantly, the drunken stupor of my degenerate dad. Neither Sam nor his mom knew about the extent of my dad's behavior, but they also never thought twice about letting me stay over.

As I reached the top of the stairs, I turned left to head for the couch, when something caught my eye. To my right, Emma's door was cracked open just slightly, and I could see her – her back to the door, just as she pulled her shirt over her head.

I stopped in my tracks because... damn. I stared at the smooth skin of her back as her wavy hair cascaded down it like water. My mind flooded with visions of walking up behind her and wrapping my arms around that little waist of hers. God, her ass looked amazing in her little black shorts, too.

I clenched my teeth to prevent myself from getting too excited. She reached behind to unclasp her bra, and I looked up and could see just a hint of side boob... but I stopped myself. What the fuck am I doing? I'm being a fucking creep, I thought, shaking my head.

A little ashamed of myself, I walked across the common room to Sam's bedroom, trying to get the image of her beautiful, little body out of my head. I leaned against Sam's doorframe still in a daze as I heard Emma shut her door for the night.

It wasn't a secret that she was hot. I'd crushed on her for most of my childhood, and it's not like I didn't have an impure thought about her from time to time. But it wasn't just that – Emma was a different kind of beautiful... it's as if she possessed the elegance of someone beyond her years, while still carelessly being sexy as hell.

There were a few guys that'd dared to hit on her over the years, but they were either turned down coldly, or Sam put a stop to it quickly. In fact, I don't think Emma was even aware of how protective he was of her – just in the past year, Sam and I had gotten into at least two locker room fights with dickheaded freshman who were stupid enough to talk about Emma disrespectfully.

But now she was a senior and had never dated anyone, and to be honest, most people thought she was kind of weird. She wasn't really close to anyone, even her friends. She didn't go to parties or drink, and the people who knew about her playing the cello thought it was nerdy.

Every day after lunch, as I made my way to the field house, I'd see her sitting on a bench outside in the quad by herself either reading or writing in her journal. And yeah, it was a little different, but those things had never bothered me about Emma. In fact, in many ways they just made her more endearing. She was more mature than other girls her age – at least in this small town, and she knew what she wanted out of life.

Growing up alongside her and Sam, I got to see sides of her that other people rarely got glimpses of, like how creative she is. She used to come up with all of our games as kids, and she'd always imagine these elaborative worlds for us to play in. And sometimes she would just radiate with this confidence when she got competitive about something or when a cool idea popped into her head.

- Hey, man.

Sam walked out of his bathroom, bringing all my thoughts about his sister to an abrupt halt.

- Hey. It's cool if I stay over here tonight, right?

- Of course. Dude, you know you don't even need to ask anymore – my mom even does your laundry.