From Here On Out

11

It was 1 am and pretty much everyone was getting beat. That is, everyone except Jasmine and Anthony. They were still going so strong you'd think they'd had a couple drinks.

A slower song was playing and Jas' head was laid on Anthony's shoulder as they swayed together. Mary, Emmy, Daveed, and Rafa were standing aside waiting to get out of there. They'd mutually agreed to just go home after this.

"Earth to Ramos," Daveed said at the same time Emmy said, "Earth to Jazzy."

Caught in a jinx situation, Emmy smiled at Daveed for the first time of the night. It was a quick but pretty genuine smile that he reciprocated.

"Come with me to my room tonight," Anthony whispered to Jasmine.

Jasmine took a second to think before she answered, "I- I would, I so would, but I have class tomorrow."

"Damn," Anthony replied, tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, "Another night?"

"Another night," Jas nodded her head.

Behind them, Mary broke up their conversation. "Hey, Can we get out of here? Jas, you coming with us or..."

Jasmine looked up from Anthony and over to the rest of the group. "Yeah, I'm coming with y'all," she turned back to Ant, "I'll catch you later."

The group split as they left the club. Rafa, Daveed, and Anthony were heading to their rooms while the girls were going to theirs.

As the girls walked, they made light conversation, laughed, and Emmy and Mary tossed out a few jokes on Jasmine and Anthony.

The conversation lulled but they still had a little bit of a walk left. Suddenly, Mary broke up the conversation with, "Emmy, are you alright?"

"Yeah, of course I'm alright why wouldn't I be?" she replied.

"I mean, I don't know you've been- distant- all night. Like you're in your own world or something. Even now, we're just walking and you've barely said anything." she reasoned, "Is it me? Did I do something?"

"No, Mary, it's not you. You've been nothing but great since we met," Emmy replied.

"Then... why are you acting so weird?" she asked back.

Emmy fiddled with the rings she had on, "It's a long story."

"We still have a good ways to walk," Mary shrugged.

"It's- It's Daveed. We were friends before he moved." Emmy replied.

Mary looked confused, not really grasping what that meant. "Ok and??"

"We were best friends, like i've known him since I was 4 years old best friends. You say he's like your brother but we quite literally grew up together," she spoke.

"Wait.. so are you mad that we're friends? I'm not trying to steal him from you or anything? I-" Mary replied before Emmy cut her off.

"No, no. We were friends. We had a big fight before he left. We hadn't even talked since until we got to school. I didn't even know he went here."

"Wait he was in Oakland by junior year, you really hadn't talked in that long?" Mary asked in shock.

Emmy shook her head. She starting talking and laid it all out for Mary. The way they were before the fight, the switching the dates of her audition, the skipping over her birthday and then never talking to her again. She gave her all the details.

"Oh wow Emmy," Mary exclaimed when she was done, "So... that's why you won't look at him?"

"I thought I was over it. I hadn't even thought about him in months. I unfollowed him across all social media. I mean, I was done. But seeing him here, it brought all the pain back. He- he stole something from me. An opportunity that I'll never know the outcome of," she said, her words wavering towards the end.