Part of the Plan (Book 2 in the 'part of' series)

Chapter 15 Meeting him

Chapter 15 Meeting him

The bus ride was highly unpleasant, Saturday afternoon buses were extremely busy. It made a lot of sense since it was one of the days when most people didn't have work. I didn't expect it to be so busy that I had to stand up. I was squished at the front of the bus with my father. I was holding onto the bar behind me and each time a new passenger got on, they had to squish in between us.

It made a lot more sense when we had gotten off the bus with the majority of the crowd. There was a kind of stampede of people heading in one direction. The direction was the football stadium. It somewhat surprised me that the party would be at the same time as the football match. Football was a rather popular thing in England.

"Ready to plough through this?" My father surprised me as I was addressed. He would've usually just gone straight through and expected me to follow. "We need to be on the opposite side of the town from them." I nodded slightly as he started to lead the way. I hadn't considered where the party would be.

"Are we going to an office building?" My brows were furrowed. He opened his mouth as though to scold me for a moment before shutting it again. His head was directed forward as he watched where he was going.

"Actually, I think it's a house not too far from the outskirts of town." This did not give me any confidence. He did not seem to know where we were going. "My co-worker said that we should be able to find it alright." I gave a silent huff, knowing that would not go down well if my father heard it.

I stayed quiet for the rest of the way, watching people push and shove past without apologising. It took us about three quarters of an hour to get to the house. I hadn't actually been around here before. I hardly ever visited the town, nevermind venturing outside of the town.

The houses were not joined together, something unusual for me to see. They were large and grand. Father looked around slightly lost for a good five minutes before deciding we were in the right place. He nearly went up to a few houses before he found the miniscule number sign ont he door.

In the end, Emi was our saviour as I heard a shout. "Harlow and Mister Forst!" From behind us. I spun around to see Emi in a gorgeous emerald green dress, it went wonderfully with her curled chocolate brown hair. I gave a smile in relief as she calmly walked towards us. This wasn't the Emi which I was used to, she was much more calm and collected. "I saw you out of the window and thought I'd lend a hand."

My father was in slight shock but he smiled and held out a hand. "Thank you so much dear.I'm not used to the layout around here." He shared a chuckle with Emi as she shook his hand in a rather professional manner. "You must be Harlow's friend I take it?"

Emi nodded with the regular twinkle in her eye. "Yes, that would be me. I've heard so much about you." The two of them had a rather bland conversation as we arrived at the house. The awkwardness was suffocating. When we got to the house which was about three times the size of my own, we parted ways with my father and I was pulled towards an empty room. "Thank goodness you're here."

"Lost it yet?" I joked and she nodded vigorously. She gestured to her rather long dress before pulling it up slightly to show me the size of her heels. "I bet you I could walk in those." I huffed lightly at her complaining. She gave me a wicked grin.

"Oh trust me, I'm going to hold you to that, once this is over you're trying them on." She flopped down onto a cream coloured chair and placed her hands in her lap. "My cousin will be joining us soon, that way we can make it look like we're being social without being social."

I nodded, that sounded like a marvellous plan to me. I sat down next to her and looked around the room. There was simply too much in the room to take in all at once. There was a chandelier, I'm pretty sure it's the first time that I've seen one of those. Shelves decorated every inch of the walls, holding more and more expensive looking things.

My attention was taken away from the decor as the door opened. In walked a boy around about my age, if not a little bit older. He had reddish-brown hair which was longer on top and short at the sides. He had honey brown eyes and was wearing a rather simple suit. The colour of his tie was also forest green, matching Emi's dress.

He walked into the room confidently with a rather intimidating expression. "Where have you been Emerson? I've been looking for you everywhere." He seemed a little fed up with the party already, as far as I was aware, it had only just started. "Your mother has already introduced me to three people who I have no intention of talking to."

"Well you just have to put up with it Karim." Emi sighed as she turned to look at him. "Like we all have to, it'll just be for the day." The one who I assumed to be called Karim moved closer to us and sat down in the middle of us. I had to consciously lower my eyebrow from where it had been raised for the past minute or so. "Don't call me Emerson."

"Well it's what everyone's going to be calling you today." Karim huffed and crossed his arms "It'll be for the day, and then the next day we have a party and so on and so forth." Emi scoffed at the reply that she got. Her eyes drifted from me to Karim and back to me. Her eyes were getting increasingly annoyed.

"Clearly you're not a people person." She said to Karim. "So much so you ignore the one behind you." Karim puffed some air out of his mouth and shrugged it off, not bothering to look. I gave a small chuckle in response to the look Emi was giving me. Karim spun around, for a moment I thought I heard a deep noise but the thought quickly vanished as Emi began to laugh. "Harlow, this is Karim. Karim, this is my friend Harlow."