You're The Only One~ Eric Matthews

The B-Team of Life

Emma woke up to a knock on her window. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up and yawned. She heard the knock again.

"Ahh." Emma jumped as she saw Eric out of her window. She crawled out of bed and went to open the window.

"Happy birthday!" Eric said as he climbed in the window. He handed her a present.

"Thanks Eric." Emma responded as she grabbed the gift.

"Soon enough you'll be able to drive us everywhere." Eric said. "I sometimes wish you weren't a few months older than me." Emma rolled her eyes as she let out a laugh and opened a gift.

"Aww." Emma said as she held out a necklace. It had a small butterfly charm on it. "This is amazing. Can you put it on, please?" Eric took it as Emma moved her hair out of the way. Eric clipped the necklace on and his fingertips lightly grazed Emma's neck. Emma's breath hitched a little. She turned around and locked eyes with Eric. Eric started to lean in and so did Emma, but she stopped.

"I should get ready for school." Emma said backing up. "Thank you, Eric. Really."

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"Wait, wait, what happened?" Emma asked all shocked. "You and Heather broke up?" Eric nodded his head. "I honestly thought it would happen sooner. No offence."

"None taken." Eric said. "I'm going to go fix myself." Emma rolled her eyes as Eric left the school, and she headed towards the gym for practice.

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"Girl, I just heard Eric and Heather broke up." Emma's peppering partner Alicia spoke up. "Now's your chance." Emma shook her head at the girl. "I mean he's kind of dumb, but he sure is cute."

"Hey!" Emma snapped. "Well, I mean, I can't he's my best friend."

"Mhm," the girl said as she rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say." Now it was Emma's turn to roll her eyes.

"Come on girl!" Alicia continued. "The whole team knows you like him more than a friend. Just go for it, what could happen?"

"A lot of things." Emma nodded.

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"Ah, what a night," Eric said as he, Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, Morgan, Emma, and Cory all walked in the Matthews' house. "Those sixth-grade girls thought I was so cool." Emma rolled her eyes as she took off her coat.

"I'm going to tuck Morgan in. I'll be right back down." Mrs. Matthews said as she headed upstairs.

"I want to say goodnight to Cory first." Morgan told her mom. Cory came over to his little sister.

"Good night, Morgan." Cory said.

"You were awesome." Morgan kissed his cheek.

"Must you kiss me?" Morgan just completely ignored him and blew him kisses anyway.

"Six points." Emma heard the little boy speak as her and Eric entered the living room from the kitchen. "Who would have thought three first-stringers would foul out, and they need me to jump in?"

"Yeah, maybe your coach learned to bring a couple second-stringers to come along with him on the road came to cover his butt, huh?" Eric said putting his arm over Emma's shoulder.

"I'm really proud of the way you handled yourself." Mr. Matthews said.

"Three baskets in the last minute." Cory spoke proudly. "Mr. Clutch. Sure, we were up by 31, but still."

"Well, I'm not talking about basketball. I'm talking about the way you handled things today. You came home to an empty house, there's nobody here, but you don't panic. You commandeer the neighbor's car..."

"And the neighbor." Eric, who was sitting in the chair with Emma on the arm of the chair, cut his dad off.

"And you get yourself to the game."

"It's called survival of the fittest. I was explaining it to Mr. Feeny earlier." Cory said. Mrs. Matthews came down the stairs.

"Well, Morgan doesn't want to hear a story from me tonight. She wants to hear a story from the basketball star." Mrs. Matthews said.

"Wow, now I know what it feels like to be the least liked sibling." Emma said as she turned to Eric, she was met with his hazel eyes, he gave her a smile.

"Follow me." Eric whispered in her ear, then got up. Emma hesitantly got up and followed Eric. She followed him to their backyard. When she got out there, she saw fairy lights strung up around the place. And a radio that was playing soft music. She finally met Eric's eyes again, giving him a small smile.

"Emma James, may I have this dance?" Eric asked in a terrible British accent as he extended his hand. Emma let out a small laugh.

"You may." Emma responded placing her hand in his. Eric placed his other hand on her lower back, while Emma placed her other hand on his shoulder. Eric glided them around the backyard to the soft music coming from the radio.

"Happy birthday Emma." Eric finally spoke after a minute of silence. Emma glanced up at him.

"Thank you," Emma responded. "And once again, thank you for the necklace."

"Don't mention it." Eric shook his head. "You're my best friend." Emma gave him a small smile. She enjoyed this moment, just him and her, her and him. She fixed themselves so now both of her hands were wrapped around his neck, and both his hands were wrapped around her waist. She laid her head against his chest as they continued to sway.

SLAM!

Emma and Eric quickly looked up and saw Mr. Feeny standing outside.

"Oh, sorry," Mr. Feeny spoke. "Didn't mean to interrupt."

"No," Emma said. "It's fine, we were just wrapping up anyway." Emma looked back at Eric. "Thank you for this Eric, it was really nice. Night Eric."

"Night Emma." Eric said as Emma walked to her house. Eric watched her walk off; once she was out of his sight Eric turned around. Mr. Feeny was looking at him. Eric let out a small laugh as he scratched the back of his head.

"Night Mr. Feeny." Eric said, heading to his house.

"Mr. Matthews," Mr. Feeny stopped Eric; Eric looked at him. "Treat her good." With that Mr. Feeny walked back into his house. Eric stopped to think about what he said. What did he mean by that? They were just friends, although, the little moment they had this morning popped up in his head and so did the moment he offered her to teach her how to kiss. He really wanted to kiss Emma right about now but decided against it and went into his home.