Our little secret | Jev

29. Emily's secret

Lev's POV

I was waiting in the kitchen for Jentzen to finish talking to Elliana. I couldn't hear much of what was being said, but there was for sure some yelling. Just as I thought of getting closer to try and make sense of what was going on out there in the garden, I heard footsteps behind me.

I shot my head around to see a familiar blonde girl walking down the stairs. It felt like I hadn't seen Emily in forever. Ever since that day where she'd tried to tell me something she had avoided me like wildfire. Every time I tried to approach her she'd run off somewhere.

As soon as she saw me her eyes widened in alarm and she began running back up the stairs. "Emily, wait!" I called out, chasing after her. I saw her go into the gaming room and immediately followed her in there, shutting the door behind me.

"Emily, please, stop running away from me!" I pleaded. Her eyes darted between me and the door, knowing I was blocking her only exit and that there was no chance for escape. "Now isn't a good time Lev" she mumbled under her breath, almost too quiet for me to hear.

"These days it's never a good time" I retorted, tilting my head to one side. She looked away, trying not to make eye contact with me. "Please Emily.. why do you keep avoiding me? Did I do something wrong?" I pleaded quietly. All I wanted to know was why my best friend seemed to want nothing to do with me.

"Lev, it's not like that-" she began, but I cut her off. "Then what is it like?!" I interrupted, raising my voice. "You're my best friend, Emily. We used to talk about everything together, and now you won't even speak to me - you won't even LOOK at me, and I have no idea what I did wrong because every time I even try and go within 2 feet of you, you take off as if you can't stand to even be around me" I vented. I paused and took in a deep inhale, realizing I had barely stopped to breathe.

It had only just occurred to me how truly torn I had began to feel over losing one of the most important people in my life, and it sucked to not even know why she was slipping away from me.

Finally, Emily allowed her eyes to meet mine, and it was in that moment I saw all the pain she was holding inside. "You did nothing wrong, Lev, and I'm so sorry I made you feel that way. You did nothing wrong..." she repeated. "But.... but I did" she finally admitted, her eyes beginning to water with tears.

"Hey, hey..." I spoke softly, walking over to her. I raised a hand to her face and wiped a fallen tear from her cheek. "Speak to me, I promise you can tell me anything" I whispered. She shook her head, walking over to sit on the bed.

"No Lev, I can't. You'll hate me. You'll hate me forever and I'll lose my best friend" she sobbed, covering her face with her hands. I slowly sat down next to her, placing a comforting arm over her shoulders.

"Emily, I promise you, there's nothing you could say that would make me look at you differently. Whatever it is, I promise I could never hate you. If you tell me, we can work through this together, I promise. Just look at me..." I urged, pulling her chin up to face me.

Her eyes were red and her lip was quivering in fear. "I..." she began, taking in a few shaky breaths. "I have feelings for... for Piper" she mumbled. For a few seconds I paused and looked at her in utter shock, not expecting the words that fell from her mouth, but as the shock began to wear off, I let out a small chuckle.

"Why... why are you laughing?" She sniffed in confusion. I shook my head, trying to stop my laughter. "Emily, I think that's great" I smiled at her. She widened her eyes in what looked like a mixture of fear and utter mayhem. "Are you messing with me?! What the hell is going on?!" She spoke, looking around her as if she wasn't sure what she was experiencing was real.

"I'm about to tell you something that you can't tell anyone. Do you understand Emily? No one can know" I whispered earnestly. Emily nodded, still looking dazed and disoriented.

"Me and Piper broke up. And, before you say anything, there was no bad reason. We love each other, of course, but we don't... love each other, and it's as simple as that." I explained.

Emily blinked slowly, her jaw hanging open in shock. "You... you ok there Em?" I asked, genuinely concerned for her. "So... you don't hate me?" She questioned anxiously. I snorted. "Nope. What did. I tell you? There's nothing you could ever do that would make me hate you" I reassured. Emily cracked a small smile.

"So you don't mind that I... like... women?" She whispered the last part as if it was a bad word. I shook my head, amused. "I mean, it would make me a bit of a hypocrite considering I like men" I retorted back at her. She widened her eyes in surprise. "C-come again?" She stuttered.

"In fact, I like one boy in particular. One boy who has a freckled face, who's eyes are like pools of honey in the sun. A boy who laughs at my jokes even when they're bad and who lights up when he sees me, even if I only saw him last a few minutes ago. Hey, you might know him" I joked.

"You... you like?! J-Jentz... oh my" she gasped. "Does he like you back?!" She blurted out. I frowned. "Well I should hope so, he is my boyfriend after all."

Emily sat back, taking a few moments of silence to herself. "This.... this is a lot to process in the span of two minutes" she admitted.

I nodded. "Yeah... try living through it. It was a wild rollercoaster" I joked. Emily was still in a state of shock, barely responsive. "So... so you're dating Jentzen, you and Piper are broken up, Piper knows and no one else can?" She repeated, trying to clarify things for herself.

"You understand why no one else can know, right?" I prompted solemnly. She nodded, looking down at the ground. "I know what would happen if people found out..." she mumbled sadly.

"Hey, it's ok. There's no need to be sad. Look on the bright side, now you don't have to feel bad about liking Piper. Maybe you should try and do something about it, I have a feeling your affections may not be one sided" I comforted, trying to cheer Emily up.

She smiled back at me. "You really think so?!" She enquired enthusiastically. I nodded, a smile slowly crossing my face as I finally got to see my best friend happy once again. "You know, it's really nice to be able to talk to you again" I admitted.

Emily smiled back at me. "I know. I'm really sorry I froze you out, I was just so afraid of how I felt and I felt guilty hanging around you and having you see me as someone who could never hurt you when I had all these internalized feelings for Piper" she replied.

I shrugged. "Things happen. It's not like we choose who we love. Besides, if anything, I'm just so glad we can talk to each other about this. It's not exactly something we could talk about with anyone else, and it sure does feel like a weight of our shoulders, right?"

Emily nodded in agreement. "Yeah. Yeah, it does..." she replied. "Hey, I think I'm gonna go talk to Piper for a bit. Thanks for forcing me to talk to you, Lev. It turns out the one thing I was avoiding was the exact thing that had the power to make me feel so much better." Emily beamed.

I smiled. "Good luck with Piper. You don't have to tell her anything right now, but when you do, I hope you two end up as happy as I am with Jentzen" I admitted. Emily smiled back at me.

She got up to leave, but before she walked out the door I asked her one last thing. "Hey, do you mind if I tell Jentzen, or would you prefer if I didn't? He's just been feeling so bad about the whole thing now that Piper's alone and I think it would put his mind at ease."

Emily shrugged. "I don't mind. Jentzen's always been a good friend to me, so if you think it would help him feel better about everything that's happened, why not?"

"Cool" I smiled at her.

"Cool" she repeated, smiling back at me.

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