Slumber Party [Maxine Baker]

|Twenty four|

After the sophomore sleepover at school, everyone was heading home. Emilia and Max walked hand in hand towards the breakfast table as Marcus followed them in tired steps. He hadn't spoken a word to Emilia after they parted last night. The rest of the friend group follows a bit behind.

Maxine pulled Emilia towards the breakfast burrito table and took two. She gave one to Emilia and smiled sweetly at her.
"Do you wanna go and sit over there?" Max asked as she nodded her head towards a bench. Emilia nods with a slight grin as they leave the rest of the group.

Marcus glances back at Ginny, who seems interested in what Hunter is telling her. He sighed for himself before getting his thoughts interrupted by Emilia, who had left Maxine at the bench.
"You okay?" She says looking him up and down as he shrugs. Her brows knit together before opening her mouth but then closing it.
"Don't say it" He says catching her off-guard.
"Say what?" She raises her eyebrows.
"You know that me and Ginny's thing is complicated" he says in a lowered voice before Emilia finds herself holding in a laugh.
"'thing'?"
"Dude just say relationship" she says as he stops in his tracks before pulling her aside to the parking lot.
"It isn't a relationship!" He raises his voice before pushing his lips into a line and taking a deep breath.
"I mean, I like her, I see things in her that nobody else get to see. But her downs, are like really bad. And I don't think that my mental health can take that" Marcus bites his bottom lip as he's looking at Emilia for an answer.
"That's okay. Your health is always the priority. Never forget that" she says with a light smile on her lips. Marcus returns the smile before continuing to chew on his lip. She watches him stare off into the ground before touching his shoulder.
"You do that a lot?" She asks getting his attention back.
"what?" He raises his eyebrows.
"Zoning off and eating up your lips?" He remains quiet before releasing his bottom lip from his teeth and looks Emilia in the eyes.
"Yeah" he sighs.
"It's me being nervous"
"What are you nervous about?"
"Everything" he says letting out another sigh.
"You want to talk about it? Maybe that could help... I know it did for me" Emilia keeps a light smile on her lips as she studies Marcus's face. He stays silent, like he was thinking her idea over.
"Yeah. I think I'm willing to try it" he says before they get interrupted by Maxine who's yelling across the parking lot.
"Em! Marcus! Let's go home! I'm so so so so tired. Feels like I haven't slept in days" Max says as she gets closer and closer towards them. Before they know it Maxine is standing right in front of the pair.
"you ready? Cause I know I am" Max says as she snuggles up into Emilia. She wraps her arm around her shoulder and kissed her cheek before smiling over at Marcus.

______________________

As they arrive at home Marcus sits down on the couch and picks up his phone as Emilia and Maxine heads up stairs.
"Hey I really need to practice my lines for the show" she says before giving Emilia a quick peck on the lips and walking into her room and shutting the door behind her.
Emilia walks into her room, she throws herself over the bed and lets out a heavy sigh.

She hasn't painted in days, and that was unusual, she usually paints with every spare time she got. She's been changing a bit ever since she's gotten to Wellsbury.

There was a new feeling inside of her now. Whether that was true love or if it was that she finally felt home. Finally there was a place for her in a home where the parents actually cared for their kids and didn't care what sexual orientation they had and that the only thing that mattered was that they were loved. Emilia has never felt that before. Loved.

Back home she was treated like she wasn't even a part of the family. Her parents tried in the beginning to make her into something she's not. Emilia has never been a person you can silence, thanks to Georgia being around when she was small.

Georgia moved often and quickly, with not a lot of luggage. But when she met Emilia's mother she stayed longer than she's ever stayed in one place before. Her mother was only five years older and Emilia was only a year older than Ginny.

Emilia's memory goes way back to when she was two. She could remember moments with Georgia and moments with Ginny when she was just a baby. Mostly Emilia was told by her parents about Georgia and they met only a few times when she was little when their roads crossed.

______

As Emilia started taking out her painting tray and the paint, there was a knock on her door. Marcus head sticks out behind the door.
"I'm bored. Wanna do something?" He raises an eyebrow and Emilia sighs as she took her painting brushes.
"Sure, take a canvas" she says and he walks in and takes one of the white unpainted canvases and sits down beside her on the floor.
"So take a brush, choose a color and paint on the canvas" she points to the cup with a few paint brushes in. He takes a paint brush and picks up the tray with multiple drops of paint on.

"Is it always this quiet when you paint?" He whispers to her after a few moments of silence. She glances over at him and shrugs.
"Cause like, I'm down to have some music on or somethi-" Emilia glares at him through her side eye and he immediately stops talking.
"Understood" he whispers back before dipping his paint brush in paint before starting on his canvas.

"So like, what are you painting?" He whispers as he leans over her shoulder. Emilia sighs before responding,
"I don't know yet".
"Do you think smoking something would help?" He looks at her face and raises an eyebrow.
"You know, for the creativity to start to flow. Sometimes it just needs a little extra push you know" he smiles at Emilia as she keeps a straight face.
"You do you Marcus" she sighs.
"But I would recommend doing it outside on the balcony. Cause if my room smells like weed, I'm going to be sent home in a second"

A/n
Oh shit,
It was a while ago...
I'm sorry for the wait.
Hoping for 2024 to be a good year!!

And the way that I confidently said that was going to finish this book summer of 2020.
But here we are almost 4 years later and the book still not finished. lol

Tbh I don't have a good explanation to why I haven't written, I've been reading a bunch. Like. A LOT. A bunch of Cole Walter...

Team Cole right heeere —->