CALAMITY (h.s)

TWO.

TWO. || SLIM SHADY

Emaline has never had a true friend who wasn't aware of her parents status. And it usually affected how people treated her. This was something she enjoyed about spending time with Jo.

Emaline felt that Jo took interest in being her friend, based on personality alone. Their friendship wasn't based on deceit in Emaline's eyes.

Today, her image of Jo changed completely.

The pair had begun hanging out in Emaline's apartment most evenings after Emaline got off of work. She preferred staying in to going out — She didn't like to risk people recognizing her, especially with her father being a hot topic on most news channels at the moment.

They mainly only went to Emaline's out of convenience, as it is a short walk from Cloudies. Today though, Emaline didn't work. Jo insisted she hosts for once. Jo even offered to pick her up on her way home from the store.

Emaline was slightly nervous to go to Jo's house. Due to the way she was raised, she was taught never to trust anybody or their intentions. However, she always tried her best to unlearn those habits. She knew it was hindering her path to normalcy. Emaline has kept her bubble small ever since moving out on her own and she feels like Jo is just the person to pop that bubble.

Emaline exits her apartment after receiving a text from Jo that reads 'out front'.

Emaline steps into the vehicle, noticing how clean Jo's car is. There isn't even dust on the dashboard. Emaline makes a note to clean her car tomorrow morning before work.

"Hey! How are you?" Jo enthusiastically asked Emaline.

Emaline fidgets with the seatbelt for a moment before answering, "I'm good. Thanks for picking me up, I appreciate it. How are you?"

"Of course! It really was no problem," Jo turns her focus to the road.

"You said you have roommates, right?" Emaline feels anxiety working it's way through her body.

Jo nods, "Yeah, but they won't bother us."

The shortness of Jo's answer bothered Emaline for some reason, but she didn't know why.

After about half an hour a mix of chatting and singing along to Jo's playlist, Emaline started feeling like they would never arrive to Jo's house. She was confused about how far Jo seemed to live, considering she visited the bookstore nearly everyday.

"Do you want to stop for some food?" Jo suggested, merging lanes to get on the closest exit.

Jo had already seemed to make up her mind and Emaline didn't want to be rude so she agreed. Even though Emaline had eaten right before they left and didn't have much of an appetite.

Jo pulled into a small deserted gas station and put the car in park, "They have great hot dogs."

All of the gas station windows were severely tinted, making it difficult to see anything on the inside. Emaline was curious if it was even open.

"What's your gas station order?" Jo asked as they stepped inside the vacant store.

Everything happened so fast. Emaline could barely process the chiming of the bell above the door before she was being harshly grabbed and pummeled to the ground.

She felt a sharp pinch on her side before her vision became blurry and she lost consciousness.

Emaline eventually woke up with an unbearable dryness in her mouth.

She squinted her eyes, trying to focus her vision to the best of her ability. It was too dark for her to see anything except the outline of light shining through the door across the room.