her keepsake

one

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"Where is the beautiful weather the weather people keep talking about? I haven't even had chance to wear my summer clothes yet!" Em complains for the second time today. Summer was supposed to be bright and summer, warm colours, vibrant colours. Yellow. Red. Orange. Pastel colours. Pretty colours. The clouds where grey, no gaps in-between and no transparency. This was another day of feeling miserable, no where to go and no excuses to leave. Em was at her coastal home unpacking boxes, this was the only thing stopping her from staring at her phone screen and she knew it needed to be done. Her parents had just moved from another coastal site and for some reason she felt calmer at this new one, even with the mess that the moving left her with.

Em was anti-social and independent. A student a week away from graduating and reaching her goal of A*s across all of her assignments. She was known as the mum friend to all of her college friends. She was the friend who always had spare paracetamol and the one who always carried spare plasters. The friend who always asked how everyone else was before she was asked, the friend who always smiled even though she was struggling herself. The friend who kept all problems to herself just to ensure her friends didn't have to deal with her problems. The problems were emss' not her friends. She was the friend who would always give advice and it was relationship mostly, however, she'd never been in a relationship herself. Why would her friends ask her and listen to the advice, even after knowing she'd never been in a relationship?

College was the only place she could feel like herself. Like it was an escape, besides listening to music. Going to the coast and learning to drive would relieve her stress too, she had to find a way away from everything and travelling, reading, completing coursework and listening to music would help her to do this.

This new site offered so much more than being inside. Em knew she were further away from the beach and further away from town but that opened up new opportunities. Em would be able to focus on her confidence and independence, shopping on her own or walking into town. Even walking across the road to the shops there would help in some way. Em wasn't too big on social interaction and had problems trusting others. She is the observant type. The noted type. The kind of girl that knows nothing but everything about someone all at once. Once Em spoke and was comfortable with you, you would have a struggle to get her to keep quiet. She shows interest in your interests, she listens and gives advice when needed, she smiles and holds eye contact and mostly she pays attention. Em didn't notice she was observant until she moved in with her grandparents, it would be two years since she did this summer and her observant skills have started to grow more.

After Em finished unpacking the boxes they were to be put onto the van, ready to be taken to storage. The next thing for the family to do was go to the office and enquire about security checks, this needed to be done to provide safety, no matter how boring it was or how long it took.

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Em arrived at the office and took a seat on one of the chairs, sorting security and finance had nothing to do with her and was more of a thing her parents would sort, Em was just there for the spare paper and pen and the odd observation that she would usually do.

Songs were playing on in the background faintly and although she knew the singers by name and the song by lyrics she pretended she didn't. The radio broadcaster then announced another song was coming on, a song she liked but somehow thought social media would ruin eventually. A song that would be known as "one of those sped-up sad vent audios" and one people would eventually get bored of it. However, Em hardly got bored of songs. She could listen to the same one on repeat and never get bored of it. A good trait to pick up. One Em was thankful for.

"Ceilings, plaster. Cant you just make it move faster? Lovely to be sitting here with you, You're kinda cute but it's raining harder. My shoes are now full of water. Lovely to be rained on with you." The radio continued as the music hummed through the speakers in the almost silent reception.
Em knew this song. She'd heard of it multiple times. She knew the song so much she didn't realise herself miming the lyrics, looking up at the sound system.

"It's kinda cute but it's so short. Then you're drivin' me home. And I don't wanna leave. But I have to go" the rest of the song trailed on line after line, Em still miming the lyrics. This next part is how the song has remained in emss' head.

"You kiss me in your car and it feels like the start of a movie I've seen before. Before." During this part of the song Em experienced some kind of funny belly churning feeling. Not only did em not notice she was lip syncing until late on but now she wasn't looking at the sound system, oh no. Ems gaze has now changed to be making eye contact with a handsome tall man behind the reception desk. She was also standing up against the desk, her hands folded over the top of it but she had no recollection of moving or standing or even switching her gaze. This person was holding eye contact and so was Em. She blinked and everything came back to life, it came back to real motion.

She sat back down again, this time making sure she stayed until they left but the rest of the afternoon was a blur. Time moved so fast and yet she had no recollection of anything, she wasn't being observant or talkative or loud. It was as if she was still stuck in that slow moving-trance, that two second spot that felt like it went on for an eternity and the thing is she doesn't even know who this gentleman is. She has to go and finish her last week of college and all she'll be thinking about is if she made good eye contact with this stranger behind the desk. Thoughts swirl inside her head along with silly questions like "were my eyes okay? I wonder if he saw my eyes dilate? They do say the eyes are the windows to the soul."

This is when Em realised that this song would mean so much more to her every time she saw it. This is when she knew that there would be more to just her making eye contact between this mysterious young man and her. The eye contact was not just original normal eye contact. It meant something, and Em being Em wanted to know what that "more" was.

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hi thank you for reading my first chapter!!
im a student just qualified from her childcare qualifications and going on to study higher eduaction so this book may actually be messy but hey ho!

also this is based and written on true events, if u rm or get ib pls give creds & thank you!!

happy few hours until heartstopper s2🍂