The Key

Chapter Three

Emma practically jumped three feet in the air, causing their entire booth to rattle as her phone vibrated in the back pocket of her jeans. She and Carter had decided to go for a midnight snack, well meal more like. They were sitting in the back booths of McDonalds with two Big Macs, two Medium Fries and two coffees. Many of the customers had turned to stare at Emma. "Sorry," she muttered gesturing to her phone in explanation.

Once everyone had gone back to scarfing down their meals, she took the phone from her back pocket. As she looked at the screen it flashed with a new message from an unknown number.

Meet me at the Slurpee stand in the mall Sunday at 4. J

Emma had no idea who would text her something like that unless they perhaps had the wrong number. Unless it was Ryder. Obviously, how could she be so dumb?

Sounds good. See ya there (:

"Whoa, what just happened?" Carter asked with her eyebrow lifted and a smirk placed on her lips.

"Nothing." Emma shrugged noncommittal.

"It's official."

"What?"

"You're never going to be an actress."

"I guess it's a good thing I don't want to be one, then isn't it?"

"Guess so. But seriously. What was that all about?"

"Oh, ya know. Just Ryder asking me out. No biggie."  Emma played it off as no big deal shrugging her shoulders, taking a monstrous bite of her Big Mac and stuffing her face full of French fries to keep her smile at bay.

"You mean THE Ryder. As in Ryder Jamison. As in your high school crush Ryder!"

"Yep." Emma casually stated.

"Oh my gosh!"

"I know right! I almost peed right there in the middle of the hallway."

"Now that I want to see. While it may be embarrassing for you it would have been very entertaining for me and the rest of the school."

"Ha ha, very funny." Emma's voice was dripping with sarcasm.

"So, what did he say?"

"Well, right after I plowed you over in the hallway, he stopped me in the hallway. He asked if I wanted to grab a burger sometime and like an idiot I stood there awestruck, stuttering like a fool while I drooled and tripped over myself." She grimaced at the memory. She must have looked like a complete dork that had never been on a date before. Well, she had never been on a real date; she was always busy, but he certainly didn't need to know that. Emma has already made enough of a fool of herself without the whole "never been on a date" factor.

"Ouch. That sounds horrid." Carter flinched as if imagining that happening to her.

"Yeah tell me about it." Emma muttered, rolling her eyes, annoyed with herself. It really hadn't seemed that bad at the time, but looking back now she couldn't imagine what an idiot she had made of herself. She shook her head and brought her hands to her face.

After they finished eating they got into the car and headed back to Carter's house.  The ride back was quiet the only sound was Carter's soft humming. When they finally pulled up to Carter's house, Emma got out and practically dragged herself to the front door, suddenly exhausted.

"Hey let's watch some of those really cheesy, not so scary, scary movies." Carter looked up from the key she was using to unlock the door and looked up at Emma expectantly.

"Sorry to rain on your parade, but I'm really tired so I think I'm just going to head up to bed and hit the sack." Emma rubbed her eyes and followed Carter through the door.

"You're so boring!"

"Oh, I know. How will you ever survive?" Emma laughed bringing a hand up to her forehead dramatically.

"Shut up!" Carter playfully shoved Emma's shoulder. They sat on the black leather couch and turned on the T.V.

"Ice cream?"

"Hit me!"

"Okay, we've got Mint Chocolate Chip, Cookie Dough, Cookies 'n Cream and—"

"Say no more."

"Cookies 'n Cream it is."

"So what have you been up to that's kept you so busy? Too busy to hang out with little old me, I might add." Carter asked from the kitchen as she scooped the ice cream into bowls.

"Oh, ya know. The usual. Parties until three in the morning. I'm wildly popular these days," she said sarcasm dripping from her voice.

"Well while I know that's not true, Ryder seems to think you're pretty cool." Carter smirked as she made her way to the couch with to bowls of Cookies 'n Cream ice cream with hot fudge and sprinkles: Carters with chocolate sprinkles and Emma's with rainbow sprinkles; the usual.

"Okay well while you're over there fantasizing about my life for me, I'm going to stuff my face, thank you very much."

"Whatever you say."

Twenty minutes later they were both on the floor asleep, exhausted, the movie blaring in the background as the credits rolled past on the screen. 

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              The next morning Emma laid awake thinking about the previous day at school. How had that even happened? Her mom was dead so why was she seeing her in her mind in weird ways, during a time period in which she hadn't even been born yet no less.  Maybe she had just imagined it all. That must be it she had just gone a bit crazy from lack of sleep and exhaustion. 

              Next to her she heard Carter stir and mumble in her sleep. Emma rolled over and looked at the clock on the microwave which read 10:30 A.M. She leapt out of her sleeping bag, causing Carter to jolt awake. Carter sat up trying to rub the sleep from her eyes.

              "Mmmm... what's going on? What's wrong?"

              "I'm late for work! Skye is going to kill me! What if she fires me, what am I going to do then?" Emma was on the verge of a panic attack.

              "Oh, hush. I called in for you last night after you fell asleep." Carter mumbled snuggling deeper into her sleeping bag. "Go back to sleep. We have a long day ahead of us. Girl's day. Now go to bed."

              "Well, I'm not going back to sleep. I'm wide awake now after that mini heart attack I just had before you so generously informed me that you had called in for me."

              "Mmmmhmmmm" Carter muttered close to sleeping.

              "Well, just pick me up at 12:30 I guess."

              "Uh huh"

              With that Emma picked up her bag and walked out the door, closing it softly behind her so as not to further disturb Carter.