Emerson

Chapter 19.

Emerson's POV

It's been a few weeks since the family was visiting. They left after a few days thankfully and nothing important happened while they were here. I'd continue to go to school thankfully Valencia came to school and we were able to do our project. 

This week is the last week to work on it so I was able to convince Valencia to come to my house to finish the project. She'd been over a few times already for an hour at most to work on it. She's coming over today to work on it for the last time. 

Thankfully we don't have to memorize anything on our slides since we aren't presenting but we do have to include every detail in the slides. 

I look around the yard of the school looking for the raven-haired girl. I spot her over in a far corner near the blonde boy. I've learned from others his name is Markus and is her only friend. 

I walk over to them standing there waiting for them to notice me. 

"Hey, man. Valencia I'll see you tomorrow?" He asks receiving a nod. 

I nod my head over to the depletting parking lot. Valencia nods. 

"Lead the way." She whispers. If it wasn't for her terrible attendance I wouldn't mind working with her. She's smart, hardworking, and quiet. She doesn't press me to answer questions nor does she ask me anything. 

I lead us over to Saint's car to find him standing there looking bored as Griffin stands with a few friends several feet away. 

"You ready?" Saint asks me. I nod. "Griffin let's go."

"Okay, sorry guys Emerson and his girlfriend have to do a project." He smirks at me as he says girlfriend. Two weeks ago, the first time she came over, Griffin non-stopped called her my girlfriend. He said after she left that a beautiful girl like her would be perfect for me. 

I choose to ignore him when he mentions her being my girlfriend. It's just easier than defending myself every time. 

We got into the car listening to Griffin talk for the ride about random things. Saint drives us to the house and we get out. I lead Valencia to the living room where we sit down on the couch doing our work. We both work in silence not needing to communicate about what we need to do. 

I take a quick glance after 30 minutes of typing to see Valencia's hair pulled back into a messy bun letting me see her eyes. Her black-framed glasses help accent her sea blue eye and light green eye. She tends to bite her lip when she's really focused on something. 

She looks up after a minute of my staring. I look back down at my computer. 

"Do you mind if I get a glass of water?" She asks me. 

I nod and stand up. I walk to the kitchen and get her a glass of water. I bring it back to her setting it on the coffee table in front of her. 

"Thank you." She takes a small sip of the water setting it gently on the table. 

"Emerson, come here." I look over to see Reece standing there. I get up and walk over to him, I follow him out into the hallway. "Is your friend staying for dinner?" 

"I can ask her," I whisper to him. He nods and we walk back to the living room. I take my notebook and write down if she's staying for dinner. She reads the page before answering a few seconds later. 

"I don't want to impose. I should be heading home soon anyway." She shakes her head. 

"Don't worry about imposing. I wouldn't invite you if you weren't welcome." Reece tells her. She thinks for another second. 

"Sure then. Thank you, Mr. Stone." She says gently. Reece nods and walks out of the room probably to the kitchen. 

"Your dad's nice." She says. I nod agreeing with her. "You just moved here right?"

I nod not wanting to write back to her a one-word answer like 'yes'. 

"Cool, is there anything else we need to do for the project?" She asks me. I look over the slide double-checking it against the rubric. I write in my notebook, 'I think we're done. We can do more proofreading tomorrow in class.' I hand it to her watching as her eyes track the words. 

"Okay, sounds good. Does your dad need help with dinner?" She asks me. 

I shake my head since he's not the one making dinner. 

"Okay," She looks back towards her computer. 

"Oh look at you two. So sweet." We both look at Griffin standing in the corner with soft eyes staring at us like a creep. 

I shake my head and flip him off. It's the quickest way to show hatred in this family. 

"Dad, Emerson flipped me off!" Griffin yells. I see Valencia flinch out of the corner of my eye from his loud volume. 

"I don't care!" Reece yells back making Griffin pout. I smirk at him. 

"Shut up lover boy. At least I'm not making googly eyes at a girl." I narrow my eyes. I don't do that. Sure Valencia is pretty and a great person but I could never date someone. Hell, I can't even talk to her. 

"Griffin is your homework done?" Reece yells again, Griffin rolls his eyes but walks away from us. 

We sit there for a few minutes in awkward silence. I write down in my notebook, 'Do you want to watch a movie while we wait?'

"Sure, whatever is fine for me." She nods. I turn on the TV and scroll through until a random show catches my attention. We watch it until Reece calls us for dinner. Valencia sits next to me at dinner since it's the only empty seat. 

We all sit around doing the normal 'How was your day?' speech. 

"Valencia, how was your day?" Reece asks her. 

"Fine sir, thank you for asking." She tells him not looking up. 

"Tell us about your family?" Reece asks. I see her tense up before forcing herself to relax. 

"Not much to tell. Just mom and dad. No siblings." She keeps it short and clipped, obviously not uncomfortable with the topic. 

"Siblings suck," Griffin tells her smirking at all of us. 

The family goes back to talking leaving me and Valencia out. Reece has Leon and Blaine start cleaning off the table. 

"Sir, what time is it?" Valencia asks looking nervous while the two clean up. 

"It's 7:30. Do you need a ride home?" Reece asks her. 

"Uh, no. It's no problem my mom is probably on her way." She rushes out and quickly moves to the living room. We all watched as she rushed out of the dining room. 

"Emerson go with her and make sure she gets home okay," Reece tells me. 

I walk out to the living room. I see Valencia hurrying to shove her stuff into her backpack looking slightly scared. 

I go over and tap her on her shoulder. She turns around with wide eyes. 

"Sorry, you scared me. I have to leave my mom is here and she does like waiting." She rushes out. Before I can do anything she speed walks out leaving me there alone before I can even think. I follow after he once my thoughts catch up to find our driveway empty. Her mom was probably out on the street. 

Weird she rushed out so quickly. Even if you don't like waiting I'm sure she wouldn't have been too mad about waiting for a minute. 

I shurg and head back inside.