The Label Maker

CHAPTER SIX: PUT IN PLACE

Emma was just as shocked as Gwen was. She didn't know how to feel. She wondered what RJ was even doing outside. All his friends were inside.

"D you need a ride?" Emma repeats for Gwen, finding her voice before her friend did. RJ shook his head in response to the question.

"Well do you have a ride at least?" Emma asks next. He shakes his head again.

"Well, do you want to wait in the car and call someone?" Gwen asks, suddenly finding her voice.

"Look, I have a ride. I just have to meet him. I'll be fine," RJ huffs, wiping water out of his eyes.

"Well do you want us to drive you there?" Emma asks, gripping her steering wheel until the point where her knuckles were white.

"I said I was fine," he assures.

"Look, it won't be a problem to drive you. No one deserves or wants to walk in the rain and get wet," Gwen tries to explain. But RJ ignored her. He was looking in the other direction at something in the distance. Gwen couldn't see out the back window, so she didn't know what he was looking at. He continued to look back and forth between the thing behind him and Gwen and Emma. Then without any warning he got in the car. Both Gwen and Emma turned around and stared at him. He actually got in the car.

"Just start driving," RJ commands. Emma locked the car doors and began to drive off.

"I'm glad we left the movie," Emma begins with a smirk sliding across her face. "The movie really sucked."

"Shut up," Gwen says.

"What did you think of the movie RJ? Did you like it?" Emma asks, looking at him through the rearview mirror.

"It wasn't as scary as I'd hoped," he admits.

"I didn't find it scary either," Emma lies.

Gwen snorts. "You were clutching the seat so hard I could see your white knuckles in the dark!"

"Shut up. You could not," she says, hitting Gwen lightly in the arm. Gwen laughed, but quickly stopped when she realized how uncomfortable RJ was as he sat awkwardly in the backseat.

"Um, did we miss your stop? Is it coming up? Where are we going?" Gwen bombards.

"Um, I think it's just a block or two further," he answers.

"You think?" Emma asks, slamming on the breaks at a red light. Everybody in the car lurched forward. Gwen smacked her head against the dash. Emma started to laugh.

"Stop it's not funny. That hurt," Gwen hisses, punching Emma in the arm.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to slam on the breaks," she tries to persuade.

"You just missed my stop," RJ announces from the back seat. Emma swore under her breath.

"Alright. I can turn around. It's no big deal. Where am I stopping again?" Emma asked.

"Um, you know the apartment buildings across from that eye doctor place? Just drop me there," he says. A white light appeared in the back of the car. He was on his phone. Gwen figured that he was texting his ride that he was close, that he was actually there. Emma parked the car in front of the apartment building across from the eye doctor just like RJ told her to.

"Is this the right place?" Gwen asks, twisting her body around to look at RJ.

"What? Oh yeah. Thanks for the ride." He opened the car door and began to slide out. Before he completely exited the car, he stopped and turned back around. "See you guys Monday." And then he was gone. The rain carried him away and the darkness swallowed him whole.

✎✎✎

For the rest of the weekend there wasn't a moment when Emma wouldn't leave Gwen alone. All she wanted to talk about was RJ and how he chose the two of them over his crowd of friends. Emma swore that's what he was looking at Friday night, but Gwen wasn't too convinced. All Gwen wanted was to be alone and to rest for her head had a small bump from when she hit the dash. Having Emma talk to her every waking moment didn't help at all, but after many Advils and excedrins, she learned how to adapt and make do. Most times, Gwen simply set her phone down and walked away, muted it, or simply handed it off to Farrell. She noticed that Emma had no problem talking to Farrell for he would hand her phone back hours later.

While she had the time to herself, Gwen explored more of her new blogging site. She found a few people to follow and even a few blogs that interested her. She even took Mrs. Brunds advice about finding a blog on how to relieve and handle stress. To her advantage, she found three that seemed trustworthy. She bookmarked the blogs in a special tab on her page. They were only accessible to her unless stated otherwise. For now, she settled on keeping them private.

But on Sunday, as the hours grew late, and Gwen's parents' arguing still continued, she found herself staying up writing. It wasn't anything she expected herself to be writing. But as she thought about all the things she was stressed out about, she realized that it wasn't only one things contributing to it. It was her parents. It was also school.

It was mainly people. And she found herself writing about those people. The early hours of morning were crawling up on her. And she had no idea. Although her writing process was slow at first, she began to pick up speed and ideas and understandings of what type of blogger she was going to be. She was going to explain people and their mysteries. She was going to categorize them. She was going to put them in their place.

And she was going to do it all anonymously.

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Thoughts on the chapter? It literally took me like two hours to write because I couldn't figure out what I wanted and if it sounded good. I don't know. But hey, Gwen finally starts her blog. It's going to get better from here on out. Until tomorrow,

~Alyssa :)