Stay With Me

Chapter 2

POV of Emma

***

Why, oh why God, was I cursed with having Jessica Taylor as my best friend? Did you really believe in the whole opposites attract thing, or do you just have a really flat sense of humor?

I mean no offense, but seriously? Jessica. I love her to death, but man she can drive me crazy.

"Oh my god! I'm in shopping paradise!" We had just entered the mall when Jess felt her usual burst of joy as soon as she stepped into her definition of 'paradise.' Her obsession with clothing and accessories may have been a bit excessive, but who was I to judge?

"Calm yourself Jess, we go through this every time we step foot inside your kingdom."

Jessica turned back around to look at me, retrieving back that lovely smile of hers, the one every guy dreamed of, and every other girl lusted for.

"I know your grumpy Ems, but it's shopping! How could you not want to shop your butt off when you walk into a place like this?" Jess spread her arms out like Jesus, giving me her justification. But I just wasn't buying it.

"You may be really into shopping for clothes, but the only reason I'm here with you is to go check out the new bookstore."

Jess blew out a slight puff of disappointment, even though she already knew I didn't have any business going into the stores she ordinarily ventured off to, "I still don't see why you don't like shopping, but whatever. I'll text you when I'm ready to go."

"Okay," I said back to her. Turning to my left, I started my way towards my own paradise.

Yes it's true, I'm not that into shopping, though Jess always says I have a good sense of style... Even though she picks out a lot of my clothes... But I love her for it.

Jess and I have been best friends for seven years, ever since the first day of High School. I still remember that first day of ninth grade, walking into Mrs. Kingsley's class, being the new girl who knew a total of zero people in her grade. It was scary as hell.

I remember trying to pick the right seat, because the teacher had previously told us that it would stay the same the entire year. So I scanned the room, looking at all of my classmates. There were three empty seats, one was by a kid who must have been three times my size, and looked like he would beat me up if I even tried to sit by him. So that was a no.

Then there was a seat by a big group of guys with varsity jackets on, who looked like the stereotypical jocks you see in every high school movie. And I didn't feel like sitting by a bunch of egotistical buffs, so that was a no.

And then there was Jess. She was sitting all alone towards the front of the classroom, yet almost every guy and girl were staring at her like she was Heaven on Earth. I had to admit that she was beautiful, and I almost didn't want to sit by her because of the attention I would most likely attract to myself if I did, but something told me that she was the best option out of the three, so I decided to take a leap of faith and sit by her. And I had almost reached her table when one of the boys from the Jock group had taken the seat.

"Hey babe," he said towards Jess, and I suddenly found myself feeling both angry at whoever this bozo was for taking the seat I was going to sit in, and embarrassed for attempting to take this now taken seat in the first place.

She fluttered her eyes and breathed out a, "Hey Ethan," then she saw me awkwardly standing there like an idiot, "Oh, were you about to sit here?" she asked, her previously flirtatious attitude now sobered up, "I'm sorry, Ethan was about to go anyway."