Lovers in Rome: An Emison Fanfiction

Ownership Part One: Emily

Emily

After a hard and rough day of school, I was ready to just go home. I waited outside of school for Delaney as students poured out, excited for the upcoming homecoming game tonight that I knew I would not be attending. It's not really my thing, to hang out with the types of people who are fine with the idea of wasting away their best years in Rosewood, but even if I suddenly had the urge to go, I have to work at The Brew tonight. After waiting for what felt like forever, I finally spotted Delaney with a guy who I would later learn was named Martin. He had pale skin and a mop of soft, curly brown hair along with green eyes, a stunning smile, and a thing for photography. They laughed as she walked up to me, but as they came near, the laughing slowly was silenced. "Oh hey, Em," she said, leaning over to give me a kiss on the cheek, "this is Martin, we just met in Studio Art IV. Do you guys know each other?"

"I don't believe we've met," I said quietly. Something about him made me edgy, and I just wasn't in the mood for goofing around today.

"Well," Martin began, "we've never been formally introduced, by Emily is sorta infamous in the town, along with her friends. Well, I guess just Alison now, right?"

"I guess you could say that," I sighed uncomfortably.

"Well, it makes sense, with Alison coming back from the dead and all," Delaney joked. It made me cringe, the joking about what happened to her, about how it made me feel, which was escalated with this terrible mood. 

"Um, I would love to talk more, but I have to get to work in like twenty minutes," I said. Usually, Delaney would drive me, but the walk was only around ten minutes, so if she wanted to stay here with him, I understood.

"Oh, well then I guess we have to go," she said with a sad look on her face. At the end of the day, I still really cared about her.

"No no no, it's fine, I can walk."

"I have to get going anyways," Martin said, "I have to get some film to my dark room."

"Okay," Delaney said, "I'll see you on Tuesday! I think our projects are due on Thursday, by the way."

"Perfect, I'll see you two around, hopefully."

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The car ride was quiet at first. I just sat there, playing with my thumbs, hoping she didn't notice the almost healed bruises Alison left on my neck. We've been together for almost a year, but it feels like this past month or two shouldn't even count. It's just been a lot of distance.

"He seemed really, um, nice," I said, looking up.

"Yea," she said, "he seems to be. Would you mind if I stuck around tonight at The Brew with you? My stepdad isn't going to be home until around 10 and I just hate being alone. After um, the break." Delaney didn't seem to keep many secrets, but she was always very mysterious about this supposed break in from when she was a kid, back when she lived in Florida. From what I'd know at the time, some people tried to break in while she was home alone with her babysitter, and they didn't get in, but she was just really afraid and the memories linger.

"I don't mind at all," I said, smiling, "work has a history of being really slow the night of the homecoming game. I mean, it's usually busy on Friday nights with college kids and our classmates, but somehow the high school memories seem to scare everyone away."  Y'know, even though Alison and I may have been practically addicted to each other, that doesn't mean that I never liked Delaney. We were actually a really solid pair together.

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Just as I had previously hypothesized, almost no one came to The Brew that night. Hidden in various corners were a bunch of business-types and Hollis students working away at their laptops, but they seldom ordered anything. Most of the night was spent flirting with Delaney at the counter, since the manager had clocked out. He'd known that I'd been working there for a long time, longer than he had, so I didn't need someone to watch over me on such a slow and uneventful night.

Around 6:00, Delaney got a call from her stepdad saying that he'd missed his flight from Indianapolis to Rosewood, which would be around a nine-hour drive and he wouldn't have been able to catch another until 8:30. 

"Fuck," she said, putting her elbows against the counter and her head in her hands.

"What's wrong," I asked. She picked up her head, not crying, but a little sad.

"My stepdad won't be able to make it home until around midnight. My mom's with my grandma in North Carolina, I'm gonna be all alone."

"Stay with me," I said quite quickly.

"Really," she asked happily.

I bit my lip down and nodded, excited for our little sleepover.

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(A/N: Hey guys! So since you last heard from me, I've gotten my finger slightly better, (long period of typing will still agitate it,) I've been confirmed, gone to homecoming, had my birthday, saw P!ATD in concert, and gotten extremely sick. So yea. Busy time. Still gonna try to update, but if I don't, expect like a ten chapter post-a-thon during Thanksgiving. Actually, expect that even if I do. I'm going to do some Spanish homework, and then come back and tear your hearts out. :))