The Seaside Café

Chapter 20- Anytime Is A Good Time For Taco Bell

Chapter 20- Anytime Is A Good Time For Taco Bell

Jace's Point of View

The next morning, Tuesday morning, my alarm goes off bright and early at 7:30 a.m. I used to get up at 8 o’clock, but now that I’m dating Emma— I really like the fact that’s actually factual now—  I get up earlier so that I can get ready and have enough time to pick her up for school. I mean, yeah, she has a car but I like picking her up that way we can talk and stuff on the way to school.

I turn off the alarm on my iPhone and sit up in my bed, yawning heavily. Looking down at my cell phone, I see that I have a text from Emma. After I dropped her off yesterday, which she was being really weird about, she texted me a few hours later when I was about to go to sleep and we just started talking about random things, really. Not really about why she was being so weird, because she didn’t bring it up and I didn’t think that I should either.

After replying to the text, I get up out of my bed and go to the bathroom to take a shower. Ten minutes later, I’m out and have minty fresh breath. I probably used too much toothpaste, but I mean, I don’t want my breath to smell bad if I’m going to be kissing Emma. Not that I think my breath was bad before we got together or anything, I would just rather be safe than sorry. Back in my bedroom, I get dressed in my normal attire of blue jeans and a t-shirt. Then I grab my backpack, phone and car keys before leaving my bedroom and making my way downstairs.

I make an escape without being noticed by Heather or my dad of crazy Lacey, which is good, because they’re all in psycho mode since the wedding is officially scheduled for the second week of February. Mind you, it’s the first week of January. I leave the house, closing and locking the front door behind me and then go down the driveway to my car. Once I’m in, I pull my seatbelt on and start the car before backing out of the driveway and starting towards Emma’s house.

As I arrive at a red light a couple of minutes away from Emma’s house, I shoot her a text, letting her know that I’m pretty close. When I get to her house, I’m about to text her again, but I see the curtains covering one of the windows on the first floor, move slightly. I take that to mean that someone’s looking out, but I don’t think that it’s Emma. It looks like her brother, but I can’t be for sure. A few minutes later though, the front door swings open and Emma’s comes out, talking over her shoulder to her older brother.

Today, she’s wearing an outfit similar to yesterday, which I don’t mind of course because she looked as good yesterday as she does any other day. Emma has on a short skirt that I don’t even know how to describe. It’s kind of Aztec-y, I guess, so it has different patterns on it. It looks nice though, I think. Her shirt matches the main color of the skirt and it’s short sleeved, tucked into the front of the dress. Her shoes are a pair of sandals or flip flops or something, but they’re the same color as the shirt. Lastly, her long brown hair is down and wavy.

“Hey,” She greets chirpily, getting into the passenger seat, closing the door behind her.

“Good morning,” I reply, looking over at her with a confused expression on my face.

“What? What’s wrong?” Emma asks me curiously.

“Did I, um, did I do something wrong or something?”

“No, I don’t think so. Why would you think you did something wrong?”

“I dunno,” I shrug with a sigh. “It’s just that you left all abruptly yesterday when I dropped you off.”

“Oh right,” Emma retorts, her face blushing slightly. “Um, I’m sorry about that. I’m just weird about stuff like that. It’s just that, erm, when you said that you wouldn’t hurt me, I guess I kind of freaked out. Because ever since I was a little girl, people have always either hurt me of they’ve left me. My mom, my dad, my sister, everyone. Mikey, Caroline and Carter are like, the only stable parts of my life. And my friends, of course. And Charlie, my dog. But that’s really it. Everyone else always leaves and I know I shouldn’t take it so hard, bu— ”