The Assistant -

Part Nine ~ I Don't Feel The Same -

Tom's POV -

After walking out of the room, I was furious with Jay for blaming Emma for what was going wrong with his life right now.

It wasn't her fault that he slept with some desperate slag on a night out and then didn't have the guts to tell Juliet that it happened - she found out the truth by reading it on Twitter, and then again in a newspaper article after Jay continued to deny what had happened.

I just needed to find her and make sure she was alright, especially since none of the others were even going to make to the effort to find her and check she hadn't done something stupid to herself.

I wasn't just checking on her because I was falling for her, but also because I guessed she must have been going through a hard time with everything right now and just wanted someone to talk to.

After fifteen minutes of walking around the building, I found Emma in an empty room texting away on her phone with tears silently rolling down her cheeks; just wiping them away every so often so it didn't look like she had been crying.

Although she was really bad at it because it was obvious that she was upset, and she obviously didn't want to see anyone right now, but that didn't stop me from walking into the room and taking the empty seat opposite her; she didn't do anything but look up slightly and give me a weak smile before she went back to typing a message on her phone.

"Talk to me Em. What's going on with you lately?" I decided to ask her after a couple of minutes of awkward silence between the two of us.

"It's nothing. And it's not like you would care anyway." she sighed, not taking her eyes off her phone.

"I do care though, that's why I'm asking you what's going on." I replied politely.

If I got annoyed with her, then she was never going to tell me what was going on and she was never going to be able to confide in anyone again because she would just think they're laughing at her behind her back.

"Are you sure Grace would permit you talking to me? She might think I'm going to sleep with you." she answered me sarcastically, and I realised then what one of the reasons she was leaving was; she wanted to leave because she couldn't handle the girls and the hate that they were giving her for doing nothing wrong.

"She's not here though, is she?" I reasoned with her, and Em smiled at me slightly, moving her phone out of the way and putting it on the table for the first time since I had walked into the room; she didn't even pick it up again when it vibrated across the table.

"You really want to know what's going on then?" she replied.

"That's why I came to find you. I wanted to make sure you were OK, and I also wanted to see if you just wanted to talk to someone." I smiled at her, leaning across the table at the same time.

"It's a long story, and most people get bored by the end of it." she sighed again, finding a reason not to talk to me.

"I've got all day. I've not got anything better to do because I might end up hitting Jay if I see him again." I chuckled slightly.

"And why would that be then?" Em replied, suddenly seeming interested in me and what I was saying; but there was no way I could tell her the truth because it would completely break her and I didn't want to see that happen if I'm being totally honest; it wasn't fair on her.

"It's a long story, and you would be bored by the end of it." I laughed, mimicking what she had said to me before, although she just gave me a look, as though she was looking at me over the top of a pair of glasses and she was going to kill me if I said anything else wrong.