Truth (Isaac Lahey)

Chapter 3: Unusual

The next morning, Emma woke up to see that she was laying in an empty bed.  She normally woke up like that whenever Isaac spent the night, but she didn't think he'd be able to escape on his own in his condition.  Pushing the thought aside, she stood up and walked over to her closet, grabbing her already prepared outfit and the shoes she planned to wear with it.  Once she was dressed, she went into the kitchen to grab something to eat before leaving for the school bus. 

After picking a bright red apple, she grabbed her backpack and headed off to her bus stop, which was only about a minute walk from her house.  Since she had no sibling to drive her, her parents were never home, and Isaac had no car, she had to make sure to catch the bus every morning or she'd have to run to school. 

Once she was on the bus, she went to her normal spot in the back, where Isaac was already seated as normal.

"Hey, where'd you go last night?  I didn't think you were in any condition to leave, especially not on your own."

He shrugged, smiling and putting his arm around her.  "I feel so much better now.  Thanks for helping me out last night, babe."

After that sentence, she knew something was wrong.  Not only was it unusual for Isaac to put his arm around her - they normally just held hands and she'd lean against him - but, he never called her babe.  "Are you sure everything's all right?"

He nodded.  "Positive.  I've never felt more alive."  He smiled at her and kissed her quickly, rougher than normal.  Another thing that wasn't normal, he hardly ever kissed her in public.

"Isaac-"

"Emma, I'm fine.  Actually, more than fine.  Okay?  I feel so much better than I ever have.  I feel more alive.  I promise, I'm fine."

She sat back and tried to relax, though she didn't believe him one bit.  That was not Isaac, at least not the one she knew and loved.

Once they pulled up to the school, they were some of the last ones off the bus as usual.  While they walked towards the school, Isaac did something else he never did.  He slapped her butt.

She immediately turned around, her eyes wide.  "Isaac Lahey!"

"I'm just trying to have some fun, babe.  I'm just joking around."

She shook her head, slowly backing away from him.  "I don't know what has gotten into you since last night, but I want no part of it.  It's only been twenty minutes and I can already tell something has changed you.  I don't know what, and I don't know why, but I know that you're not the Isaac that I fell in love with."

"What?  Emma, what are you talking about?  I'm the exact same guy that you saved from bleeding out last night."

"No, no you're not.  I don't know what happened to you, but the Isaac that I saved was kind, not rough, and didn't show a lot of PDA, which you should know I don't like."

"Babe, I'm just joking around!"

"Another thing!  You never call me babe."

He shrugged.  "I figured I'd try it out.  Why, you don't like it?"

"I don't like what's happened to you!  Until you fix whatever the hell has happened to you, please just stay away from me."  She turned and practically ran into the school, hoping to lose him in the large crowd of high school students.  When she got t her first period class, he was nowhere in sight, so she figured that her plan worked.  She walked into the classroom slowly, since she had another ten minutes until class was supposed to start.

Her best friend, Lily, walked into the classroom and sat beside her.  "Hey, Isaac's looking for you."

She shook her head, taking her textbook from her backpack.  "I don't wanna see Isaac.  I'm done with him until he changes this new attitude of his."

"What changed?"

She sighed.  "I don't even wanna talk about it right now."

"If you do, you know you can come to me, right?"

She nodded. hugging her friend.  "Yeah, I know.  Thank you."

Lily gave her friend a reassuring smile before taking her own textbook out of her bag and putting it on their shared double desk, waiting for class to start.