EmPATHETICally Blind (A skinny love story)

Chapter 1: New Town

  Emilee's POV:

I held back tears as best as I could, looking at Amy's smiling face through our crappy video camera feeds, as I sat on a folding chair in the middle of my newly painted bedroom, my laptop resting on my lap.

        "The neighborhood is so cheesily picturesque, I swear I could be in some teen girl's fanfiction right now." I say, describing my new home to her. She laughs, but it's a little forced.

        "At least you get another chance to decorate your room how you want it. I'm pretty sure I'm stuck in this baby room until I move out." She gestures to the soft pink walls covered with posters behind her. 

The breeze floats through my open window, making the loose strands of hair tickle the back of my neck. It was surprisingly cool down here in Nebraska compared to sunny California. I wasn't used to the sudden temperature change, I was wearing my older sister's jacket along with my own.

        "Yeah well, we'll see how far my parents are willing to let me go with the decorating. They'll probably stop me if they hear drills." She laughs again, then suddenly looks behind her, and I hear her saying "okay" a bunch of times. She turns back to me with a sad smile on her face. It's time to say goodbye. Again.

        "You gotta go." I guess, and she nods.

        "I've always been jealous of your ability to read me so well, Em. You always know what I'm about to say." She murmurs. I give her a tight smile, if only she knew. 

I blow her a kiss, and she does one back. 

        "Send pictures of everything. Our street, my house, your house, hot guys that I used to stare at on the beach. In fact, just the last option would be fine." I say as she reaches over to turn the camera off. She giggles, but just before she signs off, I see her lose the smile, and it's replaced with sadness.

I sign off as well, then look around my room at the soft purpleish gray paint that's coated my walls, and the black, silver, and white designs of birds, clouds, dandelions and butterlflies. The smell of paint stung my nose, and I reluctantly reached over to open my window a little more. I'd be camping out on the arm chair in the living room tonight, and hopefully by tomorrow night I'll be sleeping in my room, on my favorite hammock.

        "Emma-Jane you should help me find the nearest Starbucks." My sister Macie pokes her head through the doorway, using her favorite nickname for me. With her sun-streaked blonde hair, tan-complection, she looked like a model compared to me, who no matter how hard I tried to prevent them, got covered in freckles or sun spots whatever they were called and didn't tan due to my lack of wanting to go outdoors.

I quickly scan her emotions, I see her tense position and how she tries to look relaxed by leaning against the doorway, but is showing signs of hesitancy by crossing her arms and hovering on the backs of her heels. She's full of worry, just like most of my family has been recently.

        "Okay." I say simply, shutting off my laptop and setting it gently on my chair. She gives me a small smile and I can feel the excitement and curiosity radiating off of her as we leave the house to explore.

***

It took a little over ten minutes before we got into town, and she started whispering stuff to herself, mentally mapping out where everything was. We eventually found a Starbucks, and we both got our classic favorite, the Mocha Cookie Crumble. She babbled to me on the way back.

        "I just don't know what I'm going to spend my time doing now that I don't have surfing anymore. Or Parker for that matter." she adds as an afterthought. I give her a small look of pain, as I feel small wafts of longing mixtured with sadness come from her. Parker was her boyfriend, and I knew how much she loved him. But she only had to be away from him for a while, because she was going to start college soon, and they were planning on going to the same college.

As for me, I had three years of high school left.

        She filled up the quietness by pointing out what looked like places she'd hang out at, and bounced on her feet a little when we passed the town's mall, saying that it was small compared to the one back home. I nodded at her before she even asked me to look around with her in the mall.

I started to mentally calculate how many calories my dessert-like drink was before I closed my eyes.

        Stop. I told myself,  It doesn't matter. Focus on the colors, on what you see. 

"You okay?" I hear Macie ask, and I open my eyes to see her looking at me concerned. I was walking with my eyes closed for a minute, and I must've been too quiet for her to notice that I've stopped listening.

        "Fine. Brain freeze. Actually, everything freeze." I say, shivering to add the effect. It wasn't all a lie, I really was cold. She smiled again, and I felt some of the worry dissapate. But most was still there.

After a few minutes of looking around, noticing all the people and feeling calmed by the generally happy atmosphere in here, I heard her gasp next to me.

        "OhmyGod they have a Delilah's here!!" she says, her voice going an octave higher. I can't help but laugh at the way she acts, and her excitement rubs off on me as well, and I start to realize that I'm going to get to go school shopping soon, since my mom took the task of getting rid of most of my wardrobe.

        "They'd better have a Younkers too, where else am I supposed to find cute jackets?" I say. She nods and makes enthusiastic sounds of agreement, since we both loved Younkers.

I shared my sister's love for dressing nice, but while she preferred to go all out dress up, I settled for somewhere in between dressy and casual, mixing jeans with lacey shirts and such.

Spending the afternoon looking at all the stores and around town made me forget all the sadness that was going on in my mind, and her cheery, peppy mood affected me greatly, putting me in such a good mood, that I didn't mind when I ate as much as her at lunch.

Almost.