Unraveling What We Want

22: Surprise

Emery's view

Clare calls during the night to remind me to come over to her apartment tomorrow morning to help with the wedding planning and I'm glad I have something to work on to keep my mind of off how I hurt Colby. I made sure to remind Jordie as well and he said he would pick me up tomorrow and drive us over to Clare's.

So, I got dressed in my cozy pajamas for the night and went to sit on my couch to watch the series finale of Pretty Little Liars. I forgot it was a two-hour finale, so after it was done I was shocked and my heart and because one of my favorite shows had ended, but I was also very sleepy. I walked over to my bed and looked at my alarm which said 1:50. Great, I am not going to be in the best mood when Jordie comes over at 8:00, I might as well get some sleep.

My alarm wakes me up at 7 and I quickly get changed and Jordie arrive with some breakfast. We quickly eat the pancakes he bought and hurry over to Clare's. We finally get to her apartment, but fifteen minutes late and I have a feeling that she will not be happy. We finally get to her place and I use the spare key she gave me to open the door and Jordie and I walked in. Since I was still tired, I immediately head over to the couch and lay face first down, trying to take a ten-minute nap.

I hear Jordie walk over to the kitchen and move things around looking for chips, after a few seconds I hear munching and I smile against the pillow.

"Clare, got anything other than Doritos..." Jordie stops mid-sentence.

I find that weird and I look up and Jordie is staring at someone in the direction of Clare's bathroom, I shift my gaze and I widen my eyes in shock as I see Gracen staring back at me with her mesmerizing light green eyes that I didn't know I missed so much until now. My heart is going crazy and I can feel my cheeks heat up a little as I continue to look at her and I can feel shivers spread over my body as my stomach goes crazy with butterflies.

Jordy's voice takes me out of my trance, "Gracen? How? When? What the heck?"

Then Clare comes out of her room with a stack of papers and notices that there's an awkward silence as she widens her eyes as well.

"I forgot to tell you guys, Gracen is back for winter break and she's helping me with the wedding since she's a bridesmaid," Clare blurts out.

I look at Jordie who is just as taken a back as I am, but I turn back to Clare and Gracen and simply say, "Okay."

There's more awkward silence and I finally decide if I don't say anything then this is how the whole day will be like.

"Hey, Gracen. It's good to see you. How are you?" I manage to squeak out.

"It's really good to see you too. I'm glad to be back home," she says smiling cutely at me which just made my heart start beating rapidly again.

"Hi, Gracen. What's it like traveling around the world? What's your favorite place?" asked Jordie.

"Definitely Greece. I like traveling, but I love being back home more. I miss the memories here," Gracen responds glancing at me slightly.

-ring-ring-

Clare runs over to grab her phone of the couch and answers the call, while she does that Jordie and I walk over to Gracen. He hugs her and I really wish he hadn't because now I have to hug her too and I'm really nervous. When Jordie pulls away from Gracen, I walk over and she smiles softly at me looking me directly in the eyes as I move closer to hug her. Being in her embrace brought back so many memories and feelings that I almost choked up, but I held my reaction in. I could have sworn I felt her hold onto me tighter, but maybe that was me wishing it. No! What the hell am I doing? I can't think about her like this right now, I just broke up with Colby.

Gracen and I pulled away from each other, but I wanted that hug to last much longer. I looked back up at her and she had this dazed look in her eye and I couldn't help but smile. Then I turned around to Clare ending her phone calling and walking over to us to say that a store was ready for us to come by.

So, we headed out of the apartment into Jordie's car because it had the most space in it. Jordie drove, and Clare beat me to the front seat, so I sat in the back with Gracen. I tried to avoid eye contact, so I looked out the window, which probably made things more awkward. I was so jittery and nervous and I have no idea what to say to Gracen. What the heck do you say to your ex that you freaking loved with all your heart before? Ugh, why am I acting so weird now? So much time has passed, so why am I nervous to be around her?

And why does she smell so nice right now? And why does she look so cute today? What the hell is going on with me? I'm not supposed to think about that now!