Heartbeat

Three

Here's Chapter Three... and we're back to Jordan.

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JORDAN

Monday morning came around a lot quicker than I expected, and the last weekend of freedom wasn’t exactly freedom, at least not for me.

                My parents returned from their camping break in the woods which meant that my little sister, Jessica, was back too. My dad had gone back to work on Saturday, where he was apparently scheduled to do major heart surgery, and my mother busied herself with a ton of paperwork for a case she was working. I think this avoidance was an excuse so that they didn’t have to take Jessie to any of her clubs and classes.

                Since I got my license it was almost as if I had become Jessie’s very own personal chauffeur. If she needed to go somewhere then I was the one to take her. Not that I really minded, because Jessie and I were like best buds. Even if she is my sister and four years younger than me. Sometimes, I think I enjoy hanging out with Jessie more than Adam and Sam.

                Now, after a full day of Disney cartoons and trampolining in the back yard, it was six am on a Monday morning and my alarm was going nuts. I turned over in my bed and hit the snooze button out of habit. I could feel myself drifting back to sleep when a glow of light flooded my room from Emma’s room opposite.

                Since that night after practice, Emma and I had often had what I like to call ‘window dates.’ We’d just sit there and watch each other. Well it was mainly me staring at her while she pretended not to notice, although sometimes I caught her peeping over with a slight bemused look on her lips. I’d wave and she’d wave back, but that was the extent of these strange encounters.

                I climbed out of bed and looked into Emma’s room. She was sitting up in her bed, tying her long brown hair away from her face. She stood and stretched, her top riding up as she pulled her arms up high above her head. I caught a quick glimpse of flesh before she shook her body and made her way out of her room.

                Had she seen me staring? She must have known I had seen her. I tried to shrug all sorts of thoughts of Emma Lane from my mind, concentrating instead on getting myself ready for school.

                Once I had showered and dressed I sat at my computer chair and tried to come up with excuses so that I could talk to Emma. For some reason she mystified me, and I wanted to get to know her. In an unpracticed way, I wanted to be her friend, or was it a little more than that?

                Was it her that I was drawn to, or the mystery of her? Was she as aloof as people made her out to be? No, I don’t think so. She got good grades, hardly ever went out and had had the same group of girl friends since before high school. Maybe she was just shy? I could certainly bring her out of her shell.

                Shit, did I want to have sex with Emma Lane?

                Instantly my eyes fluttered to her room at the thought. She was dressed in a pair of fitted jeans and a black patterned t-shirt that clung to her perfectly. Her hair was worn up away from her face, a pair of silver earrings dangling from her earlobes and a stack of black and silver bracelets on her left wrist. She looked so effortless that I wondered what she might look like if she really made an effort. God help me if I ever saw her like that; I could hardly take my eyes off her when she wore jeans and a t-shirt.