𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕜𝕚𝕤𝕤𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕓𝕠𝕠𝕥𝕙 | 𝕖𝕥𝕙𝕞𝕒

ten

song of the chapter-
i thought i lost you- miley cyrus, john travolta

~emma~

"listen," gray says, grabbing a banana, "it's all about the girls! we get them to do the booth, everyone else will follow."

"yup!" i say.

"do you want to go over the plan again?" he asks.

"uhh no i think i got it." i say, giving my cash to the lunch lady, "wish me luck!"

"good luck." he says, and i start the plan.

this plan was fairly simple. get the girls attention, have them invite me to sit with them, they'll ask about ethan and the booth (duh), and then i'll say my line.

i start walking towards their table (to the side, of course) and slow down once i get near it to make sure they see me. i walk past it and nothing happens until, "hey! emily!" caroline says.

i instantly sigh and put on my game face. "hey!" i turn around and smile. "um it's actually emma, not emily."

"why are you standing and talking instead of sitting and talking?" olivia says.

"oh y-yeah!" i say setting my tray in between amanda and olivia, and right across from caroline.

i look over caroline's shoulder and notice grayson is trying to get my attention. 'ask caroline about me!' he mouths.

"uhh..." i stutter, "grayson wants to know if you like him." i say. god this sounds like sixth grade shit.

"e's brother?" she says, and turns around to look at him. he smirks and lifts his milk carton and does that thing with the eyebrows. his smirk was just like ethan's, but more cute than sexy.

"yeah he's cute!" she says, "needs to learn to dress though.." we all start laughing. although it wasn't nice, i had to laugh to make them trust/like me.

i hope i don't get too caught up in this. i would love to be popular, but i don't know if i would be able to stay friends with gray, i can't imagine loosing him.

"but more importantly.." amanda starts. yes i knew it! "everything's set for the kissing booth, right?"

okay emma don't mess this up!

"okay. so here's what i just heard," they all lean in, as do i, "e likes one of you." they all gasp and look at each other. "yeah! and rumor has it, that if the person he likes is working the booth, then he'll be there too!"

they all screech in that super girly way and hold each other's hands from around the table.

i guess that was convincing enough.

"wait! didn't we tell you?" olivia says out of no where.

"tell me what?" i say.

"now that we're all besties.." amanda says, smiling at caroline and taking my hand, "we would totally do the kissing booth girl! just for you!" she says and taps my nose.

i have to get a grammy for this performance, maybe i'll become an actor.

"really?!" i say in an aweing tone.

"you're one of us now girl!" caroline says.

"totally!" olivia says.

"thank you guys!" i say in the same tone as before.

"you, can call us bitches." caroline says.

the fuck? alright...

"thank you!" i say. caroline looks at me, wanting more. "bitches!" i finish my sentence.

"you're welcome!" they all shout in unison.

—

"so we've got a pretty solid line up now, but we're still down one ethan dolan though." i say making my way around the workshop table.

grayson makes a face after i say ethan's name. i wonder if he's been okay..

"hey gray," i say, "are you okay? you've been off lately.."

"huh? what? yeah i'm fine what are you talking about?" he says, completely lying.

"gray, come on. even you know you're a terrible liar." i say.

there's a moment of silence between us two. the other clubs are still making noise in the back though.

"i miss her em.." he says, tears building up in his eyes.

"alice?" i say concerned.

he just nods his head and i embrace him into a long hug and just let him cry. i felt so bad for him. he didn't deserve to be let down. they were perfect! i just don't see what she saw that could make her leave grayson.

"okay." he says a bit stuffed up from crying. his eyes were all puffy now, and his nose and cheeks were pinkish-red. "let's focus on the booth."

"are you sure gray? we-"

"yes emma i'm sure." he says interrupting me.

"okay. but hey, if you ever need a shoulder to cry on, i'm here." i say. "you are too good for her. she must have been on crack to leave you." he smiles, causing me to as well.

"thanks emma. i really appreciate it." he responds. "okay but seriously let's get working on this booth." he wipes his eyes and nose.

"okay, i'm going to paint the letters, and add the lights. you're gonna paint everything else." i say.

"can we go back to talking about how sad i was?" he says sarcastically.

"no!" i laugh, "we have to do this now, we don't have a lot of time! we're only two days away from the carnival so we need to move, chop-chop!"

"have i ever told you you're bossy?" he says.

"yes," i start, "but then i told you not to call me that any more."

"haha you're funny." he says sarcastically.

"i prefer the term witty!" i say picking up a paint brush and start painting the 't'.

"huh," he says, "i'm more of a slap-stick kinda guy myself." he says now picking up his paint brush and sticking it in the dark blue paint.

"really.." i say turning to him. then he takes his paint brush and splatters paint all over my shirt and some on my face. he just keeps a cheeky smile on his face.

i gasp, "ohhhh..." i say looking at the paint on my body.

"i am so sorry.." he says, "was that the wrong color?" then his smile begins to grow.

"oh ahhhh!" i scream as we now just stick our brushes in the paint buckets and splatter it all over each other.

then he sticks his hand back in the blue paint, grabs my face and wipes his hand from my forehead to my chin.

"gray!!" i gasp, "oh you're so dead!" i yell picking up the lime green paint.

we just run around the workshop throwing paint at each other, and at the floors, walls, and ceiling. we didn't care about the mess. just that we were having fun. and at this moment, that's all that really mattered.

at least for gray.