"What do you want?" she repeated.
"Break up with Axel."
Her eyes widened, mouth opening slightly. Aiden's eyes darkened, looking at her parted lips.
"Close your mouth, baby, or I might have to close it for you."
Emily is in love with Axel Armstrong...
After baking the awfully salty cookies, in which she "accidently" swapped sugar for rock salt, Emily slammed the plate of treats on the antique coffee table in front of the stupidly smug boy she was destined to marry. He never seemed too bad during the occasional family dinners her mother hosted for her wealthy friends. Surprisingly enough, they hadn't spoken much in those times, but she had a feeling something dreadful was being planned. She just didn't expect that after moving from South Korea her mother would still plan an arranged marriage. She understood to some extent how people could grow to love each other, but she already had that with Aiden. She didn't want to give that up.
"Thanks, darling," Daniel said coyly, picking up a cookie.
He leaned back, taking a bite. Emily watched as his eyes widened and he sat up swiftly, choking on the salty cookie he was struggling to swallow.
"Something wrong, sweetums? Do you not like my cooking?" she asked, amused with herself. He would have to deal with this for the rest of his miserable life.
"Wa-ter," he choked out, his face turning a nasty red.
"In the kitchen," she replied in the sickly sweet tone only her mother used, turning around and walking to her room.
She saw as her mother passed by, shock forming on her face as she rushed to Daniel. Emily muted out the yelling as she strolled away, consumed with her own thoughts.
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Locking the door behind her and opening the closet, she didn't expect the scream that escaped her. A figure popped out of the wardrobe, quickly wrapping a hand over her mouth.
Her scream quickly turned into a gasp as she was faced with Nathan. He removed his hand from her mouth and smiled sheepishly. He looked absolutely ridiculous, one of her old princess crowns on his head and that silly pink feather scarf wrapped around his waist like a belt. He had a smearing of a handlebar mustasche drawn under his nose with her red lipstick.
A noise caused her to look at the television. Her eyes widened as she watched buck-naked men going to town on her flatscreen. Drifting her gaze to the floor, her mouth dropped, seeing hundreds of little tootsie-roll wrappers scattered across her carpet. Her bed had indents from what looked like feet previously bouncing all over it.
She shot a look of wild confusion toward Nathan, who was now sporting a meaningfully guilty cringe.
"What-"
"I had a pity party," he interrupted. "I'll clean it up, I swear."
She looked at him in shock.
"Why?"
He sighed in exagerration, walking over to the bed and plopping himself down. The moaning and groaning of twenty year old men ensued in the background.
"I'm so alone. You've got Aiden and I don't even know where I am with..."
He paused.
"With who?" she urged him to continue, sitting on the bed next to him and staring at the HD quality of ripped men grinding into each other. The title on the top left of the screen read: Terminator Strikes Again.
He coughed.
"No one. Nothing," he glanced at the door. "Anyway, I heard what happened out there. How're you holding up?"
She pondered his question for a moment.
Some silence passed and when Nathan sat up and placed his hand on her shoulder, she broke. Shoving herself into him, they fell onto the mattress as she drenched his Panic at the Disco t-shirt with tears.
"What should I do? Why do I have to marry? Why do I have to be a filial child? Couldn't I have been put in a different family, or a different life? I don't want all this responsibility," she cried out, sobbing into his chest.
He frowned, staring up at the slowly swishing ceiling fan. He swiped away the liquid forming around his eyes at seeing his best friend in pain. He had to be strong for her.
"What's a filial child?" he asked in confusion.
She sighed.
"Of course you don't know," she bundled his shirt in her hands, jealous that he didn't have to grow up with all these family responsibilities. "It's mostly an East Asian thing. To be considered filial, I have to respect my parents and elders, and for my mother, that basically means following everything she tells me to do. Otherwise she'll curse me from her grave for the rest of my life."
She rolled her eyes, recalling all the times her mother said that.
"Oh," he scrunched his forehead and frowned, feeling her defeat. "At least Aiden stood up for you. I'm kind of surprised he didn't run away after seeing your entire family tree mounted on the walls. Remember the first time I saw that?" he reminisced, changing the subject. It seemed sort of dismal to keep talking about something they didn't know the solution to.
"Yeah," she laughed a little. "I had to drag you back inside when you started running down the street, but you fell face-first on my front lawn."
He joined in laughing, their tears quickly turning into ones of laughter.
"Don't forget though, I dragged you down with me and then we both had to go inside to clean up."
She doubled over in his arms.
"Yeah. It-It was raining too," she giggled.
They continued joking and recalling stories until the sun began to peak through the window, dropping behind the trees and filling the room with an orange-pink glow. Their laughter died down and silence consumed the air, aside from the continuous loop of adult males groaning and calling out dirty phrases.
"See," Nathan mused. "Everything is gonna be alright."
Emily nodded slowly.
"Yeah."
Knowing it was time for Nathan to sneak back home, they got up off the bed.
"Time to go," he looked to the window, taking off the tiara that was haphazardly hanging on the side of his head. He placed it on the mattress, spikes facing up.
Emily just shook her head as he grinned at her.
"Do you want me to get hurt?" she lectured, imagining the pain of sitting on those plastic spears. She picked up the object and placed it on a shelf in her closet.
"Sorry," he replied, trying to control his sneaky grin.
He headed for the window, opening it from the bottom. She swiftly ran to him, pulling him back inside.
"Just what do you think you're doing?" she scolded. "You promised you'd clean up."
He sighed, knowing his escape plans could never work when it came to the ever tactful Emily Kim.
"Right, right," he hummed, shrinking to the ground dramatically. He started picking up all the little wrappers, hoping that along the way of cleaning this mess he may be able to find all the breaking pieces of his best friend's heart.
