Chapter 11

When Emma woke up, it was the late afternoon. Every sound, every beam of light made her head throb. She covered a pillow over her head.

‘So this is what a hangover feels like,’ she said into her pillow

Memories of the night before were hazy and she hoped that the parts that she did remember were just a dream. Her phone buzzed. She reached over to her bedside table and grabbed it.

‘Oh crap, twenty missed calls!’ She went through the unopened text messages in her inbox.

Tom

22-Mar-09 11:30pm

You bloody legend, you.

 CG She said yes :)

…and she has a good way of showing it ;)

Tom

23-Mar-09 12:40am

This has got to be the greatest

 night of my life. Hey where are you?

Tom

23-Mar-09 12:42am

Remind to thank you for being the

best friend a man could have.

Why is my jacket on the couch? Where are you?

Tom

23-Mar-09 12:45am

I can’t find you. PICK UP YOUR PHONE.

 Call me when you get this message.

Tom

23-Mar-09 12:48am

Emma, I had to break up my date

just so I could search Damon’s house

looking for you. You owe it to me to

CALL ME BACK.

Tom

23-Mar-09 12:50am

CALL ME BACK TO WIN $1 MILLION

Shah

23-Mar-09 1:01am

White boy walked in on me. EW.

He told me to txt u 2 call him. I told him

Ur probz gettn sum. He went all syko.

Wut did he expect?

U lookd hawt!

Tom

23-Mar-09 3:04am

Ok, so I woke up your dad and he checked

that you were in your room. I might not be over

your place for a while, I think he wanted to kill me.

Emma dialled Tom’s number. Tom picked up after one ring.

‘WHY DIDN’T YOU CALL ME.’

Emma moved the phone away from her ear, Tom’s voice vibrated unpleasantly through her ear and to the very core of her brain.

‘Please don’t yell, it hurts. I’m calling you now aren’t I?’ she said into the phone.

‘DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA OF WHAT I WENT THROUGH LAST NIGHT.’

 ‘I-’

Tom lowered his voice, but still kept his enraged tone.

‘First, everything was going great you know with the Californian girl on the couch. And then what do you know, I’m sitting on my jacket. The one that I told YOU TO HANG ONTO. Then I go and look for you everywhere and ring you two dozen times. So I’m thinking no, Emma wouldn’t be stupid enough to be upstairs would she? By the way, I know who Carlos is now and whose image of his ass will forever be embedded IN MY BRAIN.’

‘Please don’t raise your voice,’ Emma pleaded. Tom ignored her, continuing with his rant.

‘So then it’s the last room in the house I haven’t checked and it’s bloody Damon’s bedroom. I felt dirty even touching the doorknob. I end up pulling some guy off this girl thinking it was you. Then he gets all pissed and wants a fight, which by the way I won but it still doesn’t get rid of my black eye. Then some guy who is in the crowd watching the fight says that some girl in boots left with SOME GUY. ’

‘Tom-’

‘You’d think my night would end there but oh no. Eric, our only sober driver is missing so I get a ride with Carlos and Shah which was awkward, considering I saw them going at it soon before. Oh and then halfway there our car runs out of gas so we call a cab. Then we get kicked out because Carlos’ credit card is declined and I left my wallet in your bag. So I had to walk the rest of the way to your house so that I could wake up your dad to call the police at three in THE MORNING.

‘Tom-’

‘But it turns out you’re in bed and I am now on your dad’s hit list.’

‘TOM!’

‘What?’ Tom, being so determined to tell his story, for a moment had forgotten that Emma was on the other end on the line.

‘Are you done?’

‘Yes, I believe so.’

‘Good,’ she said and hung up.

Chapter 10

It was half past midnight now and the roads were almost deserted. Eric helped Emma into his car. He did up her seatbelt and went into the driver’s seat.
‘Hey Eric! Eric. Eric. Eric. Eric. Eric,’ said Emma.
‘Yes Emma?’
‘Can I touch your purdy hair? It’s so dark and purdy,’ she said. Without waiting for a reply she brushed though Eric’s hair with her fingers. Eric laughed and turned on the engine.
She fell asleep with her mouth gaped open on the whole ride home. When they had reached their destination, Eric gently nudged her.
‘Five more minutes, dad,’ she mumbled into the seat and flipped on her other side. Eric got out of his car and scooped Emma out of the passenger’s seat.
‘Can you walk?’ He let her slowly down on her feet. Emma wobbled like a calf taking its first steps.
‘Here, lean on me.’ He helped her to the front door.
‘No no no Dad would kill me if he sees me like this.’
‘Did you want to stay over my place tonight then?’
Emma snorted. ‘Oh yeah, that’ll put him at ease.’
‘Is there any other way of getting in?’ he asked and scanned the area
‘The ladder. It’s behind the bush.’
Eric piggybacked a drowsy Emma up the ladder and into her room. She aimed to fall onto the bed but only managed to get halfway there. She was sprawled on the carpet like an animal rug. Eric carried her the rest of the way, laid her on the bed and pulled her bed sheets over her halfway.
‘I am so drunk right now,’ she said dreamily
‘I know,’ said Eric who was sitting by her.
‘Why do you have to be around when I make a nut of myself? You must think I’m some crazy loser,’ she mumbled.
‘It’s not too bad…I like crazy girls,’ he said. He looked at his watch and remembered that he had to go back to the party to drive everyone home.
‘Goodnight Emma,’ he said. He leaned down and kissed her lightly on the forehead. But by then Emma was already sound asleep to notice.

Chapter 9

Now Emma was alone with Tom on the other side eagerly waiting for results. She did ‘get’ what Carlos meant but that didn’t mean she was going to do it. Her friendship could only go so far. Emma signalled Tom. She shrugged. Tom’s face became crestfallen. She had never seen him so keen on a girl before and it broke her heart to see the one girl that he had ever expressed interest in turn him down.
Emma took a deep breath, skulled the rest of her punch, wiped her mouth and walked over to Tom. She made sure that Lacey was definitely watching.
‘Now before I do this, I just wanted to say that this was Carlos’ idea. So make sure you thank him as well.’
‘Do what? And who’s Carlos?’
Emma placed a hand on each of Tom’s shoulders.
‘Emma…’
Let’s get this over and done with. Rip it off, like a bandaid.
She dragged him closer until her lips were pressed firmly against his. Emma closed her eyes and counted to three Mississippis whilst trying very hard to think happy thoughts. When it was over she pushed him away just as roughly as she had dragged him in.
‘There you go. You can open your eyes now,’ she said and walked off before he could say anything, passing Lacey who was already on her way to Tom.
Now what? Thought Emma. Her ride was busy and she was in a party with people who were either too drunk to hold a conversation, occupied with their dates or total strangers to Emma.
‘Em-ma-ma-ma,’ said a voice behind her. She turned around.
‘Oh, hi Damon.’
‘Wowzers d-you get hotter or some-fing’ he slurred. Damon was swaying from side to side, struggling to stand. Emma took a step back, knowing what was about to come. Damon’s vomit had just missed Emma’s shoes. She sighed in relief.
‘Do you need help or something?’
‘I won the drinking game Woo for Damo. D-you wanna seee mah woom? I show you mah woom.’
‘Yeah, no thanks.’
‘Ca monn I can show you a good time. Didn’t you hear? I won the drinking game,’ he said. His eyes rolled back and he was on the floor. A few people crowded around. Emma saw this as an opportunity to slip away.
She decided to head to the kitchen away from the deafening music. She ignored all the wolf whistles as she passed a group of guys with cups of beer in their hands in the hallway. Okay yeah, maybe Tom was right. Damn it where did I leave his jacket?
In the kitchen she could see someone looking through the fridge. The figure began to turn around.
Oh crud muffins, it’s him. Run, Run, run.
‘Emma?’
She quietly groaned to herself. The last time she had seen him her blood was all over his tshirt and she was screaming swear words so explicit that it would put an MTV rap song to shame. The last thing she wanted was to see Eric ever again, he was a constant reminder of how much of a dickhead she could be. She swivelled around and greeted Eric with a smile.
‘Oh hey Eric, fancy seeing you around here,’
‘I could say the same for you. I usually don’t see you at parties. How are you? I tried visiting you a few times but your little sister kept telling me that you were busy. Cute kid by the way.’
‘Oh, yeah lots of homework and stuff,’ and avoiding you. Eric put down the ingredients he had taken out of the fridge onto the kitchen bench. ‘Sorry about your jacket. The doctor said you showed great initiative when you used it for my injury if it makes you feel any better’
‘That’s fine just keep it,’ he looked at her, ‘You know I was just about to make a…a,’ he stammered. Eric had finally noticed Emma’s attire. He looked bashfully away and distracted himself with the food on the table.
‘A sub?’ Emma guessed.
‘Do you want one?’
‘Thank God I am starving!’ she exclaimed and sat on the kitchen counter. Eric placed the two baguettes on the chopping board and began filling them.
‘So why aren’t you out there getting smashed with everyone else?’ she asked, curious.
‘Designated driver,’ he said ‘As always. Honey mustard or mayo?’
‘Mayo. Well that sucks.’
Eric shrugged. ‘I’m okay with it. These sort of parties aren’t my thing anyway. I don’t think alcohol could make it any better.’
‘Then why do you go?’
‘I’m sort of obligated to, as Soccer Captain. You know, to be part of the team.’
Emma nodded, as if he had said something profound.
‘What’s your excuse?’ he asked, then handed over the sub to Emma.
‘Helping best friend get with the school’s biggest boobs while I’m stuck here because my ride is some Latino guy doing God knows what with my other friend upstairs. Wow! This is so good,’ she said pointing to her sub then giving Eric a thumbs up. She took another big bite.
Eric raised an eyebrow. ‘Emma, how much have you had to drink?’
‘None. I had punch!’ she said then laughed hysterically. Eric palmed his forehead.
‘Emma, you should never drink anything here that you didn’t see come straight from a can. The punch bowl is probably spiked.’
‘OOooh so that explains why I can talk to you so easily and not have images of you making out with Gemma in the bathroom mirror.’
‘How do you even know about Gemm- you know, I think we should get you home.’

Chapter 8

‘So then Reynolds’ face was running like hell to the toilets. And I swear if he wasn’t about to blow in his pants he would’ve strangled me,’ said Tom and took a swig of beer. A whole group of people were surrounding him listening to his story. He struggled to be heard above the loud music that was playing behind him. Tom continued ‘I told him that I had locked all the toilet cubicles in the school but one and he had to find it,’ he grinned. ‘But of course, I was lying. They were all locked.’ Everyone laughed and clapped.
‘Who’s that,’ said a guy and pointed behind Tom. Tom turned around and his smile dropped.
‘Excuse me,’ said Tom and left the group. He pushed through many people and in-between couples to make his way to the girl that had just came through the door and was accompanied by Shah who was tied around the waist of some dodgy looking guy with a goatee. Tom grabbed her wrist and pulled her aside.
‘Emma, what are you wearing? Wait, no, let me rephrase. Why are you wearing that?’
‘Shah,’ she sighed and knew that that was all she needed to say. Tom looked around nervously, feeling the need to protect Emma from other gazing eyes. He unzipped his jacket and draped it over Emma’s shoulders. ‘You shouldn’t be wearing this sort of stuff when you come alone to a party, Emma,’
‘Tom, quit it you’re embarrassing me,’ she complained and took the jacket off.
‘Fine then just hold onto it at least and don’t leave my side.’
Emma rolled her eyes.
‘Let’s just get this over and done with so I can go home already. Where is she?’
He smiled and pointed past the crowd to the direction of the outdoor pool.
‘Swimming in the pool in her bikini. She’s getting out now! Come on guys or we’ll miss the show.’

Shah, Carlos Emma and Tom headed to the pool and there was the new girl from California, she didn’t bother to dry herself off with a towel as she got out of the pool. Tom nudged Emma towards her. Emma almost fell over from the impact.
‘Okay, I’ll wait over there on the other side of the pool pretending to do my own business,’ said Tom
‘You go girl!’ yelled Shah supportively.
‘Hi, I’m Emma. So, Lacey right? You know the boy over there who keeps asking you to the prom…’
‘…’
‘Tom…Wilkinson?’ said Emma
‘Right. Did you want something or what?’ she said, seeming uninterested while looking at her nails. She wore her heels and headed over towards the punch. Emma followed, taking some punch for herself as well.
‘Well, I just think you should give him a chance. I mean I’ve known him since I can remember and he’s really a great guy. He plays for the soccer team and plays the guitar and um, is really really good.’
Lacey looked over to Emma with her fierce eyes, she was intrigued by Emma’s interest in helping this boy.
‘If he’s so great, then why aren’t you into him?’
‘Er…because-because,’
‘Unless,’ she took a step closer to Emma, towering over her in her seven inch heels ‘Unless you are.’
Emma didn’t know what to say. This was totally not going to plan and so she turned around and retreated back to Shah and her date.
Emma explained to them what happened.
‘She’s one of those girls,’ said Carlos, whose arms were wrapped around Shah.
‘Expand.’
‘She likes men who are wanted by other ladies.’
‘She’s a home wrecker. Is that what you mean baby?’ said Shah. Carlos nodded. Happy that they were on the same wavelength they started kissing. Emma shifted her weight, finding this incredibly awkward.
‘Wait Emily,’ said Carlos breaking from the kiss.
‘It’s Emma.’
‘If you really want to help your friend, you’d make her believe that he was wanted…you get me?’ he said. ‘Me and Shah will be upstairs. It might be a while.’ And they were gone.

Chapter 7

‘Stop moving or I’ll slap yo’ ass,’ Shah snapped.

‘Well, maybe if you were a little gentler with the eyelash curler I wouldn’t have to,’ said Emma. It was the night of the party and Emma was at Shah’s getting ready. Shah was already dressed in a red revealing dress and ready to go. She was helping out with Emma’s makeup, and as always was a little aggressive in doing so.

‘Done. Now what are you going to wear?’

‘Er, this?’ said Emma, gesturing to her denim jeans and grey cardigan. Shah took a step back.

‘I mean what are you wearing to the party, not to sleep,’

‘I know.’

Shah sighing went to her massive closet and rummaged through it.

‘Here, put this on,’ she said and handed her a black dress. Emma undressed and slipped on the dress and zipped it up. She stood in front of the mirror and for a moment did not recognise the girl staring before her.

‘Shah, this is way too short!’

‘Dang girl, now that’s what I’m talking bout! It’s about time your legs made its debut don’t you think?’

‘But I still have this bandaid thing covering my stiches. It looks ridiculous!’

‘Girl, are you thick? Go get my knee high boots,’

‘There is no way I’m leaving this house with this on,’

‘That’s too bad, because you either go to Damon’s with me wearing that or,’ Shah grabbed Emma’s clothes that were lying on the bed, making sure they were out of reach. ‘You go naked.’

A car beeped from outside. Emma peered over the window. An old blue Ford was parked outside the house

‘Oh look there’s our ride,’ said Shah

‘I thought your mum was taking us there,’ said Emma. Shah grabbed her clutch and checked her makeup with the mirror.

‘That was before I met Carlos. I said move it girl!’

‘Who is Carlos? Oh Shah, not another high school drop out.’

‘Let’s go! Let’s go! Before mama realises I’m gone.’

Chapter 6

‘I have homework for you,’ he said. He started to unzip his backpack to get out Emma’s homework. Emma put her hand over his to stop him.

‘What are you really doing here?’ He looked up with an innocent expression as if he did not know what she was talking about. Emma stared at him more sternly. Knowing that he would never win the fight against her deathly stare he dropped his façade and sat on her bed.

‘Okay okay you got me. It’s about the Californian chi-I mean Lacey. I need…help,’

‘Well, well, well. I never thought I’d ever see the day that Tom Wilkinson admits that he needs help with the ladies,’ she said triumphantly. ‘What happened to ‘I like the game’,’ she mocked.

‘Screw the game. Yesterday the whole school saw Lacey’s name mowed into the football field, signed by William. And then today he snuck into Principal Wallis’ office and sang ‘Love Me Tender’ over the PA with the school’s freaking barbershop quartet and dedicated the song to her. How do you even compete with that?’

‘So what do you want me to do?’

‘Be my wingman when we see her at the Damon’s party next week. Please?’

‘You know I hate going to those sort of parties. And someone always ends up throwing up on my shoes-Tom, stop looking at me like that!’

Tom’s eyes were looking up at Emma, glistening against the moonlight coming from the window. They were wide with tears welling up at the bottom, determined to release and fall down against his cheek. Emma rolled her eyes.

‘Fine. I’ll do it,’ she said, surrendering to his puppy dog eyes. Tom’s face instantly lightened up. He jumped up onto the bed and did a little cheer dance.

‘Shh! You’ll wake up my dad,’ she hissed. Tom apologized and stepped off the bed and to his backpack. He pulled out a slip of paper from the middle pocket and handed it over to Emma.

‘For you milady, a permission slip for our biology camp in two week’s time,’ he turned to leave.

 ‘Oh, I almost forgot,’ he said. He reached into his pocket and pulled out red gummy bears that were sealed in a sandwich bag.  He handed them over to Emma. ‘Get well soon, Em,’ he turned to leave.

‘Wait Tom, how did you know that I only eat the red gummy bears?’

He shrugged. ‘Remember that time you left your handbag at my place when you slept over at grade 3?’

‘No, but go on,’

‘Being the curious young lad I was I looked in to see what you actually have in there. Anyway, there was a packet of gummy bears and before I ate them I noticed all the red ones were missing.’

Tom had never mentioned this before and it surprised Emma that he would remember something like this. Heck, he had sometimes had trouble remembering his little brother’s birthday. Touched by his thoughtful gift Emma opened her arms and walked in for a hug.

‘Oh God, no please don’t go all gooey on me. Please. It took ages for me to pick them out of each gummy bear mix. You owe it to me not to-’

But it was too late. Tom patted her awkwardly.

‘You’re a great friend Tom,’ she said into his chest

Chapter 5

Emma slowly opened her eyes. The room was immaculately white. A woman’s face was stared back at her.

‘Hello Emma Matthews. It’s good to see that you’re awake,’ the woman in white said pleasently

‘Where am I?’

‘Heaven,’ said a voice behind the woman. Well, that sucked. Did she really die from falling over a gnome?

Hey wait a second, why does that voice sound so-

‘Tom! Not funny,’

He took a seat and dragged it over to her bedside.

‘You’re in hospital. You lost a lot of blood from the accident but good thing that young man from before was there with his quick thinking. You could have lost a lot more,’ said the doctor.

‘Eric? Where’s Eric?’

‘His mum called for him to go home,’ said Tom

‘And dad?’

‘Down in the cafeteria with your little sister,’ he said.

‘Now Emma, I‘ve just given you a few stitches and I gave you some morphine to help with the pain. Lucky for you the shards of porcelain had just missed the bone so nothing’s broken. Okay I’ll leave you two lovebirds alone,’ she winked

‘Oh! We’re not-’ called Emma but the doctor was already gone before she could finish her sentence. She turned her attention to Tom.

‘When can I leave?’

‘When your dad’s done with the buffet I guess,’ he said

‘We might be here all night then,’ she joked. Tom pulled his chair in closer.

‘How much does it hurt?’ he asked

‘Thank God for painkillers. Still hurts like hell though. Distract me from my pain,’ she said

‘I got hit in the head by a volleyball. And she said no.’

‘Bummer. Her loss I guess.’

A smile crept up from the corner of his mouth. ‘This is just the beginning. Mark my words Emma, Californian girl will go to the prom with me. She’s making the game more fun. I like that,’ he sighed

 ‘You still don’t know her name do you?’

‘Nope.’

Emma rolled her eyes.

‘Okay so I did some snooping around,’ Shah said. Shah was paying a visit to Emma afterschool. The doctor had recommended she take off a week from school. Shah lay next to Emma on the bed.

‘Shah, what are you talking about?’

‘Uhh girl don’t you remember? You got some Gemma ho’ standing in the way between you and your man,’ she said and waggled her head.

‘Eric is not ‘my man’,’ she imitated ‘He sat next to me at math once, that’s all.’

‘Girl he is so warm for your form and he’s been worrying about you all day,’ she said

Emma sat up a little ‘…Really?’

‘Mhmm. He told me he wanted to come by and check you out but his coach said he’d be kicked off the soccer team if he missed another practice.’

‘Oh…But if he has a girlfriend I don’t want to get involved,’ said Emma.

‘It’s a dawg eat dawg world honey,’

‘Er-’            

‘Okay,’ Shah ignored Emma and continued. ‘There aren’t any Gemmas in our senior class. There’s one in year nine but I checked her out and she is definitely not the one we heard on the phone. So I went on Facebook and looked up Eric’s friend list and what do you know, there’s a Gemma. My sources from other schools have told me that there’s a Gemma Lovett in their senior class around them rich city areas. Everyone knows her. I’m sure this is our girl. Here, I printed a photo,’ Shah handed over a picture of a pretty blond girl in a tight black singlet who had taken a photo of a reflection of herself from her bathroom mirror.

‘Shah! This is so creepy. Put it away,’

‘You’ll thank me for this someday.’ She said as she folded it back into her bag.

‘Now you know what you’re competing with,’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘No offense sweetie you’re hot. But when I look at this girl, it makes me wish I was playing for the same team mhmm. It wouldn’t hurt to show some boot-tay once in a while. Maybe let your hair out. Ya feelin’ me?

‘Not happening,’            

‘Fine I gotta go, mama’s making gumbo for dinner. Bye honey,’ she said and left.

For the rest of the night Emma lay in bed, reading her English novel by her study lamp. Suddenly her phone rang. She looked at the caller ID and picked it up.

‘Hello?’

‘Open the window for me will you?’

‘Are you serious? It’s almost ten and you have school tomorrow.’

‘So?’

Emma hung up and hopped out of bed and to the window.

‘Thanks,’ he said and jumped inside her room. Ever since she had watched her first episode of Dawson’s Creek when she was seven Emma thought it would be coolest thing to have a ladder leading to her room. Now that she was a little older she knew that it probably wasn’t such a great idea having a ladder leading to her bedroom. Only few people knew about the ladder hidden in the bushes and Tom rarely used it unless it was important.

‘Tom, what are you doing here?’