As I walk toward the coffeeshop I have a sudden burst of anxiety. I haven’t had a full proper conversation with Emerald in… how many years is it now? Four? Geez I can’t believe it's been that long. I see Emerald through the glass but she doesn't notice me. It seems I caught her at a rare moment when she doesn't have her smug look on her face. She seems calm, calmer than I remember. It gives me reassurance. If she can be so calm and tepid right now, then so can I. She glances up at me and I realize I’ve been staring so I quickly walk into the shop, embarrassed. “Little late, aren't you?" She inquires, a little bit too snarkily for my tastes. "Well that seems to be a pattern when I'm with you." I retort. "Fair enough." She gets up to get our coffee and I look around the meetup coffeeshop that I decided on. It's a comfy little place, and I feel myself letting my guard down due to the warmth of the fireplace and the flow of customers gently coming and going from the shop. That is, until Emerald plops down with our coffees. Then I go into business mode. "I only think it's fair that we split the difference on the projects and homework." Emerald snorts. "Yeah the idiot really needs blackmail to get a decent grade." I frown, "Don't underestimate her. She has the pictures, and who knows what she could've made us do for them? Let this be a small mercy that we didn't get worse" I sip my coffee and sink into my chair. This day was exhausting and I'm ready for it to be over. "Hmmm, alright, how about I take Mondays, Tuesdays, and we split Wednesdays." Emerald says. I can't say I'm not a bit startled at her planning. She was always the doer of our duo. "That's fine." I get up to walk out but pause, there's one thing I want to say first. "Thanks. For uh, covering for me back then." She looks surprised for a moment but smiles a second later and says, "I wouldn't have it any other way, Rosie Dosy" This time she says the nickname with soft familiarance, and I feel like I'm floating all the way back to my house. “Hey honey, what took you so long to get back from school?” Mom looks up from her computer mischievously, “Got a girlfriend yet?” I roll my eyes and say, “No, mom. Stop asking.” My mind flashes to Emerald despite my efforts and I blush. I run upstairs so she doesn’t see it and start asking questions I don't want to answer. I flop unceremoniously onto my bed and think about the day. What the hell even happened? Everything went so very wrong. I open up my laptop and watch youtube for the rest of the day, knowing I got my homework done at school. I check my inbox right before bed and am discouraged to see two emails from my sisters. Usually they send one email and just be done with it, but every other week or so they get into fighting and look up to me to resolve it. Its exhausting and frankly I don’t want it, but I have to anyways so I click on the top one from Teresa.
Dear dearest sister,
Scottie has been HORRIBLE! Every time I try to talk to James (this cute boy I met) she butts in and starts making fun of me!!! Tell her to stop and WHATEVER SHE TELLS YOU IS A LIE I LOVE YOU BIG SIS BYE.
I grin and pull up the other email.
Hello Rose.
I have been informed that I am “very annoying” and that I should “stop.” They are both untrue and not going to happen so the person in question needs to get over themselves immediately. I have done nothing wrong and I will remind you and her that Mom says that we aren’t allowed to have significant others until we are thirty. On that note, send Mother and Father all my love. Bye Sis.
I close my laptop and smile. Those two haven’t changed at all since they left for a fancy boarding school. Both have enormous talent, and so the prestigious school offered them a scholarship for all their middle school years. I’m a little burned that they didn’t ask about how I am doing, but I wouldn’t know how to respond anyways. I’ll probably tell Scottie off for bothering her sister later, but I’m growing tired and decide they can wait a day. The second my head hits the pillow I’m fast asleep.
I wake up and groan at the sight of my alarm clock. Why do we have to go to school at six a.m. again? I trudge downstairs to the sight of my mother cooking. She decided to be a stay at home mom so Dad could make the money. She’s the best Mom a girl can have, and I love her to death. I sit down and pick up the newspaper. My eyes skim the financial papers and my Mom makes light conversation. “So, I heard Emerald’s back.” I almost spit out my milk but sigh and put my drink down. “Yes, Mom. I’ve heard too.” She smiles a patient, but light-hearted smile. “you’ve done much more than hear, from what I’ve been told.” As much as I love my Mom, she’s too well connected to not know things. It was a fool’s dream to think that she wouldn’t know about Emerald for long.
She stalks over to my table to give me my eggs and some gossip, “Well, I’ve heard that you and her are talking again.” I frown while eating. This is….unexpected. I always knew that Mom was never a fool enough to not know that her daughter used to be a troublemaker down the bone. I would think that Emerald coming back would’ve been a bad omen to her, signalling a return of the pranks and mischief. She just hums to herself mysteriously and checks the time. “Well! We don’t want to be late for school, do we?” I shake my head no, finish my eggs, and quickly go upstairs to gather my things, trying to comb my hair in the process. I check the time again and see I have about twenty minutes to catch a bus and get to class.
As I walk up the steps toward the school, I catch Katrina’s eye and she gives me her famous cheshire cat-like smile. She gestures for me to come up to her and I obey reluctantly. “So, unless you’re too busy doing homework” she smirks at this knowingly, “We have a party to go to tomorrow at ten at my house.” I narrow my eyes. I guess Katrina’s onto the scheme too. Go figure. “Here’s my number, get some acceptable clothes and don’t embarrass us.” With that clipped conversation, she leaves me with a sinking feeling. Clothes? Uh….where am I going to get ‘cool’ clothes? I think back to Emerald and her clothing choice. I’ll have to consult her on this, since she’s as deep in this as I am.
Later, I realize that we’re in the same Algebra class. Perfect time to ask her about clothing for this ridiculous party. I walk over to her and she smiles a dazzling smile while saying, “Good morning, my lady” I snort and sit next to her. “What do you know about clothing?” I inquire. She looks a bit confused, probably since I’ve never worn anything exciting or shown interest in clothes. “I know a fair amount about it, why?”
“Katrina and Kat want me to go to a party. I’m betting they want me to be their….”friend”” Her eyebrows raise as the teacher calls us to settle down. Throughout the class, we kept up a whispering conversation as to not alert the teacher of us talking. “Well why the hell does she want you as her friend?” I brush the pseudo insult aside, knowing that she probably didn’t mean it in a harmful way. It’s just that Katrina and Kat don’t seem like ones to seek me out for friendship. “Well, maybe for my smarts? They’re people smart, but I’m school smart.” She frowns. “But they have the blackmail for that.” I finish off the first problem in no time and start on the next one, still talking, “Well, they might’ve thought we would betray them, which, yes, granted, we will do, and they’re trying to make us genuinely like them so we won’t.” I glance at her for reaffirmation and she's staring at me intently. I flush and look back down at my paper, “At any rate, the party will be a good chance to snoop and look around for extra copies of the pictures. The goal is to get the tapes. Without them she’s powerless.” I finish off the worksheet with a smile, knowing I got everything correct. I quickly pull out my english paper, reread everything to make sure I made no errors, and then go to my spanish homework. The amount of homework from my all honors classes is exhausting, but I’d never show it. Colleges can smell fear. The bell rings and I walk to my other class, Emerald in tow. “See you later, dipshit!” I say to her as she gets thrown into the wave of students. The day passes without further incident except for when Mrs. Lighten tries to give me a B again. I stroll across the campus to find Emerald texting someone and looking agitated. She looks up and puts away her phone fast. “Okay, I know a store around here that sells clothes. Come on.” I frown, usually, she’d chat my ear off before getting down to business. Despite my suspicions I follow her across the street into a boutique. She saunters down the aisles, occasionally grabbing an item or two off the shelves. I stand there, feeling awkward but having no courage to ask her what she was doing in fear of being annoying. She stalks up to me and shoves the clothes in my arms. “There, are you going to stand there like a rooted tree or try these things on?” I scowl but inwardly I see that she’s smiling again. That’s good. It….worries me for some reason that she wasn’t happy. I quickly dress in the changing room and come out with the new clothes on.
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She looks amazing. Fuck, better than that. Spectacular. After all those years in that dreary boarding school with nothing to do I was sure the spark had been taken out of her and I. But it wasn’t. She still has the same mischievous smile and quick, barbed words. She’s wearing a high waisted skirt and a light, and pink blouse with black flats. “What do you think? Is it ‘presentable?’” I quickly store away my thoughts of her caramel skin and light, fluffy hair and put a slight smile on my face. “As good as we’re ever gonna get it.” Her face delicately wrinkles, and I smirk. Talking to her always makes me forget about my home troubles, and I missed that at that hellish boarding school. “Fine. I guess we got all we need.” She says. “Good cuz I’m paying.” I almost run to the register before she can argue and go outside to breathe. I always feel overwhelmed and slow when I’m around her, but in a nice way. A….fuzzy feeling in my heart way. “You okay?” I whirl around to see Rose in her normal white and blue school uniform. “Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Listen, would you like to get some coffee right now?” She blushes, and my heart leaps. But just as soon, she checks her phone and grins. “No I’m sorry, my sisters are home! I gotta go see them.” she pauses, still blushing, “But, yeah, take a raincheck?” I smile, “Sure, Rosie Dosy.”
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