Emily climbed out of bed and collected her clothes, ignoring Seb, who was standing in the corner in his underwear. On the way to the washroom, she took a long breath, turned towards Seb and said, “You should leave now, so we don’t look suspicious.”
She had screwed up. It was her fault. There was no reason Seb should be subjected to her parents’ interrogation.
Seb didn’t question her. Maybe her face said it all.
She closed the door behind her and crumbled to the floor.
Chapter 6
5 years ago
“I can’t believe I finally got you out of that dreary room of yours! I’m telling you there’s something messed up about the energy there,” Jason said, sipping his beer slowly.
Emily groaned internally. “I mean, we’re going to move after this semester, so it’s not going to be a problem for long,” she repeated for what felt like the hundredth time.
“That’s still too long,” Jason complained.
“Well, there’s nothing we can do, can we? You’ll have to live with my bad energy for the rest of the semester,” Emily snapped. She didn’t want to come to this random party full of so many people that it was difficult to breathe when she was drowning in assignments. She definitely didn’t want to get into one of their ongoing arguments here.
“Whatever! I’m gonna go try the punch,” Jason said, walking away. Emily was glad he didn’t want to continue talking about the stupid energies again, but now she was all alone in a sea of people she didn’t have any desire to mingle with.
Emily rolled her eyes. She was pretty used to Jason’s unpredictability by now. Most days, the guy was a pretty decent boyfriend. Emily believed he was trying out different personalities until he found out who he wanted to be, like he was shopping for a new suit.
The result was his recent obsession with energies and everything woo-woo. The problem was this one has now lasted three months. Hopefully, he will grow out of it soon or at least become a little less annoying about it.
She looked around the room for familiar faces. Most people were standing in groups around her with drinks, trying to hear each other over the music. Some were dancing on the makeshift dance floor in the middle of the hall. She spotted a group of girls she sometimes hung out with before and after her psychology class. She walked over to them instead of waiting for Jason to decide he wanted to talk to her again.
“Hey, Em! You at a party? How drunk am I?” Vanessa said. But she hugged Emily, making her feel welcomed. "Shelly was just telling us about the guy from the football team she hooked up with last week,” she filled Emily in.
“It wasn’t just a hookup! We’ve gone on a date and everything,” Shelly argued.
“Sure you did,” Ashley said, sarcastically. “Didn’t that guy dump Olivia just last week?”
“And honey, sorry to burst your bubble, I hooked up with him last month. Guy’s a nice dude but a total player,” Emma said, sipping her drink.
“Well, I hope it won’t be awkward for you guys because I asked him to come here with me,” Shelly declared proudly.
“Then where is he?” Vanessa asked.
“Who are we talking about?” Emily whispered to Emma when she couldn’t find any context clues from the conversation.
“There he is,” Shelly announced loudly just as Emma whispered back, “Seb Raux.”
Emily’s breath hitched. As she watched Seb approach her group with a huge smile on his face, the world slowed down around her. He hadn’t noticed her yet, clearly, or she doubted he’d have the smile on.
He still looked the same, but distinctly older. His face had hardened somewhat in the last two years. His hair was longer too, a clear one-eighty from his buzz cut school days. But Emily was one to talk. She had grown out her bangs, andnow they framed her face neatly. She’d also gone blonde for a semester, but we didn’t talk about that anymore.
He was interrupted multiple times along the way, because of course, he was. That’s just who he was. He had time and a smile for everyone. Well, except Emily now. Probably.
It had been two years since she had last talked to him. Ray was constantly in her ears about it. And honestly, Emily had no idea why she kept avoiding him. She realized she had taken it too far after month three of her abrupt return from the trip, but she was just too embarrassed to contact him again after so long.
She didn’t pick up his calls, didn’t reply to his texts, and deliberately avoided all the spots she could run into him for the first two months. After a while, it just became a habit.
Yes, Emily was aware she had confrontation issues.
She did run into him a couple of times, but managed to run the other way before he could catch her. Seb got the message because after month two, he stopped contacting.
Emily wasn’t proud of her behavior now that enough time had passed and she could look at the incident objectively. But she did understand her reaction, however over the top it might have been.
