"I'M CATCHING on, so this is just a temporary situation that is meant to make certain people jealous?" May asked confusedly.
"Yes! Exactly. Harven wishes to make Lana want him again, and I want to show Ethan that I do not need his cheating self." Emery shrugs, glad to be done with the explaining part of this entire ordeal.
The bell rings, signaling first period.
"Okay, I get it, good luck." May chuckles dryly. Emery huffs and sends pathetic eyes her way.
"I'm gonna need it."
________________
Lunch finally rolls around, much to Emery's relief. She was ready to eat alone without the intimidating eyes of her peers.
Of course, Emery was met with Harven as soon as she exited her classroom.
Emery continues to walk right past him in effforts to avoid him. They are to no avail when she hears her name being called behind her.
Go ahead, she thinks, draw even more attention to us.
" We're sitting together today girlfriend." He smirks while falling into step beside her. She grimaces at his words.
"Stop calling me girlfriend." She says flatly.
"Oh? What would you prefer: baby? No wait! Babygirl." He nods in mock satisfaction, but exploding inside because he cannot believe he just said that.
"No! Even worse. Emery is just fine." She nods, opening the doors to the cafeteria, when Harven is quick to step through.
"Don't mind if I do." He cuts in front of her. She rolls her eyes at his smug face. She wonders where he threw his manners.
The cafeteria is buzzing with voices all around. Upon them entering, it quiets down, not extremely but it's noticeably quieter.
Emery almost turns around and runs right back through those doors. It is so very tempting.
But Harven proves just fine, he slaps hands with some of the guys on his way to the lunch line, and walks in his infuriatingly slack way.
Like this is normal.
Actually, it is. For him anyway. Emery has a hard time remembering that.
She kind of hugs herself, standing in the line. Hands from behind her start to drag them away.
"Hey! Hey-"
"Relax, take your hands off. You look very suspicious." Harven says.
She lets him drag them down and shakes her head. She hurriedly grabs her plate in efforts to have her hands do something that is not biting her nails.
Harven starts to head to his table, where a lot of guys are seated. At Emery's hesitation, he turns around.
"Are you coming?" He asks.
"Y-yeah. I'll be right there." Emery says, taking off in May's direction.
"May look where I have to sit!" Emery's furrowed eyebrows and frown gesture towards the overwhelming amount of testosterone machines at the table across the room.
May tries her best to contain the smile. "Wow Emery. Have fun?" She looks around.
Emery gasps, "Have you no sympathy woman?" She asks.
May shakes her head. Emery huffs and turns on her heel, towards the table. The guys stop and just blankly stare at the girl coming towards them. They look to each other when she takes a seat beside Harven.
Well a few inches away.
They burst out laughing. Emery's eyes are shooting from person to person and her thoughts are coming in a mile a minute.
What are they laughing at? Are they laughing at me? Did I do something wrong? Why are there so many?
"What did you do, bro? You gotta let us in on this one." A blond one chuckles out.
Harven purses his lips, but Emery knows he has no difficulty lying.
"Guys," He hesitates just slightly in putting his hand around to her shoulder, "This is my girlfriend. You already um- know her." He retracts his hand.
Emery plasters on a smile, but she can feel the sceptical gazes, and it falters. Instead she begins to poke at her food, wondering if this was ever a good idea to begin with.
"You're joking." One shakes his head, and a "you almost got me" comes from another direction. They laugh again, and all the deep ones and the annoying ones, they mingle together like fucking hyenas!
Emery gets up, not loudly, but just stands. Even though she didn't do anything dramatic, the power in her silence shows that she's upset.
She heads to the hall and sits there. She doesn't know what to think about, so once again she blocks it all out.
She can hear the steps before she sees a body. They're slow but demanding.
"Hey Emery. Um- are you okay?" His uneasy smile is almost laughable.
"Don't try that."
"Okay I won't. I didn't know they would react like that, It wasn't cool to laugh at you like that." He says.
Emery looks up at him. "Don't you see? This is what you tormenting me for years does, they can't even look at me like a real person, Harven." She says.
"Sorry."
"Sorry?"
"Oh not for the pranks, just on their behalf. I'm saying it for them." He smiles.
"Yeah yeah." Emery gets up, and with a look at the clock, she doesn't bother to re enter the cafeteria. It's almost time for next period, so most likely she'll take a quick bathroom break until it's time.
"You don't have to sit with them again."
"Wasn't even thinking about it." Emery heads off in the direction of the bathroom.
When she enters, she's met with a familiar head of blonde hair in the mirror, applying some makeup she's foreign with.
When Lana recognizes Emery, her eyes turn into tiny slits. She turns around, flicking her golden hair behind a bony shoulder.
"Oh, it's the whore." Lana spits.
Emery raises her eyebrows. Says you. Emery gasps at her thoughts, not meaning to be so vile.
"Im sorry?" Emery responds.
She scoffs. "Getting with my boyfriend right after we break up? Real classy, Emily." Lana shakes her head, re applying lipgloss in the dirty mirror.
Emery has never really had to be the defensive girlfriend. This was whole new territory.
"It's Emery. And you got with my boyfriend while we were still together. Classy. My ass." Emery retorts.
Lana walks over to Emery, grabbing her face with her long nails. They dig into the bottom of her cheeks, but Emery refrains from making a face.
"Break up with him. Things can get so much worse." She spits, walking out of the bathroom.
Emery rubs at her face, chuckling dryly.
Heh, she laughs, at least it's working.