Crumbling Walls (Jack and Emily #1) (9 page)

▪▪▪

Settled in a back booth of the extremely busy diner, Sarah and Emily eyed each other shyly, never really having had a conversation before and neither really knowing where to begin. Luckily, the minute both groaned in unison when Tim ordered strawberry, chocolate and caramel topping for his sundae, they grinned at each other and from there, the conversation flowed easily.

▪▪▪

On the other side of town, Elizabeth got the older boys into their pajamas while Will hauled the sleeping Sam straight from the car to his bed.

Settling down on the couch next to his wife after everyone was quiet, “She doesn’t like me.”

“Who?”

“Emily.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Every time I catch her eye, which is extremely seldom by the way, there’s this fear there and I can feel the panic rolling off of her.”

Knowing she should tell her husband that he was wrong, that Emily just didn’t know him, she couldn’t lie to him either, “I’ve seen it, too.” As she rested her head on his shoulder, “There’s so much there, I don’t even know how to begin to figure her out.”

“Have you ever met her mother?”

“No. She seems to be working all the time. Emily's mentioned she has a really crazy schedule that changes constantly. It's why she couldn't make it tonight.”

Will chewed on the inside of his cheek for a moment, “Does she ever talk about her life or anything?”

“She’s 16, honey. What 16-year-old do you know that sits down and discusses her family with her boyfriend’s mother?”

With a sudden glimmer in his eye, “Speaking of which, are they going out or not? I can’t tell and it’s really beginning to bug me.”

She laughed at her husband, “At this point, I don’t know if they even know what’s going on, but I like her, so I hope she stays around for awhile. Both for Jack’s sake and for Tim’s.”

“Tim?”

“Yeah. Did you take a good look at his things tonight? They’ve gotten much better since he started school here. It’s either the teacher or Emily who’s pushing him, maybe both, but if he keeps this up, he could possibly use it to get into college.”

Will sat back, putting his feet up on the coffee table, “How did this happen? In Chicago, Tim was dating three different girls, breaking curfew and God knows what else that I don't want to think about and now he's got Sarah, who's aiming for valedictorian, and he's getting decent grades again.” Now settling his head against the back of the couch, “Then Jack finds Emily and the musical prodigy and he seems happier than he's been in a long time.” Knocking his knuckles into his wife's knee lightly, “Which reminds me, I found him talking to Claire the other day.”

This raised a surprised set of eyebrows, “Really? She finally apologized?”

“I don't know about that, but they were on the phone for a good half-hour and he came away smiling.”

Elizabeth grinned, “Good. I'm glad they finally worked it out. I was talking to Jenny yesterday, she didn't say anything about Claire and Jack, but she did tell me that there's talk at Bob's work about a promotion or possibly relocating.”

“Where to?”

“Either York or Pittsburgh.”

Will grinned, “I'm going to hope for York. Jack would be thrilled to have Claire back.”

Snuggling down into his arms while he switched on the news, “It'd be nice to have Jenny around again, too.” Squeezing her husband's hand, “But we can't say anything to anyone yet. There's a good chance it won't happen.”

“I know, but it's a nice thought.”

▪▪▪

Tim dropped Dex off first, then left Emily and Jack at her house, “I’ll be home in a little while.”

Tim just nodded, “You’ll probably make it home before me anyway, but okay.”

Standing under the clear sky, he waited until Tim had driven off before turning to Emily, “Do I have to go home?”

It had to be the sweetest and most heart-breaking thing she’d ever heard. Fighting back the tears and the secrets that suddenly threatened to spill over, she nodded, “I don’t want you to, but I think you have to.”

Hoping the disappointment wasn’t too visible on his face, “Then can I ask another question?”

She nodded, “’Course.”

“Do you think you might ever possibly sometime in the future maybe want to kinda be my girlfriend?”

In complete seriousness she answered back, “I think that sometime in the future, I would very well love to be your girlfriend.”

“Do you think you’ll ever let me kiss you?”

Reaching up to run her finger down his cheek, then her thumb across his lips, “I wish I could let you kiss me now.”

As her hand left his face, he caught it and bought her fingers back to his mouth, kissing each of the tips, “Make sure you tell me the minute I can.” With a final squeeze of her hand, he turned her towards her door, “I’ll see you in the morning.”

▪▪▪

The nightmares began that night. She wasn't sure if they were brought on by Will, by Jack and her anger at not being able to get closer to him or things were just finally beginning to surface, but, regardless, she watched the world wake up from her comfortable spot on the couch, where she’d been wide-awake since 1:30 a.m.

Chapter 8

Jack saw the sleepless night plainly on her face the next morning, “You okay?”

Nodding and yawning at the same time, “Yeah, just couldn’t sleep last night.”

“All night?”

“I slept for about an hour, maybe a little more, but that’s it.”

Hiking her book bag over his shoulder, “You should have called. I’d have talked to you until you fell asleep from sheer boredom.”

Too tired to catch herself, “I can’t call you.”

Half-joking with her, "What? Your mom keep track of when you use the phone?”

Still not really hearing her own words, “I can only afford a land line with local calling and your cell phone number's out of the area.”

Attributing her answer to exhaustion, he still filed the statement away in the back of his mind unconsciously, “Ahh, well, next time you can’t sleep, just imagine the boring conversation you could be having with me. Should work the same way.”

“I don’t think you could ever bore me enough to put me to sleep.”

“But it would be fun to talk to you all night.”

She could only bump shoulders with him, “Well, as much as I’d love to talk to you, I’d much prefer that tonight, I hit the pillow and don’t move until tomorrow morning.”

“Well, if for nothing else, winter break starts in a couple of weeks. You can always catch up then.”

As they continued trekking towards school, she stared ahead, unfocused and exhausted, “Maybe we’ll get a snow day in here somewhere and we’ll all be forced to stay home and nap all day long.”

“You’re making my mouth water, woman. Stop it.”

▪▪▪

She did sleep like a log that night. For a whole two hours. Then, once again, she watched the neighborhood wake up through the front window while curled on the couch, pad of paper on her lap and pencils strewn everywhere.

She especially did not enjoy when this seemed to become the routine.

The one very dim, very sad bright side to the whole situation that she grasped onto during this two week bout of insomnia was that she had been keeping ahead on her homework. She couldn’t stay focused during tests to save her life, but her homework had never been more thorough.

Dex walked head-on into Emily's loosening grasp of composure the day before Christmas break began and once he got over the surrealness of her reaction, he caught Jack in the hall between classes, “Is Emily okay?”

“I think so, why?”

“Well, I had to ask her the same question three times in a row before she answered and then she got real snarly with me for asking it and I don't mean her just telling me no, but getting honest-to-God bitchy with me. It was just about some of her notes, nothing major.”

Aiming a look of sympathy towards his friend, “She hasn’t been sleeping much lately."

“Huh. Well, thought I’d better ask. I’ll just set her shit meter a little higher for now.”

”Shit meter?”

“Yeah, how much shit I can take from her before I get annoyed. She’s usually got hers set astronomically high for me which is why I thought I’d better ask if something was wrong.”

Stopping next to their lockers, “Something’s keeping her awake, but either she hasn’t figured it out or she has and can’t figure out what to do about it.”

Grabbing the book for his last class, Dex slammed the locker, “Well, let me know if you find out anything else.”

“Sure.”

As Jack and Dex headed to Spanish class, Emily was trying to keep herself awake while she waited for history class to begin. Her head kept bobbing and for the first time ever, she seriously debated slipping back out of class and heading home.

She immediately banished the thought, however, because the teacher came in just then and began to pass out the exam papers for the test she had studied a good four hours for the previous night. It looked completely foreign to her. It had to be in English but for the life of her, she couldn’t figure out what the questions were asking.

Her brain felt cloudy and realizing anything she had learned the night before was gone, she took a few deep breaths. She figured she had two choices. Try to force some information from her empty mind or put her head down and take a nap. Neither one seemed doable at the moment so she chose a third option. Standing up, she gave her unfilled pages to the teacher and walked out the door.

Everyone looked up at her in unison as she opened the classroom door and left.

Mr. Castle told them to keep working as he hurried out behind her, “Emily?”

Turning back around, she looked at him standing in the doorway, keeping one eye on his test-takers and the other on her, “Yeah?”

“What are you doing?”

“I’m leaving, sir.” At this point, she just wanted to lie down and didn’t care what she had to say, as long as she could just shut her eyes, “I can’t answer anything on that test so I might as well go home.”

“You can’t just leave.”

“It’s last period. You always let us go as soon as we’re done with the test as long as we’re quiet about it.”

He couldn’t believe he was having this conversation with one of his best students and, by now, a few teachers’ heads were also popping into the hall to see what had happened, “But you didn’t even try.”

With an almost maniacal chuckle, “I looked at those questions and I can’t answer them.”

Knowing he ought to be making her come back inside, he realized she had him. She could choose not to take the test, fail and leave, given he did let them go as soon as they were done. He also knew a call to her mother would go unanswered, so all he could do was shrug and wave her off, “I still wish you’d change your mind.”

Already turning and continuing down the hall, “Have a good holiday.”

▪▪▪

Jack had just finished giving his presentation in Spanish when he caught sight of her walking past the door. Knowing full well she should be taking a test right now, he waited until the teacher finished her critique of him before asking, “Can I use the bathroom?”

Nodding at him and believing it was just stage jitters sending him to the bathroom, she handed him the pass. Giving Dex a look as he left, Jack headed quickly down the hall, stopping only long enough to shove a few books in his backpack and grab his coat. Leaving the pass hanging on Dex’s locker, he raced after her, catching up in the parking lot, “Emily? Hey, Em? What’re you doing?”

When she turned to him, he caught his breath. He'd just seen her last class, but somehow, she looked even more beat, her face was pale as a sheet and eyes glassy, the lids heavy in exhaustion.

Taking a second to focus in on him, “I just want to go home, Jack.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be in history? Taking a test?”

She repeated herself, “I just want to go home. Can you take me home?”

Instantly weighing his options of detention vs. doing as asked, he put his arm around her waist, “Come on.”