EMIT (THE EMIT SAGA) (14 page)

“
I know, but it’s too late because I really like him. Please don’t mention that he has a London place to anybody. They’ll constantly ask if he’s leaving and it’ll drive me insane.”

“Sure, but maybe he’ll
surprise us and stay around for a while.”

After we hung up,
Mom and I started watching a movie, but I left before it ended.

I remembered that I had gotten a journal, but had never used it. I searched my closet and found
it in a box. I didn’t want to forget anything. On the first page, I wrote Daniel & Paige. I wrote about my feelings for Daniel and wrote everything that had happened since the first day I saw him. When I finished, it was three o’clock. I hid the journal under some clothes in the drawer of my nightstand and went to sleep.




B
efore I left for work, I saw an invitation on Facebook that Chad’s band, Sunspots, was playing at a block party on Wednesday night. A lot of my friends had RSVP’d that they were going. It sounded like fun so I texted Lily and asked if she wanted to go. Lily texted me right back and said “Sure.” Anything that involved music, Lily was in.

The day at work
dragged, probably due to my lack of sleep. The filing duties were so tedious that I couldn’t focus and my mind kept wandering to Daniel.

As I left, Sonia, Dad’s secretary, stopped me by the elevator and asked if I could bring a file home
, saying Dad would need it when he got back from his trip. Luckily when I walked out of the building, a cab was dropping someone off so I jumped in.

As
I walked in, my cell rang and it was Daniel. I threw the file on the couch and the papers spilled on the floor. I raced upstairs for privacy since Mom was in the kitchen.

When I asked about his day, he answered, “Just had some appointments and handled
personal stuff.” For a nineteen year-old, he sure had a lot of appointments.

“
Oh, what happened with your squatters?”

“It’s really
strange. The lawyer went over and no one was there.”

“Were they hiding?” I asked.

“No. The lawyer had the alarm company come out and investigate and they said the house wasn’t tampered with.”

“That’s
so weird!”

“
I know. A friend is staying there until my housekeepers gets back next week.”

“
That’s good.”

“Yeah, I’ll feel better about it.
Do you have any plans tomorrow night?”

“Lily’
s coming over and we’re going to a block party. Would you like to come with us?”

“If I’m not intruding.” Was he kidding?

“You’re definitely not, please come.”

After the call, I ran downstairs,
ecstatic that we had a date. Upon entering the living room, I noticed the scattered papers on the floor, so I gathered them up and placed the file in the foyer.

I took Amber for a walk and
when we got back, I stood in the foyer admiring it while taking off her leash. The walls were painted a soft golden yellow. On the left wall, there was a demilune console table and beyond that the stairs leading to the second floor. On the right side, the bathroom had a topiary-printed wallpaper in a sunny antique wash. Straight ahead, the French doors opened onto the living room that was painted a darker shade than the foyer.

I
n the living room, there was a door on the left that led to the kitchen and on the right was the den/library that also functioned as the guest room. At the end of the living room was the dining room that also had an entrance into the kitchen.

Upstairs there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms. The third bedroom was changed to Dad’s office after Martin got his own place.

Mom had dinner plans with a friend in the Village, so I was on my own. When Grace and Daphne called, I invited them over. I didn’t want them to think I’d turned into Eden and had ditched them for a guy. About five minutes after Mom left, the house phone started ringing, but since all my friends called on my cell, I ignored it. Then I thought it might be Dad, so I checked the caller ID, and saw it was a private number. When the answering machine picked up, the caller hung up, so it had to be a telemarketer. It must be hard being one these days since everyone screened their calls and didn’t pick up for strange or unknown numbers.

After getting my laptop from upstairs, I put music on in the living room and chatted with friends on Facebook while I waited for the girls to arrive.

Mom decorated our apartment in a French-style. Honeymooning in the South of France, she fell in love with Provence. She blended what she saw with some of her own ideas, so our apartment was both eclectic and very European. Aunt Cecile helped Mom pull her vision together. The look was rustic, old-world with a warm and casual feel.

The living room couches were covered
in pale yellow toile fabrics and the chairs and pillows were covered in red and green plaids, checks, and stripes. It was warm, cozy and casual.

When Lily called, I told her
that Daniel was coming with us to the block party.

“I’ll stay ho
me, so you can go with him alone,” she offered.

“No way. You’re
coming too.”

Grace and Daphne finally
arrived and although I wanted to watch a movie, they only wanted to talk about Daniel.

“
Do you like him?” Grace wouldn’t let up.

“Yes, I told you I did,” I moaned, wishing I hadn’t invited them since I was
now getting tired of the conversation. “The problem is I think he’ll be leaving soon, so I doubt anything will come of it.” I already felt insecure about Daniel and all their questions started making me feel worse. I asked them to watch the movie and to stop talking about Daniel.

The house phone rang at least five times but no one ever left a message.



Wednesday
morning, I started reading a poetry book, but I needed some fresh air, so I went for a jog in Riverside Park.

When I got out of the shower, the
house phone started ringing. Caller ID showed it was an unknown number, but when the answering machine picked up, they hung up. It rang again and the same thing happened. When it rang again, I silenced the ringer and went up to my bedroom.

I picked up the poetry book again and
found a poem by Lord Byron.

THEY SAY THAT HOPE IS HAPPINESS

Félix qui potuit rerum cognoscere causas. –Virgi
l

They say that Hope is happiness—
But genuine Love must prize the past;
And Mem’ry wakes the thoughts that bless:
They rose the first – they set the last.

And all that mem’ry loves the most
Was once our only hope to be:
And all that hope adored and lost
Hath melted into memory.

Alas! It is delusion all—
The future cheats us from afar:
Nor can we be what we recall,
Nor dare we think on what we are.

First I needed to find out what the line by Virgil meant and who Virgil was. After Googling him, I found out that Virgil was a classical Roman poet and the sentence, translated from Latin, meant: ‘Happy is he who has been able to learn the causes of things.’

There are things that happen in life that have no explanations. The last paragraph made me

think about the future. As you get older, your opinions and beliefs change and the person you were in your youth becomes just a memory just like the poem alleges.

After some nonstop reading, I felt I’d accomplished something.

Just as Mom got home, Amber began whimpering at the door. Needing some fresh air myself, I took her out. It had been cloudy all day, but now the skies were clearing up. Hopefully, the block party would be a success. Daniel called and said he was stuck in a meeting on Wall Street. He asked for the address and said he’d meet me there.

As I reached my building, I noticed a strange man across the street waving and motioning for me to come over. Having no idea who he was, I quickly went inside.

When Lily and I got to the elevator to leave, I realized I forgot my cell so I ran back to get it. Mom was standing in front of the answering machine and looked confused.

“The phone didn’t ring, but the machine answered and a message.

“Sorry, I turned the ringer off. The phone kept ringing and I was trying to read.”

“Who was it?”

“No one ever left a message and caller ID said it was an unknown caller. It was probably some telemarketer. Bye Mom, love you.”

We got to 85th Street and
there were people everywhere. After wandering, we eventually spotted Daphne and Grace near the stage talking to Eden and Paul. The band was so loud that I could barely hear anybody.

Eden yelled
, “There are three bands. This is the first one. Chad’s band is next.”

I noticed
Billy, Eden’s older brother, standing nearby. He attended Boston University and would be a sophomore in the fall. In high school, he was known as a player. He was rarely home when I visited her and if he was, he ignored us. In school, whenever I said hello, he’d look at me like he had no idea who I was. It was so embarrassing that I stopped acknowledging him.

I saw Billy approach and figured he’d dismiss me as usual.
“Hi, Paige, how are you? Long time no see,” he said and gave me a hug.

“Oh,
hi,” I stammered, while glancing over at Lily with a confused expression. Daphne and Grace, emboldened by the fact that Billy was friendly for once, pounced on him. No wonder he had a lot of girlfriends, they were completely mesmerized by him. I turned my attention to watching the first band and wondered when Daniel would get there.

Chad
walked over to Billy smiling. “Hey, Billy thanks for coming.” Chad noticed Lily, so I introduced them and they started talking. I couldn’t hear what they were saying. When they turned to look at the band, their hair was almost the same length, falling just to their shoulders. They really had a lot in common since they both loved music and played guitar,

When Chad left, Lily nudged me smiling. Daphne,
Grace and Lily moved closer to the stage, but I wanted to stay where Daniel could find me. As I watched the first band, I saw Evan and Josie walking together near the stage. Daphne saw them too because she started whispering to Grace and nodded in their direction. I was still hoping that Reed would like Josie.

Billy
started telling me about school and his summer job and it seemed like he was flirting with me, which was strange because I thought he had a girlfriend.

“So
what’s going on with you?” he asked. Before I could answer, a hand touched my back and I twirled around to find Daniel smiling at me. My back tingled and looking into his eyes, I wondered if he knew the effect he had on me. As I moved to make room for Daniel, I stumbled and he grabbed my arm.

“Are you okay?”
Daniel whispered in my ear. I could only manage a nod.

At that moment, Evan and Josie walked by and they glared at me. Evan I
understood, but what was Josie’s problem? She should’ve been happy that I was with somebody else. She must have seen the Facebook post that Reed and I were dating and now she hated me.

I introduced
Billy and Daniel, but Billy quickly left.

Daniel
joked, “I think you have an admirer.” When I said no way, Daniel just shook his head and smiled. The idea of Billy liking me seemed absurd.

Chad’s band began playing and they were
quite good. I recognized Nick Logan, but had no idea who the other three guys were.

When they
finished, Daphne and Grace came back and were excited to meet Daniel.

Daphne whispered that she was upset that Evan came with Josie. I told her not to worry because they probably were just friends. Personally, I thought that he was too immature especially after his stupid stunt with Reed’s Facebook page.

Chad returned to where we were and resumed talking to Lily. He
glanced over at Daniel and I wondered if he knew that his brother liked me.

As soon as the
third band, a screamo band, started all conversations stopped because the noise was deafening. I expected the police to come and shut them down. We were standing too close to the speakers and when my ears started to ring, I asked Daniel to move further away. I leaned on a fire hydrant and I noticed a man staring at me from the other side of the street. He looked like the man who had motioned to me near my building. Instead of watching the band, he was watching me and he looked really angry.

I got
freaked out so I shuffled behind Daniel. When I looked again, I saw the man walking away. He must have confused me with someone else.

Daniel glanced over and mouthed, “
You okay?” I smiled and nodded. When the band stopped playing, I waved to Lily and pointed that we should leave. Chad took out his cell and it looked like Lily was giving him her number.