Amidst love and heartbreak

Getting ready...

Emily’s POV

 I love talking to Miss Maggie. She is so perceptive of everything going on with me. Sometimes, I don’t even need to speak and she understands. How she knew that the message I got was from Ethan is still unknown to me. I opened it and what I read made my heart start beating faster. 

Ethan: Hello, guapa (beautiful). I have a solution to combine your busy schedule and my wish to go on a date with you.

Emily: And that would be…

Ethan: I take you on a date the very next day you give your last exam. Seven o’clock. I pick you up and we do whatever you want. And I mean, EVERYTHING!

Emily: Only you could make a first date sound like something I shouldn’t be doing…

Ethan: Oh, but you should be doing it. Lots of it. But maybe not just yet. We’ll wait.

The nerve this boy has. He has to make everything sound s****l. Is his brain down there and not where it is supposed to be?

“This is what I am talking about. Can you stop that smile? No. Then, go out with him and have more of those smiles on your face,” Miss Maggie said and I caught myself in the act. I can’t stop smiling because he texted what he texted.

“He is actually asking me on a date the day after my last exam. He knows I would be stressing about school if I was not done with it,” I gave her the short version of it. I don’t think I would feel comfortable speaking about what other he is texting me.

“Then what are you waiting for?”

“I might do just that,”

I took my phone in my hands one more time and thought well how to answer what he asked.

Emily: We’ll wait for the exams to be finished first. Then, we might try on a simple date. You know, I always go with the classic at the beginning. Try anything other than that and I will make sure you don’t get any action for a very long time after that.

I was laughing internally. I love this push and pull of remarks and silly threats we have. I don’t know. It makes me feel alive. 

Ethan: Understood, milady. I will make sure to be very respectful. At least at the beginning.

Now I couldn’t keep my laughter inside anymore.

“If a man makes you smile and laugh like that, he is almost a keeper. If you add being respectful on that list, you have it all,” Miss Maggie said.

“We’re working on that. At least I am, he is doing his best, I guess,” I muttered the last part. I was still not sure of many things with him. “You know, he is different. All my life, I never had any time to make friends or really get to know people. Then, I met Aron and he was always so respectful in everything he did towards me. Ethan, though, is different. He is shameless, open-minded, but at the same time, you know that everything he is, it’s out in the open. More or less you get no surprises with him,”

“What do you think you will do with the other boy?”

“I don’t know… I know I care about him, but I don’t know what’s happening with me lately. Miss Maggie, I have never been like this,”

“How?”

“I and Aron have had this teasing and flirting for years now but at least to me it was just a game we both had together,”

 I hope it was the same for him as well. I don’t want to lose his friendship.

(After 1 week…)

Aron’s POV

Today is the day of truth. It is the day that will ask Emily on an official date. I have been waiting for so long that I don’t know how to start the conversation anymore. I think I lost track of all the times that I almost asked her out. I know it’s just a date but I have a lot to lose. I don’t want to lose her friendship. If I can’t have her as my girlfriend, at least I want to have her as a friend. We work well together. The conversation flows and she seems so free when she is with me. I should listen more to Brandon. Apparently he knows what he is doing since he has the reputation of a Casanova. I would have called him a womanizer but no woman can say to have ever dated the man. He has got men falling to his knees all the time. All he needs to do is smile and say a couple of words and his bed is never empty. It’s not that I want someone for my bed. I wouldn’t have waited for Emily all this time if it was the case. 

Here she comes. Beautiful as ever, with her hair up in a ponytail. No makeup. No short skirts or dresses. Just her in all her natural beauty. 

I opened my arms and pulled in a tight hug spinning her around.

“You did it. It’s done. The last exam is done. Emily, you are a free person right now,” I said to shake her up. She seems still in a daze. I think she doesn't believe that all her stress and long nights on top of the books are over. We still have to find a proper job and start the adult life but this chapter of our lives is finally finished. 

“What are you doing now?”

“What? Oh.. I have to go help mum with dinner. We have people over for dinner tonight,”

“Then, let’s go out and celebrate tomorrow night. It will be awesome going out clubbing without thinking about tomorrow,” I said trying to make her feel the same excitement I was feeling.

“Umm… Actually, I am busy tomorrow as well,”

“What do you mean you are busy? Don’t tell me you are babysitting again?” I was really confused now. Was she avoiding me? I know I avoided her for a couple of days and from time to time I have been moody because of what I saw, but I didn’t know it affected her that much.

“N-no… I don’t have to babysit. I have a date,” she said and suddenly my world collapsed. My biggest nightmare just became a reality and I don’t know how to stop this. I blinked a couple of times and then I did the first logical thing that I could do at that moment.

“Oh, ok,” I didn’t say much because I don’t know if my voice would be shaking due to all the emotions flowing through me or not. I was curious to know who was the one that caught her attention more than me, right in front of her for four years almost every day. And now that there is no busy schedule anymore, what does she do? Goes on a date. I know who is after her but I don’t want to believe it just yet. I already decided, though, that I will be her friend if nothing more. So I will make sure not to screw this up now that she told me something like this.

“Are you ok?” she asked, a bit wary.

“Um, yes. I just remembered Brandon needed me for something. Can I call you later?”

“Sure. I am running home anyway. Talk to you tonight,”

“Yeah, yeah…’

Emily’s POV

I saw Aron give me his back and walk away from me in less than two seconds from his last sentence. He said he is in a hurry but I have a feeling he is not alright with me going on a date. I didn’t even tell him who I am going out with. I can’t imagine his reaction when he finally finds out it’s Ethan. 

I guess we need some time apart now. I didn’t really need to help mum with dinner, even though it’s true that we have people over tonight. I was so nervous to tell him that I had a date that I couldn’t be at the same place as him now. Guilt flows through me when I think about it. 

Next day I take it slow. Dinner last night finished too late so today I was exhausted. If anyone would make me leave this bed now and get dressed to start the day, I would kill them even though it’s almost noon. This is the first lazy day in… I don’t know, forever. My head's a mess with all the thinking I have been doing these last days. 

On one side, Aron and the cold shoulder that he has been giving me which I don’t really understand. He didn’t even call last night like he said he would. Instead, he texted this morning to give a lame excuse and say that he will come here in the afternoon and explain.

On the other side, it’s Ethan and his… I guess everything. Sometimes he is too much, but I don’t seem to stop myself from being attracted to him. I am a little nervous about this date. How will it go? Will he be his usual teasing, flirting self or will he be a charmer?

And the biggest problem I have now is the one every other girl has when she goes on a first date. What do I put on? I know I have tons of clothes but my style is pretty casual. I have a couple of dresses my mum made me buy just for family dinners or occasions like this but I don’t know which one to put.

Just when I lost all my hope, my ringtone started playing. As soon as I see the caller ID I click accept.

“Hello, stranger,”

“Hello, gorgeous,”

“What are you doing? Are you getting all dolled up for the date already?”

“Ew, no. I will not get all dolled up. I might take a shower, though, just to make sure I don’t stink, I said laughing from the other end of the phone. He laughed with me. A good sign, no? Suddenly, I decided to appeal to our friendship side and take the next step.

“Why don’t you come over. I might need some advice to find something suitable to wear. I know this is a girl's thing to do but I would appreciate your opinion more than some girl’s that barely knows me,” I said and I listen to him sigh from the other end of the call.

“Sure, I will be there in a few,”

Great, Aron is coming. I better have that shower before he is here. I don’t want to give the wrong impression to him.

After I am done with the shower, I put some random leggings and t-shirt on so I am not naked. As soon as I finished, the doorbell rang and then I heard my mum call me from downstairs.

Aron is up in only ten seconds knocking on my door.

After one more hour of him telling me how wasted he was last night because his brother brought him to this nightclub and they were drinking and having a great time, so calling just skipped his mind. 

Now is my turn. I have to try some dresses and try to manage the hair that mother nature so gracefully decided for me to have. I put on a black one, but Aron discards it because it is too tight. Another blue one, he says that it's too short. The yellow one is horrible. I didn't even try it. And then, in the end, there is this red one I want to try, but as soon as I take it out of my clothes Aron says a big no.

“Why?” I complain. “Doesn’t it look good on me?”

He sighs one more time and comes closer to where I was. His eyes were looking at me up and down like a predator. What’s going on? What is happening to Aron?

“Who are you going out with?” he muttered really close to me.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me. Who are you going out with? Who is your date, Emily? Who is the son of a good mother taking you out on that dress?” I am impressed. He never spoke to me like that and most of all he never acted like that.

“It’s… Ethan,” I was scared to say his name because I didn’t know what his reaction would be. Then, I decided to gather the courage and say it again a bit clearer. 

“I have a date with Ethan. Any comment on that one?”