Sky full of stars

Chapter 5

“Emi wake up, you have school!” I hear someone shout loudly. 

God, what the hell? As I open my eyes, I close them immediately because of the bright light. I must’ve fallen asleep in the library... I open them this time slowly. Hardin bursts through the door scaring the s**t out of me. Why is everyone so loud today?

“We’ve been searching for you for half an hour. Did you sleep here again?” He looks worried when I nod, “This is the third time in a week that you woke up in the middle of the night and wondered somewhere.” I feel lighter today, maybe because I let out some of my pent-up emotions? I am thinking about going to my therapist again.

“I guess I did. What time is it?” I have no idea what’s happening. He keeps looking at me like I have three heads.

Bloody hell I just woke up...

“It’s almost 7 am. Come on, let’s get you some breakfast.” He looks at me knowingly. I’m really hungry… 

We never really talk about mom because it hurts too much, but after the night I had I feel better. Maybe I can talk to him about it later...

We get to school just in time. I never cared too much for makeup, so I just kept it light and easy. I decided to wear a light pink sweatshirt, light blue skinny jeans with pink Vans shoes. Just an ordinary outfit, but still stylish. 

As I step out of the car, I immediately look at the football field, but Logan isn’t there. For some reason, I feel a pang of sadness wash over me. I need to stop crushing on him. Once we come in, Hardin and I go separate ways. I start walking but stop dead in my tracks as I see Cordelia, Evie, and a bunch of new faces I don’t recognize, stand near our locker.

God, I can’t do this right now, but I need my books. What am I supposed to do?

When I arrive by my locker everybody looks at me. Oh god, this can’t get any worse, this is so awkward… 

“Morning Emily!” Cor greets me excitedly, I decide to try and be nice, so I smile back at her. “Come I’ll introduce you since you weren’t there at lunch yesterday...” a look of sympathy in her eyes, I feel like I let her down. I promised to be there for lunch and then ran home like a coward.

“I am sorry that I left so abruptly Cor…” I start to say but she cuts me off with a reassuring smile so that she can introduce me to everyone.

“This is Sapphire...” She points to a tall green-eyed, black-haired girl. Sapphire looks at me pointedly, like she wants to know if I am a threat, I give her a once over and look away because her gaze was so intense. Cor continues to introduce the others to me.

“That is Amber and the guy next to her is Jackson” I look at the girl. She has fiery red hair twisted in a bun, a few strands stand out to frame her face, brown soft eyes, her skin is pale, but she has freckles on her cheeks and a friendly face. The guy, Jackson is taller than me though not as tall as Logan, he has brown curly short hair. He looks at me with a friendly warmth in his hazel eyes. They are holding hands. Such a cute couple, I can tell that they love each other very much. “The shorty over there is Layla.” She turns towards a sweet, short, brown-haired, brown-eyed girl. She has a friendly warmth in her eyes. Gosh, she looks so tiny… Still very nice. 

“That couple making out there is Nate and Sage. She is a year younger; her older sister Sophie is in the same grade as us, she’s probably running late. You’ll meet her later then…”  Layla points at the girl and a boy a few lockers away. She looks a little sad. I make a mental note to ask her about it later.

“Hi, guys...” I say with an awkward smile. They all smile, even Sapphire.

The bell rings, using this as my escape I open my locker, get my books out, “Guess I’ll see you later guys. I need to go to class, bye…”  I rush out and start walking towards my first class. I don’t notice Cor behind me until she catches up to me.

“Are you alright?” She asks concerned about me, bless her heart.

“I’m fine, just had a tough night and morning, don’t worry,” I answer with a small smile. We enter the classroom and sit down.

The rest of the day goes by pretty quickly. It is pretty uneventful.  I just finished my music lesson and am walking to my locker. It is my lunch break, and I am very so nervous. God, Emily get a grip, it’s just a lunch!! With the most handsome guy ever… 

As I close my locker and I see him walking towards me. My knees almost give out as he smiles at me. Oh, sweet baby Jesus, he looks so hot in his leather jacket and black tight T-shirt, it’s straining against his abs. Those dimples when he smiles… He looks so handsome it should be illegal. 

“Hey...” He looks a little shy, so cute. I smile at him, I’m a nervous wreck. 

“Hi, Logan. So where are we going?” I need to think about something else than imagining him without a shirt on… 

“Just to the park. Mom made some food so I thought we could eat that…” It is a little awkward, but it feels good, almost normal when we start walking in comfortable silence. The whole walk feels like we have been doing this for a long time. It is nice. 

Underneath an old oak tree is a blanket and a basket, leaves are scattered around the fading grass. We are not far from the school, so we have time. I sit down first, he starts to dish out the sandwiches. I must admit they look really delicious.

“Water or orange juice?” He is so sweet, but I couldn’t let my guard down, no matter how much I want to do it.

“Water,” he hands me a bottle, “thanks.” I smile at him with a genuine smile.

“Listen I just want to explain that Grace and I are not exclusive, I slept with her one time, and she thinks we’re a couple, but I constantly remind her that we’re not.” I look at him dumbfounded, he is trying so hard.

“Okay, I definitely could have said that better, what I meant to say is that I’m single…” He says with a chuckle.

“Okay, I don’t really know what you want me to say…”  I am at a loss for words.

“I can tell you about myself if you would like?” I nod at that, maybe if I get to know him and we won’t be talking about heavy stuff I will open up to him.

“Let’s just get to know each other a bit yeah. You know, to break the ice” I just nod with a smile and start eating. Damn, this is delicious, I moan out loud. God this is embarrassing. He just smiles at me.

“So, I have a sister Evie. You met her yesterday. She’s a social butterfly but you don’t want to get on her bad side,” he laughs at that, “she’s the older one by the way. You probably guessed that already. I play football since freshman year and currently am the quarterback but you know that. I like to play the guitar and sing.” He takes a deep breath and smiles at me. “Guess you know that my mom is THE Sue Herondale. Everybody talks about it like it’s a big deal. While I love my mom, it’s none of other people’s business. She is a great cook and helpful when it comes to studying though...” He smiles at that, and I just look down at my food, no longer hungry. I miss mom so much in these kinds of situations.

“I know that we just met but I want to get to know you, Emily...” not comfortable with opening up yet I sit in silence, he looks at me with an understanding in his eyes then goes back to eating. I’m glad he isn’t going to push me to talk like many others have tried and failed before. It made me reinforce my walls and not open up to them.

“It’s almost time for the next lesson, we should go back...” I say and he just smiles at me. We pack up and take it to his car.

“Let’s go for lunch tomorrow, same place and time yeah?” I say and with that, I kiss his cheek and go inside.

Maybe he isn’t so bad after all…