In Your Wake

The Pleasant Surprise

Emily's POV

Throughout the entire car ride, Noelle doesn't turn the radio on. Noelle doesn't utter any stupid remarks. Noelle doesn't make fun of any of my book obsessions. Noelle stays quiet. She is always jittery, giddy, playful. Now all of them are temporarily gone, which only adds more worry to my anxious thoughts and forces me to prepare to expect the absolute worst.

The car comes to a halt and she climbs out of the car without a single word. I followed her because I didn't know what to expect. I am guessing that she is coming with me to console me after whatever my mom will throw at me.

Noelle's phone rings and she stops midway on the stairs to answer it. I, however, continue walking to get this whole thing over with already. I just want to know what the hell is going on and why she is acting so weird right now.

"Yeah, I just drove her back." She answers as I opened the front door.

"Uhh...No." She says, "I drove her to the house."

I hear footsteps shuffling around the kitchen. I assume that my mother is there and that is where I go. I take in a huge a*s breath preparing myself for whatever is to come. I stepped into the kitchen expecting my mother to turn around and face me with her face riddled in complete worry.

"Mom, what's--"

My lips are clamped shut when my eyes make contact with the only pair of icy glassy ocean blue eyes that always made me disconcerted.

Nothing could have prepared me for this. Not the one year I spent trying to forget him. Not all the memories that I tried to bury. Not all the times that I tried to control and mask my emotions to not feel anything if I ever saw him again. Not even that huge a*s breath I just took. NOTHING.

"Hi, Emily."

His voice reaches my ears and I smile because I know that he is not really here. This cannot be real. He is not here. I refuse to believe it, believe my own ears and eyes. I turned around to face Noelle, and her face turned slightly red, her eyes frantically searching my face for any emotions.

"Tell me that he is not really standing there." I point to where I think I just saw him.

"Emily, your mom was going to tell you. She told me to bring you back and I assumed that she meant the house, but she meant the bakery. I got confused or maybe I just wasn't thinking clearly." She babbles on and takes a step forward. "She is on her way here, and--"

"So he is actually here." I say, my mind still refusing to actually accept that he is standing in my house.

I look back at him and find him standing motionless behind the counter with a glass of water in his hands.

"You're in my house."

It isn't like he doesn't know that he is in our house, but he is so f*cking shameless coming back here and standing in our kitchen like he is welcomed here. I am saying the words so that maybe, somehow, my mind can comprehend what I am seeing. I am trying to make sure that this isn't my mind playing tricks with me anymore. He is here and Noelle can see him too.

Oh, lord.

"I'm just here for--"

I raised my hand in the air, cutting his sentence short. I can't listen to his voice. It is just so sickening.

"You're standing in my house." I uttered sharply.

"Emily, let's just leave and wait for your mom to co--"

"We?" I asked her, "We leave? I just said that we are in my house. He should get out."

"I'll get out." His voice reappears.

I turned around and raised my hands in the air, frustrated, "Oh, and what gave you the hint?"

"There really is no need for the hostility. I wasn't planning on staying anyway." His words are one thing and his movements are another.

He is not moving. He has just said that he will leave, yet he is still standing behind the marble island.

"Jake, you should really leave." Noelle warns him like I am about to attack him or something and at the moment I really think that I just might.

"Hostility?" I almost spit the word in his face and, to my surprise, I walked closer to the kitchen island, closer to him. "You call this hostility?"

"Yes." His eyes were sharp. I hardly recognized them, but then again, when did I ever understand him? "I didn't do anything. I just wanted to see my mom."

"Then you should have f*cking called before showing up here all unannounced and--"

"Emily?" I heard Mark's voice and I felt his cool hand pull my arm back. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I breathed out and forced a smile on my face, "Everything is....just fine."

"Honey..?" My mom ran in after Mark, her eyes moving quickly between Jake and me.

"So when were you going to tell me that he was coming to visit?" I tried to stay calm, not for anyone's sake except for Mark.

"He just came today, Emily." Maria spoke up and I am not sure when she got here. It seems like everyone is just coming in consecutively.

"Yes, none of us knew that he was even coming." My mom continued.

"We were going to talk to you about this first but we didn't have the time to."

"I don't understand anything." Mark spoke up, "Did he do something to you?" Mark turned me around so that my face is towards him.

Oh, he did a lot.

"No, Mark."

"Why do you always assume I did everything?" Jake shoots at Mark.

"Maybe because she was yelling at you before I came in." He snaps back at him, "What did you do to her?"

"Mark, stop. Just because you are upset doesn't mean that you take it out on him." I circled my fingers around his wrist and pulled him with me, "Let's go."

"Emily, you don't have to go anywhere." Maria interjects, "Jake and I will leave. I will pack my bags in the morning."

"What the f*ck is going on?!" Mark had been looking for an outlet for all his bottled-up feelings and Jake is an easy target. "Did you f*cking touch her?"

"Jake." Maria calls his name loudly, "Do not answer him."

Jake zips his lips together and I can tell that he is about to burst, wanting to throw an insult or comment at Mark.

"Mark, stop." I whispered in his ear, "Wait for me outside and I will follow you right out."

"But--"

"Go on Mark."

Mark glances back one more time at Jake before he leaves.

"Well, this is definitely a pleasant surprise."