Lonely Hearts

Chapter twenty-two: Emma

I read it twice, anger burning through my veins. How dare she? How dare she? I trusted her. I thought she could maybe understand. I thought she was sympathetic. But no, she just wanted to mess with me. Just like everyone else.

Tears pricked my eyes and I slammed the laptop shut before throwing myself onto my bed and brushing away the tears angrily. This is what I get for trying to trust someone. Hadn't I learnt by now? The only person I could trust was my sister. Everyone else could go to hell.

~*~

I ignored her messages and calls and instead played games with Max until there was a knock on the door. I allowed Louis to answer it, taking another block.

"I win!" Max said as the Jenga tower fell down.

"Emma, someone to see you." Louis said, re-entering the room.

I looked up to see Linda and childishly ignored her, helping Max collect all the blocks whilst Louis sighed and apologised to her.

"Emma." He stressed my name.

"I don't want to talk to her." I replied.

"Emma." He sighed, as if he was reprimanding a toddler.

"Why not?" She asked.

"You know why."

She looked at me, bewildered but Louis's voice had my attention.

"You will talk to her and explain why you're giving her the cold shoulder." Louis said. "That is not the way we treat people in our house."

I shot him a withering look and paused at his stern expression.

"Emma." He broke my name down and I sighed, standing up and leaving the room. Expecting her to follow.

"Why are you mad at me?" She asked, once we were outside. I spun around to scowl at her.

"Do you think you're funny?" I asked, instead.

"What's the matter?" She still sounded bewildered and anger made me clench my fists.

"How did you find my page?" I asked. "Did you enjoy writing that little message? Trying to get my hopes up?"

She blinked.

"Listen why don't you calm down and tell me what you think I've done." She said, calmly.

Anger bubbled but I stilled it, allowing her words to sink in.

"Someone wrote me a message saying they were my brother and they wanted to talk to me." I managed.

"What page are you talking about?" She asked.

"MyWritingApp." I said.

I was starting to feel bad about jumping to conclusions but it was easier to be mad at her than admit I'd made a mistake.

"Never heard of it." She told me.

"Yeah right." I said, scornfully.

"It wasn't!" She yelled and I stopped in surprise.

She watched me with a genuine look of confusion.

"It really wasn't you?" I asked, my eyes narrowing in suspicion.

"Why would I do something like that?" She asked.

"I don't know. To mess with me. To give me false hope." I gave her all the excuses I had come up with in my head, when I accused her of the crime. But even to me they sounded weak and pathetic.

"Why would I want to hurt one of my closest friends like that?" She asked. "I don't have many friends, Emma. And I may not know much about having friends but I do know that if you want to keep them around, you don't hurt them that way."