Over the Edge

Ch.24-Somewhere Only We Know

~Rhys~

How did I end up in a booth next to the girl who had avoided me for three days and across from the one couple I absolutely couldn’t stand, you might ask?

I wasn’t even sure myself.

After Emma had run out of my house and left me standing in my room like an idiot, I realized a lot of things. Investing faith in others was tiring, caring about others was exhausting, and trying to help Emma?

Pointless. She seemed hell-bent on forever thinking the world was out to get her.

It didn’t help any that Judy had been the one to come upstairs and ask what happened. As if she had the right to snoop around in my life. It ended in a semi-loud argument that I was sure didn’t make sense, and me shutting the door loudly and turned up my music again. I had stared at the rumpled blankets of the bed and the dropped bag of peas for a good twenty minutes, the presence of the room feeling different without Emma helping to fill it. It aggravated me to no end how much it hurt that she had just run out, and because such a stupid thing hurt I got pissed off.

And then over the rest of the week, the same girl that had begged and pleaded down on her knees (okay, not really, she stayed standing) for friendship was skirting around me like I had the frickin’ plague.

And you know who realized this? Yup. Mr. Matthews. And of course he had to comment on it.

“How’s the project going?” he had asked.

“Swell,” I had answered snottily. Needless to say it hadn’t been the best of days.

“Are you nearing the end?”

“No, Mr. Matthews,” I had retorted. I didn’t care if he knew the truth and as angry as I was he was getting it anyway. “We’re not. You know why? Because you stuck me with some fucking emotional ticking time bomb who would rather eat her own foot than have anybody knowing a single fucking thing about her. So thanks, you know, for ultimately setting us up for failure.”

His eyebrows had risen, and I wanted to peel them off his face. He always looked so damn amused when he spoke to me. “It’s going well, then?”

And at that I had stormed away, unable to deal with anymore of our insane English teacher.

One thing led to another—I was sure there were a few lies and half-truths mixed in—and then suddenly I was at Jake's Shakes, looking for any opportunity to get the hell out.

“So how is your project going?” Rose asked. She had her and Luke’s interwoven hands resting on the tabletop and I scowled down at it. Yes, we knew they were the fucking happiest couple around but they didn’t have to keep shoving the fact that Mr. Matthews had been flawless on their partner pairing down everybody’s throats.

“Wonderful,” I replied flatly when it was clear Emma was going to say nothing. In fact, she appeared to not want to be there more than me. Evidently some coercing led to this gathering taking place. Whoever’s idea it was would be getting a nice visit from my fist and quite possible my boot as well.

 “That’s good!” she exclaimed, completely missing my dying need for her to shut up. “Luke and I are finished already, if you can believe it.”

“That’s brilliant,” I deadpanned. I could feel Luke’s eyes on me.

“Babe, why don’t you go take Emma and get us all some drinks and a basket of fries?” Luke suggested, handing her a twenty. Rose shrugged.

“Sure thing,” she replied, pecking him on the cheek before gesturing to Emma to join her. The girl did, albeit plainly reluctantly.

I grabbed sugar packets from the holder off to the side and began slowly tearing the corners off, the small crystals spilling out onto the plastic covering of the table.