London Changed My Life

Fourteen - Meeting James

I pulled on the clothes Emma had laid out for me. The outfit consisted of a red long-sleeved shirt, light wash jeans and green and yellow socks. I padded out to the kitchen and made myself a bowl of cereal. Halfway through my breakfast the doorbell went off. I grabbed my keys, walked out, shut the door behind me, and galloped down the stairs. Galloped, as in I literally galloped down the stairs. I opened the door and saw a guy with light brown curly hair, a blue plaid shirt, jeans, and black Vans.

"Are you James?" I asked.

"Yeah...and you are?" Ew, he sounded like a douche.

"I'm Elysa, Emma's roommate."

"Oh, she didn't tell me she had a roommate. A pretty roommate, at that."

"Alright buddy, let's get a few things straight. You are not to hit on me. Emma likes you, you like Emma, you are not to hit on me. The only relationship we're going to have is a friendship. If you hit on me, I will personally knee you in the nuts so hard you will be infertile for the rest of your life. Got it?" He nodded, a scared expression on his face. "Great, we'll be great friends if you follow that simple rule. Now, a couple more rules regarding Emma. You are not to get her pregnant, unless she wants to and you're both ready. No hurting her physically. If you hurt her emotionally you better have a good reason. If not, you'll be the one hurting. If you're taking her on a date you are not allowed to wait outside in your car, or whatever. You have to come up all these stairs and knock on the door. If I'm out, you are not to leave her alone if she's drunk. Don't bring her home if I'm not home. She's not to be alone for more than 2 hours. Got it?" He nodded. "Brilliant. This way then." I lead him up the stairs and opened the door, revealing Emma wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a black leather skirt.

"Oh, I wondered where you got to. And you've got James. Please tell me you didn't embarass me."

"Um...I didn't embarass you but I laid down a few rules."

"Ugh. I hate you sometimes."

"I'm just being responsible. I'm impressing your mum, right?"

"You don't care what my mum thinks." She's got me there.

...

Emma had left to get some food from the local fish and cip shop (which is really British), which left me with time to interrogate James without her hanging around.

"So James, how did you meet Emma?"

"Um, we used to go to the same primary school. There was a reunion earlier this year and Emma was standing off to the side, not really being..social." I laughed.

"That sounds like Emma." I said.

"Yeah. So, I went up to her and we started chatting. We didn't really know each other back in year 5 so we became really great friends in that small amount of time."

"Aw, how romantic. How old are you, James?"

"I'm 20." He answered, quizzically.

"And what do you do in your free time?"

"I play video games. Or read."

"Okay. Do you have a job?"

"Yeah, I work at Starbucks."

"Ah, okay. What do you think about YouTube?"

"Um, it's pretty cool. Emma's videos are good."

"Okay. I think I've got no more questions left. I'm sorry about all this but I don't want Emma dating a dick head. She's like my sister, I don't want her getting hurt. You understand?"