In This Together

Chapter Eleven

Emma ran up to Grace and placed her hand on her shoulder. Grace seemed nervous when she turned out.

"Emma, I have a lot of stuff that I need to catch up on. I'll talk to you later?" she said, probably planning to never speak to her again. Emma could tell that she was just trying to avoid her and probably had nothing that she actually needed to do.

Emma shook her head. "No, we need to talk now," she said. She looked straight into Grace's eyes. It looked as if there were tears ready to come out.

"I'm sorry. It's not that I didn't want to talk to you, I just, I don't know what's going to happen. I still have no idea whether or not you're mad and if you are, just...I'm sorry. I really am," Grace said. She seemed as if she wasn't really sure what to say.

Emma took a deep a breath.

"Look, Grace, I'm not mad, okay? It's fine. Here, come with me," she said calmly.

Grace took a deep breath and decided to follow Emma. Her hands began shaking as she walked beside her.

Emma put her hand in Grace's and looked at her. They both paused for a moment. Slowly, Grace turned her head to look at Emma. Emma looked down and then straight head before turning to look at Grace.

Finally, Grace spoke. "Emma, I'm so sorry. What I did back there at your house was just wrong. Completely, utterly and morally wrong. I just, I shouldn't've have done it and to be totally honest I really don't know what else to say. I'm just really, really, really sorry."

Emma could see how upset Grace was by all of this. There were tears in her eyes and it was evident that she was fighting with everything in her to keep them from coming out. She then wiped her eyes with her hand and began to shake her head before looking toward the ground. Softly, she said, "I'm sorry," but it was barely audible. Still, Emma responded.

Emma placed a hand on Grace's shoulder which caused her to look up. Emma tried to smile a little bit to lighten the mood.

"Hey, it's okay. It was just a kiss, and, to be honest, I didn't really mind it. Maybe I even kind of liked it..." Emma said trailing off. She was traveling into uncharted territory and she knew it. Saying that could be the biggest mistake that she'd ever made.

Grace was taken aback by this. Maybe she should have figured it out based upon the fact that Emma didn't take her hand off of Grace's that night, but she still felt surprised. "Does Emma feel the same way?" she thought. She tried to stop because she didn't want to think about it. She didn't want a chance with Emma because nothing between them could ever happen and she knew it.

Grace nodded. "Yeah. Um...so did I. I mean, just maybe a little. But that doesn't matter. We can't do this, regardless of how either of us feel. I mean, like, two girls..." she shook her head, "that's just not right."

"Says who? You know what? I'm tired of hiding this. I'm tired of having to feel ashamed of who I like. Grace, I like you. I like you a lot and I shouldn't have to feel bad about liking someone as amazing as you," Emma said. She didn't raise her voice much, but it was clear that she had had it. Emma shook her head. "I'm sorry. Just forget about it..."

Grace looked at Emma with surprise in her eyes. She wondered if Emma had known all this time.

"Wait, did you already know that you were ..., um, you know...? Are you..." Grace said trailing off. She didn't want to say the word but Emma knew what she meant. It couldn't have been clearer.

"I don't know. Would it be cheesy to say that it's complicated?" Emma said. It was in part a failed attempt at lightening the mood. Despite this, nothing could quite relieve them of their tension.

Grace shook her head. "No. It's okay. It's the same way for me, but it wasn't until..." She remained silent for a moment.

Both of the girls just wanted to escape that moment.

"Until what?" Emma asked, breaking the silence.

"Until you," Grace responded. There were no pauses. There was no trailing off or changes of pitch in her voice. She was surprisingly calm. The words just slipped out smoothly and easily. Until her. Until Emma.