The Book of Emma Brown

Chapter 7

After a couple of hours, Emma had set up the sleeping bag tucked away in the closet on the floor. She figured if her parents came in during the night, she wouldn't want them to see a teenage boy sleeping on her floor. So the closet would have to do. But Alex was hanging out on the floor of the bedroom, for the time being, flipping through an old comic Emma had laying around.

Emma was sitting at her desk, focusing intently on her homework. The house was quiet and all was still. Outside, the street lamps had just turned on and the crickets began chirping. The darkness seemed to seep through the curtains and countered the string of lights along the edge of Emma's bed above her desk. She had always wanted a two-in-one-bed-and-desk that had a ladder up to her bed above her working space. But when she put it all together, she was slightly disappointed that she couldn't stare out the window as much than her old room arrangement. But she guessed it was all for the best.

A small lamp emitted light onto her paper and along the wall. After a couple moments of silence, Alex set down the comic book at looked at Emma. She didn't notice his thousand yard stare at her until he began looking at the details of the room.

"It's so weird being here." He said to her, even if she wasn't listening.

"What do you mean?" She looked up from her math problem.

"Like, being here. In this room." He paused and looked around again. I remember reading about it, trying to picture it in my head. But now that I'm in here....it's much different than I expected."

Emma laughed. Alex stood up and pointed to the door. "See I thought the door was closer to the window, right, and this poster here, I thought it had different colors. I thought it was pink and green, not lady bug red and forest green."

Emma laughed even harder. "I guess you could call that 'lady bug red.'"

Alex continued pointing out things around her room which made Emma laugh more and more. She was partially laughing at how silly he sounded, and partially at how crazy the whole situation was. "And over here, I remember reading about the string of lights along your bed." He said. "And how you've always wanted a bed that's above your desk and how you always thought about changing it back to look out the window more. Cause you're such a day dreamer." Alex looked at a smiling Emma. "You know, there's a disorder for that. It's called Maladaptive Daydreaming Disorder. It's a real thing." Alex noted. His voice was smooth in his sarcastic tone as he continued to analyze the rest of the room. "Plus, it smells like a book store. Ever since I got sucked into this book I've been smelling books. I feel like I'm just sucking in paper." Emma giggled and rose from her desk to gallop over to Alex in the middle of her room.

"There you go again." Emma gleefully looked into Alex's gaze.

"What did I do?" Alex smirked.

"Saying those nonsense things about how you know everything about me. But I'm starting to get used to it." Emma giggled.

Alex laughed along with her. "Well, maybe they're not so nonsense after all."

They stood there for a moment in the middle of Emma's room. Her bare feet plastered to the wood floor, and his mix-matched socks so close to her toes. He looked down at her, smiling brilliantly and thinking.  It seemed almost as they were frozen in time together. Emma felt lost in his gaze. It was a good lost, though, like being lost on purpose. After a moment there was a knock at the door.

"Emma! Emma who are you talking to?" A deep and confused voice sounded behind the muffled door.

 Emma cursed. "It's my father!" She whispered in an urgent tone and grabbed Alex by the arms. She shoved him inside the closet and closed the door. Another knock sounded.

"Coming!" Emma yelled and reached for the door. She hesitated, grabbed her cell phone, then opened the door. Her father stood there looking at her with the same dull green eyes as Emma. He had a ginger beard and a receding hairline. He had a wrinkled and overworked airy blue shirt on with stark black pants. He was taller and seemed like a boulder compared to Emma. He was a wall next to her.

"Sorry, Dad, I was just talking to someone. They needed help with English." She held up her cell phone and waved it around slightly in the air.

"Oh, no problem. I'm just glad my baby girl is so smart!" He smiled at her. Whew I'm glad that little trick worked.

"Daaaaaaaaad." She complained and rolled her eyes, but then added a laugh at the end.

"So how was school, Strawberry?"

Emma mentally rolled her eyes but smiled. "Good, I uh, made a new friend." She said as she took her seat at her desk again.

"Really? What's her name?"

"Uh, Alexis." Emma's heart raced. Where was this conversation even going?

"Oh. Is she nice?"

She hesitated. "Yeah." Emma simply stated, and smiled a little. She thought back to his hazel eyes again. Quickly, she brushed the thoughts away.

"Well that's good." Her father snapped her out of her little trace and she smiled back at him.

"How was work?" She urgently changed the topic and stared down at the floor again.

"Good, you know, I've got a lot of stuff to catch up on but my project is going well."

"Mm. That's good." Emma nodded.

They spoke for a little while longer in her room. Emma couldn't help but keep thinking back to the pair of eyes probably staring at her as she spoke. She hoped Alex wouldn't move a muscle until her dad left, or she would be in trouble bigger than the book she's in.

"Well, I've got to get some later dinner. I'll see you later, Strawberry." He kissed her atop the head and ruffled her hair afterward. Emma squeezed her eyes shut and shrunk down at his hand disturbing the flow of her lava hair.

Her dad shut the door and Emma listened to the footsteps diminish down the hall.

Emma sighed as her closet door creaked open. She looked at Alex peering through the door.

"Strawberry?" He questioned slyly and began exiting the closet.

"Shut up!" Emma teased and laughed. She rolled back to her desk and continued working.