"You built a city all in your head. Built high walls so no one could break them down. I'm here to tell you that I'm breaking them down because I love you, Emile."
اوووه! هذه الصورة لا تتبع إرشادات المحتوى الخاصة بنا. لمتابعة النشر، يرجى إزالتها أو تحميل صورة أخرى.
Emile and Luke had grown so much closer in the past few weeks. They were together almost every minute of everyday. Reyna would give the pair a look whenever Luke came over. She knew they were developing feelings but they didn't know it just yet.
They had a special friendship and it meant a lot to the both of them. But Luke had been acting strange. Emile ignored it at first but as time went on, she couldn't do it anymore.
She noticed little things about his behavior. How small things would set him off and make him irritated.
Emile didn't know what to think of it.
----
Emile was sitting in her bedroom, doing some of her homework when there was a knock at her door.
"Em?" Reyna stood outside her door with her arms crossed across her chest. Aunt Steph right behind her.
"Hey. What's up?" Emile looked up from her calculus packet and turned her head toward Reyna and her aunt.
"We're gonna order pizza for dinner tonight if that's good with you. What am I even saying? You never have a problem with eating pizza," Reyna gave her daughter a small smile with a humor filled laugh.
"Pizza sounds good. I'll be down in a few I just have some homework to finish up."
"No rush kid. I love you."
"Love you too."
All Emile wanted to was sleep. Her brain was beyond exahusted and she had been studying for hours now.
'A few more problems and then I'm finished. Then I can die in peace.' Emile thought sarcastically to herself.
----
Emile did doze off. She had slept for almost three hours. Reyna had to come check on her when there was no answer when she called.
Reyna pushed open her daughter's bedroom door open and creeped inside. Tip-toeing to the side of her bed, Reyna shook Emile's shoulder.
"Wake up babe," She shifted in her blankets and the calculus papers rustled, but she remained asleep.
"You made me do this," Reyna jumped on Emile's bed and shouted.
"Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!" She yelled.
"Okay okay! I'm awake," Emile reluctantly opened her sensitive eyes that needed to adjust to the light coming through her curtains.
"Why'd you have to wake me up?"
"Pizza is here. And you have a visitor."
----
"Leah hey! What are you doing here?" Emile came downstairs to see Luke's younger sister.
"Luke wanted to see what you were up to. He said you weren't answering your phone so he sent me," She always had a perky attitude and a certain glow around her that just made her so likable.
"Well you can tell him I fell asleep and if he wants to see me then he can come over."
"I'll make sure he knows. Hey, has he been acting strange lately?" She looked at Emile with a curious look in her eyes as she awaited for her answer.
"Strange how?"
"Has his behavior been off to you?" She pushed for an answer from the smaller blonde girl.
"I guess he has. Does he have anger issues?"
"He does," She confirmed. "That's why I'm asking. I wanted to make sure he hasn't done anything rash."
Emile thought back to her time with Luke. There was a time when they were hanging out and grabbing a bite to eat. Emile was waiting for her food while Luke searched for a table.
Another guy had struck up a conversation with her and had asked for her phone number. She thought he was cute so she gave it to him.
Luke, however, wasn't a huge fan of the guy. He had come up to the two, who were having an innocent conversation in the middle of a burger joint. Luke tried to scare the guy off by saying he was Emile's boyfriend but she had quickly denied it.
She told the guy, Logan, that they were just close friends and he was being overprotective. When Logan tried to get her number again, Luke got angry and punched Logan in the jaw. They all got kicked out of the place before they were able to eat, all thanks to Luke and his behavior.
"He gets angry whenever another guy tries to talk to me. It makes me worried to see him like that."
"Emile... I think I need to tell you something."
----
"You might want to sit down for this," Leah motioned for the both of them to sit in the living room of Emile's apartment.
"What do you need to tell me? You're starting to worry me a little bit here, Leah."
"Before we moved here, Luke was reckless. Very reckless. He did things that would get him into a lot of trouble. Our moms had to bail him out of jail a couple of times because of his behavior. We moved around a ton because of him. We were ashamed to be seen with him and our moms didn't know what to do to help him get better.
We made him go to the doctor and they diagnosed him with schizophrenia. They said he was only going to get worse," She paused and took a deep breath. She looked torn, as if she didn't know whether she could continue or not.
"He was accused of murder you know? This girl he was dating ended up dead at the bottom of a lake in Ann Arbor. Everyone in town thought he killed her. He was the last person to see her that night."
"You don't believe he did it, do you?" Emile was concerned as she asked Leah.
"Of course not. But when Luke gets angry, bad things happen to those around him."
The two were silent for a while. Both thinking of what could happen... of what did happen.
"I'm sorry you had to hear this from me. Luke should have been the one to tell you all of this. I feel like I betrayed my own brother," Emile put her hand on Leah's shoulder and looked at her sympathetically.
"I'm glad you told me. I know what to expect now," Leah looked back up at the smaller girl.
"He seems different with you. He seems content, actually," Leah's words took Emile by surprise.
"Content?" She questioned.
"He just seems better when he's with you," She elaborated. "Maybe you can be the one to fix his cold heart."
