aisle five » hemmings a.u.

thirty-five

avery is actually based off of like my internet best friend @werkniallwerk aka aves and she's super cool I told you about her story deep but she's a homewrecker throw rocks at her

DID ANYONE CATCH MY TROUBLE. REFERENCE IN THE LAST CHAPTER WITH THE CEREAL AS A COMFORT FOOD

ummm don't stop ep??? that's pretty cool right?? I don't know I really have nothing to say today so

love u

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Em's eyebrows scrunched together.

"And I'm Emma," she replied, staring at this girl in confusion. Avery smiled, standing there awkwardly, holding her elbows. "Not to be rude, but who are you? It's not really a good time . . ."

That was when Avery really looked at the sad girl. Red rimmed the edges of her bright green eyes and her nose was tinted pink from the constant crying. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was so lazily pulled up in the worst bun monstrosity you could think off, and she had some spilled pizza roll on her shirt. Em brought her knees to her chest as she stared at Avery.

The caramel hair colored girl linked her fingers together in front of her as she twiddled with her thumbs. "This is kind of a rough introduction, but I'm kind the girl that, um, your boyfriend slept with last night," she said and Emma blinked before bringing her blanket over her head and turning around. "Okay, well, you didn't tell me to leave or hit me, so that's good."

Avery looked around before running her hands through her hair.

"I, um. You're probably wondering what the hell is this whore doing here and I don't blame you," she began, "but I need to tell you some things. First off, God, don't hate me, but I didn't know Luke had a girlfriend because I've known him for a while and he never mentioned you before." Em didn't move from under her blanket. "Well, earlier, I got a phone call from Calum, do you know him?" This time, she got a muffled mhm. "Oh cool, okay. So him and Ashton kind of said a lot of things to me about me being a bad person and, well, I don't want to repeat a lot of them. So they said something about an Emma, and I was like, 'Who's Emma?' and they said Luke's girlfriend, and I feel really super bad. I know sorry isn't going to cut it, but I really needed to let you know that I'll never forgive myself for splitting you two up like I did."

Emma turned over and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders, staring blankly at her new guest. "I'm not mad at you, you didn't know," she mumbled. "I'm mad at Luke because he did."

"I went by his earlier," Avery added. Em's eyes darted towards hers and she seemed way to interested for someone who supposedly hated him at the moment. "He's just as bad as you. Ash said he won't leave his bed and he won't eat. Hardly said anything in the past twenty-four hours."

For a second, Emma looked worried, before she shrugged. "Good."

Avery thought of what might trigger Em to care about what she had to say. "If you're wondering, I got your address from Ash," she said, and Emma just shrugged again. This was difficult. "So, um, do you love him?"

Em blushed and looked away. "Yeah, I guess," she murmured, "but I should stop that, right? Because he doesn't love me?"

"No, no, no," Avery sputtered and moved to sit on the bed next to Em, which made her flinch, but didn't interject. "He loves you so much, still. He's in bed right now beating himself up because he knows he let you down." They sat in silence. "I'm gonna' get going. Just . . . If you need anything, here's my number." She pulled out a piece of paper from her pocket and handed it to Emma, who looked at it blindly.

Just as she was leaving she heard a choked sob and a, "Thank you," and then she left completely.

Emma was torn.

She so badly wanted Luke to suffer just as she was at the moment, but also she wanted to run into his arms and kiss him and tell him she loved him and cry and she needed to stop thinking these things before she lost it.

The next morning her mum forced her out of bed and told her she wanted Em to go run errands with her. She had to go to work later anyway. Robin made her breakfast and spoke on the phone with a friend as Em ate her bacon numbly despite her stomach not really wanting anything.

When finished she went upstairs and lugged on some sorts and a faded navy blue baseball tee, before sliding into her white Converse high tops.

"Em!"

She went downstairs with her phone in hand, joining her mum in the car. Robin played her daughter's favorite radio station, but she didn't sing along. All night she'd been afraid to check her messages in fright that she'd start to cry again (she'd just stopped). When they pulled up to the bank and her mum went in to do whatever, she looked through her notifications.

Luke had called fourteen times, texted literally twenty-eight, and left six voicemails for her. She decided to read the texts first, torturing herself. Then she listened to the voicemails.

"Hey, Emma. I, um, Calum made me do this and just . . . I'm so sorry. I love you," the first one said before it ended. "Shit, fuck, I'm crying. I love you, Em, and if you're ever ready to talk to me, just call me, okay?" That was basically how the rest went, too. And she didn't realize she was crying again until her mum came out and gasped.

She calmed down quickly and assured her mother she was fine as they went to their next stop. Emma went into the grocery store with her mum for this one because she needed more pizza rolls. She abandoned her mother in the vegetable section so she could get some Starbursts and Pepsi and pizza rolls and probably whatever looked good.

With her head down she went to the candle aisle and got her beloved Starbursts and then began to go to the frozen foods.

She stopped walking in shock when her green irises met a pair of blue eyes. Her breathing halted. Luke began to walk towards her but she backed away, running to the pizza rolls, but she tripped and almost went flying into a graham cracker display to the ground. He caught up with her and caught her, leaving her winded.

Em immediately backed away from his touch like it burned her skin. She stood a few feet away and he took her in. "Did you get my voicemails?" he asked, and she nodded, taking in the way his voice cracked. She also looked at his red work polo and thought of how it seemed like yesterday but felt like years that she was visiting here to see him, and it came rushing back.

"I'm sorry-" she choked before rushing to a random aisle far away from him. He followed and peeked around the corner to see her wiping her eyes and breathing heavily.

And seeing her so shattered just broke her and he wanted to hug her and kiss her and wipe her tears away and get high but.

No drug could fix this.