The Secrets That Tore Us Apart

1

The heavy wooden door let out a loud creaking sound as Emma pulled it towards herself as an attempt to open it. She glanced inside and realized that olnly a few people were here before her. She blinked a couple of times as realization hit her. Summer was now officially over and she was back at school for another year. 

She looked around trying to find a friendly face, but everyone she saw were either, what she assumed them to be, freshmen that she had never seen before or people she in general just passed in the hallway and never talked to.

So she gave up her search and walked in the direction of her locker. She was slightly out of breath when she reached the third floor of the large building. 

That was when she heard it. Giggles, behind a row of lockers, along with something, or someone, lightly hitting the side of the lockers. When she saw who it was she stopped in her tracks.

Jack. Her ex. The guy she had been madly in love with up until just a few months ago. Until he had ghosted her. Without an explanation.

He had his back towards her, but she would recognize that short dark brown hair and those broad shoulders anywhere.

She used slightly more force than needed to open her locker and the locker responded by making slightly more sound than it usually did.

The giggles stopped and in the corner of her eye she saw Jack's head turn towards her. The girl, that he had, up until recently, been making out and giggling with popped her head out from behind the lockers.

"Oh, hi there Emma." her friendly voice greeted Emma and Emma's head yanked in their direction.

No! It could've been anyone. Why her?

Emma's and Jack's eyes met. His were wide with surprise and Emma couldn't hide her disappointment. There, with her head popped out from behind the lockers, with Jack's hands around her, were Emma's childhood friend Jasmine. Her big brown eyes sparkled as she greeted Emma with a smile that Emma could not return.

Emma and Jasmine had grown up together. Their dads had met in college, where they became room mates and best friends. It was also where Emma's parents had met. After college the dads decided to move to the same town so they could be friends forever. Soon after the move Jasmine's dad met her mum and the two pairs had gotten pregnant during the same year. Emma and Jasmine had been very close as kids. They were each other's first best friends. But as the years went, they discovered that they weren't that alike. They had different interests. Jasmine joined the soccer team and got new friends on the team and Emma was more focused on school and she became closer with her current best friend Hannah, as her and Jasmine drifted further apart. 

And now Jasmine was standing here, cuddling and giggling with Jack. 

Emma couldn't respond to Jasmine, so instead she just grabbed her things and left the third floor of the school building without looking back.

On the first floor she noticed that, luckily, more people had arrived. One of them being Hannah.

"How was your summer?" she asked. Emma noticed that Hannah, who usually was very tan throughout they year, was now even more tan. 

Life is not fair.

"It was okay, I guess." Emma shrugged. "How was Italy?" she asked Hannah and received all the details from the trip Hannah went on with her boyfriend Nathan and his family.

"Sound's magical." Emma said longingly. 

Emma herself had been working all summer at a cafe, and had only taken one trip with her family to visit her grandma. And then she had, of course, also spent way too much time trying to get a hold of Jack, wondering why he didn't respond, and crying when she knew that it was time to stop trying.

"So, how are you feeling?" Hannah asked, referring to Jack's absence.

"I was beginning to feel a bit better, but I just ran into him and Jasmine making out by my locker"

"No!" Hannah exclaimed. "That's awful."

A single tear left Emma's eye and Hannah dragged her in for a hug. Emma was trying her best to think about anything but Jack and Jasmine, so she would not cry. Hannah was just letting go of Emma when Nathan approached them with a smile. 

"Hi Emma. How was your summer?"

Unfortunately that was it. Emma's tear ducts just opened up and the tears were out of control. Emma grabbed her bag and ran in the direction of the ladies bathroom, with Hannah running following her.  

Emma locked herself in a free stall as more tears made their way down her face. It was hard to breath. She tried to get her crying in order while ignoring Hannah pleading for her to open the door. 

The bell rang, signaling that it was time for her to get her ass over to class.

"Emma? It's just us in here now." Hannah tried. 

Emma slowly stood up and unlocked the door. Hannah pulled her in for another hug. 

When Emma had calmed down Hannah helped her clean her face, so she looked somewhat alive again and walked her to her first class, even though they passed where Hannah's first class were. 

Emma opened the door and entered the room. Class had not begun yet, but she was still the last one to enter. She looked around for an empty seat and found one. Right next to Jack.

Great.