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EMERSON'S MOTHER WASN'T AT all suspicious of his behavior on the morning of September 7th, infact, Emerson could tell she was overjoyed that he had even decided to speak to her. It had been a torturous week of tension at family meal times ever since Emerson brought Hollywood Arts up, which meant that he hadn't talked to his parents much. In place of giggling with his father about his mother's rambled reviews of mediocre Netflix originals at dinner, there was a symphony of forks clinking against plates. And nothing else.
Emerson knew it hurt his parents to not share as adamantly as he had before, so he decided if he was going to break their hearts and then potentially get thrown to the wolves for blatantly disobeying them; he'd humor his mother with his Thursday plans.
A half baked version of the true plans, but plans he shared over the morning tea anyways.
Laura sipped her tea, "So you're going to soccer and then... " , she waited for Emerson to finish, egging him on as much as she could.
Emerson hummed, this part of the truth was gentler, less likely to send her and his father into a frenzy. "Dance with Miss Quinn." Emerson responded conversationally, 'M probably gonna get coffee with Briar after."
He was trying to make a human out of his skeletal lie, filling it with muscles of truth to hide the real reason he was hanging out with the Quinn family. Briar's mother, Bianca, once she found out that Emerson had disobeyed his parents, lectured him before her resolve turned into a supporting one. She would drive him to the audition and keep his parents busy for the afternoon.
"Actually, Bianca called me this morning! She wants to catch up. How sweet of her," The last bit was murmured, as if Laura was talking to herself.
Emerson grinned, Miss Quinn had kept her promise. Not that Emerson felt it was much of a bother to her, he knew that his and Briar's parents were close friends. But Emerson also knew that Miss Quinn hated lying, even more than he did.
"That'll be fun. You should tell her about that new show you watched," Emerson mentioned offhandedly.
Laura's eyes widened over the rim of her bulky tea mug that Emerson had bought her as a gag gift. She began with a huff, "God, I don't understand why Netflix keeps giving jobs to pretentious white men when there are perfectly good women of color who are just as talented..."
Emerson leaned forward, stirring his tea with a large grin on his face.
Then, as his mother explained why she thought Netflix needed to invest more money into better quality stories, things were as normal as they could be.
Even in Emerson's living lie.
☆☆☆
"YOUR MOTHER IS GOING to kill me Emerson." Miss Quinn muttered as she pulled into the Hollywood Arts guest parking lot.
