Bury Us Alive | Hemlock Grove|

Chapter 3 | What Gets You |

The three old friends sit quietly at a semi-classy bar. It's as nice as a bar in the middle of Pennsylvania can get. There are men in sports jackets and most of the girls wear small black dresses. Peter would never agree to wear anything nicer than his leather jacket.

Emma sits between the two boys, growing more and more bored by the second. On her right, Peter's nursing his third beer and watching the baseball game playing on TV. To her left, Roman's scrolling through his phone doing nothing in particular. She glances around the room and see's a small group of girls staring at Peter and occasionally glancing at her.

"I think," Emma puts a hand on his shoulder and leans closer to him with a small smile. "Those girls are staring at you."

"I think they're staring at Roman," Peter shrugs her off without hesitation. He takes a long sip without even looking in their direction. Emma glance's over to the boy in reference who doesn't look up.

"Well, he's not looking back." Emma pats him on his shoulder.

"Yet," Peter scoffs. He'd still been a bit touchy since their last conversation about Miranda. She thinks his ego might be a bit bruised, which is absurd and reasonable at the same time. It hadn't been brought up again and she figured he wanted it to stay that way.

"You should go talk to one. I'll make sure Roman stays away," she encourages him. Peter finishes the rest of his drink and takes a deep breath.

"I don't remember how to talk to women."

"Like you would anyone else?"

"I don't remember how to do that either."

"Oh, come on, Peter! You're cute, you're nice! You have a... a rugged bad boy look to you. Just go say hi." Peter grimaces and then nods. She watches from the corner of his eye as he approaches the girls. She gives him a smile of encouragement.

"Hey, can I buy you a drink?" The guy sitting next to where Peter had been asks. He has quickly jumped over to the abandoned chair and leaning closer to her.

"She doesn't need you to buy her a drink," Roman snaps before she can open her mouth.

"I'm sure she doesn't, but it's the polite thing to do."

"Not interrupting us would be the polite thing to do, but that didn't stop you."

"Well, she doesn't look like she's having a good time with you," the guy counters. "Are you having a good time with him?

"I-" Emma shakes her head and tries again.

"I don't see how that's any of your concern."

"I think she can answer for herself-"

"I'm alright," Emma says loudly enough to shut him. She glares at Roman, signaling for him to back off. She turns back to the stranger with a smile. "Thank you, but I'm alright."

"Asshole," Roman says under his breath. Emma takes a deep breath and chugs down the rest of her drink.

"Alright, alright," she says, finally feeling a bit of a buzz. "You feel better now that you've gotten to let out some anger?"

"That wasn't anger," he scoffs. "It was just- just rude of him to come bother you."

"Well, it's not exactly like I'm having a great time." Roman's mouth opens to argue, but nothing comes out.

"Shit," he finally says with a chuckle. "I'm not having a great time either. This bar sucks."

"Everyone else seems to disagree. I think that it might be user error on our part." The room around them is lively and people are enjoying themselves. It was the two of them sitting glumly at the bar that stood out.