Love & Football

Chapter 9

:: JJ’s POV ::

It had now been eleven days since I had spoken to Emma, eleven days since I’ve been trying to find out what was wrong. What I did… what I didn’t do. Without her speaking to me, I had no way of even knowing. I had been so angry at the idea of someone hurting her, little had I known it was me that was making her feel that way. I hated it.

I was on my way home from practice when I decided I was going to stop by the boutique, if Emma was there, maybe she would talk to me. If she wasn’t maybe Tonya would be, if she could help me find out what I did wrong, I would know how to fix it. I wanted to fix it. It was killing me.

I pulled up in front of the shop; I sat there just staring at it for a moment. I was trying to figure out what I was going to say, what I was going to do. I mean I had no real plan other than to get to the bottom of what was going on. To find out what this battle was I was fighting, because right now I had no idea. This wasn’t like me, I had never been in this kind of situation, and I had never felt this way before. I had never wanted to fight so hard for a girl in my life; it was frightening and exhilarating all at the same time.

I let out a sigh as I opened my car door and got out. I looked at the shop once more, almost as if I had to keep making sure I was going into the right place. I dropped my keys into the pocket of my sweats and walked towards the entrance, once again mentally going over what my actual goal was here. I just needed to make sure I left with the answers I needed.

I pulled the door open to find the store relatively quiet. After all, it was about six o’ clock on a Friday night, I had imagined most people with plans may have already come and gone from the shopping. What did I know? I could be wrong. Hell, I don’t even have a social life at this point so I had nothing to judge that off of.

“Can I help you?

I looked to see Tonya, her head down as she worked at untangling a knotted mess that I had assumed was supposed to be several different necklaces. A brief silence fell over the store for a moment; I had gotten distracted by her determination to untangle the mess before her that I must have forgotten to speak.

“JJ.” Her voice sounded surprised as she looked up from the task before her, “Emma’s not here. She had to step out for a moment.”

I almost felt relief at those words. Don’t get me wrong, I wanted to see Emma more than anything, but what I wanted most was to fight for her. In order to do that I needed to know what the hell dragon I was going to have to slay to accomplish that.

“Actually, I’d like to talk to you.” I walked toward the counter she was at, hoping she’d be willing to help me.

“What can I help you with?” She pushed her necklaces to the side as she looked up at me, “Emma?”

I nodded, “Please.”

She smiled sympathetically at me. I couldn’t help but think I must have looked desperate. I must have sounded desperate. I guess I didn’t care, if I got answers it would be worth it.

“What about her?” She asked.

I shrugged, “Let’s start with why she’s so mad at me. I’ve tried asking her for nearly two weeks and I’ve gotten nothing in response.”

Tonya bobbed her head at the words that came out of my mouth; it seemed as if she had already known my attempts to contact Emma. Well, as Emma’s best friend I would imagine that Emma had shared these things with her. Girls were different than guys. They shared everything. Everything.

“Emma saw an interview you had done…”

“An interview?”  I was sure the question in my voice was palpable.