Chapter 3: Emma
Emma……
The Emma who was the first one to welcomed him in the neighborhood. The Emma who took pictures with him secretly during their biology class. He still treasures those pictures in his biology notebooks.
Yes, she is the girl whom he had his first crush on when she smiled at him on the day he and his parents moved to the house beside their house, the girl who unknowingly stole his heart on his 15th birthday when she smiled and hugged him for a present explaining that she spent all her allowance for her project. He accepted it and treasured every moment with her after then. The day his grandfather died, he didn’t cry in front of everybody because his grandfather asked him not to. But after the burial, she saw through his façade. She was there at his house, at his room, hugging him tightly until he cried himself in her arms. After that they fell asleep on his couch with his head on her shoulders. She must have ached all over the next morning but she didn’t complain when she woke up and saw him staring at her. She just smiled at him and told him that everything will be alright.
She was his first heartbreak. Even though he and Emma didn’t become a “thing”, she was still able to break his heart. It was the day he asked her how to tell a girl that he was in love in her. He gave her the reason that he likes someone but he doesn’t know how to tell her. She asked him who that someone was but he just gave her a shrug. She said that he better ask Rico or Matt about it because she is a girl and she doesn’t know how boys do it. He accepted her explanation but the way she said it made him realized she was upset. The problem was that he didn’t know what had upset her and he didn’t dare ask her. After that conversation, she started to be distant to him. She didn’t smile at him the way she used to and avoided eye contact with him whenever possible. That’s how she broke his heart.
The day his parents broke the news that they will move to America, he had been angry at his parents but didn’t voice out his complaints because he knew that he couldn’t change his parents plan. The first thing he had done was that he pretended to be happy in front of his friends, especially Emma. He told them the news the day before he flies to America and the faces that confronted him can’t be painted. Shock, sadness and some of them had anger in their faces but only Emma’s face mattered the most. He saw shock in her face then sadness followed. She was 15 then and he was 16. They were much closer. He wanted to cry but he held himself back and promised them he would be back. He saw relief replaced the expressions in their faces. They talked a little and soon they were all back to what they were before. Only the happiness seems to be limited since they knew that tomorrow Daniel would go. Emma perked up a bit as Rico and Matt teased her then Daniel followed what they’re doing just to see her happy again.
At the end of the day, when it was time for them to go home, they each stood up and hugged Daniel, except for Emma. She just sat there and stared at the floor. Vanessa told her that they have to go but Emma didn’t stand, she just shook her head and covered her face with her hands. Vanessa and Nicole quickly sat down on the couch, each sat on each side of Emma. Emma’s shoulders shook with each sob and that’s when Daniel volunteered to take Emma himself. After they had left, he sat down beside her and hugged her.
“Hey,” he whispered in her ears. “Why are you crying?”
With that, she cried even harder.
He hugged her tightly. “Please don’t cry.”
She looked up with a tear-streaked face and trembling lips. He wanted to kiss her that night but he knew that if he does that, there will be more than a cold shoulder from her to face when he will get back from America. He let his arms fell to his side.
“I’m sorry, I never intended to do that. It’s just – I, I…” Emma stammered she cast her head down so she was staring at the floor again.
“Come on, tell me”, he urged.
“It’s just that I will miss you. I’m sorry I seem to be distant after that night and I don’t know why I did that and I….” she didn’t finished and then she burst into tears again.
He told her to smile and he will not go if he can’t see her smile. Emma tried to smile but it came out wobbly. Daniel accepted it and again she burst into tears. Emma cried to sleep in his arms that night and when he felt her relaxed, he lifted her up and laid her on his bed but when he started to pull his hand out from beneath her, she stirred and held tightly to his arm. He sat beside her in the bed and slept sitting. The next morning, he woke while Emma was still sleeping. He pulled his arm from her grasp, kiss her hair, bathed, changed and the next thing he knew, he was in an airplane seat beside the window with his parents.
His life in America was different. He had no friends but when he met Noel, the most popular girl in the campus, he thought it would change. Of course, it changed. He had many friends and his name started to get popular in the campus. For a moment, he was glad that he met Noel and the only way he knew he can repay her was court her. It seemed that that was what she wanted. He became her boyfriend and became the most popular boy in the campus.
He knew that he had everything he wanted, popularity, friends and a girlfriend. But…..
But there were something else deep inside him that’s still lacking. And then he realized it was the biggest part of his life. The half of it was what he left in London, his school, his aunt and his grandma. The other half was his friends; Rico, Matt, Christine, Hadey, Nicole, Vanessa and most of all, the one who stole his heart, Emma.
He broke up with Noel earlier and all he has to do was go back to London. Now, he will do that. And he definitely will get revenge to the one who stole his heart. Revenge by stealing her heart as well.
