36. Chapter 36
Chapter 36
Riley
Matt
I’m leaving for the night. Your sister is really upset. I don’t know where you are, but you need to come home and take care of her.
Make sure she knows I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to give her some space until she is ready to talk to me, but I’m not going anywhere.
Emery
What did you do to my sister? Is this about Christmas?
I shouldn’t have pushed you to push her.
I can’t believe I’m such a screw up that I ruined my sister’s relationship too.
Matt
You Harrison women really need to stop saying stuff like that about yourselves.
She’s going to be mad at you too. Please don’t let her push you away.
Emery exploded through the front door within minutes of Matt leaving. Her hair was a disaster with the small clips on each side barely holding on. Her cardigan was on inside out and her skirt twisted. She threw her arms around me whacking me in the side with her purse and pushing the rolls of wrapping paper I held into my face.
“Oh my god, Emery, what are you doing?” I leaned back to avoid having the cardboard tubes shoved into my nose.
She dropped her arms and slung her purse onto the coffee table. “I’m sorry. I’m such an idiot.” Her hands waved around in the air as words rushed out of her. “You told me to stop meddling, but I can’t help myself. Watching you two dance around each other like this is driving me insane.”
The tape in my hand fell to the ground. “Matt told you?”
She bit her lip and nodded as she bent over to dig through her purse. “Go ahead and say whatever you need to say to me, I deserve it.” She whipped around to shove her phone at me. “Here you can read our messages. Matt told me to stop. None of this is his fault.”
I dropped the armful of stuff I held, pressing a hand against her phone to force it back toward her. “Emery, I don’t need to read your messages with him.”
She caught my hand and slapped her phone against my palm. “Yes, you do. You need to see what he says about you. Ri, he loves you so much and all he wants is for you to be happy. He texted me to come home and make sure you were okay tonight.”
I crossed my arms across my chest and furrowed my brows at Emery, taking in her disheveled appearance. There was a hickey blooming on her throat and beard burn across her collarbone barely visible because of her tattoos. “So, you stuck your nose in my business until you caused a fight between the two of us and then rushed home while you’re in the middle of a hookup to do what?” My face was hot, my chest tight, and I could feel my blood pounding in my ears. I pointed a finger at her with my arms still crossed tight. “I don’t need you trying to get in the middle of things any more than you already are.”
“I know that. Okay? I know that.” She dropped her shoulders. “Tell me what you need. Tell me how to fix this.”
I took a deep breath and let it out slowly, focusing on the feel of the air moving through me. “I need to figure out how to stop being so scared.”
Emery planted her hands on my shoulders and steered me to the couch. She tossed a blanket over my lap and disappeared into my room, returning with my journal and a pen. She laid them on my lap just as the phone in my hand buzzed. I forgot it was hers and glanced at the screen. A text message from Oliver lit up the screen.
Emery yanked it from my hand. “Riley, you’re not ever going to stop being scared if all you think about is how scared you are. You have to face it. Rip the band aid off and see what happens. The longer you leave it on the harder it’s going to be.”
“Is the hickey from Oliver?” If she was going to keep meddling in my life, then as far as I was concerned, I had every right to do the same.
“We’re not talking about that right now.” She pulled her cardigan up around her neck and tapped the journal in my lap.
“I think we should absolutely talk about it right now.” I picked up the pen. “Matt told me you hurt him pretty bad last time.”
“Nothing is going on between me and Oliver.” She spun on her heel and marched to her bedroom.
“Is that where you keep disappearing to?” I yelled after her. She was never home anymore and never told me where she was going. I pulled my phone from my pocket and laid it on my lap next to the journal. I spent a few minutes tapping the pen against the cover of the journal while I stared at the dark screen of my phone. It felt like hours had passed when it lit up with a message from Matt, but it had only been a few minutes.
Hot Nerd 3
Hi, sweetheart, I made it home. Get some sleep, okay? I promise I’m still not going anywhere.
I could feel the unwritten I love you. I could hear him saying it as I opened my journal and poured my heart out.