Chapter 3

*Back at School*

It was between classes again and Damian and Emma had some time to spare, so they went to their usual spot under the shade of a tree. Damian lied down but he had to remind himself to not lay his head in Emma's lap. Doing that surely wouldn't help him get over her. It felt awkward for him and Emma must've felt the same way, because she called him out on it.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"What are you talking about?" Damian questioned back.

"You've been quieter than usual," Emma explained. Damian shrugged.

"I'm just tired," he said casually. Emma leaned over and began to massage his head like she usually did. Although he felt like he was in Heaven, Damian knew it had to stop. He gently grabbed her hands and put them back to her sides.

"I'm not really in the mood for that right now," he said.

"Oh…," Emma trailed. An awkward silence ensued and neither of them knew what to do. Emma was trying to figure out if she had done something wrong recently.

"Damian, what's wrong?" Emma asked. "You're not being your usual self. You know you can tell me anything, right?"

"It's nothing serious," he said. "Don't worry about it."

"If it was 'nothing serious', you wouldn't have been straight up ignoring me earlier," Emma told him. "What's wrong?"

"I said it's nothing," Damian repeated.

"Stop saying that," Emma argued. "There's something clearly wrong."

"No, there isn't."

"Yes, there is."

"Can you stop bothering me about this?"

"If it's nothing, it wouldn't bother you."

"Okay, now you're just acting dumb."

"I'm 'acting' concerned, Damian," Emma said firmly. "You're my best friend. Why would I ignore something when I can clearly see something is bothering you?"

The word 'friend' stung Damian hard. It was basically a slap to the face.

"Just drop it," he commanded. "No, I won't, "Emma pressed. "I'm trying to help you. You're clearly irritated."

Damian sat up, annoyed with himself -and a little at Emma too- at that moment. "Maybe I don't want your help!" he shouted. "You keep saying you want to help what's bothering me! Well, now you're bothering me, so worry about yourself!"

Emma recoiled back, hurt by her best friend's outburst. She crossed her arms and looked the other way. They both had their backs to each other but secretly wished they could just talk it out like normal. On the other hand, no one wanted to back down and say 'sorry'. Emma felt her phone chime. It was an alarm to let her know that her next class would soon be starting. She took one final glance at Damian, but he still had his back to her. She sighed, gathered her things, and walked away.

...

Damian eventually got up and started to go to class.

"Hey, I saw you and Emma arguing." He turned to see one of his classmates, Brenda.

"Yeah? So what?" Damian asked.

"So… why were you arguing?" Brenda asked.

"None of your business, so go away," Damian said coldly. "Why are you even talking to me anyway? We're not friends."

"Look, I know you're in a bad mood, but you don't need to take it out on me, okay?" Brenda said, offended. "I was just trying to be a good person." She walked away and Damian only rolled his eyes.

…

Days later, Damian was still in a sour mood. It was hard for him to ignore his feelings for Emma. No one could replace her. However, trying to prevent more obvious feelings from showing up was especially difficult. He had tried too many things to keep himself under control. He tried not to be alone with her. He tried not to touch her as much. He even tried to not answer the phone as many times as he usually did, and it broke his heart to hear it ring so many times before going to voicemail. But it all had a purpose. The more distance he created, the faster and easier it would be to get over Emma.

Meanwhile, with Emma, she was doing everything she could to talk to Damian, but they seemed to never have time for each other. He didn't pick up the phone as much anymore, he didn't share whispered conversations and class, and he didn't even meet her at their usual tree anymore. She decided to get serious. Damian couldn't avoid her forever, could he?

…

Damian was lounging around in his dorm room when he heard knocking at his door. He opened it to see Emma.

"What are you doing here, Em?" he asked.

"Can't a girl visit her friends at least every once in a while?" she said nicely. "Can I come in?" Damian seemed to contemplate his decision, but he allowed her in. Emma sat on his couch and handed him a bag she brought with her.

"Go ahead and open it," Emma said with a smile.

Damian took out the contents of the bag and saw a new video game that came out, a jersey with the name and number of his favorite football player on it, a container of hot wings, and a soda. Emma waited for his reaction, but Damian seemed frozen in place.

In his mind, Damian was ecstatic. Emma was the definition of girlfriend material. She knew everything about him, and he loved her for it. But at the moment, he hated the timing. He was still trying to get over her, and her perfect gifts didn't help. He hated how she had this control over him. He was trying to walk away, but Emma could easily pull him back whenever she wanted him.

"Look, Emma, you can keep all of this," Damian said, putting everything back in the bad.

"What do you mean?" she asked, shocked. "I got all of that for you."

"And I said to keep it," Damian repeated. "Can you go? I can't deal with this right now."

"What did I do wrong?" Emma asked. "Nothing, I just can't do this right now," he said. "Please, just go." "This isn't fair!" Emma complained. "Why am I the only one trying to save this friendship? What is wrong with you?"

"There's nothing wrong with me! Stop saying that!", Damian said, raising his voice. "I only asked you to leave!"

"But why?" Emma asked. "I just don't want to see you right now!" he shouted. "Why can't you just understand that and go?"

"I've been extra nice to you lately and all you've done is treat me like crap!" Emma told him angrily. "If that's how you want it, then fine!"

Emma walked out of Damian's room and slammed the door. He sat back on the couch. He was frustrated with himself and with Emma. Why did he have to fall for her? Why couldn't he just get over her like any other girl? Why did she have to be so perfect? He hated yelling at her like that. They've never argued like that before. They'd have their usual, playful arguments that didn't mean anything, but it never got this intense. Damian scanned his brain, trying to figure out an idea for what to do. He wanted to get over his feelings for Emma, not make her hate him.

…

"Bro, I heard what you said to Emma," Kyle said one day while he and Damian were walking to class. "That was not cool at all."

"You're acting like I don't know that," Damian muttered.

"That's because you're acting like you don't care," Kyle insisted. "I said to get over her, not treat her like enemy number one."

"I didn't do that," Damian refuted.

"Oh, yeah?" Kyle challenged. "That's not what I heard from Emma, Brianna, or all of the other students that heard you yelling at her. We live in a freaking dorm for God's sake! Everyone heard you!"

Damian stopped in his tracks. He hadn't thought about that. He almost slapped himself in the face for being an idiot.

"Did you ever stop to think about how she felt?" Kyle asked, more serious than ever before. "She was just trying to cheer you up, and you embarrassed her in front of basically all of the people that live in this dorm. I hope you're happy." Kyle walked the opposite way down the hall, leaving Damian to feel ashamed by himself.

…

Weeks passed by and Damian received zero phone calls or texts from Emma. He hadn't expected her to call anyway, but experiencing the loneliness was an entirely new level of sorrow. He could tell that she avoided him at school. Kyle and Brianna would always tell him how he'd "just" missed her when he would arrive at their hangout spots. In all honesty, Damian was devastated. He had lost his best friend – the love of his life. And it was all his fault.

One day, while walking to one of his classes, Damian saw black hair whip in front of his face. His heart skipped a beat.

"Emma?" he thought hopefully. He turned his head to see Brenda. He didn't even try to hide his disappointment as he kept walking.

"I heard you and Emma aren't friends anymore," she said. Damian gave no response. He wasn't sure what he and Emma were at that moment anymore.

"Well, since you're so bummed out, do you want to hang out with me now?" she asked. "We can go get coffee or lunch or something."

Normally Damian would tell the young woman to go away, but he decided to humor her this one time. He had nothing to lose. It's not like his friends had been eager to see him recently.

…

Another week passed and Damian still hadn't talked to Emma. He had seen her around at school, but he never had the guts to talk to her. It's not like she ever tried to talk to him either. She was always surrounded by more friends he never realized she had. Maybe he hadn't known because she used to spend so much of her time with him…

One day, while in a café with Brenda, she announced her feelings for him.

"Look, Damian, I really like you," she said. "I know you've been bummed out over Emma for a while, but I can make you happy. Give me a chance." The first answer that came to Damian's head was 'no', but then he remembered what Kyle said a while ago.

"Find a decent girl and commit to her."

…

Damian decided to come to their hangout spot a little earlier. He just wanted to see if he and Emma were really "just" missing each other as Brianna and Kyle said.

"Damian, you're here early," Brianna said, nonchalantly looking around.

"I know, I'm waiting for Emma," Damian explained. Kyle's and Brianna's eyes grew wide.

"…Oh," was the only thing they could say.

Emma finally walked up to their spot. She only glanced at Damian for a second then sat down, but he still felt his heart leap in his chest. It had been weeks, but she still had the same effect on him. Why?

"Look, you guys, I want us to hang out," Damian announced. "We've all been tense lately, and I think we shouldn't throw away our good friendship over something like a disagreement." He saw Emma roll her eyes but pretended not to.

"You're right, we should," Kyle agreed. Brianna nodded her head but Emma just shrugged.

…

The group of friends decided to meet up at Club Smash, like how they used to. Now, it was 8:00, and Emma was nowhere to be seen.

"Where is she?" Damian asked. "Why didn't she catch a ride with you, Brianna?"

"She said she was going to be fashionably late," Brianna said, shrugging.

8:30 rolled by…then 8:45…then 9:00. Damian decided to dare himself to call Emma. It would be the first time in weeks. He just couldn't believe that she would stand all of their friends up like that. Did she really not want to see him that badly?

She picked up after a couple of rings.

"Hello?" she answered plainly.

"Emma, where are you?" Damian asked. "You're over an hour late to our meetup." "Oh, you actually wanted me to come?" she asked. She didn't even sound concerned.

"We made a plan to meet up, and everyone was expected to show up," Damian told her.

"Well, things came up," she said.

"Look, can you at least act like you care about your friends?" he asked her spitefully.

"Excuse you?" Emma replied. "I do care about Brianna and Kyle." Damian tried to ignore the fact that she purposely didn't include him in her friend list.

"Whatever," Damian said. "Just to let you know, I expected more out of you."

…

A couple of days later, the group set up another day to hang out.

"Now if everyone could show up this time, that'd be great," Damian said pointedly at Emma.

"You don't need to throw shade," Emma told him. "I can admit I didn't want to go."

"Oh, really?" Damian asked. "Because when I called you that night, you claimed 'other things came up'. Now which one is true?"

"I only told you that so you would hang up," Emma countered. "You're always trying to act like my dad or something-"

Great, now he was dad-zoned

"...you didn't care then and you don't need to pretend to care now!" Emma ranted.

"Hold up, don't ever say I never cared about you! You know that's a lie!" Damian told her.

"It didn't sound like a lie when you kicked me out of your room for being nice!" Emma said. "You know why you did it? It's because you didn't care about me or my feelings!"

"Maybe he kicked you out because he didn't want you there." Brenda came up from behind Damian and snaked her arms around his chest. "I'm his girlfriend and I'm the only one that he wants in his room." Emma looked at the duo in horror while Brianna and Kyle looked surprised.

"You dating Brenda now?" Emma asked.

"Yeah, is there a problem?" Brenda questioned with a smirk.

"I didn't ask you, Barbie wannabe," Emma lashed. Brenda looked at Damian, waiting for him to defend her.

"Look, can you stop starting stuff, Emma?" he asked. Emma glared at him and walked away. Brianna gave him the finger and followed. Kyle shook his head.

"You could've at least tried to find someone was isn't an Emma-knockoff," he commented. "Petty, man…just petty." With that, Damian was alone with his new girlfriend.

…

Damian headed back to Club Smash so he, Brianna, Kyle, and Emma could make up the last hangout day. This time, however, Brenda begged to tag along and Damian let her. He had a feeling that his friends would be giving him a bit of a cold shoulder that night. He and Brenda walked in and saw Kyle, Brianna, and Emma sitting at a booth already.

"Why did you bring her?" Brianna asked as soon as they sat down.

"Why not?" Damian questioned back.

"Because she's not our friend," Kyle stated blandly.

"Well, if you guys would stop being so hostile, maybe she could be," Damian said.

"Yeah, and stop talking about me as if I'm not here," Brenda told them.

"No one asked for your input," Emma said as she sipped her cocktail.

"Excuse you?" Brenda said. "Don't talk to me like that."

"Damian, put your dog on a leash before it gets put down," Emma threatened. "Come on, Emma," Brianna said, sliding out of the booth. "Let's leave these lovebirds and have some real fun." Emma followed and Kyle left too.

Damian really didn't want to be alone with Brenda. She was annoying, and he knew their relationship between them was one-sided. However, he was hoping that staying around her long enough will eventually make him like her and get over Emma.

While Brenda was talking to him about whatever, Damian subconsciously looked for Emma. It was a habit to look for her just to make sure she was always okay. He spotted her off to the right with some guy. The stranger was beginning to become a little bold and handsy, but Emma didn't tell him to back off. Damian gripped his fists and tried to hide it by holding the edge of the table. Emma's dance partner kept his hands securely on her slim waist, but Damian was waiting-anticipating- for him to slip up. Then, the guy's hands started sliding down into forbidden territory. Damian was out of his seat in a flash, but Brenda grabbed his arm and pulled him back down.

"Where are you trying to go?" she asked. Damian looked impatiently between Brenda and Emma. He didn't have much time to go and stop the guy from harassing Emma, and Brenda was wasting crucial seconds.

"Emma needs-," he tried to say, but Brenda interrupted.

"Emma isn't your girlfriend," she said. "She obviously doesn't care about you like I do. Why should you care about her?"

"She does, I know she does," Damian said.

"Do you really mean that or are you just trying to convince yourself?" Brenda asked.

Damian turned back around to see Emma push the guy away from her. They seemed to have an argument, and Damian stood up again to go over there but Brenda tugged his arm again.

"Stop it!" Brenda told him. "She doesn't care about you. She doesn't even need you. See?"

Damian turned around once again, but this time, there was a new guy involved. He placed Emma behind him and started yelling at the first guy. Then, the first guy walked away. Emma talked to the new stranger for a while, then she walked with him to the bar. Damian realized Brenda was right. Emma didn't need him.