Before I knew what was happening, I was under the water again. The submergence separated us, and I resurfaced breathing heavily.
"Now who's breaking the rules?" Sara gloated while Jared treaded water with a grin behind her.
"I hate your rules," I declared, splashing her in the face. She hollered and splashed back. A water war ensued. Amongst the splashing and dunked bodies, I caught sight of Sara again, her arms around Jared's neck as he kissed her cheek―and she was smiling.
~~~~~
I blinked my eyes open, the chiming ringing in my ear. The room was dark, and I could feel the weight of Evan's arm around my waist. There was a beep, then silence. I started to close my eyes again, sleep pulling me under. The chiming started back up. My eyes shot open.
I rolled over and picked up my phone from the nightstand. Without looking to see who it was, I answered, "Hello?"
"Where are you?" my mother demanded in a panic.
I sat up, jolted awake by her desperation. My sudden movement disturbed Evan, but he just rolled over and remained asleep.
"What?" I tried to register what was going on.
"Where the fuck are you? Why aren't you home?"
"I'm at Sara's," I replied, my heart racing. She was so upset. I tried to remember if I'd told her―but knew I had. Doubt coursed through me anyway. "Remember she had the party tonight?"
"You don't want to live with me anymore, do you?" she cried. I knew she was drunk; her words weren't forming properly, but I was too shocked to make sense of why she was saying this.
I felt Evan move beside me but my back was toward him as I sat on the edge of the bed, tears forming in my eyes.
"You hate me. I know it," She'd reached the point of hysterics. "That's why you never sleep here. You're going to leave me too, aren't you?" I gasped at the agony in her voice, a tear escaping down my cheek.
"Rachel, what are you doing?" I heard in the background. "Who are you talking to?"
"She doesn't love me anymore," she sobbed, the pain smothering her words.
"Who?" Jonathan asked, sounding groggy. "It's three o'clock in the morning. Give me the phone."
"Why doesn't she love me?" she bellowed, the phone moving further from her mouth.
"Emma?" he asked softly. My mother's drunken rant continued in the background. "Are you there?"
"Yes," I whispered, barely able to speak with the knot lodged in the back of my throat. It was silent. He must have left the room, closing the door to block her out.
"Are you okay?" he asked gently.
"No," I breathed, a whimper escaping. I put my hand over my mouth to contain it. Tears streamed down my cheeks, cascading over my fingers. A warm hand pressed against my back, but I didn't turn to face him. I just listened.
"She had too much to drink tonight," he tried to console. "And we got in kind of an argument, so it's not you. I'm so sorry."
I breathed in deeply through my nose, removing my hand and wiping my cheeks before Evan could see. He scooted over to sit next to me.
"Emma? Are you still there?"
"Yes," I replied. "I'm okay." I took another breath to calm the twisting nerves strangling my chest, wiping my cheeks dry. "I'm okay," I repeated in a whisper, convincing myself.
"Go back to sleep," he murmured. "It'll be over in the morning."
"Okay." I hung up the phone and set it on the table.
Evan pulled my quivering body into him, wrapping me tightly.
"Is everything okay with your mother?"
"Yeah," I breathed. "She forgot I was staying over at Sara's, so she was upset. She thought something had happened to me."
Evan didn't say anything. He held me tighter while gently rocking me and pressed his lips against my forehead. He moved back down on the bed, and I followed, lowering my head onto his chest. I pressed my ear against his heart to hear its rhythmic beats. Eventually, his breaths lengthened, and I knew he had fallen asleep. A tear ran over the bridge of my nose and dripped onto his smooth skin.
I listened to his calm, wanting it to capture me as well, but the storm inside of me wouldn't rest.
13. Overreaction
I snuck out of the guest room before Evan woke. I could hear whispers and movement further down the hall, although it was barely dawn. I suspected there was a need to escape before the sun shed too much light on faces that didn't want to be seen.
I found a few girls searching through the basket of clothes that were pulled from the dryer, picking out items that belonged to them, stuffing them in their overnight bags.