EMILY***I have a deal for you that will be hard to pass up. You should be telling me whether you and your teammate got on the same page. We didn't. But that's not what matters. I think you misunderstood me. I'm not suggesting the deal. You have no other choice. And why's that? Because I know who you are and I can easily report you for stalking and threatening me. You're bluffing.  Would you rather find out I'm not? I'll meet you on the

EMILY***“Why?” I asked, not knowing what else to ask. It was the question that summarised all the other ones that had been swimming in my mind ever since I got that first text. Tiffany was seated next to me, and as soon as I asked that question she started crying. I hadn’t expected that sudden burst of emotion. Why was she crying? If anyone should have been crying at that moment, it was me. Wasn’t I the one who had been wronged? Wasn’t I the one who was under threat of being exposed? I found myself getting angry but I decided against it. I patted her back softly as she cried and rummaged through the jacket pocket for tissues that I handed to her. She calmed down and wiped her face. She took a dee

 Bakersville high school *** “Aren’t you going to lunch?” Phoebe, one of Emily’s classmates asked her.   “I’m not that hungry,” she said and offered Phoebe a smile to assure her that she was okay and she was definitely lying.   She was hungry, but she couldn’t go to the cafeteria anymore because she had no one to sit with. Her only other friend, the only one who related to her both inside and outside of school was no longer interested in being friends with her.   She had gotten sick and tired of the same old story, of picking up the same old pieces of Emily’s heart. Jullie had given Emily an ultimatum. She told her that if she kept defending Gabriel and his problematic behavior she

EMILY *** “She’s great. Everything is going great. It couldn’t be better,” Gabriel said and I couldn't help but smile. My Mom had just asked him how Harper was and not only did he give an update on her, he gave an update on his life as if trying to assure himself that everything was indeed going well. That moment alone gave me so much satisfaction that I knew I needed to go on with what I was doing. If this was what Gabriel looked like when he was scared out of his wits then I would spend the rest of my life trying to get that face from him. Our Moms had planned yet another dinner that we couldn’t get out of and I was actually excited for this one, unlike the other one. I had not seen him ever since he decided to disown me and throw me under the bus, and I had not seen him especially since I had taken back my sense of control and chosen to flip this over on him. He was pretending to hate my guts since I walked into the house but I could see beneath the surface and beneath the su

EMILY***Has he always had such beautiful eyes?This was the thought that brought me back to my senses because it was a thought I shouldn't have been having. It should have been the last thought on my mind, and even then it was a thought I couldn't afford to consider.But this was a game and I couldn't just end it because of an intrusive thought. I wanted to end it as the winner. Could he hear my heartbeat? It was beating so loud in my ears that I was afraid he could hear it from where he was.I looked down to take a deep breath because what I was about to do was actually going to be uncomfortable, but if it meant winning then I could deal with the discomfort later. I looked up at him and grabbed both of his wrists so that he couldn’t get out of the trap he had made for me. I inched closer to his face until our noses were practically touching. All this time, my heart was beating so loud I could barely hear myself. And then I saw it. The skin on his neck and face had begun to turn re