Chapter Four

The sound of her cell phone buzzing alerted Emery to the incoming call. She’d spent almost two hours playing and walking the dogs at the shelter, which was enough to exhaust anyone. After that experience, she ate, got a shower, and laid down for a quick nap.

The number that showed was Austin’s. Emery assumed he was making good on his promise to call after practice. “Hey.” She sat up on her bed and brushed the hair back off of her face. It wasn’t like he could see through the phone or anything, but as a natural instinct, she wanted to look semi-normal and not have her hair flipped out in all different directions.

“Hey,” Austin repeated Emery’s greeting in the same soft tone she’d used. “Sounds like you were already sleeping.” He looked at his clock once more. It was only nine o’clock. There was no way a seventeen-year-old girl was going to be sleeping this early during the summer.

“Almost. It was a busy day at the shelter.” Emery stood up and walked around a bit, trying to wake herself up more. “How was practice?”

Austin let out a low groan. “Grueling. We had to teach all the new varsity the plays and drills we run every week.” Austin flopped down on his bed and stretched out. Maybe Emery had the right idea about going to bed early, this kind of felt good. If she were here, laying beside him, he wouldn’t be ready to crash out. He quickly sat up and shook his head.

‘Where the hell did that thought come from?’

He continued to tell her about practice, and she told him about some stuff that happened at the shelter. At least with this kind of talk, his mind wasn’t having thoughts of her laying on the bed with him.

A knock sounded on Emery’s door. “Hold on,” she murmured to Austin as she walked over to see who it was. “Hey,” Emery greeted her mom, who stood outside her door holding her line-up of nighttime medications.

“Oh.” Mrs. Warden was surprised to see Emery was still awake and on the phone. “I’ll leave these over here.” She set the tray with the pills and water on the nightstand beside Emery’s bed. She was curious about who her daughter was talking to since she hardly ever had her friends call, but she wasn’t going to intrude on a personal conversation.

“Was that your mom?” Austin heard the other person and assumed it was Emery’s mom since it was a female voice.

“Yeah.” Emery relocked the door of her bedroom after her mom left.

“Oh, I better let you get going.” Austin saw that they’d been on the phone for over thirty minutes. He didn’t want to keep her talking if her mom needed her for something.

Emery really didn’t want to stop talking to him, not just yet. It was finally good to talk to someone other than her small circle of friends at school, the people at the hospital, and those who came into the animal shelter. But, she knew the routine for taking her medications couldn’t be interrupted. The two new ones that her doctor had ordered made her nauseous, and the other made her sleep, so there was no sense in trying to keep Austin on the phone while she either wanted to puke or pass out.

“Okay, I guess I’ll see you tomorrow.” Emery was just about to hang up when Austin blurted out a ‘wait.’

“Um.” He never really had to ask out a girl out before, they were just always there. “There’s a party this coming Saturday. Do you think you’d want to go…like with me?” Now, a touch of panic set in. He wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear the response. It would be great if she said yes, but then again, what if his friends acted like complete asses, especially since he knew they’d be drinking. “Don’t answer yet. Sleep on it and tell me tomorrow.” He quickly pressed the end call button on his phone so she didn’t have a chance to respond. He gave the phone five minutes to see if she’d call back, but since she didn’t, he set it on his nightstand. Maybe she wouldn’t say no. Perhaps she would actually think about going.

Emery stared at her cell phone. It seemed Austin had just asked her out, not like on a go get ice cream after volunteering date, but a real date-date. She was going to call back and tell him she couldn’t go.

One, she couldn’t drink alcohol and was sure everyone else would.

Two, his friends were not hers. Apryl would surely have a great time making her childish rude comments all night.

Three, she’d never been to a party-party. She’d gone over to friends’ houses when they were having a get-together, but never where parents weren’t home and it wasn’t some type of pool party barbeque.

Emery set her phone down on the stand beside her bed. She would tell him tomorrow she couldn’t go and give him a chance to find someone else to take. She quickly took her medications and lay back down on the bed. She wanted to be asleep before nausea had time to take hold.

*  *  *

“Hey, honey, how are you feeling today?” Emery’s mom was washing up the rest of the lunch dishes when her daughter made an appearance in the kitchen.

Emery rolled her eyes behind her mom’s back. It was the same question over and over. She knew her mom meant well, but she asked how she felt at least ten times a day. “Fine. How are you?” Emery returned the question and grabbed a banana and bran muffin to eat.

“Oh, I’m doing well. How is Becca doing?” Mrs. Warden glanced over her shoulder when Emery didn’t answer. She had a look of confusion on her face.

“I guess okay. Why?” Emery hadn’t talked to Becca for a while. She’d been too busy with all the stuff she had planned to do this summer.

“Wasn’t that Becca you were talking to last night?” Mrs. Warden assumed that it would be since she and Emery would call each other every once in a while.

Emery shook her head no. “Austin.” Her mom seemed shocked she was actually talking to a guy as her mouth formed a long silent ‘Oh.’

“And how is he adjusting to the volunteer work at the hospital?” Mrs. Warden was surprised that Emery and Austin had hit it off so well that they were calling each other.

“It’s going well. The younger boys seem to like having a guy there to play all their video games with.” Emery looked at the clock. She hadn’t realized she was running late. “I better get going. I told them I’d be in before one today.” She grabbed a Gatorade out of the fridge and her keys off the key holder. She gave her mom a quick hug.“I guess I’ll see you all later.” 

“Oh, Em, your father and I will be going to dinner and play on Saturday night. If you would like to come, you are more than welcome to. I think two of your father’s colleagues will be attending.”

‘I really don’t think I could handle listening to middle-aged people all night.’

“I don’t think I can, but thanks for asking. I think Austin wanted to do something that night.” Emery closed the front door before her mother could ask the millions of questions that were going through her mind.

Now what was she going to do?

Her mom would probably be seeing his mom at their scrapbook meeting and telling her that Emery and Austin had a date.

‘How am I going to get out of this one?’