Chapter 9: Parting With Emily

As I found a quiet corner to sit in, the laughter and mocking voices still echoed around me like a chorus of hyenas. I could see them out of the corner of my eye—some pointing fingers in my direction, others making crude gestures, all of them getting their kicks at my expense.

“Can you believe that loser actually bagged Sara Clinton?” One of them whispered, loud enough for me to hear.

“I mean, she’ll sleep with anyone, but still…” Another added, followed by more snickers.

I kept my face neutral, staring at a crack in the wall as if it was the most fascinating thing I’d ever seen. Inside, though, I was kicking myself. Why the hell did I have to use Sara’s name? Of all the girls in school, why her? I could have picked literally anyone else—Jennifer from chemistry class, or that quiet girl from the library, or even made up a completely fictional person.

But no, in my panic, Sara Clinton was the first name that popped into my head. Maybe because she was infamous enough that everyone would believe it without question. Sara had a reputation that preceded her by about three hallways—the kind of girl who was whispered about in locker rooms and discussed in hushed tones during lunch. She was beautiful, sure, but she was also known for being… generous with her affections.

I wanted to laugh. These same people found it completely believable that I could hook up with Sara Clinton, but the idea of me being with Emily Johnson? That was apparently so far-fetched it never even crossed their minds which was understandable in some ways.

Maybe that was exactly why they bought the Sara story so easily. In their minds, I was the type of guy who would chase after the school’s most easiest girl rumoured and proved to be a prostiture, not the type who could win over someone like Emily, the Princess of the school.

The laughter continued, but I noticed it had a different quality to it now—almost forced, like they were trying too hard to find something funny. Maybe they needed this distraction. Maybe mocking me was their way of coping with the fact that there were literal monsters roaming outside, that their normal lives had been shattered in the span of a few hours.

I let them have their moment. If my humiliation could give them a few minutes of normalcy, then so be it.

For the next several hours, I remained in my corner like a social pariah. No one approached me, no one tried to include me in their conversations. I watched as Liam gathered the core group around him—Tommy, Emily, Jessica, Mat, and a few others I recognized from various classes. They huddled together near the windows, speaking in low voices, occasionally gesturing toward the barricaded door or pointing at what looked like a hand-drawn map of the school.

They were planning something. An escape route, maybe.

Whatever it was, they clearly didn’t think I was worth including.

Emily kept glancing back at me, her eyes silently pleading for me to join them. Each time our eyes met, she would tilt her head slightly toward the group, raising her eyebrows in a way that clearly said, “Get over here.” But I just looked away, focusing on anything else.

I wasn’t going to follow whatever plan they came up with anyway. I had my own agenda.

As I sat there, pretending not to care about their secret meeting, my gaze kept drifting back to Emily despite my best efforts. She was sitting close to Tommy—closer than I remembered them being before all this started. His arm was draped around her shoulders in a gesture that looked both protective and possessive, and she seemed to lean into his warmth without even thinking about it.

The sight of them together like that created a tight knot in my chest that I didn’t want to acknowledge. Was this jealousy? I’d felt something similar before, back when I used to watch them together in the hallways between classes, but this was different. Sharper. More personal.

I’d been nursing a crush on Emily for months, maybe longer. She was everything I wasn’t—confident, popular, effortlessly beautiful. She had this way of lighting up a room just by walking into it, and when she smiled, it was like the sun coming out after a storm. I’d spent countless hours imagining what it would be like to be the one sitting next to her, to have her look at me the way she looked at Tommy.

But now, after what had happened between us in her room, after the way she’d kissed me and the intimacy we’d shared, seeing her with Tommy felt like a knife twisting in my gut.

Maybe if I’d been bolder earlier, if I’d made my move before Tommy did, things would have been different. Maybe if I’d been more selfish when I spotted Tommy in the gymnasium, not saying anything about seeing him…. We could have been on the road by now, just the two of us, and maybe I would have had the time to show her that I could be what she needed.

But I hadn’t done any of that, had I? Even in the middle of a crisis, even when I had the perfect opportunity to be selfish, I’d done what I thought was right. I’d helped her find Tommy because I knew that’s what she wanted, because I loved her enough to want her to be happy, even if it wasn’t with me.

God, I was such an idiot.

I shook my head, trying to dislodge these thoughts. This wasn’t the time for self-pity or what-ifs. There were bigger things to worry about than my pathetic love life. Like survival. Like finding out if my mom was still alive.

The group meeting dragged on for what felt like hours. I watched Liam gesturing animatedly, his voice rising and falling as he outlined whatever brilliant plan he’d come up with. Tommy nodded along, occasionally adding his own comments, while Emily seemed to listen but also thinking about something else.

Finally, as the shadows were growing longer and the light outside was beginning to fade, their huddle broke up. It was time to make my move.

I stood up slowly, my legs stiff from sitting in the same position for so long, and walked over to where Liam was standing near the center of the hall.

“I need to talk to you,” I said.

Liam looked up from the map he was folding, his eyebrows raising in surprise. “Well, well. Look who finally decided to join the land of the living. What’s up, lover boy?”

A few people snickered at the nickname, but I ignored them. “I’m leaving.”

The room went quiet. Conversations stopped mid-sentence, and all eyes turned toward us. Even Emily, who had been talking quietly with Jessica, looked up with a startled expression.

“You’re leaving?” Liam repeated, a small laugh escaping his lips. “As in, leaving the the place? Leaving the school? Leaving your mind?”

“I need to check on my mom,” I said, ignoring his mockeries. “She may be still in our apartment, and I need to know if she’s okay.”

I’d already asked around about using someone’s phone to call her, but apparently, all the cell towers in the area were down. Whether it was just local or something bigger—maybe all of New York, maybe the whole country—nobody knew.

Liam smiled. “And how exactly are you planning to reach mommy dearest with all those fuckers roaming around outside?” He stepped closer, using his height advantage to loom over me. “You got some kind of death wish we should know about?”

In the past, Liam’s intimidation tactics would have worked. I would have backed down, mumbled some excuse, and slunk back to my corner. But something had changed in me over the past few hours. Maybe it was seeing those things in the hallway, maybe it was the adrenaline still coursing through my system, or maybe it was just that after facing down actual monsters, a high school bully didn’t seem quite as scary anymore.

Or maybe it was after awakening that…

“I’ll be careful,” I said, meeting his gaze without flinching. “I’ll stick to the shadows, find a car, and get to my apartment. I’ve made it this far, haven’t I?”

Liam studied me for a moment, his expression shifting from mockery to something like grudging respect. Then he chuckled and looked over at Mat, who was leaning against the door. “Mat, get his ass out of here. If he wants to get eaten so badly, who are we to stop him?”

Mat smirked and started walking toward the door, already beginning to move the chairs and desks they’d used to barricade it.

I went to him.

“Wait, Ryan.”

Emily’s voice stopped me cold. I turned around to see her standing up with Tommy behind her confused slightly why she stopped me.

In that fleeting moment, I gazed at Emily, naively anticipating she might declare, “I am coming with you!” But instead, she stepped closer and wrapped her arms around me in a tight embrace. The sudden gesture caught me off guard, and I could see the shock register on Tommy’s face as well.

“Emily?” I felt my body stiffen under the weight of everyone’s gaze, a mix of surprise and curiosity filling the air. Emily, however, seemed oblivious to the attention, pulling back with a sincere expression on her face.

“Thank you for saving my life,” she said, her voice filled with genuine gratitude. “Truly, thank you.”

Tommy sighed in relief upon realizing it was merely an expression of thanks, and the others around us returned to their tasks, the moment of tension dissipating. I shrugged modestly, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the attention.

“It was nothing,” I replied quietly. “Just don’t… say anything about it.” I whispered, subtly patting my arm where the tattoo capable of stopping time was hidden. Emily had readily agreed not to tell anyone about my Seed’s curing abilities or my power to stop time, and I trusted her to keep her word.

“I won’t,” Emily nodded solemnly, and I knew I could rely on her discretion.

A moment of silence followed, and I sensed that Emily wanted to say something more. But before she could, Tommy intervened, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“Well, thank you, man, for helping out Em. I was really worried,” he said.

“Yeah, I mean, I did what anyone would do,” I replied with a shrug, trying to downplay my actions.

“You’re a good guy, Ryan,” Tommy smiled, nodding before turning to Emily and gently guiding her away.

“We will see each other again?” Emily asked suddenly, her voice tinged with a hint of worry. It was an odd question, but I understood her concern, knowing that I was about to leave alone to find my mother.

“If school resumes, yeah,” I said jokingly, trying to lighten the mood and clear any doubts Tommy might have.

Emily smiled at my words, her expression softening. “Yeah…” She turned around, her smile fading into an emotion I couldn’t quite decipher before she walked away.

I turned to leave, feeling Mat clear the way out for me. But just as I was about to step out, another voice called out, stopping me in my tracks.

“Wait, I’m coming with you.”

I turned around to see a striking very pretty dark-haired girl, who looked about a year older than me. She was wearing the same uniform as the rest of us, but her style was distinctly gothic. Her lips were glossed black, and she wore a black jacket, her black bag adorned with various gothic accessories.

“What are you blabbering about, Sydney?” Liam asked, clearly annoyed.

“I’m not going to repeat myself. I’m leaving this shithole,” Sydney said, walking toward me.

“You serious?” I asked, taken aback by her sudden decision.

“I have keys, and my car is parked safely behind,” Sydney said, raising her keys to show me.

“Wait, we need your damn car, all the damn cars,” Liam said, clearly upset by her announcement.

“You can do your great mission impossible plan with one car less, Liam,” Sydney retorted, not sparing him another glance as she prepared to leave. But Liam grasped her arm, his anger boiling over.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“Who the fuck are you to ask me that?” Sydney shot back, her voice cold as she slapped his hand away.

“You wanna die with that little fucker? Or do you just wanna spread your legs for him?” Liam sneered.

“Fuck off,” Sydney cursed showing him her middle finger and then turned to me. “You coming or what?”

“Yeah…” I didn’t fully understand what was happening, but if she had a car, I wasn’t about to refuse the offer. I followed after her, but before leaving the gymnasium, I cast one last glance inside. Emily was looking at me, her expression filled with concern.

Goodbye, Emily, I thought to myself, turning away and rushing after Sydney.

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