21
Emma sat in the park behind the hotel and sketched random things that she saw around her. She was working on a sketch of a nearby tree when her phone vibrated. She pulled it out of her pocket and looked at the number before answering. “Hey…”“How are you?”
She shrugged, “I dunno… How are you?”
“I’m alright.”
“How’d the signing go? Anyone get their clothes ripped?”
“No, but one girl looked like she was going to puke on Nick and the look on his face was pretty priceless…” AJ said with a chuckle and Emma smiled as she continued to draw with the phone perched on her shoulder.
“She didn’t actually puke did she?”
“She may have in the hall, but not in the room we were in…”
“That’s good…”
“Yeah… So, what are you up to?”
“Sitting in a park, doodling and stuff.”
AJ chuckled. “Doodling huh? You should see the doodle that I did today waiting for the signing to begin. It sucked.”
Emma laughed, “Yeah well…”
“Do I get to see the one you’re working on?”
“Sure…”
“You okay today?”
Emma was silent for a moment and then stopped drawing, “I’m… Well, I don’t know what I am. Just in a mood today, I guess.”
“Bummer. Anything I can do?”
“No… thanks, though.”
“Are we still on for later? Dinner and stuff?”
“Sure…”
They were both quiet for a while, content with listening to each other breathe for a while. “Hey Em?”
“Yeah?” she replied and began flipping through the pages of her sketchbook looking at all of her drawings.
“Nick was talking to me earlier and wanted to know if he could hang out with us some time. He wants to meet you for real since I’m spending so much time with you. You don’t have to say yes, if you’re not cool with it. But I told him I’d ask you.”
Emma looked at the picture of Nick that she’d drawn and thought about AJ’s question before moving on to turn the page. “Yeah, it’s cool.”
“Yeah?”
“Yup.”
“Tonight? Or would you rather wait for another night when you’re… well, in a happier mood.”
She let out half of a laugh and shook her head, “That might be a while. Tonight is fine. We’ll probably bore him senseless anyway and then he’ll leave early.”
AJ chuckled, “He does have a short attention span sometimes… Maybe we should time it to see how long it takes for us to bore him to tears.”
Emma smiled and flipped through a few more pages of her book, “Maybe…”
“Cool. Well listen, I’m back in my room now, so if you come back and decide you’re ready to hang out or whatever, just swing by or call me, okay? I’m not planning on doing anything but maybe take a nap.”
“Okay…” she said softly as her eyes traveled over a sketch she’d nearly forgotten was in the book and her mind began to wander as she looked at it.
“I don’t mean to sound like a broken record, but are you sure you’re okay? You just don’t sound so great…”
Emma’s eyes were fixed on her drawing and she forced herself to close the book and get the picture out of her mind, “I’m okay. I gotta go though. I’ll see you a little later…”
She hung up before AJ could respond or say goodbye.
