Heat Level: sweet and funny

The Pitch:  Saying the wrong thing comes naturally to Emmeline, but sometimes she surprises even herself.

 This was an entry I wrote for the Wattpad Block party hosted on my profile. This is a Prequel to my story Sugar Lust. You can read it as a stand-alone story or as an intro to the novel.   

Cofftrees and Meat

He noticed her. She was sure of it.

Nicholas looked at her from across the room, smiling first, and then ran his hand through his hair, while the teacher droned on about conjugating verbs. It sent her heart racing. In the three years they had been in high school together, he had never looked at her like that. Maybe, just maybe, she'd have a chance with him.

"Emmeline!" Ginny poked at her from across the table in the library. "You're daydreaming again."

"Hun?" Emmeline lifted her head off the palm of her hand. She was supposed to be working on her math homework.

"You should just ask him out, you know? It would make my life so much easier," she teased. Ginny had been hearing about Nicholas for ages.

Emmeline scrunched up face, and Ginny started laughing at her. "Girls can ask guys out!" 

Emmeline tapped the end of her pencil on the table before turning it over and using the eraser to remove the last word she wrote.

"I know, but let's face it, I trip over my words on good days. How could I possibly ask him and sound like a normal human when he makes me so fluttery?"

"Good point! You pretty are useless with your tongue."

"I'd like to try out that theory," Callum volunteered, happily eavesdropping from the table beside them in the school library. Callum was a professional flirt, tall with nut-brown unkempt hair that made him look playful and resistible all at once.

"You heard that?" Mortified, Emmeline mentally kicked herself. Of course, it just had to be Nicholas' best friend.

"So, it's Nikki you have a crush on?" he teased.

Ginny rolled her eyes. "Since forever."

Emmeline's cheeks burned a raspberry color.

"If you aren't going to go out with me, then I suppose it might as well be him." 

It wasn't like Callum actually meant it, he always teased her.

"Please don't say anything!" she begged, realizing even as she said it, it was going to be a lost cause. Ginny had been the only person she had told about her crush. Secrets like that were best to keep to yourself unless you wanted the whole school to know. It never occurred to her until today that she would even have a chance with him.

"You might as well let Callum spill the beans. At least then, you'd know if you had a shot with him. Besides, if you ask yourself, you might end up asking him out on a 'dog' instead of a 'date'!"

Emmeline sucked in her breath, and then said, "Do it, tell him!", in a moment of brash courage.

"Quick go! Before she changes her mind," advised Ginny. Emmeline sat on her hands and pinched her lips together as she watched Callum gather his books with an amused look on his face, and rush out of the library. Ginny, of course, was right. Emmeline wanted to take it all back fifteen minutes later as the idea of being rejected settled into her brain, making her nauseous. She tried to find Callum about a hundred times that afternoon to tell him not to say anything, but of course, he was nowhere to be found. By the time school was over, she was exhausted from finding nooks and crannies along the wood panel corridors to hide in whenever someone walked by, terrified of running into Nicholas.

As the last bell of the day sounded, Emmeline cautiously took the long way around the school to the bushes close to where Ginny's sparkly new car that she got for her 16th birthday was parked. She checked both ways and then made a beeline to the car, grabbing the handle, and jerking on it violently.

"Ginny! Let me in!"

"Look, there's Callum, I wonder if he talked to Nicholas yet?" Ginny casually pointed to Callum walking over, a girl on either arm. Emmeline saw him say goodbye to the girls and glanced around to see if Nicholas was following him. Thankfully he wasn't anywhere in sight. Emmeline wiped her sweaty palms on the tartan skirt of her school uniform. It was blue and green that barely passed her fingertips, and was paired with a white blouse that did up the front.

"Please tell me you had pity on me and didn't tell him," pleaded Emmeline as he approached. Callum wrapped his arm around her shoulders and leaned his head over until it touched the top of Emmeline's head.

"Now, what good would that do?" A mischievous smile threatened to swallow his whole face. Emmeline tried to elbow him in the gut, but because of his height, it accidentally went a little lower than that.

"Oooph!" he groaned on contact.

"I am so sorry!" she quickly apologized, completely mortified and grateful that she hadn't done it very hard.

"What has he done now?" asked a voice from behind her. There was no mistaking who it was.

"Nicholas!" she squeaked.

"Help! She's trying to kill me!" said Callum in an exaggerated way.

"Ah, he couldn't have been that bad, could he?"

Emmeline scanned his face looking for clues to see as if Callum had told him or not. She looked up at Callum who just grinned, giving her no clear one way or the other.

"Do I need to have a talk with him and tell him to stop being such a jerk, or should I leave you to finish the job?" asked Nicholas, winking.

"Nikki, this poor, not-so-sweet girl, would like very much for you not to know something."

Oh no! thought Emmeline.

"Now you have my interest. What, Miss Hope, would you not like to tell me?" He stood up straight, grinning, and pulled back his shoulders, making his shirt taunt against his clearly defined chest.

Ginny looked squarely at Emmeline and slowly mouthed the words, DO IT, at Emmeline, who was torn between running away and murdering Callum.

"I can't," Emmeline answered back out loud.

Nicholas suddenly looked concerned. "Seriously, what is it?"

"I, I, was wondering if you could get cofftrees with meat sometimes." Dammit! "Coffee, I drink coffee, with me, not meat. Do you drink cofftrees, coffee?"

Shut up, shut up, shut up!

Nicholas burst out laughing. It was Emmeline's worst nightmare. Everything that she had thought this morning, the way he looked at her, it had all been in her head. None of it was real.

I am such an idiot.

"Ginny, we're leaving!" She gave her the 'now' look, and the beep-beep, sound of the car door unlocking signaled Emmeline's escape.

"No, wait! Emmeline!" called Nicholas as she slammed the door shut with her on the inside. Ginny shrugged her shoulders and got in herself.

Nicholas knocked on the passenger side window, but Emmeline refused to look at him, instead staring straight ahead, willing the tears that wanted to fall to stay in place.

"I can't believe Callum did that to me!" exclaimed Emmeline as Ginny pulled out of the parking lot. Emmeline could see Nicholas in a deep animated discussion with Callum, and she sunk into her seat, knowing for sure they were talking about her.

"I'm not sure he saw that coming. Seriously girl, that was epic! Go out for Cofftrees and Meat? What were you thinking?"

"I wasn't thinking. That's the problem. If only time machines were a real thing," she groaned. "On the bright side, I learned Nicholas is a jerk, and I can finally get him out of my system."

Ginny dropped her off at home, and Emmeline ran to her room, and slammed the door before flopping down on her bed. A few minutes later, her Mom knocked on the door, telling her Callum was on the phone for her. She refused to answer. She tried to concentrate on her homework, but she felt raw and daunted by the idea she would have to go to school the next day. In a small town everyone knew everyone's business. She could imagine walking through the school halls and having everyone repeat her humiliation. Her head felt heavy. She replayed the scene in her mind, each time it got worse. She vowed never to speak to him again, or any guy for that matter. It would be safer that way.

An hour later, she went downstairs and picked at her food, staying firmly out of the 'should they plant yellow or pink bulbs for the garden next year' conversation her parents were having. The doorbell jarred her out of her funk, and she got up to answer it.

Nicholas was standing on the front porch.

Can't he leave me alone to my misery?

It was then she noticed he was holding a long narrow white box tied in pink ribbon. Her breath hitched in her throat. Boxes like that only had one thing in them. Her feet just a moment ago wanted to run, stood firmly in place, glued to the floor.

"Emmeline," he started.

"Un hun."

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to laugh. I feel terrible."

"Un hun,"

"I got these for you." He handed her the box, and untied the ribbon, opening it up to show her twelve perfect pink roses. "I hope you can forgive me. I was just so surprised. If I was being honest, I've wanted to ask you out for forever, and Callum the Moran knew. I think he was really trying to help."

"Un hun." She wished better words would make their way through her lips, and yet, at least these ones were safe.

"So?" he asked. "Is that a yes? Will you have coffee with me?"

Emmeline shook her head yes, her heart fluttering, grinning from ear to ear.

Coffee turned into dinner, and lunches outside under the oak trees at school. It was the beginning of something beautiful and those first few months passed in a blissful minute. Nicholas was always doing something sweet. Taking her to movies, dinner with his family, coming up behind her at her locker at school, and whispering in her ear, wrapping his arms around her waist. She still said stupid stuff, yet he seemed to understand, and only teased her sometimes. One day, she vowed, she would learn to say the right thing when she was nervous.

A couple of months later, however, she said something that even she wasn't prepared for...,

"Oh Crap! I'm pregnant!"

Author's Notes

Thanks for stopping by.  If you're interested in what happens next in Sugar Lust, I have left the link below.

https://www.wattpad.com/240068632-sugar-lust-the-pitch

-Lavinia Leigh xo