Brooks Scott

I was on my way to meet Amelie in the school's courtyard when I saw a familiar face running into what looked like a run-down bathroom. She looked worried and it brought me a sense of concern so I might have followed her in there. It wasn't until after our conversation that I remembered about Amelie.

Fuck. She probably thinks I stood her up.

I walked into my fifth class late and Professor Shaw sent a glare my way for interrupting her. Mina is biting on her nails, a worried look on her face as she pays attention to our teacher. "You alright?" I asked, pulling my textbook out. Mina drops her hand on her lap and turns to look at me with furrowed brows. "Not really. Where were you?" she whispered.

"I got distracted and didn't realize class had started," I lied. I didn't know why. If Mina was going to find out about my conversation with Emerson, it would be from her. Not me. Emerson is still on edge about me and I don't want to give her another reason to dislike me even more. The blonde nodded before she continued to bite on her fingers. What was her deal?

The rest of the class went by too quickly. My mind stayed on my conversation with Emerson earlier. I don't know why I told her about that story of me getting blackout drunk my freshman year. Maybe it was because I wanted her to trust me and that was my way of opening up. Telling her some embarrassing story. God, I hated thinking about it.

I'd done a lot worse than getting blacked out but thinking about my siblings seeing me that way wasn't nice. I knew how much they cared about me, especially my older sister. She called me every day for a week after that incident.

My sister, Nola, tends to worry a lot. Especially about me. She's been like a second mom ever since I moved in with my brother, Kayce, two years ago. It eased up a bit because she was getting busy with figure skating but now that I'm at HavenPoint, her calls have become frequent again. Although she wasn't on my parent's side about sending me here, she still hopes I'm able to make somewhat of a change while I'm here.

Lucky for them, Haven doesn't give me an opportunity to act out. Yeah, we snuck off-campus once but it's not like I'm going to do it again. The only thing I can do here that I did back home is smoke. But the more I think about it, the more I want to see a change in myself too.

Earlier when I tried to tell Emerson about how I felt, she seemed to disagree. Her mindset is different than mine and I heard it in her words. The only reason I took that shot with her was because I sensed something wasn't one hundred percent right with her.

I've been studying her for the past two weeks.

The way she talks. Her facial expressions when others talk. Her body language in certain situations. How she only seems to be relaxed if Mina or Callum are around. I don't know Emerson well but she intrigues me. Everything about her I want to nitpick at and I don't know why. She's kind of similar to the girl friends I had in Oak Hill. Most of my female friends are like her and I've dated girls who act similarly.

Maybe it's because she wants nothing to do with me and no one has ever hated me before. Whatever it is, there's something that is drawing me closer to her and I couldn't get my mind off her and our small interaction.

That was until I saw Amelie in my seventh class. My mind came up with the lamest excuse it could gather and blurted it out to her. She believed me and told me it was no big deal. Thank God. Two girls hating me wasn't my agenda.

Once classes were over, the library became my sanctuary to get homework done in peace. It was hard to get back into school after slacking off for years. The content here was more difficult than the one in America too.

"That's the thing, you don't know anything!"

A familiar voice woke me up. I was starting to fall asleep just now. It was almost eight o'clock and I'd been spending my day doing homework. Who was I becoming?

"Well then tell me, Mina!" That was Kai. I'd never heard him talk with such emotion in his voice. The sound of their voices was coming from the bookshelves behind me. Even though they spoke in whispers, the library was dead by this time so I could hear them both clearly. "You know it doesn't work that way. Just ease up on her. She's my best friend." There's a pause before Mina speaks again. "And she used to be yours too."

Kai doesn't say anything back. Are they talking about Emerson? From what I know, she's Mina's best friend.

"But she's the reason he's gone. The only person who was like family to me."

"So what am I then?"

"Don't do that. I'm not talking about you right now, Meen."

"I love you, Kai. So much. Please... just... ease up on Emmy."

And there it was. They were talking about her. And someone else who I obviously don't know. Another file opens in the 'Emerson Jenkins' folder I've created in my head. She made someone leave. Who? When the sound of feet shuffling begins, I pretend I'm deeply invested in whatever is on my screen. "Oh, hi, Brooks!" Mina's cheery voice grabs my attention.

Her tone is so much different than it was before when she was talking to Kai. He stands next to her, face stoic as always. Both of them have their backpacks hanging on their shoulders so I assume they're here to do the same thing I am. "Hey, guys," I greet. They sit down across from me on the small wooden table. "Do you mind if we join?" she asks with a smile.

I've never seen Mina not smile. Well, except for earlier and that night at Gypsy Fish but I think that's because more serious things were going on. She's happy-go-lucky, unlike her other counterpart who's always as dim as a raincloud. Emerson not Kai but he could fit that description too. She must be the sunshine to both their rainclouds.

"Go ahead," I tell them as they get comfortable in front of me. My brows furrow when I notice a small cut below Kai's eye. How didn't I catch that earlier? "What happened to your eye?" I asked him and he looked up from his laptop to me. Mina smiled in his direction. The way her eyes smile too every time she looks at him is what made me think they were dating. There's a certain spark in there. It's the one my sister gets when she looks at her boyfriend Miles.

"Practice. I ate shit after one of my teammates tripped me," he explained. "What sport do you play?" I questioned. "Track," he replied. Oh, that's right. Imani had told me that the night we went to Gypsy Fish. "You're okay. It doesn't look too bad," Mina cooed. "He's just pissed it ruined his perfect little face," another voice caught our attention. Rowan stumbled over, planting his ass next to Kai who rolled his eyes.

Mina sighed and closed her eyes for a second. He's drunk, I presume. The smell of alcohol radiated off him and the sunglasses over his eyes told me all I needed to know. "How'd you find us?" Kai asked, shrugging away when Rowan leaned on him. "I always find you," Rowan slurred, his head lolling awkwardly. Oh, yeah. He's drunk as fuck.

The tiny blonde's cheeks flushed a light shade of pink. "Ro, I think you might need to find your bed instead of the library," she said. Rowan ignored her pulling out his phone. He smirked at something, showing Kai whose face remained emotionless. Mina on the other hand seemed to have caught a glimpse and made a disgusted face with her mouth gaped.

Rowan pointed the phone in my direction then. My eyes widened at the quick second I got before Kai smacked his hand down. It was a not so PG-13 video of him and a girl, I'm assuming. "You shouldn't be showing that around, asshole," Kai said. "It's just you guys. My friends," Ro replied.

"And Brooks."

That voice. Like a natural instinct, my attention was lasered in on her the moment she was in view. Her eyes stayed on Rowan as she took the seat at the end of the table. "He's my friend now," Rowan said, lowering his sunglasses to look Emerson in the eyes. They were red and droopy. "Oh," was her short reply.

Funny.

Just when I thought we made a bit of progress. Her walls are taller than the Empire State Building. "You're disgusting, by the way," Emerson told him. Kai hadn't looked in her direction once. It made me think about his conversation with Mina earlier. Something had clearly gone down between them. Mina claimed they were once best friends so whatever happened must have been serious.

"I know," Ro returned, a smirk on his lips. Emerson made a face before slowly turning to me. "Want to smoke, American Boy?" she asked, brow raised. Her question caught me off guard and everyone else stayed quiet, their eyes boring into us. It took a couple of tries for me to spit out my reply, "Yeah." Without another word, she stood up and I quickly shoved my shit into my backpack.

Mina smiled at me before I left, following Emerson out of the school's library which led to the courtyard. It was mostly empty now and we walked toward the tall tree where I had asked her for a cigarette for the first time ever. My first day at Havenpoint. For some reason, that had felt like ages ago. It had only been two weeks.

My phone rang in my pocket and my sister's name popped up with a picture of me and her in front of the Eiffel Tower. It was an old picture but one of my favorites. I hit decline as Emerson pulled out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. She lit hers before passing it to me. With the cigarette between my lips, I held the lighter up. "Question. Why do you call me American Boy when you're American too?" I queried before lighting up the bud.

Emerson blew out a puff. "Because I can. And I've lived here for so long that I have an accent now, so I'm an honorary Brit," she said that second sentence in a British accent. She had spoken with it the day we met leading me to think she was British until I realized she wasn't. All of her friends had an English accent, besides Lacey who was Australian.

"It's a joke. I'll call you what I want," she adds cooly when I don't respond. "Brooks is cool," I suggest with a shrug. She looks away, pondering my words. "I like American Boy better," she reprimands. Her little invitation makes me think that our conversation earlier didn't put her off of me even more. Honestly, I thought maybe it had. Things like this make me doubtful. Don't know why.

Silence overtakes us like it always does. The moon shines down on us casting a light glow on Emerson's face. She's still in her uniform just like I am. "Are you alright? I know you said you were fine earlier but I just wanted to make sure," I blurted out. The brunette turned to look at me, holding her cigarette between two fingers.

She stares at me for a long second before speaking. "You probably don't know them well enough yet but our friends, even though they don't all seem like it, have genuinely good intentions. They're good people. So if you're going to come into Havenpoint, befriend them, and then go ghost when you go back to the U.S., I'd prefer if you'd stay away. Asher has a good friend group I think you'd fit in with."

Emerson speaks with no emotion in her words but I see it in her baby blue eyes. I take one last drag from the deadly bud before putting it out on the tree next to us. "Why do you think I'm such a dick? I wouldn't do that. Not to your friends or anyone. I'm not that type of guy, Emerson. If you gave me a chance, you'd know that."

She seems to think I might be the villain in her story. I'm not. Far from it. All I'm trying to, have been trying to do, is be her friend. To be her friend's friend. "You think I wanted to come here? No. Not one bit. But I didn't have a choice, alright? I'm sure none of you did either but what I'm trying to say is, yeah, I want to leave in December. That doesn't mean that I'm using your friends and trying to purposefully hurt them by leaving. If you all are still my friends come December, I'll be reaching out every single day when I leave. You all will end up ignoring me." I chuckle weakly.

Friends are as important as family because friends can become family. I've seen it within my family. Most of my aunts and uncles are my parent's friends. They're not blood but I consider them family because that's all I've ever known them as.

I've seen the closeness of Emerson's friend group and feel lucky that they've included me. The guys have been welcoming and so have the girls. Except Emerson. But I'm not giving up on her. If it wasn't obvious enough. All I'm trying to do at Haven is survive, not build fake friendships and destroy lives. It's hard not having my family here. Seeing them every day.

I miss my fucking mom for fuckssake. My little brother.

Being here is deteriorating me so the last thing that's on my mind is ruining lives. Of course, I'm not going to tell Emerson that. She'll probably laugh in my face. It's just hard. Being in London has been shit so far. I'm thankful I have some people around me. When I'm with her friends, my mind isn't in absolute shambles.

Emerson pulls the cigarette from her lips and hands it to me. I stare at it and then at her before taking it and taking a long drag. Smoking brings me a sort of calmness that I can't get from anything else. It's why I'm always doing it. My heart stops beating so fast when the smoke fills my lungs and I take one final blow before returning it to her. "I just had to see a little emotion from you. That's all, Brooks," Emerson said, a small smile curves at her lips but it disappears quickly.

Huh. I don't think she's ever smiled around me.

She blows smoke to the side before putting out her cigarette too. "Also, you keep referring to them as my friends but it's our friends, I guess." My brows raise, feigning surprise. "You're finally accepting me into the friend group," I smiled. She chuckles, shaking her head. What a sound. I don't think I've ever heard her laugh either. I like it. "Calm down, American Boy. I never said anything like that," she doesn't hold back. Still, I'd say she likes me now.

Emerson- 3
Brooks- 1

Where the number three came from, I don't know. But she's got points over me for sure.

"What's our relationship status?"

"Acquaintances."

"Acquaintances?"

"Yes."

"Oh, c'mon. How about almost friends? How about I sent you a friend request but you haven't accepted but you will soon?"

Emerson laughs again. Does making her laugh give me another point? If so, how do I keep making her laugh? Emerson's body gets pushed forward as someone attacks her from the back, wrapping his arms around her waist. "Hey, you," Asher said in her ear. She grabs his arms and moves away from him slightly. "Alright, Brooks?" he added, looking at me.

"Good. Thanks," I said, feeling slightly awkward. Emerson slides out of his hold but Ash wraps his arm around her shoulder. "Come back to my dorm with me," he told her. Did he forget we share a dorm? I was about to go back too. "Sure thing," Emerson shrugs and then they both look at me. I stare back until I realize. "Oh, go ahead. I'll be back in about an hour," I clear my throat.

Asher grins, smacking my arm lightly. "Thanks, lad." He pulls Emerson away after that but she turns to look at me and waves goodbye. A forced smile crosses my lips as she leaves with my roommate. For the first time today, I felt a sense of peace and then it was gone two minutes later. My phone rings in my back pocket and I grab it thinking Nola is calling back.

Only it's not Nola this time. It's my cousin Justus. He's my Aunt Maddy and Uncle Xander's son. He's a little over a year younger than me but we're really close. I haven't talked to him in a while honestly. Since I've already made the decision to ignore everyone back home, I don't answer his call, shoving my phone into my pocket again.

Mina and Kai are still at the library when I return but Rowan is nowhere to be found. "Where's Emmy?" Mina asked when I got back. "Uh, she left with Asher. I'm going to stay here for a little longer while they get their stuff done," I cringe at my words. The thought of them doing that isn't something I want to think of. Mina's face flushes lightly and Kai shakes his head. "Stay as long as you'd like."

I'm planning on it.
Being alone right now is the last thing I want.