Emery looked out over the water and listened to the waterfall crash into the surface. The view would usually calm her down, but today she fidgeted nervously. It was chilly outside and she regretted not wearing a sweater or jeans. She’d fussed over her outfit, struggling with whether or not she should try to look more grown up. But she didn’t want to look like she was trying too hard and wasn’t sure what exactly she was trying to achieve in the first place, so she went with her lilac blouse and jean shorts. It was her usual go-to, practical and pretty. It was as good as any choice for today’s trip to the Falls.
‘What is taking her so long?’ she wondered impatiently. ‘Probably his fault…’
Her fingers tugged a loose thread on the hem of her shirt and she felt the seam contract.
‘Calm down,’ she urged herself as she tried to stretch the hem back to its regular length.
“You alright?” she heard a familiar voice ask from behind her. Rukiya had finally arrived.
“Y-yeah,” Emery sputtered. “Sorry, just feeling a bit off lately.”
Rukiya smiled sympathetically. “You seem a bit nervous about this.”
Emery looked down at her feet.
“We’re always going to be friends, you know,” Rukiya said, lightly touching her hand to Emery’s arm. “You don’t need to be worried.”
Emery’s heart sank. ‘What if I want to be more than friends?’ she wanted to ask.
Instead she said, “You don’t need to baby me. I’m 15, not a child.” It came out more sharply than she intended.
“I didn’t mean—”
“No, sorry, you weren’t…” Emery trailed off and changed the subject. “So, where is he?”
“Shaun should be here any minute,” Rukiya replied. “I wanted you to be the first to meet him, but I also wanted to make sure you were okay with that, first.”
‘Why wouldn’t I be okay with it?’ Emery thought, but resisted the urge to snap at her again. She didn’t want Rukiya to feel bad, and didn’t entirely understand why this bothered her so much in the first place. It’s not like Rukiya knew how she felt about her… How could she, when Emery herself was confused?
“I don’t want you to feel like having Shaun in my life means that you’re a smaller part of it,” Rukiya smiled. “You’re like a sister to me, Em, and no boyfriend is going to change that.”
The word cut like a knife in such an unfamiliar way. In some ways, Rukiya did feel like a sister to Emery as well, didn’t she? Still, ‘sister’ didn’t feel like the best word for what Emery wanted. But what did she want? Right now, she wanted her head to stop spinning.
Rukiya’s smile faded. “Are you okay, Em? You’re not going to lose me, okay?”
Emery struggled to find a way to respond. She didn’t know what she wanted to say, but all the words she knew where somehow stuck in her throat. Would she be able to respond? ‘Plum, this feels like such a mess. Just SAY something… tell her…tell her—something.’
Emery raised her arms, about to speak. She still wasn’t sure what was going to come out of her mouth.
“I—” she stuttered. “I know I’m not going to lose you, Rukiya… I just…”
Before she could find more words, a big lemon of a sedan pulled up the road. The young women looked over as a man with caramel-colored skin emerged from the driver’s side. Emery looked up at Rukiya to find she was beaming at him.
‘She seems happy,’ Emery thought. ‘Why does that annoy me so much? Isn’t it good if she’s happy?’
“Emery,” Rukiya announced as the man approached. “This is Shaun Kiffle, the guy who will be moving in with me.”
Shaun was smiling, too, but he scoffed at the introduction. “Well, I’m not sure about that yet.”
‘At least moving in together isn’t a sure thing,’ Emery thought, knowing the idea of Rukiya living with a man shouldn’t bother her so much. Would she feel the same way if she was just being protective of a friend?
Shaun reached out a hand and Emery shook it.
“Emery Tevellyn,” she said flatly.
“Nice to meet you,” he replied.
Emery felt like something was off about him. ‘Give him a chance,’ she told herself. ‘Rukiya likes him, isn’t that enough to give him 5 minutes before judging him?’
After a brief but awkward silence, Emery made herself ask, “So, you live in Bridgeport?”
“Yeah,” Shaun smiled. He seemed thankful that someone else spoke up. “And you grew up here? Must’ve been an, uh, interesting experience?”
“I don’t really have anything to compare it to, but I guess so,” Emery replied. “I assume you know my parents have a garden, since Rukiya works with us?”
“She mentioned it,” Shaun smiled at his girlfriend. “She’s very fond of your family. Really likes it here.”
“And you like it in the city?” Emery asked.
“Heh, yeah,” Shaun began hesitantly.
“Shaun’s a photographer,” Rukiya explained, beaming. “I’ve been trying to get him out here more to see how beautiful it is – it’s why I wanted to meet here at the Falls.” She looked at Shaun, “I’m sure you could really focus on your art here.”
Shaun looked uneasy. “There’s not a lot of money in ‘focusing on your art,’” he said. “I work as a paparazzi,” he added, glancing back at Emery.
Emery nodded. “Not a lot of celebrities out here to snoop on,” she smiled.
Shaun returned the smile. “No,” he chuckled. “And speaking of which, I’m really sorry—I can’t actually stay in town as long as I’d hoped.”
“Oh?” Rukiya asked with a frown.
“Some up-and-comer sent a last-minute RSVP to this club event,” he sighed dismissively. “Wish I could skip it, but a good shot could be worth a few hundred ‘oleans.”
“Of course, don’t worry about it,” Rukiya said, although clearly disappointed.
“We can swing by your lot, though, if you want? I can take photos to pass on to the architect?” Shaun added as consolation.
“Sure,” she replied with a half-hearted smile.
“Great,” he said. “I’ll wait in the car while you say goodbye. It was nice to meet you.”
With that, he walked back towards the road.
“Nice guy,” Emery said sarcastically once he was out of earshot.
“He is, once you get to know him,” Rukiya said softly. “Sorry, Emery, there was supposed to be time for that today.”
“It’s okay.”
“It doesn’t seem okay.”
Emery walked around Rukiya towards a better fishing spot in the lake. “You should go,” she said quietly. “He’s waiting for you.”
“Emery—”
“It’s okay,” she said, looking back at Rukiya. She had a sad look in her eyes that Rukiya hadn’t seen before. “Just go. We’ll catch up later.”
Rukiya sighed and headed towards Shaun’s grey sedan. It bothered her that Emery still seemed unsettled by her relationship with Shaun. ‘Is she worried about things changing, or is something else bothering her?’ she wondered. She hoped her relationship with Shaun wouldn’t cause them to grow apart. She opened the passenger side door and glanced back at the Falls. Emery had already cast her line and didn’t look like she’d turn to wave goodbye.
‘Maybe it’s just teenage angst,’ Rukiya sighed as she got into the car.
“Everything okay?” Shaun asked.
“I’m not sure,” she replied sadly.
Shaun started up the old sedan and began driving down the hill towards town.
“Sorry we couldn’t spend more time with your friend Emily,” he said.
“Emery,” Rukiya corrected. “It’s alright. She wasn’t in a great mood anyway.”
“Right, Emery, sorry… Does sound like someone with a speech impediment trying to say Emily, though.”
“Don’t be a dick!” Rukiya snapped, shoving his arm.
“Plum, sorry, you’d think I insulted your mother or something,” Shaun rolled his eyes. “She’s just some kid.”
Rukiya glared at him, hoping he could feel her annoyance even if he was too busy focusing on the road to see it.
“She’s not ‘just some kid,’” she grumbled. “She’s like a sister to me, so don’t be an ass. Plus, she’s a teenager, but she’s really not that much younger than me. She’s closer in age to me than she is to her two youngest brothers.”
“That’s because people who live way out in places like this have way too many kids over way too long,” Shaun retorted. “Isn’t their youngest, like, a baby? And the oldest is a teenager? That’s too much of a gap for a planned pregnancy between the same parents, in my books.”
“Sure, the oldest and youngest are like 13 years apart, but I think it’s great for Bridget and Altman. Having two little ones is helping them stay young in a lot of ways. And they needed to take the break because they were focused on expanding their house first,” Rukiya explained. “Take the next right,” she added.
Shaun did as he was instructed but glanced in the opposite direction, towards the boarding house.
“Your new place will be between the boarding house and your work then, that’s good at least,” he commented, trying to change the subject.
“Yeah,” Rukiya agreed. “It’s another right up here, the lot is up the street from the community garden.”
They sat in silence for a moment until Rukiya gave her last directions, “It’s the first lot on the right, at the curve in the road.”
Shaun slowed down. “By the weird cat sign?” he asked.
“Sorry I didn’t remove the old road signs before buying the property,” she huffed. “Can you just park?”
“So touchy today,” Shaun sighed. “Just have no idea why they’d need a plummy weird cat sign.”
Shaun maneuvered the car to park partly on the sidewalk and grass across the street from Rukiya’s new lot. The mailboxes and municipality-issued garbage bins were strangely aligned near the property lines, but he decided to keep his mouth shut since Rukiya was already annoyed.
They climbed out of the vehicle and walked over. Rukiya turned and pointed down the street.
“See? You can see the community garden from here,” she smiled. “Most of this side is public land, including the white picket fence area, I think. So the only neighbors will be on the other side. It’ll be a quiet, dead-end street, but right next to downtown.”
‘Quiet dead-end is right,’ Shaun thought. Again, he thought better of voicing that opinion. Instead, he turned back to the lot. “So your property starts by the mailbox and goes..?”
“It extends from by the mailbox back towards that fence, it ends maybe 10 or 20 feet short of it,” Rukiya proudly explained. “Then it extends along that line to make it square. Some of the lot doesn’t go right to the road’s edge, where it curves. It’s perfectly square. That means I can plant some trees ‘round that side for added privacy.”
‘Who in the world would you need privacy from out here?’ Shaun wondered. ‘Is she delusional enough to believe that many more people will actually move out here?’
Still, he followed her lead as she toured him around the square patch of grass. ‘It’s level, at least,’ he observed. ‘Should make the build easier.’
“So what do you think?” Rukiya asked cheerfully. “It’s perfect for me, right?”
Shaun hesitated, but knew what he was supposed to say. “It’s great,” he agreed. “I’ll get my camera bag from the car and take a few shots for you.”
Rukiya’s smile widened and she kissed him lightly. “Thank you!” she exclaimed. “I knew you’d like it!”
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