Emily Rose

It was finally spring break and the air couldn't have been more clearer.

Parker and I were finally home after a long year of our senior year in college.

We still had to go back but it doesn't matter, it's still the last spring break we'll have before we have to enter the real world as full grown adults.

I still felt a pinch of sadness in my heart when I think about it.

That's me.

Parker... well, he's the opposite.

Yesterday, our old school decided to hold a bonfire to celebrate spring break. Parker and I were sitting in the back of his pickup truck, soda cans in our hands.

Parker couldn't stop talking about what he was going to do after college, or what he likes to call it "the shithole."

He was talking opening some business or whatever, I wasn't really paying attention. I was too busy staring at Tomas McCoy, some guy that used to go to high school with us until he decided to go to Nebraska for college. Many said that he had a crush on me, but I wasn't really paying attention at that time.

He stood next to the snack table, talking to a couple guys I didn't know. He had a bright smile on his face, his blond hair blew to the side from the wind. He wore a loose light blue shirt and a pair of jeans.

"Ugh, please don't tell me your not making googly eyes at Peter Pan?" Parker groaned, breaking me out of my trance. "Polar Bear,  you can do so much better than that."

Before I could think, my hand smacked his shoulder as he sat besides me, "stop it, okay." Parker gags and I laugh, "okay, look he's nice and kind and..." I dragged on, a smile on my lips.

"And... what?" Parker asked, bringing his opened soda can to his lips and taking a drink.

"And... hot, I guess, I don't know." I joked.

It was pure irony for myself, because the only person I could ever find hot was sitting beside me, drinking his soda.

Parker laughed, "oh, please. Yeah and I'm a fucking duck."

I laughed, too. "Oh, come on. Don't do that. He is. Okay?!"

Parker shakes his head and laughs again.

I scoff. "Serious. I'm being serious, okay." Parker kept on laughing, making the butterflies in my stomach to start to flutter around, I began to stare at Tomas some more. "Tomas McCoy is so hot, I'd probably love to lose my virginity to him." I joke around but right when I said that Parker's voice died.

That's when I actually turn towards Parker instead of watching him from the corner of my eye.

His smiling face has turned dark and emotionless. The now empty soda can is now crushed in his hands as if was nothing but simple paper.

"Parker?" I reach out to him but he moves away.

"No, no, Emily Rose. You can't do that, you can't give it to him, not him. I swear... I-" Parker stared out of space for a while before hopping off the back of the truck. "I'm goin' go get some more soda." He muttered under his breath before walking away from me and never returning until it was time to go.

I looked back up to where Tomas was to find him staring at me, his hazel-green eyes were bright as he smiled.

I brought my hand up and waved at him. In which he waved back.

Maybe... Tomas is hot.

*****

"OW! Okay! Okay! Okay!" I yelped as the curling iron burned my head.

"Sorry, if you would stop flinching then maybe I wouldn't burn your scalp." Cameron, Parker's older sister scolded me as she put the iron down on my vanity dresser and grabbed the brush, brushing out the newly formed curls.

Even though Cameron was Parker's older sister, she felt like she was mine too.

Cameron always wanted a little sister and I always wanted an older sister, so when I came into the picture Cameron and I bonded over our wants and we've been like this ever since. Cameron gives me relationship advice, while I allow her to dress me up; we do it all the time. For example; now.

"If it were up to me, I would go for Tomas. Dump my fucking sorry ass brother on his knees." She said.

I sigh, "you know I can't do that."

Cameron stops running the brush through my hair and glares at me through the glass of my vanity mirror.

"Listen here, Emmie Rose," Cameron light brown eyes sparks just like her brother's when she moves my newly curled hair down on my shoulders. "you are perfectly beautiful and my brother can't keep this all to himself. One day, you're going to go out in the real world and someone is going to notice you. Parker can't keep you on this leash and then pretend that you're 'just a friend', it's going to bite him in the ass one day and there is nothing he is going to be able do about it."

I laugh.

Parker keeping me on a lease, yeah right. More like I'm tying myself to the leash.

Cameron smiles and shakes her head. "I'm done," she steps  away from me, unplugging the curling iron, "go downstairs, you have guests." She said, referring to Spring Break party my mom held for all the kids that used to go to my old high school.

"Okay."

Right when I left my bedroom, I heard Cameron call after me. "Keep your hands outta your hair, you'll ruin my work!"

I laughed before shouting back an okay.

*****

My mom, Amanda Tate Shivers passed me the tray of drinks and waved me off with a simple "go serve our guests since you're not doing anything."

So here I am, walking around with a tray of drinks in my hand asking if anyone want something to drink.

So far no one is getting anything, they're making jokes with me about being a waitress and stuff.

I look around the crowded but lively living room, it was nice to see people bonding over simple things, like whose pool is the largest and things like that.

I walked around, scanning the faces of my previous high school classmates, making sure everyone was having a good time.

That's when I looked at the pool table in the corner to see him with her.

Parker stood by the pool table, he had a pool stick in his hand as he held brunette in his arms. He had a bright smile on his face as he talked to the guys around the pool table who I recognized to be some players who used to play football with Parker in high school.

The girl whispered in Parker's ear, which he bit his lip and began to send kisses down her next.

The brunette began to giggle and I could feel the bile coming up my throat.

Sharp tears began to sting my eyes as my legs began to shake.

Right before I feel like I'm going to clasps on the floor in tears, a hand placed itself on my shoulder.

"Hey Emily Rose?" A velvety, muscular voice asks me and I quickly turn around, ripping myself away from the horrific picture in front of me.

Oh my God!

"Tomas McCoy?!" I exclaimed, smiling wildly. "H-how? Um... w-when?"

He laughed, "I took a plane here last Saturday." He shaggy blond hair moves around his head as he smiles at me. "Well, I didn't come all the way here to talk about that, I need to tell you something."

I shrug happily, "shoot your shot."

He then looks around the room before shaking his head no, "sorry but this needs to be private," he then gestures to the space between us with his hand. "This is just between you and me. Can we talk outside?"

"Umm... sure, yeah." I said before putting the tray on the nearest table. "Yeah uh... let's go outside."

I said before leading him to the front door and out of the house.

We stood outside, near the opened garage in silence before Tomas cleared his throat.

"You must be wondering why I brought you out here." He started before biting his lip nervously.

"Tomas, if you have something you wanna say, just spit it out. I can take it." I told him and he smiled at me. "Thanks."

"Welcome, now say what you wanna say." 

"Okay, so I guess everyone has told you about my crush on you in high school, am I right." I asked and I nodded.

"Well during that pass 3 years— almost 4 — of my college life, I've tried multiple times to erase you from my mind, dating new and stuff." He said and I furrowed my eyebrows.

Why is he telling me this?

"When I came back from Nebraska, I was current all those feeling for you would disappear and be gone." He takes a deep shaky breath. "That is until I saw you at the store on Monday." He admits and a small gasp leaves my lips.

That was the day Mom forced me to go get food for party. I don't remember seeing him, maybe it was because I was on the phone with Parker the whole time.

"You were on the phone with someone in the bread aisle and I saw you. You were laughing about something and somehow all those feelings from high school resurfaced. I don't know how but they did." He explained before running his hand through his hair, "look what I'm trying to say is Emily Rose, I like you a lot and I'm not expecting you to like me now, but I am asking is that you give me a chance."

Oh, no. Oh my God, why did this have to happen to me.

A string of regret and sudden sadness hit me as I cleared my throat.

I'm sorry Tomas but I'm in love with someone else and o honk of you as a friend.

"Look Tomas-"

Just when I was about to reject Tomas, he leaned in and kissed me.

To all things holy...

Tomas soft lips caressed mine and I fell under a spell.

This was actually my first good kiss. All of my other kisses had came from horny boys in spin the bottle.
Nothing that I've had compared to this one.

Tomas' hand slipped to my lower back and the other slipped to the back of my neck, pulling me closer to him.

I wrapped my arms around his neck.

Just when I thought this kiss couldn't get better, Tomas, fingers slipped under my top. His fingertips pressed lightly into my back as he drew small gentle circles against my bare skin, adding delightful shocks into my body.

I broke the kiss to let out a airy gasp.

Tomas moved his lips and began to sprout delicate, small kisses down my neck.

My hands slipped into his shaggy hair before I yanked it as he began to kiss the sensitive part.

Tomas' hands fell to my waist and squeezed as his kisses lowered.

A gasp was about to escape my lips until a large slam sounded around us.

I snapped out of my trance quickly and pushed Tomas away from me, putting more space between us than there original was when we first got out here.

Tomas and I turned towards the open garage where the noise came from to see Parker.

A crushed soda box was destroyed across the garage, spilt soda from the box was all over the wall. Soda dropped from Parker's balled fists.

His dark brown eyes narrowed into crinkled slits, his jaw was clenched shut. The veins in his neck throbbed violently.

I was finally able to put two and two together. He saw what Tomas and I were doing and grabbed a soda box, throwing across the garage, destroying it and spilling it all over the floor.

The funny thing about all of this is that Parker didn't ever spare a look at Tomas, all he could do was glare at me. His eyes flashing with many different emotions, that somehow I still couldn't read.

Parker glared at me for a couple seconds before scoffing and storming back inside the house using the garage door.

Tomas' head turned to me, a look of confusion on his handsome face. "Is he always like that?"

I look at him for while before turning my attention towards the large, dripping soda stain on back wall of my garage.

I'd decided that Tomas asked to wrong question that day.

That question should have been was:

Why was he so mad?

*****

Hey guys!

So this chapter holds significances, sorry if it was a bit long, but it's important to show this.

The question Emily Rose asked will not be answered right away, it'll take time. Just a heads up.

Anyways, I hope you liked Chapter 1 of The Love That Is Parker Bowmen.

Remember don't forget to vote, comment and add to your library, if you want more!