Chapter 24 The Beginning (22)

ZACH'S POV

After Emily ran away she ran into the middle of the pillow fight so I would have to get involved in the pillow fight to get her back. I chuckled, what a sneaky girl. I decided to amuse her and join everyone else, I tried to make my way to where she stood by the couch. After a minute or two I started getting near her and she tried to run and dodge from me. We chased each other around and avoided the others pillows for a little while before I caught up to her.

When I got close she tripped and we both fell. Luckily we were by the couch, but I fell on top of her. When it happened, I feel as if time slowed down, I focused on Emily's face and saw her up close for the first time. She was as stunned as I was, her beautiful blue eyes were wide open giving me a chance to see them better. Her mouth was slightly parted and her cheeks were rosy and flushed because of the pillow fight and our close proximity. She looked surprised, flushed, and unsure about what would happen next.

I didn't know what would happen next and I was surprised by the turn of events, but I kind of liked the intimate position we were in and I liked that she hadn't recovered from the shock yet and that Emily hadn't pushed me away yet. I wished I could continue to stare into her eyes, but I noticed our situation and surroundings and realized that this was not the best timing. So I sat up, offered her my hand, and said, "I didn't think you'd be falling for me just yet, I must be quite a charmer."

I then watched her collect herself as quickly as she could and as she kept her voice steady and tried to ignore her blushing cheeks, she said, "As expected of you, I should have known you would find opportunities to tease me, Mr. Popular Flirt."

I laughed, "What does me being considered popular have to do with this? Is it a big deal?" I asked.

She looked down and quietly said, "Never mind." I wondered about what she said for a moment and decided that I would figure if out another time.

Then Lizzie shouted, "Alright, stop!! This pillow fight was fun and all, but let's get back to dealing with our sleeping situation." And everybody calmed down.

Emily and I stood up from the couch and walked over to where Lizzie and Zane were standing. The air mattress had been blown up and sheets were put on it so it was ready for whomever used it. In the living room there was the air mattress which two people could sleep on comfortably, a couch which one people could sleep on comfortably, and a loveseat that one person could sleep on. Lizzie and Zane were going to sleep upstairs in Lizzie's room (don't worry, there will be no baby-making yet) and there was also a guest room downstairs that had a large couch. The matter as to who slept in the living room versus who slept in the guest room hadn't been figured out yet, but everyone started to get ready for bed.

I didn't see my over night bag where I had originally put it so I asked Zane and found out that he had put it in the spare bedroom. When I went into the spare bedroom I noticed Emily was also in there squatting on the ground and going through her bag. I walked behind her over to my bag and said, "I didn't notice you putting your bag in here when we arrived."

She turned around and replied by saying, "That's because I didn't, Lizzie told me she had moved my bag into here."

"Oh", I replied, "Zane moved my bag into here also."

"Huh" was all Emily said before picking up her pajamas, tooth brush, tooth paste, and brush and walking to the door of the guest bedroom.

When she tried to open the door it didn't open so she turned around to face me and asked, "Did you lock or jam the door?"

"No" I answered and then went to try to open the door myself.

I couldn't open the door so I hit it twice with my hand and asked whoever was messing with us to open the door. I heard some giggles from outside the door and Monica said, "We decided that you and Emily can sleep in the guest bedroom tonight. There is a bathroom, a bed, a tv, and your things so you guys will be fine. There are also extra blankets in the closet, or you guys could just cuddle up with each other we would be fine with either option." Then even more laughter was heard.

Emily got mad and banged on the door a few times with her fist, she then yelled, "Come on guys, stop joking around and let us out. I'm not in the mood for jokes, I just wanna go to bed. Why are you even doing this?"

"You can go to bed" Terra replied casually, "You will just sleep in there with Zane. We are doing this because we think you guys should get to know each other and you wouldn't agree if we had asked you." As she was speaking Emily's phone vibrated.

Emily groaned and went to look at her phone. She looked at her phone for a minute and then turned red, she said, "You guys are ridiculous. This is absolutely crazy. I am just fine and doubt that this would ever happen, why bother me of all people?!"

I was confused, outside the door everyone was quiet so I turned to Emily questionably. She looked at me and sighed before, saying, "Here" and showing me a text from Lizzie. It read, 'We think that you and Zane should get to know each other better. He seems pretty cool and interested in you, he is definitely your type and you guys would be a cute couple. It is time you got a boyfriend.'

As I read the message I smirked, I looked up at Emily and saw her cute blushing face. I laughed, "So that is what this is about. You guys locked us in here because you thought that we would be a cute couple. You thought that we would spend time with each other and I would make a move?" I laughed again, "I mean, I'm not opposed."

Emily quickly looked up at me with a confused expression, "What do you mean? They locked us in here with intentions for us to get together and you don't care at all?" She asked.

"Not really, I don't mind."

Emily was obviously still confused but I didn't intend to tell her that I was interested in her and actually liked the idea of being in the same room together tonight. She looked around fuming for a few seconds before throwing a defeated look towards the coach. "But the only place to sleep is the one couch."

Monica laughed, "We know" she said, "But it's big enough for the both of you. You could always try laying in his arms if you wanted more space for your feet or if you got cold."

Emily gasped and exclaimed, "How you be so shameless when none of you have boyfriends either and you are openly telling me to sleep in the arms of someone who I just met earlier this week. You guys are selling me out."

I smirked again and said to Emily, "I am ok with us sleeping in the couch together. There is enough space and I would reject you sleeping on my arms either."

Dilla quickly said, "See Emily, everything will work out just fine. We will see you in the morning, Good Night!" And then the girls outside the door ran off.

Emily narrowed her eyes at me and scowled. "Can't you be serious for once? Do you really need to act like this all the time. Must you always act like a 'Popular Flirt'?"

I stopped smirking and earnestly said, "I was being dead serious about everything I said just now." I watched as her scowl disappeared and instead her facial expressions turned into a look of surprise and her cheeks and ears turned light pink.

She looked at the door and sighed, she then grabbed some clothes and started walking towards the closet. As she was about to open the closet door, I asked her what she was doing. She gave me a quick glance and said, "They obviously aren't going to let us out of the room anytime soon so I am going to get comfortable in my pajamas. I will change in the closet and you can change in here, tell me when you are done and we can figure this out a bit", before walking into the closet and shutting the door.

I quickly put on a pair of shorts and a white t-shirt and told Emily I was done changing. As I was changing I wondered why she called me popular a few times. I guess I would be considered popular, even though it seems like such a silly matter, but I wondered why it seems to matter to her. She then walked out of the closet wearing a pair of cloth shorts and a black tank top. She looked dangerously pretty and didn't seem to know that. After she walked out of the closet she stopped walking and for a few moments we just stared at each other in awkward silence. She then said, "I had no idea of the weird plan my friends made and I definitely am not ok with it. However, seeing that we are probably going to be stuck in here for the rest of the night, I will use some extra blankets from the closet and can sleep on the floor while you sleep on the couch."

I raised my eyebrow. Was it such a terrible thing for her to be in here with me? Does she disgust the idea of sleeping on the couch with me so much that she will sleep on the hardwood floor? I thought girls liked to snuggle up, don't girls like cuddling with friends?

"I thought that you are supposed to make me sleep on the floor, don't you want to sleep on the couch? I thought you would make me sleep on the floor out of 'chivalry' because as the guy I should sleep on the floor." I said.

She walked to the closet and said, "I am not like most girls New Boy, I am also not arrogant enough to force you to sleep on the floor. We are both stuck in this situation and our gender doesn't really affect who sleeps on the floor and who doesn't. Plus I've slept on a floor before."

"Alright," I said, "Can you not stand the idea of sleeping on the same couch as me? It's alright for friends to do stuff like that."

She looked at me and sighed, she looked a little uncomfortable with the topic. "It is alright for friends to do things like that but.... no offense, but I haven't known you very long and you are really my only guy friend so I would be uncomfortable. It's unnecessary."

"Wait," I asked, "You don't have any other guy friends? What about a boyfriend, haven't you cuddled with your boyfriend before?"

She looked down before replying, "No I don't have any other guy friends, unless you would consider Zane. And no, I have never had a boyfriend." She then looked up at me as if she was expecting me to tease her.

I was shocked that she told me that. I never thought about her never having a boyfriend or guy friends before. Those things are considered normal in a human school. But I didn't tease her, "Oh, I didn't know that." Was all I said.

We then worked on making the bed on the floor together and talked for a while.

•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~•~~~• Later That Night.

Emily and I had been talking for some time about all kinds of random things we made each other laugh a lot. I actually learned a lot about her, like other than singing and hanging with friends, she plays softball, loves going to the beach, and likes drawing (Though I am one of the only people that know that apparently). All of a sudden my phone started ringing. I looked at my phone and saw that someone was face timing me on my *Snapkat* app. I didn't recognize the username but I picked up and faced the screen to the ceiling. Then I saw three girls from school show up. When I showed my face they all squealed and giggled and said Hi at the same time. I glanced at Emily who rolled her eyes and mouthed `Go Ahead` and then took out her phone.

We had a conversation for a little while and I found out their names were Cora, Skye, and Elly. They also somehow got my account from some guy at school. I noticed how Emily distanced herself and how she never chimed in or anything. After about 20 minutes or so I was able to get off the video call with them and I turned towards Emily. I was about to say something when she asked, "Are you done with your call?"

I nodded and once again, before I could say anything she said, "Ok well let's get ready and go to sleep, I'm tired."

"Ok" I said. I wondered why she was acting different now than she was acting earlier.

After we got settled I noticed that it was unusually cold. I got up to check the closet for extra blankets and realized that there had only been two extra blankets, which Emily was using for her bed on the floor. Emily also noticed that it was getting colder and she got up to check the temperature on the air conditioning. "What the heck?! It says that it is set for 60! We never set the air conditioner below 65 and it isn't even that hot out. The air conditioning system won't even let me change the temperature, it is being set by the main unit. The girls must be pranking us." She exclaimed.

She then went on, "It is already 64 degrees in here, Why would they do this? Do they want us to get hypothermia?"

I just remained silent. I think I know why they did this, and Emily probably does too but she doesn't want to acknowledge it. Instead I asked her, "Would you like to sleep on the couch, I'd be fine sleeping on the floor." Which is true, I wouldn't get cold.

She just shook her head and laid back down on the floor. "No thank you."

I shook my head and sat back on the couch before saying, "Alright."

half an hour later it was officially 60 degrees in the room and I could see that Emily was quietly shivering. She wasn't going to say anything so I said, "Emily you are obviously cold, come sleep on the couch and off the cold ground."

She shook her head and replied, "No thank you. I know you are trying to help but I'm fine."

I was tired of her acting like she was fine and I lost my temper a bit. "Emily you are not fine, I can see you shivering and the ground is probably the coldest place to sleep in this room. Come sleep on the couch before you turn blue." I argued.

"I'm fine Zach," she snapped. I grinned, it looked like she wasn't going to agree to the easy way.

I got up from the couch and walked towards her. She looked up at me warily and I smirked. I then bent down and in one quick swoop I picked her and the blankets up into my arms. She shrieked and wrapped her arms around me so she wouldn't fall as I cradled her, "Put me down Zach!" She yelled.

I laughed, "You were being stubborn and wouldn't get on the couch willingly so I will make sure you don't freeze to death. Your Welcome."

I then sat on the couch and as she kept struggling and smacking me, I laid down on the couch and covered us with the blankets. She froze in shock which gave me enough time to readjust my arms around her. She became tense and looked up at me pleading, "Is this necessary? I promise I will sleep on the couch if you let go of me."

I shook my head apologetically, "No can do beautiful, I don't believe you. Plus this way you will stay warmer." I was really enjoying this.

She turned away from me and I could see her ears were flushed. Her body was still really tense. "Beautiful? That's a new one. I promise I won't sleep on the floor again, this is a little.... um---" I cut her off.

"Awkward? Uncomfortable?" I asked and paused for a moment. She didn't respond.

"Do I make you uncomfortable?" I whispered hoarsely in her ear.

She shivered, "No, actually, you don't. But this whole situation is weird to me, I'm not used to this. I don't know how to explain it."

I really wanted to ask her, 'Not used to being held in someone's arms, or not used to feeling emotions that you are feeling right now?' But I didn't want to make things worse. So instead I said, "It's ok. Just try to relax, I'm not going to do anything. Trust me."

After I said that she glanced up at me and slowly her body started to relax. She relaxed into my arms and leaned back onto my chest. I let out a content sigh. We stayed in this position for a while before I wrapped my hands around her waist, nuzzled my face into the crook of her neck, pulled her closer to me, and said, "Earlier I called you beautiful because you are, and anyone can see that."

She sucked in a breath of air before mumbling, "Well there's a first time for everything." She paused then said a little louder, "You're not so bad looking yourself Mr. Popular."

I smiled against her neck and drifted off to sleep for a while. A few hours later I woke up when Emily started sitting up. I rubbed my face and asked, "What are you doing?"

She had gotten off the couch by this time and looked down at me, "I didn't mean to wake you up, I'm sorry. I'm going to use the bathroom." She said.

I nodded and laid back down. A few moments later the room was flashed with red and blue lights and a loud siren was going off. All I heard were Emily's screams.