Lace's POV --- meeting Em

Lace's POV

Tonight was going perfectly. We had it planned out and everything was going along smoothly. I should have been looking around and thinking about how great this was. My chest should have been swelled with pride and with one look everyone would know we pulled it off. But I was walking around looking for Nick.

He had to be here. But there was so many people this endeavor was proving hopeless. I took out my phone texting him. 'where are you?'

Knowing Nick he was passed out on the roof or asleep in the bathroom or taking acid somewhere in my basement. My theories were all far-fetched but all of them were possible when it came to Nick. But the ext I got in a few minutes was something I had never considered. 'smoking w/this girl in the left starboard room- join us'

He simply found a girl. I sighed and tucked my phone into my pocket heading up the stairs. I should have texted him saying I didn't want to be a third wheel, but I figured it was best. I headed upstairs. Anxiety was getting the worst of me to come out full blast.

I knew exactly what room he took her to. I headed towards it knocking once. "Secret knock!" Nick yelled.

I sighed and started doing the "Secret Knock" which was just the beat of a Journey song. When I stopped I heard him answer. "I'm sorry that's incorrect- get the hell out." Typical. I opened the door and peaked my head in.

"Asshole," I said. I looked and saw a girl sitting near him passing him a newly lit joint. She was skinny and had long wavy brown hair. Nick took it from her looking back at me. "You didn't play the beat to 'Don't Stop Believing.'" He said waving his hand like it was obvious. He went on talking but I lost it shutting the door behind me and locking it.

I walked across the room. The girl took notice of me for the first time. She looked at me up and down as I sat down across from her. I looked at Nick who was inhaling the joint carefully before handing it over to me. "Hi," I said. I looked at Nick waiting for him to say something. He usually jumped into this type of thing. He looked at me steadily. What the hell was he doing?

I looked at the girl. "This is my asshole friend who isn't going to introduce me who I assume you're already acquainted with." I pointed at Nick. "My name's Lace."

"Hi," She said smiling. "My name's Emily."


Emily. She was pretty. Not the normal kind of pretty that you see all the girls in my school trying to look like. She was really pretty actually. Nick always got the pretty girls. I don't know why. "Like the poet," He added.

I looked at Nick. Perry totally said something like that, he really dug her poetry last year. "I am nobody, who are you?" I started reciting.

"Are you nobody too? Then that's a pair of us- don't tell..."

I smiled and looked at Emily who was blinking thoughtfully looking at me. She didn't know what I was talking about. Most people don't know Emily Dickenson. She's only underrated because of Sylvia Plath. I smiled at Emily. "Emily Dickenson," I said. Then I looked at Nick. "Perry said that right?"

He smiled laughing. "Yeah," He said.

I looked at Emily. "It's a compliment," I said. "At least in my books." I leaned over shaking her hand. She did looking at me steadily. "It's nice to meet you."

She nodded smiling. She had a nice smile. "You too," She said softly. She had big green eyes. They were the green that didn't make a big deal out of themselves. I moved back and Nick pushed the joint at me again. I took a hit. I never got why girls liked him so much. He hooked up with more girls than any of our friends. But that's just because he was Nick.

Nick looked at me again and I passed it over to Nick who took a hit again. "We were just discussing our newly acquired hobbies," He said.

"Really?" I looked over at Emily.

"Yeah," Nick said. "I told her how I'm learning German." We were just screwing around. A lot of people take us seriously. I don't know why they do. It's weird because I would never take someone like me seriously. Even our friends don't catch on. It's just me and Nick going back and forth most of the time picking someone apart.

He passed the joint to Emily. She was really pretty actually. I kept looking at her when she didn't notice. We all talked. She laughed a lot. She had a nice laugh. Nick got out another joint and we passed it back and forth until I stopped. Emily stopped a little while after.

She was cute. She was friendly and fit in. She didn't laugh nervously at jokes. She didn't squeeze her neck like it was about to burst open. She didn't make awkward uneccessary comments. Nick played around with her a lot but suddenly she started catching on. He would look over at me sometimes. I don't know why but after a while he was getting really stoned.

"My ass hurts," He said. "Come on," He said. He got up and walked over sitting on the couch. I looked at Emily who was getting up and doing the same. So I followed. I sat down near her. I don't know if it was because Nick was really stoned but we started talking a lot more. Me and Emily did. I didn't know how but all of a sudden we were just talking about anything.

Nick kept looking over making eye-contact with me. He kept smiling at me in a really dazed way. He was really fucked up. I didn't know what kind of weed that was but it was nice. Emily was nice. Emily was really funny and cute and pretty.

We had a lot in common. Her smile was so nice too. She smiled a lot more than girls usually do. I loved her smile. What got me most was that she wasn't even trying. It was awful. I was a shitty friend. She was Nick's. He got to her first.

I started to like Emily.