Dug this out of my old notes: Emily's first emergence in the story.

Nick's POV

I mean, a lot of kids think that they're in love when they really aren't. It's the kids who don't think they're in love that really do fall in love. I've told a lot of girls I've loved them, because to a point you really do love them all. That love goes away because you move on from it all. The reason I'm saying all this when you probably expect me to go on and on about Lace's life is because I'm really jealous of him. Not just, you know, he's cool and everything and I wish I was just like him. But because he never really realizes how lucky he was.

Her name was Emily- Em, we called her. I met her one random night when we had a party. It took me a little while but once Lace and her met I figured it out long before they did. They talked so much that night. The whole night they talked. I wasn't sitting there when they were, but I wish I had because when we talk about Em, he always says how perfect that conversation was.

Em was a one in a million. She was grogeous, she was smart, and she was just in time. When he's tired sometimes he'll tell me about her. I like hearing about him and Em. He's not bull-shitting anything when it comes to her and she did the same from the start. If there is such a thing as love when you're eighteen, Lace and Em have found it.

I don't wait for some hot chick to come down the street asking me for the time or something. I'm just waiting for my Emily. I don't tell Lace how jealous I am of his stories. He talks about the nights where they snuck out and sat by the lakes in the summer and talked until the sun started rising. He talks about how he gets this weird feeling of weakness when he thinks about her.

I look forward to all of that. But I'm trusting that Lace isn't bull-shitting me. I know he isn't. Because what he has with Em is always so real. * **** **** **** ******* ** ****, ****** **** ***** ********* ******* ***'* ****** ** ******* ****** *** ******.