"What did you get for number 7?" Michelle asked me, peeking over at my math worksheet. "I swear," I muttered, handing her my worksheet. "You and Emmett need to step it up." "How ever did I survive without you?" she cooed, reaching over and kissing my cheek. "I hate you." "Speaking of Emmett," Michelle said, as she copied my answers, "did you talk to him last night?" "No," I said, with a dramatic sigh. "He had to work late." "Get used to it darling," she said, handing me my math worksheet back. "Emmett always has to work late. He's the best mechanic at the shop. I won't let anybody else touch my car." "That's just because you think he's hot." "Well yeah," Michelle agreed, "but also because he's the best of the best." I tuned into Hannah's monologue about her dream last night, where Michelle apparently was eaten by a dinosaur, half paying attention while my eyes flittered around the campus. And then my vision went dark, two hands over my eyes. I let out a scream, startled. "Good morning," Emmett said, chuckling as he came into my view. "Asshole," I confirmed. "Would an asshole bring you breakfast?" he asked, producing a Panera bread cinnamon cluster and smoothie. "Wonderful asshole," I corrected, taking my breakfast from him. "How's my car?" Hannah asked him. "The Honda Civic right?" Emmett asked her, sipping on his Panera smoothie. She nodded, smiling at him. It was very clear that she had no interest in her car. "Finished it up last night," he said, with a smile in return. "You should get a call this morning." "Really?" He nodded, looking over his shoulder as some soccer jocks called for him. "Emmett!" I called, hopping up from the table and following him as he went to join his friends. "What's up?" he asked, raising his eyebrows at me. "Do you have to work tonight?" He nodded. "Are you coming home after practice?" "For like ten minutes, why?" "Just wondering." "Okay," he agreed, slowly. "Are you sure?" "Is there ever a night that you don't work?" He laughed. "Tomorrow night." "You have a game." "Well that's the tradeoff." I shook my head. "You shouldn't work so much." "If I want to afford my car payments, it's not really an option." Right, because he'd splurged on that stupid Mercedes. "Okay," I agreed, nodding towards his soccer friends. "Are you sure there's nothing else you wanted?" I shook my head. "Nothing right now." And before he could ask any more questions, I headed back over to my friends, who were gushing about Emmett. Why couldn't my brother be a comic book nerd? ~*~ "You basically have the apartment to yourself every afternoon," Michelle said, pulling out my early-release We The Kings vinyl, Somewhere Somehow. "Every afternoon," I agreed. "The boys either have practice or a game." Not that I'd ever admit this out loud, but it got kind of lonely around here, which is why I invited Michelle over. "I'm so jealous that you actually have this," Michelle said, flipping my vinyl cover for Somewhere Somehow in her hands. "It doesn't suck all the time to have powerful parents," I said, reaching over and taking my vinyl cover from her. It had been a Yay You're Almost Done With Rehab gift from my mom. "Alright, let's get to work," Michelle said, plopping down on the couch next to me and pulling out her laptop. "I'm emailing you my paper now for you to edit," I said, running my fingers through my hair. "You already wrote it?" "Yeah, it's due tomorrow?" "I literally hate you." I rolled my eyes, shaking my head. "It only took me an hour at most." "That's because you're a whiz at AP Comp," she muttered, opening up a blank Word document. I leaned back into the couch, letting the words of We The Kings wash over me as I waited for Michelle to complete her paper. "How do you spell definitely?" "How are you using it in context?" I asked, opening my eyes. "This is most definitely the best-" "No. You can't use your white girl slang in your AP Comp paper." "This is why you're my Editor," she sang. I couldn't help but chuckle, propping my feet up on the coffee table. "I'm going to read your paper first," she informed me, opening up my email. "For inspiration." Ladies and gentleman, I present to you Michelle, the ultimate procrastinator. While Michelle was editing my paper, the apartment door opened, and Parker came in. "Where's Emmett?" I asked him. "Practice isn't over yet," he informed me, tossing his keys on the counter. He was still dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, indicating that he hadn't gone to practice. "Why didn't you go to practice?" I asked, letting my curiosity get the best of me. "What are you, my mom?" he asked me, rolling his eyes before heading back his room. "I literally don't know how you live in the same apartment as that boy," Michelle groaned. "What do you mean?" "All I want to do is rip his shirt off and lick his abs." "Oh my God, I'm going to pretend like you didn't just say that." "Oh come on," she said, poking me. "Don't pretend like he isn't drool-worthy." "Parker Adams?" I couldn't help but laugh. "Gross." She gave me a knowing look before emailing me back my now edited paper. While I waited for Michelle to finish writing hers, Parker came back into the kitchen, taking the orange juice out of the refrigerator. "Pig," I muttered, as he drank it straight from the carton. Parker just smirked at me, clearly hearing what I'd said. "The sexual tension is overwhelming," Michelle announced, with a sigh. "Just kiss already." I rolled my eyes, reaching over and turning up the auxiliary on the record player a couple of notches. Parker stared at Michelle, dumbfounded. "She doesn't have a filter," I informed Parker, as Michelle emailed me her now completed paper. "You get used to it." Parker muttered something to himself, too low for either one of us to hear, before sliding the orange juice back into the refrigerator. And then the theme song for the show Workaholics went off. I looked around the room, along with Michelle, trying to figure out where it was coming from. "Hello?" Parker asked, answering his phone. He listened for a few moments and immediately straightened up, running his fingers through his hair. "I just there," Parker argued, heading back towards his bedroom. "Hold on." He took his phone off his ear, pressing his hand over the speaker. "Turn that shit down," he ordered to Michelle and me before slamming his bedroom door. Michelle raised her eyebrows at me, to which I shrugged. I'd probably be the last person to ask about Parker Adams's personal life. ~*~ "Can we talk?" I asked Emmett, joining him in the kitchen. "We have six minutes," he said, with a smile. "So I wasn't sure how I was going to bring this up to you." The smile fell off his face. "But then I realized that we have an open-relationship, and I shouldn't be nervous about talking to you." "This conversation is making me want to shit my pants," Emmett informed me. I laughed, shaking my head. "While I was in London, I learned about healthy living. That's no secret." "Right," he agreed, leaning against the counter. "And one of the things involved in healthy living is working out. That's no secret either." "Right," he agreed, a little slower this time. "So I'm going to start going to the gym with Michelle a couple of times a week." I didn't get an answer this time. But I didn't really expect to either. "No." I couldn't help but smile. "Okay," Emmett relented, smiling as well. "That wasn't what I meant to say." "Good to know." "I need time to adjust." I nodded. "Emily..." he trailed off with a sigh. "Just say it," I said, with a nod. "Rip it like a band-aid. I'm a big girl; I promise I can handle it." "I'm going to say this once and then we're going to move on." "Right," I agreed. "It's no secret that we have absentee parents." Okay, that's not where I saw this conversation going. "Right," I agreed, raising an eyebrow at him. "Growing up it was always just the two of us, making us close. And then us being twins adds to that." I nodded in agreement. "And then I almost lost you." Okay, this is more the direction I saw this conversation going. But even so, I felt my stomach clench. "That phone call from Daniel and the rush to the hospital and everything that happened was probably the worst day of my life. And then you were shipped off for a year and that was pretty awful too, because I didn't get to see you and I knew that you were suffering alone. And I now knew that you had been suffering alone for months." I really hope this story was coming to an end soon, because I was already crying. "So my whole point to this is that I know that you're trying to be health-conscious, and I can respect that, but I need you to understand that I'm going to need an adjustment period." And then he wrapped me up in his arms, because I was practically crying my eyes out, squeezing me tight. "Did any of that make sense?" he asked me, still hugging me. I didn't even bother to answer because I was too busy sniffling into his work uniform. "I'm cool with you going to the gym with Michelle a couple of times a week," Emmett continued, still keeping his arms around me. "Just don't ice me out like before."