“I saw Emma last night,” Travis confessed.
He showed up on my doorstep Saturday, soaked to the bone, looking lost. It had started pouring buckets and buckets of rain early in the morning, pelting the roof in a rain dance. I had every light on in the house and it still didn’t chase away the gloominess. What a cruddy day. Thunder rumbled the old wooden floorboards, lightening cracked, casting bursts of light through the windows. It was so dark and depressing outside you would never know it was late afternoon. My mom had just left for her shift when Travis knocked on the door. He was the only Winters who didn’t just let themselves in.
“Funny, so did I,” I replied wryly.
He gave me a dull look. Apparently this was a serious conversation, and I was being my normally flippant self. “I thought if I could talk to her…” He stood up from the couch and started pacing, restlessness vibrating off him. Locks of dark blonde hair were plastered against his face and he was leaking puddles all over my mom’s floor.
My heart went out to Travis. It was impossible not to notice how much he had changed since Emma’s untimely appearance. The string of emotions that crossed his face daily was a yoyo of hope, confusion, determination, and anguish.
I hugged my knees, just listening to him struggle. What could I really say to ease the jumble of emotions he was feeling?
“There are moments when I break through that thick barrier and see the girl I loved behind it,” he continued. “But it’s just glimpses. Nearly as quick, she puts that tough girl chip back in place and I don’t recognize her. How do I break through? Really break through to her?”
A bolt of lightning crackled across the sky. “I don’t know her, not like you.”
“I used to think I knew her better than anyone, better than myself. But now…I’m not sure of anything except that I can’t give up on her.”
Of course not. Travis was not that kind of guy. Well, apparently before Emma he was that kind of guy and much worse, or so the stories go. “I don’t really have any profound words of wisdom that will magically turn her back. I’m not a wizard.” And I royally sucked at trying to cheer him up. It boggled my mind why he trusted me. “Neither of you is the same anymore. I think you both need to somehow rediscover each other.”
He turned away from the cloudy window and looked at me. “And how do you propose we do that? She has suddenly declared herself my enemy. I can hardly get her to talk to me.”
“Every couple has their challenges. Yours is just…different.”
The corner of his lip twitched, exposing one of his dimples. “You really suck at this.”
Duh. I rolled my eyes. “So what happened when you saw her last night?” I couldn’t help but ask, curiosity getting the best of me.
“Not as much as I would have liked.”
“Was she surprised to see you?”
“You could say that. She didn’t see me coming, that’s for sure. After she got over her shock, it felt like old times for a minute. Then she started ranting about her dad, me being at her house and how he would kill me.”
Yeah, that all sounded about right. And unnerving. Travis was a braver man than I. It helped he was half-demon I guess.
“When she realized I wasn’t budging, she started to threaten me. Said she would kill me herself if I didn’t get off her property.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, it actually sounded like Emma was protecting Travis. Protecting him from her batshit crazy father. “I think she was trying to save you, warn you that her house wasn’t safe, Travis.” I was giving him more hope. I just prayed it wasn’t false hope.
He considered that for a moment before his eyes filled with sorrow. “I miss her so much. There is this giant, gaping hole in my heart that can only be filled by her. I don’t know how to fix it. Fix us.”
Oh lordy. We already established he was definitely coming to the wrong peep for advice on relationships. “I’m no expert here.” I can’t believe what I was about to say. It was no secret that I was no big fan of Emma. I kept thinking if it was Chase, what would I do? What lengths would I go to, to protect him? And the answer was simple. What wouldn’t I do for Chase was more the question. There was nothing I wouldn’t do. Nothing I wouldn’t endure. No price I wasn’t willing to pay to keep him alive. I’d never give up on him.
The scary part was, I just realized the depth of how I truly felt about the jerkwad. “You just can’t give up,” I said softly.
Travis’s eyes clashed with mine and surprise overrode the sorrow. He nodded. “You’re right. Thanks. I knew you we’re the only one who would understand. Black Ops later?”
A round of search and destroy cured everything. “You know it. Hey, can you tell Chase I want to talk to him?”