Chapter 7 Safety Net

• EMMA’s POV :
• “I can’t believe Zach cheated on you!” Carrie gasped in anger.
• “I can’t believe you had sex with a random guy in the back of a bar,” Tiff followed.
• This morning, I woke up sleeping inside my car. I didn’t even remember driving it. I was parked at a Walmart parking lot, I didn’t even know there was a Walmart around.
• I checked my phone to find dozens of messages and missed calls from Tiff and Carrie. I called them up and we decided to meet at a diner nearby. Tiff had spent the night with that guy, Steve, and Carrie stayed over the sorority house.
• After we met up and I chugged an entire mug of coffee, I was finally able to tell my friends everything that happened last night. Or, the parts that I remembered at least.
• “Damn, girl,” Tiff paused for a moment before saying, “Hey, I’m sorry I wasn’t there last night. I didn’t know it was gonna go down like that,”
• “It’s okay. It’s not you guys’ fault,”
• “How do you feel now?” Carrie asked.
• “I don’t know. I’m still processing everything,”
• In just the span of one night, I lost my boyfriend and my virginity, in that order. Everything after that glass of gin and tonic was a blur. I only remembered bits and pieces, but I definitely knew I had sex.
• For instance, when I woke up today, I wasn’t wearing any underwear. I couldn’t find them anymore. And I was sore, like very sore. My inner thighs were throbbing like mad.
• “Who was this guy anyway? What did he look like?”
• “Just some random guy I met at the bar. He was tall... Gorgeous…”
• “What’s his name?”
• “I don’t know,”
• “You don’t know?”
• “Yeah, it never came up…”
• “Damn,” Tiff sighed.
• “He was probably in Emory. Most of the people in the bar were Emory students,” Carrie said.
• “Yeah, maybe,”
• “Do you think you’ll see him again?”
• “Probably not. But maybe that’s for the best,”
• The three of us were quiet for a while. Taking it all in.
• “He wore protection though, right?” Tiff asked the inevitable.
• “Yes,”
• “Was it bad? Do you regret that it happened?” Carrie said finally.
• I thought about it for a while and said, “No. To be honest, it wasn’t a bad experience… I’m not too sure, but I think I came, like more than once,”
• My two best friends started grinning maniacally, waiting for me to continue talking.
• “I thought I was gonna bleed or whatever, but I didn’t. It did hurt for a bit in the beginning, but then it got really good…”
• “Yeah, it did,” Tiff said to Carrie and they high fived each other.
• “So, what happened next after you guys… did it?” Careri asked.
• This was the part that I mostly don’t remember. I remembered that he came, and then he pulled away. He got rid of the condom and adjusted himself back. I remembered my knees were shaking and my thighs were sore. My head was spinning, and I couldn’t make out what he was saying to me.
• “I didn’t want a conversation. All I wanted was to lie down on a bed. So, to spare me from the awkwardness, I just ran,” I told them.
• “You ran?” they gaped at me.
• “Yeah, I didn’t know what else to do. I just said thank you and I bolted,”
• “You said thank you?!”
• Their eyes were wide and their mouths opened in shock.
• “Is that so wrong?” I asked them.
• Tiff and Carrie started cracking up and laughing like crazy. They were being so obnoxiously loud, people were staring.
• “Guys, come on, I just got my heart broken and you’re all laughing at me,” I scolded them, but they didn’t stop laughing.
• “Yeah, but that’s not the only thing that broken in last night,” Tiff winked and Carrie laughed harder.
• “Honestly, Em, I didn’t know you had it in you,” Carrie said in between laughs, “but hey, I’m glad you had fun and you kept your manners,”
• Tiff and Carrie went on laughing. I just rolled my eyes at them and continued eating my eggs and toast.
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• We drove back home after we got breakfast. I changed my outfit and wore a snuggly hoodie and sweats that had I brought. Carrie was driving at I slept the entire way. Tiff woke me up one time to tell me that Zach’s been looking for me, he kept calling Tiff’s and Carrie’s phones. I told her to block him and went back to sleep.
• Mom and dad were at home when I got back. It was a Saturday, they didn’t have to work. They asked me about last night and I told them everything was fine. Of course, they didn’t know that we went to Atlanta. I told them I was sleeping over at Carrie’s and that we had a birthday party sleepover.
• If only they knew what had happened... they'd probably have a heart attack.
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• To be continued.