follow your heart.

“It’s always a good thing that I have you,” Uriah added, grinning as he followed her in the kitchen. One thing that he knew for sure after going through all of this, despite how difficult it had been, was that there were numerous people that had his back. Emily, especially. “Deal – don’t worry, no finger cutting will happen on my watch. I may be a shit cook, but at least I’m careful with sharp objects,” he smirked, digging through the drawers for a cutting board. “You’ll always be allowed in my kitchen, Em. Even if you did bring me to the hospital, at least Lou would be there to stitch me up.” Uriah shrugged, pulling the board out before grabbing some of the vegetables. “Anything new going on with you?”

“Well…yeah, I took Cooper with me so we could pick it out. I’ll show you some pictures when I actually have some. Otherwise I’ll google it and show you the listing.” He gave a small smile at his sister, crossing his arms over his chest, “It’s overlooking the river. You can see the ferris wheel and you can see….well, everything. I think he liked it.”

“Probably not, I’d get too bored if I didn’t have anything active to do,” Sloan agreed, her nose wrinkling together at even just the thought of it. Without her workout routine, Sloan wasn’t even really sure what she would do with herself. She could fill some of the time with friends and going out partying, but the vast majority of her day would be lost. “Um, please do take photos. We can livestream the whole event if you want on my Insta, people love that shit.” Her social media following was decent enough, more than most of the cast on her show, and largely due to the fact that she would often regale her followers with stupid videos of her doing whatever dumb thing her brain latched onto for the day. Head dipping to the side, Sloan lifted an eyebrow and shook her head. “You probably are, though, you just don’t know it. You’d totally be driving me crazy if you weren’t basically family,” she countered, letting a grin slip onto her lips. “Though, yeah, the mom thing totally is up there on the list of things that drive Sloan crazy. In a good way, though.” She kind of relied on Emily being the voice of reason in her life, if she were being honest. Without it, Sloan was sure her life would be even more of a disaster than it often already was. Tapping Emily’s helmet a bit to make sure it was on snug, Sloan nodded once to confirm she would take care of them before kicking the bike to life. Had she been on her own, Sloan would have torn out onto the streets without a second of hesitation, but she drove far more careful knowing she had Emily attached to her as well. It didn’t take long for them to zip through the streets to the pizza place and she pulled in safely, parking the bike with a pleased expression. “Safe and sound, see? I drive good.”

“Fine. I’ll call and ask her when she’s coming by. And I’ll talk about going by your bookstore, how about that? Then she won’t know I’m asking to give you some warning or whatever.” He gave a half smile at her change in subject, and he wasn’t one to not talk about himself. “It’s fine. We picked one – and now we just have to…move in. So you’ll get my place here soon.”

“If I stopped working out I’d be fat in three days,” Sloan snorted. She never took a day off, giving her the ability to actually eat the way she did without being too worried about the outcome with her weight. “That sounds like a challenge and you are so on. I’ll put them all on and eat it.” Sloan was rubbing her hands together excitedly, even an off the cuff challenge like this something that brought excitement to her life. Laughing heartily at Emily’s joke, Sloan tossed an arm around her shoulder, bumping over into her. “You drive me crazy all the time, this is true. I surely can’t be the only one,” she teased. Grinning a bit, she nodded, happy to take over driving for the night with her bike. It would get them where they needed to be, even if it severely limited their ability to load up on Christmas decorations until they could find another way to transport them. Grabbing the two helmets, Sloan popped one on Emily and one on herself before settling into the driver’s position. “Hang on tight and we’ll be there in a jif,” she said, patting the seat for Emily to hop on.

“True. I’m only that way around certain people, so that’s really the only time i can be bratty. If you’re mean to me, I’ll give it right back at ya. Plain and simple,” she smiled at Emily, giving a shrug. “I was raised by my grandma and she has forgotten me at the mall before, but that was kind of my fault for hiding in the round clothing racks.”

“The worst, I know,” Sloan replied back, her nose crinkling up as she grinned. It was nights like this, where she was able to just get out and enjoy her time with her loved ones that made it hard for Sloan to leave for so long for her job. She missed the stupid little things like this when she was gone, but it made her appreciate it all the more when she was there. “Ugh, yes. The cheese, the bacon, the toppings, all of it. Everything. I’m ready to get fat.” Not that she would, no matter how hard she seemed to try at times. Smirk twisting at her lips, Sloan pulled away for a moment to shrug, her head tilting back towards Emily. “Sounds like a night straight out of my dreams. You know just what to say to a girl, Emily Callum. But, yeah, yeah. Sure. I’ll wash the sheets. I can do that.” She brushed the thought off with a wave of her hand as they reached the parking lot, eyebrow lifting towards her roommate. “You want to ride with me on my motorcycle or grab an Uber to go get the pizza?”

The male shrugged, closing the door before following behind her. “Guess I’ve just been sleeping mostly. Louis has been at work all day, so…” he trailed off, a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips. Unlike her brother, Emily had quite a knack of brightening his day, even in the rare moments when he felt low. “That sounds perfect. Anything I can do to help? I could start choppin’ something, or I could get some cooking supplies out.”

“Yes, please. I would kill for a monte cristo right now.” The brunette laughed, looping her arm through the blonde’s. “How’ve you been, Em? I feel like I haven’t seen you since we literally collided on the sidewalk last month.”

“I have my moments. I can be the nicest person in the world or I can be a brat. Really no middle ground, sadly. The nice part is more often than anything,” she gave an innocent shrug, her eyes staying on the woman. “Oh, I always wanted to. Although, I’ll never understand how they forgot a child. Seemed weird to me.”

“Nah. If it puts a smile on your face, I don’t think I could regret anything,” Sloan replied with a heartfelt nod, a warmth in her eyes as she tilted her head towards Emily. If she had to decorate the whole apartment to look like a complete winter wonderland, Sloan wouldn’t hesitate for a second. She let herself lean over closer into Emily as they walked, head tucking against her roommate’s shoulder. “Pizza, my hero. Maybe hit up one of those create your own little pizza places, those are dope.” With the amount of calories she tucked away, the more shit she could stack on the dough, the better. “Chocolate in bed? That sounded like you just said Sloan come to bed with me and the answer is yes.”

“Matilda is the most friendliest dog, but that isn’t always a compliment. When I want her to protect me, she basically just ignores it and barks at her reflection,” the smile grew on her face as she nodded. “I think it would be fun to do a home alone trap. Always wanted to, but I don’t think it would be too safe.”

Uriah rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes, as if Emily’s presence was some sort of mirage brought upon by the excess tiredness he’d been feeling as of late. His grandmother’s death hadn’t been easy on any of the Kings, but it seemed as if the redhead was taking it especially hard. “Okay,” he offered her a small smile, stepping aside to let the woman through him and Louis’ front door. “Food doesn’t sound bad. I actually don’t think I’ve eaten all day – what do you got for me, Chef Emily?”

“I am fully prepared to drop a grand on Christmas decorations,” Sloan assured her roommate, nodding solemnly as if they were about to undertake an incredibly important job. Sloan loved any holiday, especially when she was able to get really into the festivities, so blowing a bunch of money on decorations seemed reasonable to her. “But yeah, obviously. We’ll get the tree and a bunch of the wallflower things from Bath and Body that smell like a tree. It’ll be like walking into a Christmas tree farm.” It wasn’t something she would be mad about, if she were being honest. It was one of her favorite smells of all time. “But brilliant, of course, food sounds great. Much as I’m loving munching on all your pocket chocolate, I could use something good. What are you feeling?”

Casey: Um, I'm pretty sure you meant to send that to someone else since i'm not your bloody mother.

Casey: This is Casey Wells. We met in the coffee shop a couple of times.

Emily: Oh my God

Emily: I'm so so so so so sorry

“Oh, I don’t think that’s true. At all,” the redhead pushed the thought away, giving a small shake of her head. “No, don’t say that. I might have to train Matilda to attack who comes into the apartment now. Or set some sort of Home Alone trap just in case.”

May shrugged, “Listen, I’m not saying all women are saints or anything. My mom left when I was a kid, so like- you know, not great. I have a twin brother and a dad that I love and respect very much. My best friend is a man. But I don’t know- I guess I trust women faster.” She perked up a bit at the mention of her writing. Now that was something she could talk about for hours, “I am. I write Young Adult Fiction. What about you, what do you do?”