Emily

Aylin snickered as she turned fully to face her sister. “Oh I really think you mistake me for our mothers and siblings. Pissed off? Me? Never. Maybe…curious? Confused? Maybe a little relief because you’re not in a shallow grave.” She cleared her throat as her demeanor changed, “It is the holidays and I am in no mood to fight, but I will say this. I’ve had people I once would’ve done anything for come and go in my life in ways surprisingly worse than you did so in my book, you are not that special. But…you have been back in town for almost a year and um…I would consider that almost unheard of considering your past record, so for everyone’s sake regardless of if you stay in Seattle or not, now that you are back in our lives: don’t evaporate again.” Aylin wasn’t sure if she was speaking out of love for her sister, or out of protection of her mothers and siblings, but she had gotten out what she wanted to say without screaming or throwing punches, so that was a win for her.

“Nope, not in a shallow grave, still alive and kicking” Emily commented. “Look, I’m not going to apologize for leaving or for staying away for six years, I did what I had to do and I’m not going to feel guilty for putting my health first” the blonde told her sister, she also couldn’t promise she wouldn’t leave again but she decided to keep that part to herself.

“You are really something else,” she said. “I’ve never met anyone else who’s so bound and determined to avoid shit.” Juliette ran a hand through her hair and nodded slightly. “Fair enough.”

“No, you got it wrong, I don’t avoid things, I just forget the time and my phone ran out of battery obviously” Emily grinned, she almost always found a way to avoid things she didn’t want to do. “Yeah, so you know, if you ever want some excitement in your life you should just visit me at work.”

“Yeah, I’ve heard the stor-” Aylin stopped herself when she realized who she was talking to, “Well when they said you had crawled back into our lives, I almost didn’t believe it…not almost. I didn’t believe it. Yet here you are. Sister dearest.” Aylin grinned falseness lining her teeth.

Emily turned around to face her sister “first of all, there was no crawling, second, it’s been like a year since I got back so if you’re going to be pissed about the way I left, get over it, I’m not in the mood to deal with more pissed off family members.”

“You might change your mind about leaving if things start getting more exciting. I mean, if they have games and such it might be fun. Then again, you’re probably right about it ending in disaster, so cutting and running is probably for the best.” As much as Zola thought the whole leaving early thing would be great, she knew she’d probably stay until the end. Or close to the end. Close enough to enjoy it all without being sucked into cleaning up.

“It’ll be hard to change my mind about leaving, I’m not really a people person” Emily replied, she’d rather be home, at work or at a bar. “Yeah, leaving early sounds like the best option, hopefully things won’t end in disaster before I leave, because with my luck I can see that happening.”

Mark snorted and crossed his arms over his chest as he stood beside Emily, shrugging his shoulders slightly. “Does seem kind of foolish. But if we haven’t learned by now, I doubt we’ll learn anytime soon.” He replied, glancing around the room. “How’re you doing, Em?”

“Yeah, I don’t think anyone’s gonna learn anytime soon either” Emily sighed, whenever she went to any of these events she just waited for something to go wrong. “I’m good, I guess. You?”

“Maybe they like the idea of the shitty endings,” she suggested, nose scrunching up a bit. “Or, and this one’s probably the most far-off theory: they’re super optimistic. An idiotic level of stupidity. Throwing parties, hoping that maybe this one won’t be shit.” Amelia glanced over at Emily, drawing in a deep breath, “we’re probably just as bad attending them, though.”

“Well, they should just go see a movie then” Emily commented as she looked around the place, wishing she had a drink right about now. “Yeah, I don’t really know why I go to these things, maybe I just like to suffer, the free food doesn’t hurt though.”

“Seriously? How the fuck did you manage to swing that?” she asked. “How did you manage to avoid doing anything with your family?” Juliette sighed. “Yeah, well, if I jinx it, I jinx it. It would be the most exciting thing to happen in my life these days.”

“I had my ways, mostly I decided to not show up and turn off my phone” Emily shrugged, she did what she could to avoid Thanksgiving, or family dinners in particular. “I’ve had enough excitement at my job I don’t need a disaster on my free time too.”

“I have asked myself the same. I am sure most of the people here don’t really want to be here anyway.” he agreed.  “At least I get to see my favorite sister.” he smiled. He had just finished exams and was still a bit anxious about the results. Mostly, he just felt so disconnected, but he was trying so hard to hide it. “At least there is free food.”

“You know you can always stop by my apartment if you want to see me, right?” Emily said, sure, she was busy with work and other things most of the time but she wouldn’t mind if her brother decided to visit. “Free food is one of the only reasons I’m here if I’m being honest.”

“You have a very good point. You’d think they would realize that big group gatherings only end in either disaster or drama, but apparently they want to try and change that.” Not that Zola minded all of this. She was always usually at the hospital or her apartment with her roommate. Getting out and getting to be around other people was great, in her opinion. “We’ll have to see how this one ends.”

“Honestly, I’ll be surprised if this doesn’t end in disaster” it seemed most of these things ended that way so it wouldn’t be surprising if this ended that way too. “Though I don’t think I’ll stick around to see the end of it no matter what way it ends” she only planned on staying for max two hours, though it could go wrong before those two hours were up.

Spotting the blonde, Nerissa grinned. Sure, they lived together, but Nerissa was always happy to see Emily out at gatherings like this. She knew that the other girl wasn’t a fan of it, and she also knew how much she worked. Approaching her, she placed a hand on her shoulder affectionately, looking up at her. “Because they have hope that it’ll finally be one that ends well,” she said. “Have some hope, Em.”

Emily smiled as Nerissa approached her, the other woman being here made this whole thing a lot more bearable. “Well, not to be cynical or whatever, but the only thing hope has ever given me is disappointment.”

“It’s weird, being at this big Thanksgiving thing.. It’s been a few years since I did anything for it,” she said. “Y’know… because of prison and shit. This is the first one since I got out back in January,” she added. Juliette sighed. “It’s kinda nice. The food all smells really good though, and.. people look happy. So hopefully there’s less problems than the other big gatherings tend to have.”

“I can’t remember the last time I did something for Thanksgiving” Emily commented, probably not since she was sixteen, after that she’d found one excuse or another to get out of it. “Oh, don’t say that, you’ll jinx it.”

Alexi: Obviously, duh.

Alexi: Should of figured.

Alexi: I'm okay, just studying.

Alexi: Usual.

Alexi: You heard from Soph?

Em: you really should have

Em: good

Alexi: Then how are you answering my text.

Alexi: Dead people don't text...or do they?

Alexi: D:

Alexi: Just checking in, seeing how you are.

Em: I'm haunting my phone obviously

“My intern cried and then quit.. I need a new one”

“You made your intern quit or was it something else?”

“Nope, not a lot,” Juliette replied. She smiled as Emily took the fork from her. Her smile turned into a look of curiosity as her friend ate the piece of cake on the fork. Leaning forward a little more in her chair, she finally spoke. “Well?” she asked. “What do you think?”

“Please, you know you love me, there’s no reason to deny it” Emily teased, grinning at the other woman. “It’s not that bad, definitely too sweet though and I have no idea how you manage to eat a whole cake by yourself.”

“Maybe just a little,” Juliette said. “Gotcha. Okay.” She knew not to push when it came to complicated, especially when it was coming from Emily. “It is sweet. And it would make me very happy to know that you at least tried it,” she said, putting a small piece on the fork, offering it out to the other girl.

“Or maybe just a lot” Emily joked. She was glad Juliette didn’t push when she said it was complicated, it wasn’t exactly a secret she didn’t like to talk about things. “One bite” she said as she took the fork from her, eyeing the cake piece with a slightly suspicious look before eating it.