Teacher's Girl (Aflyingwhale)

EMMA’s POV : 

"Elliot...I...l.."

I took a deep breath and steadied myself, finally saying, "I'm sorry, but I can't give you an answer right now.This is a lot and it’s serious and I have to think about it first..."

"Oh,"his mouth formed an ‘O’ and the look of hope and excitement in his eyes faded into disappointment.

"I have no idea you're even considering something like this.You never even told me about it,"

I said to him.

"That's what I'm doing now, I'm telling you.This is what I want,"he paused for a beat before continuing, "Is this not what you want?"

"l...I mean, it’s a big step..."I stammered.

"I’m just turning twenty-two this year...and I may look like it, but I don’t feel like an adult.I still feel like I'm just a child and I don’t even know what my life is gonna be like a month from now.You know what I mean?"

"I understand,"

Elliott put his gaze down and sighed.

He closed the little velvet box and shoved it back into his jacket pocket.

The air suddenly felt cold and I could hear the faint whispers and murmurs of the people watching us.

I didn’t dare to look, I was afraid I'd be faced with judgmental eyes or pity smiles.

"Ehem,"

Tristan coughed awkwardly as he stepped towards us.

I was glad that he decided to come in at this point.

He was saving us from the awkward ‘now what’ conversation.

"You got your hot dogs?"I said to him.

"Yup..."he replied.

"So...uh, is there any other place we should go to before we head back?"I said to both Elliott and Tristan.

I was trying to make the situation as calm and as normal as possible, but Elliott wasn’t buying into it.

"I think I'll just go home,"he said, pausing for a moment before continuing, "You two can keep going, I'll take the train back.I could use the time to think,"

"Are you sure...?"I asked cautiously.

"Yes.I'll see you at home,"

he let out a small smile and leaned towards me for a kiss.

I didn’t move away, and I thought he was going to kiss me on the lips, but he kissed me on the cheek instead.

I didn't say another word.

I just watched quietly as Elliott turned around and walked out of the park.

Meanwhile, Tristan was studying my face intently and he let out a long deep sigh once Elliott was out of sight.

"Whoa, E, what in the world happened just now?"

"I don’t know, T.I don’t know where this is coming from.We never talked about marriage or anything like that.Elliott’s just always so...unpredictable," I started babbling out of control.

"It’s like Paris all over again.We never talked about being together, but suddenly he wants to come follow me to the States.And okay, so he wants to have a relationship with me, I can handle that.But this? A marriage? All of a sudden? Like...how?"

I only stopped talking to catch my breath.

Tristan fished out a bottle of water from his hot dog doggie bag and handed it to me, he knew full well that I was thirsty after all that ranting.

I quickly took it from him and gulped down half the bottle at one go.

All this talk about marriage was suddenly making me dizzy and dehydrated.

"I'm not ready for a marriage, T.I mean, look at me, I can barely walk in high heels!"

I continued the rant as Tristan laughed.

"I just got out a super heavy relationship with lan and all I wanted was something easy and light and fun, not a marriage!"

"To be fair, you and lan broke up, what almost two years ago?"

Tristan raised an eyebrow.

Elliott have been dating for almost a year.You can’t blame the guy if he’s thinking about being serious with

sure, but a

gonna be twenty-two in a couple of months!"

"Is age really the thing that’s standing between you and saying

been through this before, T.I know not to make the same

you

proposal is more of a Hail Mary to save the relationship than an

get that

just say...I was faced

blinked a few times before saying, "With

smiled bitterly

up with me because he thought he was doing me a favor.But being apart from each other, he realized

"And...what happened?"

and he moved to New York

"I see..."

relationship, thinking it's gonna save it.In fact,marriage is

spoken like a true once engaged

chuckled and fake

us is finding this situation amusing," I rolled my eyes

you gonna

I know what I feel and what I want to tell him, but I just don’t have the right words for now.But, I'll get

quiet for a beat, but suddenly he said, "Hey

"Hmm?"

love

"Of course!"

said quickly and somewhat defensively

yearlong relationship with a

you and lan together, and the way you look at him compared to the way you look at

Tristan argued.

lot of

I stammered a little.

I love you and Sophie too, and

love lan?"Tristan was quick to

"Exactly..."I admitted in defeat.

I couldn't decipher

Why are you looking at

said

just

on now, it's me you're

face and I knew

just pathetic and sad to admit it out loud, that I was still hopelessly in love with

I gonna

say no to Elliott, it might be the

lying to

not that I

bad before, I'm scared of ever loving

he deserves to be loved, but I

with Elliott to figure things out? To see if you can love him the way you do

much.Does that

E.What if you

never love him as much as

the thing I'm afraid of..."I

a

while now, we just continued walking aimlessly while our thoughts were flying

do me a favor?"I said after a while of

"Anything,"he said quickly.

Elliott homme? He’s alone in a foreign place,

and keep him company tonight? I just need to take a walk and reorganize my thoughts, alone, but I'll be

reassuringly, "Sure,

"Thanks, T,"

to his heels, but before he ran towards the direction that Elliott took, he turned back to me and

at each other,

and

the next second, Tristan was

I had asked for, I was left alone with my loud, rambling

about fifteen

wasn’t counting or anything, but when I looked up at the street sign, I realized I was

when

my old ritual of making a pros and cons

didn’t write it down or anything, but it

more pros than

a really good guy and

a stable