Seth shifted his truck to park and looked out the window at Emma's house. Clouds still loomed overhead, but the storm wasn't battering the city like it was the countryside. He'd almost forgotten how rich her parents were. The house was in one of the more upscale neighborhoods in town and would best be described by words like 'manor' or possibly 'estate. Seth scratched his head and looked down at his khaki cargo shorts and plain white t-shirt. He felt out of place--he'd gotten both at Target for less than 20 bucks.

Seth grabbed his phone and keys and stepped out of the car, not bothering to lock it. If anyone in this neighborhood wanted his stereo they must have spent every last dime they had to live here. He walked up to the cast-iron gate in the driveway and pressed the buzzer. He spotted a camera aimed at where he stood. That was new.

Now that he thought of it, Seth looked around. There were numerous cameras on the property that hasn't been there before.

A cacophony of barking came from the house as he heard the front door swing open and a streak of black and tan raced toward the gate, barking the whole way. The streak stopped right at the bars of the gate and sat down, watching him.

"Hey, Hunter."

The enormous Rotweiller barked and panted. The gate buzzed and began to slide open. Hunter slipped through the emerging opening and jumped up, putting his paws on Seth's chest and nearly knocking him over before giving him a big lick across the face. Hunter stopped immediately after doing so, his paws still on Seth's chest as he snapped his head to stare at the house. With another thunderous bark, Hunter bolted again, disappearing through the front door in a matter of seconds.

Seth stood in the driveway for a few moments before heading up to the house. The massive front porch had a collection of gnomes by the steps. They stared at Seth in strangely lifelike poses. Also new.

The door swung open to reveal Emma leaning in the doorway and biting into a slice of pizza. She was dressed in baggy grey sweatpants and a tight blue v-neck under an unzipped hoodie the same color as her sweats. Her blond hair was arranged in a messy bun, with two strands falling on either side of her face Seth would hazard a guess took a lot longer to get there than the hairstyle otherwise suggested. She swallowed, then smiled at him. Seth nodded in return.

"Hey. Stop frowning, Seth."

"I literally just broke up with a girl I've been dating for a year. Not crying is a step in the right direction."

Emma looked down for a moment but quickly returned to holding his gaze. "Don't focus on that, okay? Come in and hang out with me."

"I thought your brother was here, too?”

"Well, he was." Emma took another bite of the pizza. "But some girl called him and he headed over to her house."

"Oh." Seth stepped over the threshold and Emma closed the door behind him.

"Don't act so excited," she joked.

Seth looked around the foyer to the mansion. He was no expert in interior design, but based on the granite flooring under his feet, the vaulted ceilings, and the chandelier hanging overhead, Seth felt under-dressed. Then again, so was Emma. Seth slipped off his shoes as Emma walked out of the foyer and took a left into what looked like the kitchen from here.

"I'm just gonna let Hunter out back," she called. "Grab some pizza."

Seth heard the back door being opened as he made his way down the hall to the kitchen. It looked like what you would expect Gordon Ramsay to have at his house. Two boxes of pizza sat on the counter. He'd been to the Crews' house a few times before and it always wowed him.

Seth stared at the pizza boxes for a minute, his thoughts still not quite settled from the long drive. The spin-out hadn't scared him that badly. It was just like seeing a head kick sail past your face. Ultimately, you weren't hurt, so it made no sense to sweat it. He still felt those emotions from the breakup swirling down the drain of his soul into an unfathomable pit of numbness.

They weren't processing. They were just... going. And something still was taking their place. But it wasn't still in the sense of a calm lake under windless conditions. No, it was still like a bear hibernating for winter. There was something dangerous underneath the surface. Seth couldn't see any further than the surface, though, and so he pushed the thoughts away.

Emma was a distraction at worst, a friend somewhere in the middle, and a- No, how could he think that? He'd just broken up with the girl who'd had his heart for a year straight. He should be grieving. Healing.

But she'd been cheating on him. The whole thing had been a lie, a complete and utter lie and there was-

"Hey!"

Seth blinked and looked to his right. Emma was standing there, one hand on her hip and a mildly concerned expression on her face. "You alright? You were zoned out hard there."

"Yeah, yeah." Seth shook his head. "Like I said..." He shrugged. He didn't know what to do with his hands, so he stuck them in his pockets.

Emma placed a hand on his arm. Her touch felt good, soothing. "Come on. Let's watch a movie. And if you want to talk about it, we can. Otherwise, you can just zone out and relax."

Seth nodded, still switching back and forth from being present in reality and staring at pizza for minutes at a time. Emma gave a little tug on his arm and he followed her to the living room, the granite floors in here covered in what looked to be fur rugs, with two massive tan leather couches seated in the corners facing the TV. Seth just now noticed Emma had left her hoodie somewhere.

She sat down in the far corner of the right couch and patted the spot next to her. Seth stared at it for a moment, then sat down and sank into the luxurious softness of the couch. He looked over at her. She grinned and threw her legs across his lap before snatching the remote up and turning on the TV.

Seth set his hands on top of her thighs, feeling a little less comfortable now as she began to flip through the options on Netflix. He again didn't know what to do with his hands. He settled on cupping them around the leg furthest from him while his forearms rested on the leg closest to him. The closeness felt good, though.

His mind flashed back to Madeline and him relaxing on the couch in the lake house in this exact same manner. He grimaced and Emma looked over at him.

"What's wrong? Your legs sore from training or something?"

"No." Seth looked down. "It's nothing."

"Yeah, bullshit. What's wrong, Seth?" She moved up from her half-reclining position. With her legs draped across him, it brought her face less than a foot from the side of his. She hooked a finger under his chin and made him look at her.

Seth looked away and shrugged. That stillness was still there. Waiting to turn into something else. He didn't know what, and he didn't really think he wanted to.

"She's not worth it, Seth."

Seth looked sharply back at Emma. "Not worth it? She might have been a lie, but she was my life for a whole year."

"And you have sixty-some more ahead of you. Don't let that bitch get you down." Emma hesitated in her motion, then placed a hand on Seth's cheek. He couldn't lie. He liked the touch. He liked it because it came from someone he knew wasn’t hiding something. It was genuine. "What's that guy your instructors are always quoting? Isn't there something like 'regret nothing' he says?"

"It's Miyamoto Musashi and its 'do not regret what you have done'."

"So don't."

"Easier said than done. He was a better man than me. I have plenty of regret right now. I regret not finding out she was cheating sooner. Hell, I'm regretting even getting with her in the first place now. You know what she said? She said I'm boring. That was her reason for doing what she did. That I was boring. What kind of a shit person do you have to be to use that as justification for cheating? Fuck. And I don't even really know what I saw in her now. Was it all a lie? Were the things I loved just hallucinations, illusions? They can't be, because I thought things were great in the beginning. But if she's been cheating on me since before summer, then maybe they weren't. Did she just pretend to be someone she wasn't this whole time? I have so many fucking questions, but none of them will have answers, not a single one. Because I'm not going to go talk to her and ask all of them. I'm not going to lower myself like that. I can't."

Emma's eyes were soft with concern. "Seth, you can't let her mess you up like this. I've known you since freshman year. You're too good for that. She doesn't know what she fucked up."

Seth scrunched his eyebrows. "What do you mean?"

Emma shifted her legs. It brought her a couple of inches closer. "I mean-" She moved up and kissed him. It was sudden. Expected and unexpected at the same time. Seth reflexively pulled away, his mind immediately screaming: I have a girlfriend!

But he stopped. He didn't. Not anymore. She had no right to him. He apparently hadn't had a right to her. Emma stared at Seth. “I mean I’ve had a crush on you for a long, long time.”

Seth let out words he’d wanted to say since the two of him had first met, but when he was single he’d never had the guts to. “Yeah, and I’ve had one on you.”

Seth grabbed her by the waist and picked her up, moving her so she was straddling his lap, and then placed his hands on her hips. She placed her arms around his neck and kissed him, deeply, more passionately that Madeline ever had. Seth slid his hands down her hips to her ass and pulled her into him. She leaned back and took her shirt off in one smooth motion. Seth leaned in and began kissing her neck.

He was operating on instinct now. He had to find something to fill the void with.