Sophia always tried to be different from everyone else, she referred to herself as a rebel, or the transcendentalist of their generation. She claimed that one day her name would be right on up there with Moreau or Whitman. It was Sophia's idea to start a band with her 2 best friends, and she named is MES, for all of their names. Sophia lives with her mother and has never met her father, that's because not even her mother can remember who her father is, her mother used to be very bad, but reformed when she found out that she was pregnant with Sophia.

Emily was very trendy, she was always caught up on the latest fashion. She was also a very nice person, and was friends with nearly every type of person at her school. Her family is very rich, so she never really had to worry about anything, because they always had plenty of money to fix anything that went wrong.

All 3 of them are completely different, but they all had a common interest that brought them all together and that was an obsession over an actor named Bug Hall. They all were in love with him, and always dreamed of meeting him. But they always knew that they wouldn't because of where they lived.

They lived in a little tiny town, that most people have never heard of, called Kansas, Ohio. They were going to be seniors and there was 75 people in their entire class, that's how small their town is. So they were pretty sure that they would never meet Bug, and they were OK with that, but they still dreamed.

One day Meg decided that they should meet at the little shopping center that day and then head over to the library to research Bug, and try to find more pictures of him to hang around their rooms, or lockers, or whatever. So they all agreed that they would meet at the little book shop, called The Blue Parrot, at 12 noon, and then they would venture to the library together.

Emily got there at 11:45 am, she always had a thing about being early everywhere she went, Meg got there at 12 exactly and as usual Sophia was late, she arrived at 12:15.

"Sophi, I said 12 noon," Meg complained.

"Meg if you wanted her here at 12 exactly you should have told her to be here at 11:45, then she would have been on time," Emily said.

"Umm yeah" was all Sophia could manage to say, and then, "Well let's not waste any time, let's get to the library."

"Yeah, but let's stop and get a bite to eat, I am starved I haven't eaten all day," Meg decided.

"OK!" Emily and Sophia said in unison. So as they were headed to the library, they stopped at a small deli, and each ordered a different sandwich; Meg got a ham and cheese sandwich, Emily got a turkey sandwich, and since Sophia was a vegetarian she just got a salad. As they sat down to eat Meg saw something and her face suddenly went pale, and she froze.

"Meg what's wrong?!?!" Emily cried. And then she and Sophia turned to look at what she saw. Then all three of them froze.

"Oh, My, GOD! Is that him?" Emily said in more of a whisper this time.

"I uh, think it is," Sophia Whispered back.

"Emily go see if it is," Meg whispered as well, coming out of her state of shock.

"OK," she said and stood up and walked over to the table, that was a few tables down from them, to the person that they believed to be Bug Hall. Meg and Sophia saw her begin to talk to him, and then a huge smile spread across her face. Then Meg and Sophia heard her say," Well my friends, I am sure, would love to meet you," adding sophistication to her tone of voice, something she was told to do all her life to make her sound more sophisticated. Then he said something that Meg and Sophia couldn't hear, and after he said that Emily motioned for them to come over to her. So they were suddenly very clumsy and when they stood up they bumped into each other, causing both of them to fall over, and then the usually cool Sophia fell twice as she was walking toward him. As they came and stood next to Emily he stood up.

"Nice to meet you, my name is Brandon, or I guess you know me as Bug," he paused and then continued because of their silence," Would you 3 care to join me for lunch? You can come sit with me." After he said that all three of them rushed to get their food, and then raced back to his table. The whole time Sophia and Meg were asking him question after question, he avoided most of their questions with questions of his own.

Emily just sat there and watched him the whole time. She knew he probably didn't like the attention, she figured, because she was put in that position a lot due to her last name.

Having the Last Name Emerson in this town, gave you instant local celebrity status, so people were always asking her questions and a lot of the time she really didn't like it, so she thought that she would give him some space, and figured that he would appreciate that.

By the time that they were all done eating, and Meg and Sophia could think of no more questions it was 3 PM. When Meg and Sophia found out what time it was they nearly had a heart attack, they both had told their parent that they would be home by 2 PM. So after they left, Emily stayed a bit longer.

"You should probably be going to shouldn't you?" Bug asked her.

"No, my aunt and uncle don't care what time I get home, they won't even notice I am gone until 8 when we all sit down for a family dinner," Emily joked.

"Well, my parents are out with my little brother and sister, and they won't care when I get home either," he paused and smiled," How come you weren't asking a million questions like your friends?" he asked.

"Because I know when people ask me questions because of who my parents are, and because I was lucky enough to be born into this life of wealth, I don't always like it, so I decided to give you a break, and besides Meg and Sophia asked enough questions that I didn't have to," she replied with a smirk.

"What are you doing tomorrow night?" He asked. She was shocked, was Bug Hall actually asking her out on a date? She suddenly became very light headed and her mind went blank.

"What is tomorrow?" she asked. That made him laugh.

"Tomorrow is Sunday," he said, still half way laughing.

"Oh I am not doing anything," she said, although she could, at the time, remember what she was doing.

"Great, meet me here at 6 PM tomorrow," he said, and then got up and walked away. Emily remained where she was for about 15 minutes after he left collecting her thoughts. She didn't know what she was going to tell her friends. She knew that if she told them what happened they would be so jealous, and might even get mad at her and she really didn't want that. So she decided that she wouldn't tell them, and if they ask what she was going to do the next night she wouldn't tell them about Bug, this would be her secret. She already felt guilty.

The rest of that day Emily spent it glancing into small shops, and finally decided at 5:30 PM to go home. As soon as she got in the house her aunt told her that Meg had called 3 times, and Sophia called twice.

"Thank you Aunt Shelly," she said and walked to her room to call her friends. As she was walking up there she was thinking about her parents, it wasn't like she was reminiscing, because she didn't even know her parents, but was thinking *what if Aunt Shelly wasn't here to tell me that my friends called, what if it was my very own Mother?* Her mother had died when she was just 6 weeks old, and her brother was 5. She put that thought away as she dialed Meg's Number. Her Father answered the phone.

"Hi Mr. Epperly, this is Emily, is Meg home?" she asked.

"Yes, just one moment Emily, I'll go get her," he said, and then there was silence on the phone," Oh Emily she just jumped into the shower, but I will have her call you as soon as she is done."

"OK Mr. Epperly, thank you," she said and hung up. She knew Meg would never get the message because Meg's father had a terrible memory and never remembered to tell Meg that anyone ever called for her. So she hung up and tried Sophia, but Sophia was also doing something where she couldn't be disturbed. *She's probably practicing her guitar, or singing or writing songs for the band or something* Emily thought after she hung up with Sophia's Mom. She then layed back onto her bed and fell asleep.

Around 8:00 PM Emily's Aunt came in to wake her up and tell her dinner was ready. She woke up, but she hadn't even realized that she fell asleep, so she was kind of surprised to be waking up.

"Aunt Shelly, is it alright if I go out tomorrow night?" she asked once they were down at the dinner table.

"Why of course you can darling," Shelly said," Do you have a date?"

"Um I think so," Emily said, with some confusion in her voice," He told me to meet him at the Deli on Main street at 6."

"Oh and who is this he?" her aunt shelly pryed.

"Well his name is Bug Hall, but it's kind of a secret, because he asked me out, after Meg and Sophia had left," Emily explained.

"Is this the Bug Hall, the one you and your friends have that fascination with?" Shelly asked.

"Yes it's that Bug Hall," Emily said, and spent the rest of dinner talking about Bug, and what she should wear, and her hair, and anything else to do with the date.

Emily still could not believe this was happening, even when she was driving over to the deli, the whole way there she kept imagining that he wouldn't show up, and this would have been some awful joke. She arrived at the deli at 5:45, and was surprised to see him waiting.

"Well hello there Emily," He said," Emily what is your last name? I kind of forgot to ask, and I wanted to call you, by looking you up in the phone book, but I didn't know your last name."

"It's Emerson, Emily Elaine Emerson," she said, glad that he had been thinking about her.

"Hey cool, you initials are E cubed," he joked, usually that would make her mad, because people make fun of her initial all the time, but this was Bug Hall, so it was ok. That evening he took her out to dinner, and then they went and saw a movie, Then they took a walk through the town.

"This is a really great city, your lucky you live here," He said, but was then silent the rest of the night. When she was getting into her car he said," I'll call you ok? Are you listed in the phone book?"

"Yes," she said," But I can give you my number to save you the trouble." She pulled out a peice of paper and a pen out of her car, and quickley wrote her name and number.

"Good night emily, I'll see you later," He said.

"Bye Brandon," she said, she found out that night, that he prefers to be called Brandon. As she was turning to get into her car he gently grabbed her wrist and kissed her on the cheek. Then he turned and left. She immediatly brought her hand up to her cheek where he had kissed her, and touched it like she didn't believe it had happened.

She slowly got in her car, and drove home. She couldn't even remember the drive home, it was all a blur, the rest of the night to her was a blur.

The following week she and Bug did a lot of stuff together, and Emily found herself lying to her friends regularly. She felt really guilty too, but she was also having a great time with Bug.

A few days after they had met, while they were out at dinner, Emily asked," Brandon, are we going out? I mean what are we, what is this?" she asked because she was very confused.

"Well, we can be going out if that is what you want. Really I am just trying to get to know you right now. I really do like you though. Your amazing," he said placing his hand over hers," And I think I am really starting to like you." Then he picked up her hand and brought it to his lips, and gently kissed the back of her hand. She was so happy that she felt like she could cry. That night when she got home her phone rang, and it was her personal line so she answered it.

"Hello?" she said as she sat on her bed.

"Emily, Meg and I know that you have been lying to us, we even know what you've been lying about," Sophia said bitterly on the other end of the line.

"What?" was all she could think to say, she was still processing what Sophia had said.

"Listen Emily," it was Meg now, they must be over at Meg's house because she has 2 phones in her house so that way they can both talk," Tonight when we called you and again you said you were busy for the 4th night in a row, well we decided to follow you, and we saw you meet Bug. We watched you the whole time," she said. Emily could tell that Meg was upset, because she didn;t have the same bubbly tone that she normally did, and she was trying not to get mad, or upset.

"You guys I am sorry," Emily said, her voice breaking, and a tear rolling down her cheek, she really had missed her friends, and really did feel very guilty," I didn't know how to tell you, so I decided not to tell you. I didn't want to upset you 2, you are my best friends. I've missed you guys, but Bug has been keeping me busy and--"

"Oh I am sure he has been keeping you busy, that's all he wants to do is 'keep you busy' and then he's gone, outta here," Sophia interrupted.

"No I didn't mean it that way, I meant we have been going out a lot lately, and I didn't know what to tell you. I thought if you found out that I had been dating Bug, you guys would be..." she stopped herself, before she said it, but Sophia said it for her.

"Jealous, you thought we would be jealous of you!?! Hah! Well it looks like your plan backfired, you did upset us, you chose him over us, so now you can keep your choice, and live with it. Good Bye," Sophia said, and Emily heard 2 clicks on the other end. She began to sob. She cried for hours, and eventually cried herself to sleep.

When she woke up in the morning she realized she was still in her clothes that she had worn the previous night. And then everything came rushing back to her and reality hit her, like a fright train. Bug called a few hours after she had woke up, and told her that he needed to see her to tell her something. So she quickly picked out an outfit, and pulled her shoulder length hair into a pony tail, and left. Once she was there she suddenly felt so embarassed because she had not put on any make up and her hair was hideous. But Bug said she needed to hurry and she did.

She met him at the deli where she had first met him. When she approached him, she could tell by the dimmed look in his eyes, and the down cast features of his face, that what he needed to talk to her about was not good.

"Emily, sit down," he said, after he had seen that she had been standing there studying him," I'm leaving tomorrow, I am going home. Something has come up and we have to cut this vacation short, Gemini has a try out for some small role, and we need to get home to get him ready."

"Ok," Emily said, still confused at where this was going.

"And I won't be coming back," He said," I'll try to call and everything but..." she began to space him out and think *What is he telling me? This week was fun, but I gotta go. See ya later, or see you never again? He's not being very clear, he's avoiding the point at hand, he's---*

"Emily?" he said interrupting her thought.

"Oh," she said, rememberign that she was still there, "What was that?"

"I said, Maybe we can get back together next time I am in town." he repeated.

"When will that be Brandon? Weeks, months, years? I can't wait on you forever. I'd love to, and if I could I would. Is this a goodbye?" she asked, tears welling up in her eyes.

"I wish you could wait too, I wish I could wait, but I can't. I want to stay here so bad, I want to be with you Emily," he said, as she was fighting back the tears, then he leaned forward and kissed her full on the lips, "emily I would wait an eternity for you." Then he got up and left. She was so angry, *why did fate do this to me? Why did he have to leave? What did he mean? Oh I hate being so confused* She got up and walked away, and drove over to Meg's house, without even realizing it.

When she pulled into her drive way she noticed that meg's garage was open and Meg and Sophia were in there practicing. They looked up, and saw how upset she was; tears streaming down her face, her hair was a mess, and she wasn't wearing any make up. Although they were mad at her, they went to her anyways. Emily got out of the car and said," I am so sorry, please forgive me, I really need a friend now." She was hard to understand through all the sobbing. Sophia and Meg didn't say anything, they didn't have to Emily said all that needed to be said, They walked up to her and embraced her in a warm and welcome hug.

"Welcome back Emily," Meg said and they went to the garage to talk and practice, and most of all they went to the garage to be best friends again.