Long time no see (Em)

[Russell Serrano]

It had been years since Rus went to the school. He had made some younger new friends, like Em. The small girl he had originally tried to seduce, but it just wasn’t happening. He couldn’t get that familiar twinge in his groin or even see her in bed like that with him. Had he been a person for a relationship, he probably would have settled down with the girl. But she was almost four years younger than him and it was highly looked down on in that time. Now that she had just turned eighteen, he supposed that was different, but he hadn’t been one for relationships, thinking women were evil when she finally got her clutches on a man.

He also supposed that the only reason she had become friends with him was because she knew of his troubled past, of the drunken mother and weird men doing stuff to said mother. How he had to pay the bills and grow up a little bit too fast. When he was in high school, he had his heart crushed by a girl and that was the end of it. He got the reputation of a flirt and it stayed that way for a very long time.

He walked through the middle of the street in downtown Pilot Ridge and vaguely wondered what this girl was doing. He hadn’t seen her since he graduated from Hammel Institute and he was aware of the missing hole in his heart where his little Em had taken up. She had been like a little sister to him. His eyes swam in front of him, swimming over the sea of people, looking for no one but trying to find everyone. He saw light blonde hair and a figure that seemed too tall, she held herself gracefully. He ran up to her and tapped her on the shoulder, hoping that it was her, hoping it was Emmanuelle.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

Em let out a long breath as she left the studio. She had practically moved in there the past couple months and couldn't complain. She honestly could say her life had changed and for the better. She had new friends and a job she loved and a boy... who wasn't her boyfriend, but whom she adored and had told her that though there was no title... he wouldn't be with anyone else and that made her heart sore.

It had been quite some time since Em had seen Russell. She wasn't even sure if she'd remember what he looked like or the sound of his voice. It was one of the friendships she regretted not keeping when physical distance had come into play. Russell had been one of her very good friends, despite their age difference. Of course at the time of their meeting Em had wanted him as more than a friend, he was cool, older, handsome, and daring and she was in her man eating stage. She'd grown up quite a bit since then and now appreciated her sibling like bond that she'd developed with him over a romantic one. And she missed her brother quite a bit.

Russell was one of the few who knew about her mother, about all that had happened and the way she felt about her sisters. Of couse back then she was younger and her opinions and emotions were far more dramatic. But he never judged her for how she felt or her dramatics or anything else, he helped her in his own way and she liked to think that she helped him as well.

She didn't know why they lost touch, but they had.... though her mind did wander to him from time to time hoping he was okay, hoping he'd turned out well and that he wasn't causing too much trouble or breaking too many hearts.

Em's headphones were in her ears when she felt someone tap her shoulder. She spun around knocking a headphone out of her ear to hear whatever the person was saying, her heart half stopping hoping that it wasn't the person who had assaulted her earlier that year. When her eyes met the familiar stranger smiling at her she smiled in disbelief. Before she could even think her arms flung up around him. "Russ!" She squealed. "What the hell are you doing here?!" She laughed. "What the fuck?" SHe didn't even know what to say she was speechless. But overjoyed. "HI! Wow!"

[Russell Serrano]

It attacked him. The girl with the blonde hair had squealed, which made his ears bleed, and attacked him, her arms latching around his neck. “Jesus Christ, watch your fucking language!” he cried, taking a step back. He was just as surprised as she was, and just as speechless. He hadn’t actually thought he would see her. And then there was that twinge. She had changed from a gawky teenager into this filled woman. His eyes kept trailing down her body. She had dainty feet, which was unusually for a girl her size, her ears seemed to stick out less. He had noticed this, brushing his hand across her hair and it blew back.

This girl, this little girl he remembered seeing crying on the steps of the school. He remembered the mean words people would say to her because of her ears and the way she held herself. She had no self-confidence back then, which much he remembered, but this time, here she was. His mouth was open, and his tongue was running over his teeth, which was a sign of thinking for him. This was his little sister and he finally thought of bedding her, which was slightly disgusting to him.

“Aw, little Em has grown up!” he said, making a joke out of it and trying to keep her attention on him. He didn’t want her to know his perverted thoughts, and he only thought of them for a second. The next, he was putting his arms around her and spinning her around. Oh how he had missed her.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

Jeeze Russ had gotten even more handsome than she'd remembered him! He'd filled out some from his skinny high school frame and his hair was a bit longer. She bet that he was having quite the time in college with the girls. She couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the thought, oh Russ, she wondered if he'd changed. She knew she had.

Em smiled and nodded. "Yeah, grown up a bit in the past four years." She said thinking literally, Em WAS tall and reminded nearly every day of it. She also knew that she'd grown into her looks quite a bit, something she used a little too much to her advantage over the past few years but she had finally calmed down. Just in time for Russell to see what a lady she'd become. She couldn't wait to tell him about the studio, and dancing again, and Reece, and Chantal moving up to Vermont soon and how it was affecting Marie. But for now she just wanted to stare at him. She couldn't believe he was here.

When he picked her up she laughed and hugged him tight, afraid he was just an illusion or a dream. When he put her down she smiled and hugged him once more before letting go. "Do you have ANY idea how much i've missed you?" She asked completely oblivious that he was thinking anything sexually about her. To her, he would always be her big brother and she assumed the same went for him to her. That was how it had always been.

[Russell Serrano]

There was a lot on his mind when he decided to take that walk into downtown. He had just moved into his dorm with his new roommate who tried her very best to make sure he knew what an adequate girl she was. And then there was Faith, who he had met back in the bar. He ran a hand through his hair and looked down at the girl. Yes, she was insanely tall, but he still towered over her a good few inches. He wanted to spill the beans, tell her all the women he had slept with and had never seen again, all the men who had their eyes on him even though he didn’t remotely swing that way. How his ego kind of grew into the size of a whale and he could possibly bed any girl in Pilot Ridge.


“Well you little booger, if you actually tried to reach me through the institute, you would’ve probably found me!” he said, putting his arm around her neck and digging his knuckles into her head. He let her go and steadied her. “Alright, so you can go first, what’s been going on with your life?”

He knew she would start to talk and talk, and her life would be complete. His mind turned towards the time when she had gotten her heart broken, he wanted to kill the guy so badly. He was fuming and hid in his room, in the dark, because his power had gone full blast and it took every ounce of self-control, which was very little back then, not to go down there and try to kill him. He knew he needed more power and killing one person would’ve probably put him in some kind of coma. But, if he had, he wouldn’t have seen his little sister grow up.

[Emmanuelle LaBeau]

"I know, I know i should have tried but..." She shrugged, he was the who left to do bigger and better things, she didn't really want to hold him down or look back into the past if he didn't want to and she was the one who'd stayed put. She figured he'd contact her if he wanted to, but he never did, till today at least.

She laughed as he dug his knuckles into her and swatted his arm away. 'Oh me first?" She asked everything rushing at her at once. She didn't know where to start or when to start... it had been years but she figured there was time to catch him up on EVERYTHING later and she'd stick to the highlights.

"Well I work at the dance studio now... I love Salsa, that one. It's a bar at night." She told him not sure if he was there when it was converted to both, he probably wasn't. "Reece Turner owns it he was in school around when you were... Anyway, I teach classes there and also bar tend.... I've been dancing A LOT." She said proudly. She'd given that up too quickly but luckily that part of her seemed to flood back quickly when she went to it again. "I graduate from Hammel this spring... I applied to some schools and have heard back from several but think i want to stay in Pilot Ridge.... uhm.... I... think I.... kind of have someone I'm romantically connected to," she smiled softly to herself, "But, I feel like I like him more than he likes me most days..." She sighed, she had never said that out loud before just then and she wanted to steal back the words but there they were. "I mean he's great and all but he's not good with commitment and I haven't been either and... now i think I could commit to someone but he probably couldn't and he's so wonderful to me, he's sweet and fun and handsome and is there for me and we have so much in common... but i just feel like... I don't know... like... he says... he won't be with anyone else but me so it's everything but the title, which i'm FINE with...." She sighed again, "I guess I just don't know what it is.... there hasn't been any grand gesture or conversation or anything that has made me know for sure that he isn't going to break my heart... But I'd give it to him if he wanted it, because he already has it but.... I don't know if he wants it....."

She looked back up at him and blushed, she'd rambled.... and said too much. She hadn't had the chance to talk about Reece to anyone though and she'd wanted to so badly... she needed someone to tell her she was over thinking it all and it'd be fine and she should just have fun instead of thinking so much. "Anyway... what about you?"

[Russell Serrano]

Russell listened to his little sister’s rambling. She worked at a salsa bar? Well, that was probably good for her and nay other disgusting guy that hung out at those types of things. She had a nice ass, he wasn’t going to lie to her, but he didn’t like anything to happen to her. And then a romantic connection huh? Well that might be interesting and he didn’t even know this guy, but he didn’t sound like someone he wanted his Em to date. Yes, a possessive noun, not because he was falling for her, but because she was always getting her heart broken. She liked him more than he liked her most days? Sounded fishy and really bad.

“Oh well, I’ve been around.. I don’t have a job yet, but I have been kind of womanizing a lot lately and I haven’t had a relationship since my freshman year, but I’m sure you knew that. I’m kind of stuck in between two girls, one of them I share a room with and she’s SUPER hot. The other I met at the bar the other night and oh golly, is she purty,” he said laughing. Rus knew that Em didn’t need to know this, but he wanted to truthful and he hated being lied to, so why do it to his sister? “I have been going to college to become a journalist and I have yet to find a good story for this homework I have to do. Luckily it’s due in a few weeks and I can keep searching. Well, anyway, that’s what been going in my life. How is the family?”
He hadn’t really wanted to know about her family, he found them rude and he hated them with a passion, but it was something to talk about since he didn’t even know where his mother and father were. He was going to go search for them, maybe that’s why he was out walking in town.