<div style="text-align: center">Kenji Avery<br/>
2:30 pm, Zero University Library<br/>
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</div></div><br/>One more test. One more chance to fuck it all up and flunk out of the program.<br/><br/>He should have been studying for his exam, and though he was reading as he waited, it was to brush up on what he was going to be tutoring this day and not on what his own test was about. Maybe he was being foolish; he knew he could have made a quicker buck turning a wrench, but he was trying to turn a new leaf and do things the "right" way, whatever the fuck that was.<br/><br/>So he read and re-read the section on neuroplasticity and thought about how that had affected his own life. "<i>Smooth brain,"</i>he thought. "<i>No one wants that."</i><br/><br/>He felt a body invade his desk space and was about to tell them that he was waiting on someone when he looked up and locked eyes with a ghost from his past. He blinked. This could not be…it had to be someone who looked just like her. There was no way in Hell that Emmy would just walk up to him as if the last time they spoke she hadn't basically told him to get out of her life for good. Maybe she didn't say those words, but he had felt that meaning coming from her.<br/><br/>What was he supposed to say to her? Did she expect him to congratulate her in getting into the Digital Engineering program? Was he supposed to act like she hadn't broken his heart and kicked him out of the one place he had thought would be his forever home?<br/><br/>As she went on and on (and on) about his tutoring job, revealing that she knew more about his life than she had any right to know, he just stared at her. He was in such a state of shock that it would take hours before he realized what she had told him. He continued to stare at her, disbelieving the absolute balls on her – coming up to him like that after all those years! He was still staring off into space when his appointment arrived and asked him if he was their tutor.<br/><br/><i>…A few days later around 7am…</i><br/><br/>He didn't know if he had flunked that final or not. He had to compartmentalize his thoughts, boxing away that odd little reunion so he could focus. Now that it was done, he could allow himself to think about Emmy's visit and what it all meant.<br/>Maybe it meant nothing. After all, Emmy could turn on the charm, make you feel like you were her whole world, then turn into glaciers the moment it suited her.<br/><br/><i>"Maybe she's bipolar?"</i>the clinical side of his mind wondered. But no – Mother would have diagnosed her if she had been. Maybe it was PTSD, and she had finally snapped. Maybe she was just fucking with him.<br/><br/><div class="bbImageWrapper bbImageAligned--left js-lbImage" data-lb-caption-extra-html="" data-lb-sidebar-href="" data-single-image="1" data-src="https://blackdahliaroleplaying.com/attachments/6638_000-8-31-2016-5476-jpg.135570/" title="6638_000-8-31-2016-5476.jpg">
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</div>Instead of running to the manor and rescuing Emmy from whatever mess had happened with "IT," he decided to give it some time. He put away his books and dressed for the gym, figuring some good 'ol physical exertion might help him focus on things that were really important – like a future that didn't get all emotional on you and push you away, and a family that didn't scatter as soon as a real tragedy struck, or…well, he didn't know what else to add to it all. He only knew that he was pissed.<br/><br/>Emmy should have left him alone. Why did she have to go stirring up the past again? He was just starting to see daylight and to get his shit together, and now this?<br/><br/>Kenji had just finished his fifth set and was taking a break on the bench when he suddenly realized why he was so angry at her.<br/><br/><i>"I miss them."</i><br/><br/>The thought struck him like a physical gut punch. He felt like he wanted to puke.<br/><br/>He missed them, and he had almost forgotten what that felt like. Then Emmy had come back into his life, sat next to him, and reminded him how much it hurt to lose them all.