Page 5 of How To Resist Mr. Wrong (Mr. Wrong Chronicles #1)

“Hey, remember Jack?” Emily contemplated out loud, looking up from her assignment.

Seb chucked, a little startled. “You mean the guy you claimed you loved deeply and promptly forgot as soon as you broke up with him randomly one day? The guy you haven’t even mentioned in three years?

” He turned his chair away from his desk to give Emily the full effect of his one eyebrow up, judgmental face.

“Yes, I remember. What about him?” He folded his, frankly unnecessarily huge, arms over his chest.

Emily rolled her eyes from the bed where she had to sit this time because, in Seb’s words, “You always sit on the desk, Emily. I can’t be the first ever football player with a hunchback.

Let’s at least alternate!” But it wasn’t Emily’s fault that Seb never wanted to work on assignments in the library like normal people.

Too many interruptions, he said, whatever that meant.

“Well, I definitely didn’t love him,” Emily relented and went back to her assignment, avoiding the judgment coming from the other side of the room.

“Good, because his wife and newborn kid might have something to say about it,” Seb said, turning back to his work.

But Emily wasn’t thinking about work anymore. “What?” She jumped from the bed and grabbed Seb’s phone. “Where did he post all of that?” She unlocked the phone and opened Facebook.

Seb snatched his phone back and found the pictures for her. “Blocking your ex, so cliché, Em!” he teased.

Emily slouched down to look at the picture over Seb’s shoulder. Her ex looked at the baby with so much love, and his wife, on the hospital bed, had a matching expression. She tried to analyze how she was feeling about this development, which was fairly old news, looking at the date of the post.

“I’d say you dodged a bullet,” Seb suggested quietly and carefully, as if he was waiting for her to blow up.

Emily thought so too. She nodded, agreeing that while she was shocked seeing someone she genuinely thought she’d spend her entire life with having a family, she didn’t regret any of it.

“Getting pregnant right after high school? Yeah, that would have been a huge one-eighty from the plan,” she nodded again.

“You wouldn’t have gotten pregnant. You’re smarter than that,” Seb declared.

“I’m sure accidents happen to smart people too,” Emily said, and wrapped her hand around Seb’s neck just for a second. She looked at the picture again before going back to her makeshift desk of the mattress and pillows.

“Okay, yeah, that’s true. So, do we need tissues?” Seb asked, looking around his room for the tissue box.

“Yeah, no, I’m not going anywhere near your tissue box. You’re in a long-distance relationship,” Emily scrunched her nose.

“You know you’re sitting on my bed, right?” Seb turned to look back at her and winked.

“Ew, Seb!” Emily said, folding in on herself a little.

“Yup, that would save you from all the cooties.” Seb laughed. “You’re okay, though?” he asked after a few seconds.

Emily didn’t need another analysis of her emotions. “I’m okay,” she said, and smiled at Seb to reassure him. They went back to their assignments after that and back to never mentioning Jack again.

The first year of college had been brutal. Emily hadn’t anticipated just how busy things would get between classes, assignments, and mandatory activities. She barely had any time to hang out with Seb, but she still felt like they talked more than they ever did back in high school.

***

They finally got the gang back together with Seb and Emily flying down to Ray’s for spring break. Two weeks of stress-free bliss.

The day had all the potential of getting on her last nerve.

They barely made it to the airport on time because Seb couldn’t stop talking to his roommates and then everyone they came across along the way.

Then their flight was late, and Emily hadn’t had any time to get a single bite of food since morning.

But nothing could get her down that day. She smiled the whole way. She ignored her seatmate's weird looks and Seb’s eyerolls. She was meeting Ray!

As soon as they collected their bags, Emily almost ran to the departure, not even waiting for Seb. “Em,” she heard Ray’s voice somewhere from the crowd, then there was a strong gust of wind, and she was being hugged within an inch of her life by her best friend.

“Hi!” Emily shouted in Ray’s ears.

“I missed you so much,” Ray said just as loudly.

“I’m here too, but yeah, take your time,” Seb said, standing behind Emily.

“Aww, I missed you too!” Ray brought him into the hug.

“I think we’re blocking the way,” Emily complained once the initial burst of excitement had passed.

“We’re having a moment, Em. People will deal,” Ray said, hugging them tighter.

Emily gave in and just closed her eyes to ignore people giving them all kinds of looks.

“Okay, now we can go,” Ray said, letting them go after a few minutes. “I feel like I haven’t seen you guys in years!”

“Right? And the pink hair looks even better in person. You were so right!” Emily said, wrapping her arm around Ray’s waist and dragging her bag with the other hand.

Ray smiled at her, then turned to Seb and smacked him across the chest with the back of her hand. “I hope you’re taking good care of our girl, Seb. She looks so thin!”

“Yup, beating up all the boys and reminding Em to eat is why I continue going to classes, my dear,” Seb deadpanned.

“Ooh, that reminds me, what happened to Ryan? You said he was going to join you?” Ray looked behind Em like he’d appear out of thin air.

“That’s still a sore subject,” Seb stage whispered.

“You guys should do a sketch show! You can name it ‘Let’s remind Emily how she only attracts jerks and can never even hold onto them for long,’” Emily said.

“Okay, sorry, sorry. But what happened? You guys haven’t talked to me for more than five minutes in two months,” Ray complained.

Emily didn’t get a chance to speak. Seb took it upon himself to answer, because of course he did. He was too proud of himself to keep his mouth shut. “The same thing that happened with the last one. He was jealous of me.”

“That was really weird,” Emily nodded. “He was a walking red flag. Like, why would you be jealous of my best friend’s boyfriend?

Peak insecurity,” Emily said, furious all over again.

“But wait, what do you mean ‘same as the last one,’” Emily asked, turning her head to look at Seb and bumping her bag into two people in the process.

“Oh, that? Jack was jealous of me,” Seb proclaimed.

“What!” Emily stopped walking, then rushed to catch up with them. “Why would you think that? He knew you guys were together,” she pointed out.

“His telling me might have clued me in. He asked me, not very politely by the way, to ‘stay away from my girl.’ Those were his exact words,” Seb said, looking smug.

Ray laughed. “Oh, I remember that! He was so serious and everything. And the best part was, you broke up with him the same week!”

“Huh!” Emily said. “Am I an insecure man magnet then?” she contemplated.

Once they reached the Airbnb Emily’s mother had booked for them, Emily excused herself to a room to freshen up.

When she came out, she noticed Ray’s bag in her room.

Emily rushed out of the room into the living room, where Seb and Ray were sitting on the couch, talking. They stopped when they spotted Emily.

“Why aren’t you guys sharing a room?” Emily asked suspiciously.

Seb looked at Ray with his signature one-eyebrow expression.

Emily gasped. “Oh no! You guys broke up?” she asked. That was the only explanation. Emily felt her heart breaking for both of them.

“No, Em. We—,” Seb started.

“Yes!” Ray said over Seb with a glare targeted towards Seb.

“Yes, we broke up,” Seb repeated with a sigh.

“But when? Why didn’t I know about it?” she asked, joining them on the couch. She felt confused and hurt that they didn’t tell her. She also had a distinct feeling that there was more to the story.

“Ray?” Seb said, looking at Ray.

Ray sighed. “I asked him not to say anything,” she said.

What’s with all the sighing? “Why? And why didn’t you tell me yourself?” Emily asked her.

“It’s very recent, Em, and we were still processing it,” Ray offered.

“Umm… okay, I guess,” Emily said, still confused about how she should react.

She felt like she should be angry. There was also a tiny voice in her head repeating that her friends didn’t need her, even during the worst time of their lives.

But they seemed upset, so she couldn’t exactly go off on them.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked, scooching closer to Ray.

“I mean, it was going to happen anyway, right?” Seb said slowly, a little hesitantly.

“Yeah, long distance never works,” Ray said, nodding.

“I honestly thought if anyone could make it work, it would be you guys,” Emily said earnestly.

“Well, let’s not waste our time on sad things. It’s spring break, we need to have fun! It’s a requirement,” Ray declared, getting up and clapping her hands like a cheerleader.

“Yes,” Seb said, pumping his hand up. “After a quick nap, though,” he added, making himself comfortable on the couch and placing his feet on Emily’s lap.

***

And fun they had. Over the week, Ray took them around her favorite beaches in the day and bars at night. She was thriving in her new life. Emily was happy for her, and she was extremely satisfied with the sweet tan she was now sporting.

After a particular night of heavy drinking, Emily came out of her room in the morning feeling like a zombie, all with the compulsion to eat the brains of the people driving their cars so loudly outside.

She found Ray’s side of the bed empty, but Seb was outside looking like he’d just gotten back from a run.

“How do you look like that right now?” Emily asked quietly, very quietly.

“Aw, Em! You’re so sweet!” Seb said, placing his hand on his heart.

“Bu… but you drank more than me,” she said. She was having a hard time processing things right now.