The Davis Years (Indigo) by Nicole Green Page A

and you are not going to ruin my wedding.” She stomped over to Tara. “Leave!”
    “This is my parents’ house, Miss Piggy. I don’t have to leave, and I’m not going anywhere.”
    Jemma winced at the nickname the always thin Tara had given the once heavier Emily Rose longer ago than Jemma could remember.
    “If you want to stay here, I can’t stop you. But you get in the house because you’re not invited and you won’t ruin this.”
    Tara put one hand on her hip, the other still holding the malt liquor bottle. “So I ruin everything, huh?”
    “You’re a washed up, selfish bitch. An old, faded-out cheerleader who’s only good at one thing and it ain’t raising a kid.”
    Tara slammed her fist into Emily Rose’s face and then stormed into the house. Mrs. Braden, Carolina, and Meg ran to Emily Rose’s side.
    “If this bruises, I’ll kill her. The wedding is tomorrow,” Emily Rose screamed. She continued screaming as they helped her into the house.
    Guests stood up and started milling around the tables, seeming uncertain about whether they should stay or go. Mr. Braden went to the Fletchers’ table and started talking with Mr. and Ms. Fletcher. Emily Rose’s father kept running a fist across his forehead and patting his pockets as if looking for his handkerchief, which he was always misplacing.
    Davis touched Jemma’s arm. She turned to look at him.
    “I’ll wait out by my car for you,” he said.
    She nodded. “I’ll be there in a sec.”
    Jemma watched Davis walk toward the front yard before she stood, intending to follow Emily Rose inside. Then she changed her mind mere feet away from the house. Emily Rose seemed to have enough support. She probably wouldn’t need Jemma. Besides, she didn’t have much of a desire to go into a house which contained Tara.
    As Jemma walked past the kitchen door, Carolina came out of it and they almost ran into each other.
    “Where are you going?” Carolina asked.
    “Home,” Jemma said.
    “What, right now?” Carolina raised her eyebrows and scrunched her lips into the facial expression equivalent of a question mark. “Emily Rose wants to know where you are. I told her I’d come out here and check.”
    “Tell her I’ll see her tomorrow.” Jemma started to walk away.
    “Oh. Really?”
    “What does that mean? Why’d you say it like that?”
    “Just seems kind of strange and selfish that you’d leave your best friend like this. Really, Jemma, you haven’t seemed like much of a best friend. I know I haven’t known you long, but—”
    “You really haven’t.”
    “Look, I don’t know why you would, like you said we barely know each other, but you seem to have a problem with me. Now whatever that problem is and why ever you have it, I would think you’d let Emily Rose come first. She always says such good things about you. You disappear for six years, miss all kinds of stuff in her life, shut her out of yours, you finally show up again, and you act like you don’t want to be here.”
    “Well, with you and Meg around, who needs me? You two are always crowding me out.” She should have stopped there, but she couldn’t. “Maybe I’m afraid I’ve already lost her. She was one of the most important people in my life and now . . . everything seems wrong between us. Maybe I’m coming off as a bitch, but I don’t know how to handle that. Any of it.” Jemma wanted to take it back as soon as she finished telling Carolina all of that, but she knew she couldn’t. Carolina had poked and prodded until she’d forced the truth out of Jemma.
    Carolina looked down, her black hair falling around her brown face. For the first time since Jemma met her, Carolina didn’t seem to know what to say. She finally looked up again, flipping her hair over her shoulders. “I guess I wasn’t thinking about it that way.”
    Jemma shrugged, sniffling, and dug into her purse looking for tissues. Carolina nudged her arm and Jemma realized she was holding a tissue out to