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she thought of choosing him over Alex and the rest of her friends. A sound from David brought her head up and she looked ahead down the street. She could see the top of masts in the distance as the marina got closer. Lowering her sight to the street , she could see a bridge that led to the marina area and parked to one side of it was Mason in his golf cart. He was still behind the wheel but his head was in his hands.
    As they got closer to him, he heard the engines and his head whipped up to stare at them. David stopped the cart half a block away and Mark zipped around them and drove straight to Mason, pulling up beside him. When Lisa realized they had stopped , she sat up and looked around. When she saw Mason, she made a little whimper and scrambled over Emily and out of the cart, running the rest of the way to him.
    David and Emily didn’t speak for a minute. They just sat and stared at the group ahead of them. Without looking at her, David reached over and took Emily’s hand, giving it a squeeze.
    “We could just go. You and me, we could leave them here and find our own boat. Something small with a motor. We could stay close to shore and get past the city and then head overland. I would get you home, Emily. I would protect you.”
    Emily studied Mason and his friends. “I don’t belong with them. David’s right, we’d be better off without them. We can’t count on them at all,” she thought. Just as she was about to tell David yes, Mason broke away from the others and ran towards them.
    “Emily, are you ok ay?! I’m so sorry! I don’t know what happened. I just froze. My mind was screaming go go go and I just panicked. Please believe me! I’m so sorry. Please forgive me!” he pleaded.
    Emily could see tears in his eyes and his face was full of shame and guilt. She remembered how he had just sat there with bullets flying and realized that what he said was probably true but how could she ever trust him again? Once again she was going to tell David that they would go when Mason said something that changed her mind.
    “Emily…I love you.”
    David groaned and Mason shot him a dirty look before swinging his eyes back to Emily.
    “Please. It won’t happen again. You can count on me.” His eyes were full of sincerity.
    Emily found herself nodding and she looked to David. “We should stay together, right?” she asked him with confusion. David let out a long sigh.
    “I’m with you, no matter what you decide,” he told her, looking miserable.
    Hesitantly , she nodded again. “Okay…we’ll just keep going together…Okay?”
    “Yeah, alright, let’s go find a boat and get out of here ,” David replied, turning and looking straight ahead.
    Mason leaned in and squeezed Emily’s arm and nodded. Then he turned and jogged back to the others. As David drove them over the bridge , Emily thought about what Mason had said. She was still shaken and upset with what he had done, but she could understand why it had happened. None of them were mentally prepared for what had happened today and they were all going to make mistakes. She was shocked that he had said, “I love you”. They had been dating for a few months and she really liked him but love was the big scary. It was something she would have to think about.
    David pulled up to the marina parking area and waited. His face was grim as he watched Mason and Mark drive farther into the lot. How could Emily be so blind? The guy was a selfish coward. He had left her on that street to die and then played the love card? And she fell for it? He was beginning to think he should have just gone with the others. He wanted to help Emily but she had to start thinking or they would end up in serious trouble.
    David drove the golf cart deeper into the marina to where the others had stopped. There was a clubhouse and restaurants with a parking lot ahead of them and then docks filled with all types of sailing craft. David was surprised to not see any people. He had figured