Relationships

Emma

"I don't want to hear it." Sean said, holding up a hand. "I specifically asked you in advance. Weeks in advance!"

Emma frowned as she leaned against the wall of her dorm, "Sean, I never lied to you. I told you I already made plans after prom." She did want to hang out with him after prom, but she didn't know that was how things worked. She and her friends were already planning on going to the observatory one of their parent's owned to stay the night. "Sean, I didn't know that couples went out after prom! Your sister is ditching her boyfriend to go too! Don't tell me that—"

"Don't tell me about Sophie. She's the problem child of my family. She loves to spit on any tradition she can get her hands on." Sean said, raising his voice. "You? I thought you wanted to be with me. I thought that you loved to spend time with me. You promised me that you would try to adapt to all this and I promised to be with you every step of the way." he sighed, running a hand through his hair, "Emma, I love my sister Sophie, but she is not the best influence you could have." he glanced to the left and lowered his voice, "Emma, she has a record."

Emma winced. She could tell Sean saw it. It wasn't that Sophie had a criminal record, Emma could tell that Sophie wasn't sharing everything. No, It was how Sean spat out the word record. It was like he could barely stand the word to be on his tongue. It was Emma's own record that she thought of. Did Sean not know of her own? Or was he throwing it in her face on purpose? "Sean, she hasn't done anything wrong the entire time I have been with her. I've seen you break the law more when we go to parties."

His face twisted into a scowl, making her heart skip a beat. She could tell it was the wrong thing to say as he leaned closer, over her. "You aren't so innocent yourself Emma. I don't know what kind of stuff you got into on that island, but I can tell you have done plenty. Don't go throwing those alcoholic drinks in my face. I've seen you drink just as much as me. What kind of shade did you get into on the island Emma? What have you done? I've seen enough of this kind of attitude from you to know that there is anger behind those features that you've concealed with innocence."

"Sean, stop." She said, standing up. Her hands were shaking enough that she felt the need to hide them behind herself. Sean straightened his posture, towering over her all the more.

"No. What have you stolen in your life? How many people have you cheated? How many people have you slept with? How many—"

"Shut up Sean!" Emma shouted, stepping towards him, "Sean I am not going out with you. I am sorry, but I have plans!" Her chest heaved from the effort it took to yell, and she yielded the step she had just taken to him as he advanced towards her.

He glared at the wall just over her head for a few seconds too long before he looked down at her, "I am not going to baby you forever. You need to either grow up and learn to fit in, or crawl back to that hole where you lived before. I am trying to help you. The people here weren't ready for your little island pals. Jamison tried to fight a few people on the Tourney team including me when he first started. Gisa wanders around flinging gateway magic as she pleases. Ron looks like a kid but he was probably nothing more than an errand boy for whatever crook he pleased. I thought that maybe you could understand that you had a chance, but I guess I was wrong. I want to be with you, but you need to understand that this isn't about you." a heavy pause ensued before he offered a clipped, "Goodnight." Sean left her dorm without another word. The door clicked shut behind him, and Emma sank down against the wall, tears stinging her eyes.

She bit her lip hard enough to make it bleed, trying to keep her tears at bay. She was so stupid. Sean had done things for her, hadn't he? He had helped her study, he'd explained to her so many customs and traditions that she couldn't remember them all. He had been patient while she fumbled over classroom rules and stood up for her when one of her professors took her ignorance of those rules to be blatant disrespect…

Her stomach turned queasy as she realized how rude she'd been to him. Maybe she shouldn't go with her friends to the observatory. She glanced over to where her bag was packed on her bed. Gisa still hadn't come back from wherever it was she'd left to. She could just stay and nobody would know. She would feel less guilty. Would she even be able to enjoy her night with friends?

Her phone lit up with a message from Sophie. "Hey babe, Sean told me that you got sick and won't be able to make it. We'll miss you." she added a sad face at the end. Emma swallowed hard. Her headache was growing.

"Hey, I'm totally fine. I think Sean must have mistaken my…" Emma deleted the message. Before sending, "Thanks I'll miss you."

She flopped onto her bed, and didn't quite know why, but she cried until she fell asleep, still in her dress.

She awoke around three in the morning long enough to throw on a shirt and fall back into the covers. Her head pounded so much she thought her skull might crack. Had Gisa been there, she may have asked her for a spell to put her to sleep. Gisa had been using it on herself since she learned it. The dorms were too quiet for her to fall asleep in.

She fell asleep at some point, her thoughts full of Sean's words. She had finally slept dreamlessly, but a knock on her door made her jolt awake.

Emma crawled from her bed, pulling her hair into a ponytail. She padded across the floor as the person knocked again. She pulled it open to find Sean, seemingly as tired as she was, standing in her door.

His normally cocky smile had been replaced with a tired grimace that she supposed was an attempt at a smile. His eyes clued in hours of not sleeping. His hair was unbrushed, his chin was stubbled, and he was wearing blue jeans from school yesterday. Emma didn't even have the energy to blush as Sean's gaze landed on her legs. The t-shirt was barely covering her thighs.

He swallowed and paused, "hey, I'm sorry about last night. Can we go somewhere to talk? The diner right around the corner has a special today." he let out a breathless laugh. "Maybe we can discuss all of that?" His eyes wandered to her legs again before he admitted, "Um… I'll let you get ready."

She shut the door, going to the bathroom to splash water on her face, and brush her hair out before throwing it into a slightly less messy ponytail. Then she grabbed a long sleeved tee from her dresser and threw on a pair of black pants. In five minutes she and Sean were walking to the diner silently, their breaths clouding in the morning air. Emma watched Sean hug his coat tighter around himself.

He laughed as Emma walked beside him without gloves and a hat, nothing but her white coat she bought a few weeks ago. After she started selling her clothing she designed, and altering prom dresses this season, she'd had enough money to go places with her friends. But she could never make a coat as nice as this. "Not cold?" he asked.

"The island is going to be well below zero degrees by now." Emma said, "The cold doesn't bother me so much. Every place has found some way to keep warm, otherwise we'd die of the cold. Many people don't make it through winter there." At Sean's alarmed look she amended, "Well, at least those with no place to stay. It is survival of the fittest there. Anyone who is kind will eventually get taken advantage of. So people just stopped being kind if they ever were."

"Did you ever… have you ever tried to help anyone?" he asked quietly.

"Gisa and I often did. We made a fair amount of coin where we worked. More than most people." Emma could tell Sean wanted to know what she did… but she couldn't bring herself to tell him. To know how much he would judge her for it. "We often donated coins and whatever ration coupons we could spare. We could never offer them shelter. Audenzitios wouldn't allow it."

Sean grew quiet. "I forgot… that you lived with that woman for so long. Was… was she as terrible as the stories say?"

Emma paused, then nodded. "I know none of the stories lie about how she was on battlefields. People grow silent when she ventures out onto the streets even without her powers. She was once a commander of tens of thousands. Many of her troops were executed after she lost the war, but there are still those loyal to her that walk the island as her eyes and ears. She's still in charge somewhere. And she has this ancient and cruel power that ripples from her. Even the barrier couldn't take all of it away from her. And she's angry. She's angry that she was caught. People talk a lot about the first few years on the island. So many died. It was bad when I lived there, but those first few years were full of all out slaughter. Every time someone engaged her, she came out victorious. The rivers ran red for months until everyone acknowledged her as the main power of the island. Then things began to be as normal as they could. Gisa and I tried to stay away from her as much as possible, but still." Emma sighed. "She always gets her way, and it is wise not to try and stop it."

Sean wordlessly reached for her hand before they walked to the diner and sat down. Emma smiled a little. Maybe things were going to be okay.