The Time it Takes for a Heart to Become Whole
It takes Emmett a few minutes to process what Daphne's just told him:
"What do you mean 'switched at birth?' How does that even happen?"
"The hospital made a mistake."
"Wow."
"Yeah."
"So, who's the other girl?"
It takes Emmett a few seconds to be intrigued by Bay when he first sees her leaning against a car in her driveway just as he's about to get lunch with Daphne.
It takes less than a minute for the smile to form on his face when he's introduced to Bay for the first time.
After his first real conversation with Bay by the tree at Buckner, he lays on his bed wondering why he wasn't bothered by Bay like he was with other hearing people. He thinks he is attracted to her. No, he knows he's attracted.
He reaches that conclusion after five minutes.
"I don't know what I was thinking," she says as she kicks the car. She looks so defeated, so innocent. He doesn't say anything, but she does. "You're the best listener."
It's only now, years later, he realizes that's the moment. That's when he fell in love with Bay Kennish. At the time it had just been a regular hour out of his normal life. Now, he knows better. It was an extraordinary hour.
His first kiss with Bay lasts maybe a minute, but what a great minute it is.
His second kiss with her is longer, a good ten minutes.
They spend three hours at the park.
It takes a few minutes before Bay gets upset with Daphne's presence in his life, how she frequently depends on him. He tells himself he'll show Bay that she's also a priority in his life.
When he brings Bay home for the first time, Melody's disapproval is instantaneous, but Emmett's mind is made up. He will not let her deter him from at least giving this relationship a try.
That conversation is seven minutes.
After nearly getting caught trying to tag the billboard, they hide by Bay's Thing for almost forty-five minutes. Neither one of them says anything. It's like they have a language in their silence. They hold hands, but do nothing more. Just sitting, waiting
When he goes back to do the billboard by himself, it takes nearly all night, but it's worth it. So very worth it.
He and Bay stay looking at it for half an hour. He has her in his arms and he's happier than he's ever been….
Until Daphne tells him she has feelings for him. It's a short conversation. Conversation? Revelation? Argument? He doesn't even know to this day what it was, but it sent him on a bit of a spiral for a few days.
He doesn't even know how long his conversation with Bay goes when he breaks up with her the first time.
"That will never be me."
When Toby comes to see him, he's a bit surprised.
"Don't treat my sister like that."
His heart and mind find each other in a matter of seconds.
The drive to Buckner on his motorcycle feels like forever, but it's really only fifteen minutes.
"I just want you."
He means it.
And then they are at the music festival and Bay defends him. Or at least she thinks she's defending him. What she's really doing is emasculating him, and he'll have none of that.
He leaves her in the middle of the festival for three hours, afraid that if he says anything, it will destroy them. He's suddenly doubting everything.
And then Bay finds him and puts his mind at ease after only a few minutes.
He gets arrested and avoids Bay for four days. They are the longest four days of his life, but he needs to figure out a way to say what he needs to say without hurting her. It's not her fault that they come from two different worlds, but it's not his either. And right now, they aren't Bay and Emmett. They are hearing Bay and Deaf Emmett and it makes a difference.
But Bay breaks his walls and armor with her art. Emmett thinks about that piece years after.
Things go from bad to worse at home. He's afraid pretty soon that will be him and Bay. Broken. Angry. Resentful.
The doubt is lingering in his mind for weeks before he even voices it.
"Are we going to fall out of love?"
His heart is beating so fast waiting for her answer. It could have been seconds, minutes, hours. He wouldn't be able to tell.
And then Bay tells him she loves him, too and all is right with the world. He foolishly believes he'll be okay, that they'll be okay.
It takes Emmett ten minutes to destroy his relationship with Bay. Ten minutes of unsatisfying sex with a girl he doesn't know or like. Ten minutes he'll spend the rest of his life wishing he could take back.
He tells Bay it was a mistake and, God, it was.
He doesn't hear a word from Bay for three months.
He spends the next three months trying to repair what was broken, and slowly things start to change. At least Bay talks to him. There's that.
Then she comes to Carlton and he believes their time will come again. Maybe another day. Or a week. Or a month even.
But it doesn't come. Not then at least.
Bay dates Noah for three-and-a-half weeks. To Emmett, it feels endless.
He tells Bay he doesn't want to wait around for her anymore, but even as he's saying it, he knows it's a lie. They don't talk for nearly a month.
Bay dates Ty for the whole summer, and it makes him want to die.
He starts talking to "Mandy" for a few hours a night, and he feels like this is how it's supposed to be. Him and Bay as friends. At least it's something. At least he can be there for her.
After a few weeks, Mandy is his girlfriend. It feels good to have someone again, to think he can one day love her. Maybe not the way he loves Bay, but a different love.
That possibility is shattered in two minutes when Matthew reveals himself as a catfisher.
Matthew leaves him broken in more ways than one for what has to be hours without an end in sight. And then an angel shows up, her halo perfect, even if she doesn't see herself that way. It's Bay. She tells him it doesn't matter what Matthew has done because everyone loves Emmett, herself included.
Emmett kisses her and they embrace and finally, finally give themselves to each other. It's been two years in the making.
They fall asleep in the park and it's the best night of sleep he's had in months.
When they wake up he thinks this is it. They are finally together. Only Bay has a boyfriend. But she's going to break up with him, at least that is what she tells him.
A few torturous days later, he finds himself face to face with Bay once more at the place where she had told him she couldn't be with him. Now, she assures him she won't let anything come between them again.
"There's so much that could drive us apart, but…I'm not going to let it."
There have been so many moments, minutes, seconds, hours, days, weeks, months, years that have made his relationship with Bay what it is today. Some moments were amazing; some were agonizing; some made him laugh; and some made him cry. But he'd go through all of them again in a heartbeat.
After all, it got him here.
It got him forever with Bay.