AN: So this is my first Once Upon a Time fanfic. The first two chapter will mainly be about Emerald's life before she moved. Please review. In this story Peter Pan got Henry's heart the first time and sent them all back to Storybrooke, therefore dark one is alive and so is Pan. Disclaimer: I don't own Once Upon a Time only the outside characters.
Four years ago.
"Shay you know I don't like to swim." I called out to my crazy blonde friend that went running into the water without pausing to take off her cover up. Shay was pretty but boys were repelled by her loud and often rude personality. Her blond hair curled in messy waves to just below her shoulders. She did manage to keep her empty headed boyfriend interested though I always claim it's because she has blue eyes, then she makes fun of my startling vivid emerald green ones, the only interesting thing about my looks.
"Yo Em! Welcome back to Earth, and I don't care whether or not you like to swim, get in here before I make you," she shouted before diving underwater. I roll my eyes and pull off my cover up and run the few strides to the water on the narrow beach overlooking the Atlantic. I walked into the water until I was knee deep and looked over my shoulder at the giant beach house my family rented each summer. I turned back around and got a face full of water. I cough out the water that got in my mouth and wipe my eyes before springing at her. Pushing her under water and deeper into the ocean. I hold her under for a second and then she pops back up breathing hard but is pulled down a second later. I grab for where she was hitting empty water. I wait a few seconds and scan the water waiting for her to pop up again.
I look around for her frantically. I dive down and reluctantly open my eyes as if I had a choice. I saw a big blob that might be Shay and swam over. I grabbed her arm and swam towards the surface. My lungs scream for air until we finally break the surface of the water I try to catch my breath and swim for the beach with Shay in tow. I got to the beach finally and started coughing my guts out. I freeze when I reach Shay. When I see her blue lips and startling pale skin. I convince myself it's the light but search for a pulse even though I know what I will find.
She's dead. My best friend drowned. I shiver and tears build up in my eyes but don't fall. I sit there for an hour until the cold finally snaps me out of my numbness. I turn and stumble back to the house. I remember grasping a phone and dialing 911 before collapsing.
Two years later
"Thank you for being here for her Eric. Now will be especially rough for her," My mother's voice whispered drunkenly down the hall unaware I could hear her.
"Yeah it was two years ago today wasn't it?" Eric asks. The shaggy black haired guy has been the only thing that has made me get out of bed and stay out of jail for the past year and a half. I met him when my parents got divorced. Now my mom is just iffy on the whole life thing and my dad left without a word or anything, a few months after my best friend died. Eric and his brown eyes are my only friends now.
"Emerald!" she called out instead of answering. I take a deep breath and walk down the hall. "Oh honey you look beautiful." I try to smile but stop knowing that if I do pull it off it will look as fake as any person in this town that tries to mutter the whole "I'm so sorry for your lost" spiel. They didn't know her, and they don't know me.
"Come on the night will be much longer if you start crying now," Eric said making me smile a small smile. "And this is a new suit because the one I wore last year is still at the dry cleaners trying to get rid of all the tear stains on the shoulders." No one understands it. He makes jokes about the whole event and it's supposed to make me mad it should make me want to shoot him for being so insensitive. But I think with all the serious stuff breaking in my life I just need to laugh it off sometimes, and Eric doesn't ever go too far and he understands my parental issues after going through practically the same thing.
My mom wraps her arms around me in a hug and I smell the alcohol on her breath and know what I'll come home to. She sighs and lets go sending more alcohol laced breath towards my I cringe and turn away muttering a goodbye and following Eric out of the house. He opens the door for me and walks around to the drivers side. I sigh and sit down making sure my emerald dress doesn't get caught in the door.
"Why do they throw this every year. No one in this town knew Shay unless they wanted to fuck her. I mean she didn't even like dances or dressing up. How do you even come up with a memorial ball just because she liked designing clothes," I wipe my eyes recounting the future we were planning at fifteen. Shopping in Paris on the off weekends between my movie shoots and her fashion shows. "I'm sorry you are always stuck with me and my rants."
"Hey it's fine. I never knew Shay since she died before I moved here, but it seems like I knew her." I smile and bite my lip.
"You would've liked her. She was pretty and much more adventurous than me. She was terrible at lying and bullet proof. She didn't fight hard though. I remember asking her once about a particularly low rumor. She just shrugged and said it isn't true. I remember I slapped Joe once because he said she slept with the VP. If she wasn't there to hold me back I would've had a much longer sentence than I did."
"Yeah I met you in the middle of a fight. What did she say again?"
"Caution troll crossing, be careful they can kill with a single look, how do you think what's her face died. So I kicked her ass."
"You were also going to destroy her friends if it weren't for the stunningly hot new guy that made the idiotic decision of breaking up a chick fight."
"I don't remember the hot new guy, but the guy sure was stupid I mean they thought he was the culprit."
"No one ever said they were smart." He said pulling into the hotel parking lot the ball was being held in. We got out and I braced myself for a night of living hell. At least it flew by. I stayed away from the life of the party and every picture ever taken of shay and stood off to the side only interacting with Eric and the few others that actually cared about Shay which consisted of cousin, Sarah, came over while Eric was getting something for us to drink.
"Your boyfriend is really cute," she started.
"Oh he's not my boyfriend. We've never been more than friends." I said trying to hold her eyes which where Shays copy and pasted onto Sarah.
"Shame," she said a second before Eric joined us again. "Can I borrow your friend for a dance?"
"It's up to him."
"Sorry I actually have to get going," he said surprising me. "Your mom is picking you up right?" He begged me with his eyes.
"Uhm yeah of course," I said acting unfazed by his change of behavior. "Do you want me to walk with you to your car? What time is it anyway?"
"10:32," Sarah chimed in trying to be helpful.
"Shit, my mom is supposed to be here by now. We'll see you later I guess. It was nice to see you Sarah," I said finishing the act. There's a reason I wanted to be an actress.
"Yeah it was nice to meet you," Eric said shaking her hand and leading the way out of the picture plastered ballroom and eventually the hotel. I waited until we both got in the car before firing off the hundred different questions that have been plaguing me.
"So why did you not want to dance with Sarah? Was she not pretty enough?" He kept his eyes trained on the road.
"I like someone much prettier than her," he finally said so quietly I questioned whether I actually heard him or not.
"Oh do tell, I need to get my mind off tonight." I said not really paying attention.
"You are clueless you know that. You may be able to become whoever you want to be, but you are not able to read people at all. I've had a crush on you since I saw you throw that punch 531 days ago. You've never noticed that I've been dying inside whenever you are sad or crying over something. You never notice that I don't see any girl in this word except for you. It kills me everyday knowing that you will never see me as anything more than a friend."
"Eric," I gasp as he pulls into my driveway. I try to search for words but can't find any.
"I keep thinking that someday you'll wake up and realize who's been there for you forever. But then something happens like tonight and I think how foolish am I to believe you'd ever see me. Am I wrong?" He asks. "Goodbye Emerald." He says once the silence remains for a moment to long. I get out of the car and walk to my front door making an effort to step in the puddles and ruin my perfect puffy dress like this day was. I turn and look over my shoulder and see that Eric's already gone. I step into my house and the first thing I notice is the silence.
"Mom!" I call out to the semi dark house. I check the guest bedroom where she has been sleeping for the past year and then their old room I walk past the bathroom and see a bunch of prescription bottles opened and strewn about the bathroom their contents missing. I stop at the door unable to process what I was seeing I run to their old bedroom and see her limp body hanging. Finally I start to put the pieces together and my phone is in my hand and 911 is on their way. I run to the kitchen as fast as my dress will allow and grab a knife. I cut the scarf she used as a noose and freed her not daring to look for breath or a pulse. I stare blankly at her body isolated from the world surrounding me.
911 knocks and I answer in shock. I'm pushed out of the way as they pull out the heart thing and search for a beat as another tries to find a pulse. They bring in breathing stuff and rush her onto a stretcher and then into an ambulance. I follow numbly as they push me into the ambulance. I sit down next to the stretcher and hold my mom's lifeless hand.
"Will she live?" I finally ask.
"It depends on whether or not she responds to the treatment. If you got to her any later there wouldn't have been anything we could do."
I nod and finally start thinking. She abandoned me. Everyone is either dead, mad at me, or wants nothing to do with me. I know I shouldn't but I text Eric knowing he'd be home by now and able to answer.
Hey can we talk? It's really important. I text anxious for a reply. I get a quick answer a second later.
Just stop Em, I can't take this anymore. My phone falls from my hand and I feel helpless. I close my eyes and convince myself I don't need anyone but I know it's a lie. I leave my phone for a minute but grab it before the attendant in the back does. I move to slip it in my back pocket but only feel the satiny fabric of my dress. I cuss under my breath and slip it into the small clutch I still had wrapped around my wrist.
"So what happened?" The attendant asks curiously.
"My best friend died," I say few seconds later because that's when my life unraveled. That's when my parents started fighting over what was best for me. That's the reason Eric abandoned me like my mother is trying to. The person just looks at me as I look out the back of the ambulance, my hand no longer holding my lifeless mother's. Like she wanted.