Everything had changed. Emily was still broken, but thankfully she was slowly healing from the trauma. Every morning, when I looked in her eyes, they'd gotten a little brighter, a little more lively.
Having been going to school, she was now accustomed to loud noises again, and she could interact with people almost as if nothing had happened. But the triggers were still there. Unexpected touches, any displays of violence, things like that.
Hanna had been losing sleep, worrying about Emily. It showed in the bags that had appeared under her eyes, which for Hanna, was very, very unusual. Her appearance had always been very important to her.
Aria was probably the least changed, but I wondered if it was because she'd been the most different of us. She worried too, of course, but not enough to keep her from sleeping every night, like Hanna.
As for me, I'd convinced Emily's mom to bring the circumstances to the school's attention. I'd promised Emily I wouldn't leave her, but we'd been skipping classes we didn't share until Pam and I had convinced the school to change my schedule around to mirror Emily's. It mostly meant that I dropped half of my AP courses, which my parents were furious about, but I didn't care. Emily came first.
I think the thing that shocked everybody most, other than Ben's escapade, which had been brought to everyone's attention the day my classes had been changed when Ben had been formally arrested in the middle of school, was that I hadn't been on a single date, or even tried to since the night before it had happened. It had been almost three weeks since I'd slept with someone.
Nobody knew why except for me. Hanna and Aria had chalked it up to a friend being in need, which they understood. That had certainly been part of it, but why would I need anybody else when I had Emily all the time now. Sure it wasn't in the way I wanted it to be, and it wasn't under the circumstances I would have liked, but I spent all my time with the girl I loved. I wasn't about to chase some bimbo around for a quick fuck when I could be spending time with Emily.
I worried, still, about Emily. At school she put on a show, but when we got back to her house, she still laid in bed sulking, only getting up, for the most part, to use the bathroom or when her mother called us down for dinner. She didn't eat much either. She ate a few bites every meal, but mostly just rearranged the food on her plate with her fork. I supposed it was an improvement from when she wouldn't get up, even for food, but she was slowly getting thinner and paler, almost sickly. I'd need to talk to her about this.
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