Chapter 16: Senior Carnival
For the seniors at Hidden Rocks High School the arrival of spring meant three things: Senior Carnival, Prom and Graduation. For the honor roll students, spring meant two things: Cramming for their AP tests and waiting for the fat letter from their first choice schools. For Mrs. Little, the senior's guidance counselor, it meant consoling those students who didn't get into their first choice school. The teachers battled numerous rumored senior skip days, seniors with senior-itis, and the many events that came with the arrival of spring.
The first of these events was the much looked forward to Senior Carnival. Each of the clubs and activities had a booth represented. Maddie, Mollie and the cheerleaders had a kissing booth benefiting breast cancer research. The football/baseball team had a pie throwing/eating contests. Ty and his video game/comic book club were hosting a Smash Brothers Brawl and Guitar Hero tournament. A ten dollar buy in got you a three chance shot and a small grasp at the $250 cash prize for both games, sponsored by Comic Kingdom. Mollie was the first to sign up for the Brawl tournament. Of course most of the guys signed up gave Mollie much grief but none knew her skills. Sebastian and Casper had a bet going that Mollie would kick all the competition to the curb. The Student Council had a dunk tank. With Halle in charge it was sure to be an amazing carnival.
Somehow, Halle wasn't sure how, but her and Becca's pregnancies remained under wraps. Because Becca was a bigger girl to begin with she had an easier time hiding it. Halle on the other hand was running out of excuses. Rumors were whispered about Halle and Ty. Only Halle, Ty, Becca, Jo and Mollie knew what was really going on. With each passing day Halle was getting bigger and it was becoming obvious. Soon she wouldn't be able to deny it any longer.
It was a brisk March Friday when the carnival arrived. It was turning out to be a mild spring. For a Wyoming mountain town it meant there hadn't been any snow for about a week. The football field was dry and primed for large rides to take up residence. The carnival came just days after the girl's basketball team returned as state champs. The air of the carnival was that of celebration and joy.
No one was more excited for the carnival than the most hated girl in the entire school; Emma Ross. The carnival was the first activity at school she was able to go to with her strict curfew. Despite the hateful glares and whispers behind her back Emma was doing rather well in her last year of high school. She attended her rehab and was going on six months sobriety. She and Cohen struggled a bit in their relationship. They had to cut their days on the outside of her home short due to her strict curfew. The Senior Carnival came at the right moment for the struggling couple.
The Friday morning sun rose on the small mountain town in Wyoming with a renewed sense of joy for its humbled residents. A surge of activity swirled about the high school. A Ferris wheel, bumper cars, a scrambler and the Yo-Yo swing were being assembled on the football field. The different clubs booths were scattered among the rides outside and inside the gym. Many students, some of whom hadn't seen their bed in almost twelve hours, milled around the school grounds putting the finishing touches on the carnival. Mollie and Maddie and a few of the other cheerleaders were attaching the last of the balloons to their kissing booth. Mollie had her clipboard in hand and was going over the schedule of who would be doing the various jobs of the booth. She also had to convince Maddie to only spend two hours working the booth. Maddie had to remind Mollie that she knew that and was only giving her a hard time.
The only class that was mandatory to attend was first period. If you skipped the first class you would not be allowed to attend the carnival. That was why so many of the students with booths hadn't seen their beds. They had stayed very late into the night or showed up very early to put the finishing touches on their booths. No one was paying the least bit of attention to their classes. Poor Mr. Workman tried to keep everyone's attention with a movie but it was no use. Mollie, Halle, Becca and Jo were passing notes, making plans for the carnival. Halle, Jo and Mollie wanted to spend as much time with their gentlemen callers as possible. Becca planned to work at the multiple Student Council booths. She and Halle knew better than to do most of the rides due to their "condition". Becca was looking forward to just getting to hang out with her friends.
The bell rang and it was a mad dash to the football field. The underclassmen, mostly the freshman were running for things because they didn't know any better. The upperclassmen walked slowly out. But most of the seniors wanted to make an entrance. In the gym each student was checked in by the principals. From the check in table it was a stone's throw to the dunk tank and the other water games. Balloons littered the floor of the gym. For five dollars you could attempt to bust open any five balloons in hopes of finding one of seven one hundred dollar Wal-Mart gift cards and other gift cards for various restaurants that surrounded the small town of Hidden Rocks.
Mollie and Maddie waited in line for the bumper cars. They were meeting Casper and David Scott, Maddie's boy-toy for the day. While in line Maddie was graced with a very, very nice view. It was tall, dark and wore a black Stetson with a black and red braided band. His red plaid shirt was tucked into a pair of well worn Wrangler jeans. A wide leather belt wound around his waist. Scanning up and down Maddie noticed the mud caked boots.
"Mmmm-umm-mmm-um-mmm," Maddie whispered to Mollie. She reached out her hand and gave the cowboy in front of her a quick pinch to the ass.
Mollie gasped as the cowboy jumped slightly and turned around. He had his thumbs looped through his belt loops, his hand protecting his three-time bull riding champ belt buckle. He gave Maddie a soft lopsided grin, a glint of humor shone in his dark brown eyes. He raised his left hand to the brim of his hat and nodded at Maddie. He turned back around and Mollie could see his shoulders shaking with laughter. Maddie looked over at Mollie and whispered. "Save a horse. Ride a cowboy."
"I can't believe you just did that!" Mollie laughed.
"Oh you can too," Maddie laughed back. "It's cowboy butt. Cowboy butt is meant to be pinched, squeezed, slapped..."
"Why am I friends with you again?"
"Because your life would be very, very dull without me in it."
Maddie looked over her shoulder and saw Casper and David coming towards them. Maddie waved overhead to get their attention. Casper and David cut in front of a few overeager freshmen. They started to protest until Maddie shot them a glare. It was M&M versus Casper and David once they arrived in the bumper cars. Mollie was laughing and having a great time. This carnival was already different than the year before. Last year Emma was too busy fighting with Maddie to enjoy the carnival.
Becca and Halle walked around the carnival together. The two pregnant teens were weary of doing many of the rides. They decided that the safest bet for them would be the Ferris wheel. Halle and Becca boarded their bucket and laughed as the wheel took off. They loved sitting at the very top and looking down on all their classmates enjoying the carnival.
Inside the gym the dunk tank had run into a slight snag. The person who had volunteered to be the dunkee hadn't shown. Jenna Malone decided to play the crowd and get volunteers. It worked for the first few hours but soon no one was offering to be dunked. Jenna shut it down for awhile to regroup. The prom depended on the dunk tank being successful. She needed to find someone who would bring in the right amount of money to fund prom. Jenna went outside looking for the right person to ask.
Jesse was having fun. He and Kate Derlagen had been together for seven months now and he was really enjoying her company. She was a kind and sweet girl. She was having a blast. Jesse was glad. While they were walking past the bounce castle he saw Emma and Cohen walking together. He had gone to great lengths to avoid Emma over the past year. What irked Jesse the most was the fact that Emma kept acting like nothing had happened. Acting like she wasn't the one who caused the accident and stole Matt from all of them. He excused himself from Kate and made his way over to the bench where Cohen and Emma were sitting.
Emma and Cohen were sitting by DECA's cotton candy booth enjoying the peace. Emma was having an ok time. It was nothing like the year before. Last year she had been with Jesse and had all her friends. Last year she was on the top of the social ladder and on her way to bigger and better things than the small town of Hidden Rocks, Wyoming. She was looking around and saw Jesse coming towards her and Cohen. She braced herself for another round of screaming Jesse. She took Cohen's hand in hers, finding comfort in his callused hands.
"Atwood, Emma," Jesse greeted.
"What do you want Jesse?" Emma asked harshly. "You want to scream at me some more? Tell me for the millionth time how I killed Matt and ruined your life?"
"No actually," Jesse said, remaining pleasant. "I had a question for you."
"Really? Well, can you just ask it and go away?"
"How can you act like nothing's happened?"
Emma looked up at Jesse. A dumbfounded expression littered her face. "I deal everyday with everything that has happened. I can't step outside my house without the cops knowing about it! I lost all my friends, the respect of my teachers, the chance for a real future. What else would you like me to lose, Jesse?" Emma snapped. "What can I possibly do to make you happy? Would you like to join Matt?"
Jesse paused. As much as he would like to see Emma go curl up and die somewhere, he knew that wouldn't bring him peace. The only thing that would bring him peace was a real explanation of what happened that night.
"What would make me happy would be to hear, for once, your side of what happened," Jesse said softly.
"No! You have no right to ask me that! All of you turned your backs on me the nanosecond Matt died. If I remember correctly you called me a stupid, reckless, selfish bitch. For the last time, it was an accident! I didn't mean for it to happen."
"But it did happen Emma. You can't wish it away!"
"You need to go away now Jesse," Cohen said. "It's been seven months since the accident. You need to back off and walk away. Emma's been punished enough."
Cohen had been shunned by the student body along with Emma because he chose to stand by Emma. He defended her when people called her names and treated her worse than a leper. He brushed off the remarks made about him but lashed out in groves when someone threw Emma under the bus.
"Valmont, just walk away. Walk away and let us enjoy the carnival," Cohen said, standing up. "Walk away."
"Fine," Jesse snapped.
Jesse walked away and rejoined Kate and her host sister, Natalie McGill. He didn't get the answer he was wanting. For that he was upset. He pushed it aside and got back into carnival mode. He was due at the Guitar Hero tournament in a few minutes. He was ranked at the top of the hard division. He walked past the Brawl bracket and saw that Mollie was ranked at the top and the only player to go undefeated. Jesse wasn't shocked. Mollie was the best Brawl player he had ever seen. He had no idea how she did it. In the four years that he had known Mollie he had only seen her lose at Smash Brothers once. She only lost because he, Matt and Marc ganged up on her instead of fighting each other.
Jenna watched from the side as Jesse walked away from Emma and Cohen. After watching their interaction, Jenna got a wonderful, yet awfully cruel idea. Gaining the courage to walk over to Emma, she approached.
"Hi Emma, Cohen," Jenna said.
"Good God!" Emma exclaimed. "Did you come to ruin my day at the Carnival too?"
"Um, no actually. I was wondering if you would want to help out at the prom committee's booth for a little while?" Jenna asked.
"It's against my suspended sentence to participate in any after-school activities," Emma said.
"Not to be rude Emma, but if you can't participate then why are you here?"
"To my knowledge the Senior Carnival is taking place during school hours. Despite popular opinion, I am still a senior at this school. I have just as much right to be here as anyone else!" Feeling a sense of sheer annoyance and a feeling to stick it to everyone, Emma stood up. "You know what? Screw all of you. Jenna, what do you need?"
Word spread faster than American Idol gossip that Emma was doing the dunk tank. A line formed from the dunk tank booth, past the baseball team's pie throwing contest, the soccer team's target practice and out the gym door. Jenna was positive that this one event would fully fund prom. Three dollars for three chances to dunk the most hated person in the entire school.
The first person in line was Marc. There had been dozens of things that he had wanted to say to Emma. He picked up his three softballs and began to juggle them in his hands. The rage was building in him. He looked up and caught Emma's eyes in his sightline.
"Just throw the damn ball O'Ryan!" Emma called out. "Give me your best shot!"
"You asked for it Emma!" Marc yelled. Angrily he fired off the three balls. The first two barely missed the target. The third landed dead center, releasing Emma's seat and sending her into the cold water below. She resurfaced and wiped the water from her face. Proudly she climbed back into the seat and took on the next person.
Student after student launched softballs at the dunk tank target. Many of them had taunts and hateful things to say. Emma held her head high and said nothing back. Inside she was crying. Screaming at the top of her lungs. Screaming it was an accident. She didn't mean to. She knew that no one cared what she had to say. She wiped off the water dripping down her face when Halle stepped up to the line. Emma could tell something was different about her old friend. Halle had always been slender. Now she could see the defined bump that Halle had tried so hard to hide. Halle locked eyes with Emma and glared.
"Becca's too proud to say anything to you but I will. For the record Emma, you stole a daddy."
Emma's eyes went wide as the softball hit the target. She plunged into the water, Halle's words echoing in her head, the words holding such a weight. Emma thought for sure the words would drown her. Emma didn't have that bad of karma. She returned to the surface. She locked eyes with Halle and as quickly as she looked her head dropped in despair. Mrs. Roberts heard that things were getting out of hand at the dunk tank. She had her guess of who was the dunkee. She was going to put a stop to the cruelty before it escalated into something much worse.
Becca finally made her way to the dunk tank. Students stepped out of her way as she walked closer. She declined the balls Jenna offered her. She stared at Emma, not taking her eyes off her for a second. Putting one foot in front of the other, she inched closer and closer to the target. Her hands were shaking.
"Becca," Emma called, her voice catching. "I am so sorry. Please don't do this."
Finding her voice for the first time since Matt's accident, Becca turned to face Emma. "Because of you, my daughter will never get the chance to know her father. Know the man he could have been. I hate you Emma Ross!"
Tears were falling from Becca's eyes as her fingers pressed on the target. Emma braced herself for the drop. Screaming out in agony, Becca's hand pressed hard, pushing the target in. The splash was the only sound heard. The cold water shocked Becca. She couldn't move. She was frozen in place. Marc and Jo had watched Becca from the side and were now pushing through the crowd to get to their friend. Jo looped her arm around Becca and began to lead her away. Looking over her shoulder, Jo shot a glare at Emma. Marc, Jo and Becca got away from the dunk tank just as Mrs. Roberts arrived to shut it down.
Marc and Jo led Becca out of the gym and into the bright outside. Out in the open air Becca began to calm down.
"Becca do you realize that you spoke for the first time since Matt died?" Jo asked.
"Yeah," Becca said. "Picked a good day to do it too." She began to laugh. "It felt good. It felt really good." Shaking her head Becca's laughs quieted. "JoJo can I ask you something? Marc this applies to you too."
"Sure Becs, anything," Marc replied.
"Will you be my daughter's godparents?" Becca asked.
"Of course Becca!" Jo exclaimed. "We'd be honored!"
The three teens shared a tight hug. Marc excused himself to go meet up with the boys at the Brawl tournament. The two girls looped their arms together and walked around the football field. Becca seemed happier to Jo. In fact this was the happiest she had seen Becca since Matt died. As Becca was walking she felt a small kick.
"Oh my God!" She grabbed Jo's hand and placed it on her belly. "JoJo feel! She's kicking!"
"Oh!" Jo gasped. "Oh my God!"
"Cool isn't it?"
"Way, way cool."
Across the grounds Mollie was getting ready to take on her biggest challenge of the day. She had made it to the final game. She was against her brother Sebastian, Marc and Harris. The same Harris who had manhandled her at Emma's party. Harris glared at her as Mollie plugged in her custom, hot pink GameCube Controller.
"I didn't think good, little Christian girls played video games," Harris taunted. "This should be very interesting."
Marc and Sebastian shared a knowing glace. They had both been on the receiving end of Mollie handing their butts to them in a Smash Brothers game. They knew better. Ty, ever the emcee, took a microphone and greeted everyone who had gathered around.
"Welcome to the final four of the Senior Carnival Super Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament, sponsored by Comic Kingdom and Sheridan's Game Stop. The top four players are; coming into this final game completely undefeated, Miss Mollie Reynolds!" Cheers echoed around the fifty-two inch plasma TV. Mollie waved to all her adoring fans. Casper was in the back taking bets. "In second place with only one loss, Marc O'Ryan! And tied with two losses each are Sebastian Reynolds and Harris Nichols."
Ty waited for the cheers and catcalls to silence before he continued to speak. "The rules for final Brawl are as follows: The players are allowed to choose their own character. The board will be chosen at random. It will be a five life brawl. Last player standing wins the two-hundred and fifty bucks! Let the slaughter begin!"
Mollie waited to choose her character until the boys had chosen. Sebastian was rather predictable in his choice of Link. She knew Marc would take Mario. Harris chose Pitt. Mollie laughed as she placed her cursor on Zelda.
"Oh crap!" Marc moaned. "Hey Ty? Can I just forfeit now?"
"No you may not Marc," Ty laughed. He had also seen Mollie play Brawl.
"Damn it, Mollie," Sebastian groaned. "At least give us a chance!"
"Not a chance big brother!" Mollie laughed.
"What are you two pansies moaning about? So the girl picked one of the few girl characters. How predictable," Harris scoffed. "You really think some princess is going to beat Pitt?"
"Harris, were you not listening when Ty said Mollie entered this final match undefeated?" Marc questioned. "That should tell you something."
"It means she got damn lucky," Harris scoffed. "No girl is going to beat me."
"We'll see about that," Sebastian muttered.
In the crowd Casper held a marker for three hundred dollars on Mollie. He contained his grin as other people told him he was about to lose big. He had seen Mollie systematically take out each of her brothers without losing a single life. He couldn't wait to see Mollie wipe that stupid grin off Harris' face. The game began and before Harris knew what had happened Zelda had hit him with sixty percent damage.
"What the hell?!" He exclaimed. "Come here you little girl!"
Marc and Sebastian tried to stay out of the way the best they could. Seven minutes into the game Sebastian was out and Marc was holding onto the brink of disaster by his fingertips. In that time Mollie had only died once. Harris could not believe he was getting beat by a girl. Casper's grin was getting larger and larger with each passing moment. Mollie fired an energy ball at Marc. He was able to dodge it and break open a Party Ball and get a hammer. Mollie managed to run away but Harris was not as lucky.
"You're going to pay for that O'Ryan!" Harris yelled.
"Please. I just want to see Mollie kick your ass."
With Marc distracting him Mollie hit Harris with an attack that took him down to his very last life. "You little bitch!"
Casper growled and clenched his fists. Jesse placed his hand on Casper's shoulder. "Calm down Casper. You'll deal with him later."
"Damn right I will," Casper muttered. He moved through the crowd and placed his hands on Mollie's shoulders, lightly.
A few minutes later, it was over. Mollie smiled brightly. She jumped out of her chair and hugged Casper tightly. Applause echoed around them.
"Wow!" Ty exclaimed into the microphone. "And the winner of the Super Smash Brothers Brawl Senior Carnival Tournament, finishing completely undefeated is Miss Mollie Reynolds!"
The guys from the Comic/Computer/Video Game club gathered around Mollie and handed her the envelope containing her winnings. She thanked Ty and the other boys and started to walk away from the game area. Harris glared at Mollie and Casper. He couldn't believe that he had gotten beat by a girl. Not just any girl mind you, a super Christian, goody-two-shoes, little girl.
"This is crap!" Harris shouted.
"Cool it, Harris," Casper said, sternly. "It's just a game."
"Casper, let's just go," Mollie said, pulling on his arm. "I have to get back to Maddie. She's more likely to get beat up today by some jealous girlfriend."
Casper leaned down and let Mollie jump up on his back and the two began to walk away. Harris, a boy with a short fuse, not one to take losing, took off after the couple. He caught Mollie by the arm and managed to pull her and Casper down to the ground. He pulled Mollie to her feet.
"Let go of me Harris!" Mollie shouted. "Just walk away!"
"No little girl is capable of beating me at anything!" Harris shouted.
"Looks like I just did," Mollie snapped.
"Listen you little bitch-"
Harris didn't get a chance to finish the sentence. He found himself on the ground, blood pooling from his bottom lip. Mollie was standing over him, her fist clenched and shaking.
"You were saying, Harris?" Casper laughed.
"Whatever."
Casper laughed and started to pull Mollie away. She cringed and shook her hand. "Ow."
"Baby, that was awesome! You just laid out a linebacker!"
Mollie pointed to her hand. "Ow!"
Casper took her hand in his and caressed it lightly. He kissed it softly. "You wanna a ride?"
"Of course."
Casper walked with Mollie over to cheerleader's booth. Stopping at the side he let Mollie down. He took both of her hands in his and looked at her. "Can I just say how awesome that was back there? That jackass won't mess with you anymore. So, you're not going to be kissing anyone today are you?"
"Depends on if my other boyfriend shows up," Mollie teased.
"Better not be anyone else," Casper teased back.
"Casper," Mollie said looking down for a second. She tilted her head back up and looked at her adoring boyfriend. "You know I don't want anyone but you."
"I just wanted to hear you say it."
"I love you, I love you, I love you," Mollie said, smiling brightly.
Casper leaned down and kissed Mollie soundly. He knew his Mollie and knew she would be participating in the actual kissing of the kissing booth. Mollie was the kind of girl who was only going to kiss the she was with and no one else. She was only working at the booth to keep Maddie from getting killed by some overly jealous girlfriend. Casper left Mollie at the kissing booth and joined Jesse, Marc, Sebastian and Ty at the darts versus balloons booth the track team set up.
"Did you guys get a chance to dunk Emma before Mrs. R shut it down?" Marc asked, sending a dart flying.
"I wanted to," Jesse said. "Then I figured it would have been overkill with the argument we had earlier."
"I thought you were never speaking to Emma ever again," Casper said, launching a dart.
"Despite what she's done, Emma is still a person with feelings. Etiquette demands she be treated with at least the bare minimum of respect. It's been seven months. Matt would not want us acting like this."
"Speaking of Matt, turns out there's still a little piece of him floating around," Marc said.
"What the bloody hell are you talking about?" Jesse questioned, setting down his darts.
"Becca's pregnant, you moron!" Marc said sternly.
"How do you know this?" Casper asked. "You never know anything!"
"Jo told me awhile ago and made me keep it a secret. And Becca just asked Jo and I to be her and Matt's daughter's godparents."
"Might as well face the wife's wrath and spill our secret too," Ty sighed. "Halle's pregnant too."
The boys looked over at Ty with shocked expressions.
"I guess you haven't told Mum and Dad yet," Jesse said. "Or I would have heard about it."
"That is up to Halle. I would love for this cold war to be over," Ty said. "I want your mother to not hate me."
"A grandchild always seems to ease the ice," Jesse said.
After Emma dried off from the dunk tank she and Cohen wandered around the grounds. Other students stepped out of their way as they passed. Cohen had sat back and watched helplessly as his girlfriend took dunking after dunking. He couldn't understand why Emma just sat there and took all the abuse. He couldn't understand why she was putting up with the cruelty and name calling she had endured the last seven months. He took her hand and led her over to the Ferris wheel. Once they were in the bucket Cohen began to talk.
"How do you stand all the hatred and cruelty, Emma?" he asked.
"I don't know Cohen," Emma replied. "I guess I just let it roll off my back."
"You can fight back you know," Cohen said, turning to look at her. "The Emma I knew a year ago would have fought back."
"The Emma you knew a year ago didn't shoot someone or cause a fatal accident that took the life of the most popular person in the school."
"Emma, shooting your father was ruled as self-defense. You did everything you could to keep that bastard from killing you. You did nothing wrong!"
"Then why does it feel like I did?!" Emma cried. "If I hadn't shot Jeffery when I did he would have killed me then you!"
"Emma, all I could think about in those moments was getting to you in time. Getting you safe was my top concern."
"I know everyone is giving you crap about being with me. How do you deal with it?"
"To be honest Emma, I can't do it anymore. If you're not going to fight back-well then, I can't keep doing it for you."
"I don't expect you to, Cohen," Emma sighed. "It's been a real shitty year. Nothing is the way I wanted it to be. "
"Emma listen to me. I can't do this anymore. It's not you at all. It's the situation. I can't handle being Matt Montgomery's murderer's boyfriend anymore. I know you never once asked me to stand by you. I chose to do that on my own. But Emma, I can't stand by you if you don't do something to make everyone here treat you with respect."
"No one will listen to me, Cohen! No one wants to hear a damn thing I have to say. They would it have rather been be dead at the edge of the lake!"
"Emma stop it! You know that's not true. If you'd stop feeling sorry for yourself you'd notice that there were a few key people not in line to dunk you. Neither Mollie, Casper, Maddie, Jesse or Jo took a swing at you today. That has to tell you something."
"That they didn't have a chance to before Mrs. Roberts shut it down."
"It tells me that they didn't want to humiliate you anymore. Go talk to Mollie. I have been telling you this for months. Mollie Reynolds was your best friend. I know Mollie. She isn't one to hold a grudge. Just talk to her. Maybe things will change."
"Nothing is going to change just because I talk to Mollie. No one gives a flying fuck about me anymore. It doesn't matter."
"If you don't care then I don't care either. I don't care anymore. I can't protect someone who isn't even willing to do one small thing that could change the course for themselves. People aren't going to change if you don't make them change Emma."
"Fine. I understand," Emma snapped. "Go back to your anti-social behavior and whatever else it was you used to do before I showed up and ruined your life!"
"Emma don't be mad. You had to know this was going to happen."
"NO! No I didn't. I thought that you would be the one person to stand by me in all this shit! Guess I was wrong."
"Emma, you're overreacting," Cohen argued. "I'm not saying I don't want to be with you. I'm saying I can't deal with all the drama anymore."
"I.E: ME!"
"God! Emma, I love you! But all of this-this insanity, this treatment is overwhelming. I can't sit back and do nothing anymore. You have to understand."
"I understand perfectly, Cohen Atwood! My problems are too big for you! So instead of fighting you're walking away. You're bailing out, just like everyone else. Thank you so much Cohen!"
The Ferris wheel came to a stop and Emma threw open the barrier and ran from Cohen. He chased after her and caught her by the cotton candy. The same spot where she had demurely argued with Jesse earlier in the day.
"Emma, will you just listen to me?!" Cohen shouted.
"Listen to what? You walking out on me? That I can hear just fine! Damn it Cohen! You have been the only bright spot in all this disaster of a year! You walk away now and who knows what I might do. Mollie walked away and I killed Matt."
"Don't you fucking put that on me Emma! You can't guilt me into staying with you! That's not how this works."
"You want me to fight? Well I'm fighting now! You want me to stand on the roof of this godforsaken place and scream at the top of my lungs that I'm sorry? What the fuck will make you happy Cohen Seth Atwood?!"
"I don't know! There are you happy now? I don't what I want from you! I want my Emma back."
"The Emma you want is dead. She died right there with Matt."
"I'm sorry then," Cohen sighed, walking away.
Tears formed in Emma's eyes as Cohen walked away from her. "Cohen! Please! Cohen come back! Please don't walk away!"
Emma was pleading to air. Cohen was out of sight and out of her life. For the first time in seven months, Emma cried. Cried over the situation she was in. Cried over losing Cohen. Cried heavy, heart breaking tears. She didn't care what anyone said or if anyone even saw her. She had finally broke. Her spirit was crushed under the weight of her actions. This time she didn't have anyone to help her pick up the sand sized bits of her. She was alone. Truly alone in her misery, her grief, her selfish pride. Emma Noelle Ross did not do alone well. Alone. It was never something that Emma wanted to be.