//tw: self-harm//
I had two days left before my deal with the Lordship was done, and Cobra's tricks were only making things harder. Despite anxiety being a human emotion, I could still feel it creeping in from time to time, trying to make me believe I was failing Em, and how unworthy of the Guardian Angel position I was. Whatever those thoughts were, I had to ignore them. Emersyn needed guidance, and not just from me, from her loved ones too. The fact that she hadn't seen Jason in days was slowly killing her inside. She never realized how much she actually needed him to be a part of her life until that moment. How empty her days felt without their conversations or even his unexpected appearances at the school. Thanks to Cobra, I could sense depression was now her closest friend during school hours, along with anxiety. Luckily for her, Willow suggested giving her a gut feeling to go find her actual friends, as they would be able to cheer her up.
As she walked down the halls of Whitewater High, destined to find her two best friends, she spotted one of them running out of one of the classrooms with tears streaming down her pale face, while the rest of the students wouldn't stop staring and whispering. It was Rozella! Em's thoughts stopped, since now her focus was on finding out what had happened to her. She jumped in front of the weeping girl and tried to hug her, but she was doing everything in her power to ignore the red head at all costs.
"Roz, What's wrong? Can I help?"
"OH, REALLY? I THINK YOU'VE DONE ENOUGH, HOWELL!" snapped the blonde teenager, making Emersyn's eyes water a little. Screaming at her usually made her react like that.
"What? What did I do?"
"DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME! YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!! IT WAS MY SECRET, EMERSYN! HOW COULD YOU?!"
"But I...I didn't..."
"DON'T TRY TO DENY IT! YOU WERE THE ONLY ONE WHO KNEW ABOUT IT!! AND NOW LOOK!" yelled the new student while pointing at her locker, which had the word MURDERER painted on it. "THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I WAS AFRAID OF!!"
Emersyn covered her mouth in shock, as she hadn't seen Rozella's locker until that moment. The 8-letter word was painted across the girl's locker as if they were just trying to see her break. They didn't care about her father, his crimes or making her feel like a part of it; whoever did that wanted to see her explode. And I was sure whoever it was, they knew about Em being the only one who knew Rozella's secret.
"Yeah. Not only do they think that my father is going to kill everyone here, but they also think that I'm capable of doing the same thing! AND IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!!"
People kept on staring and whispering, some were now recording the entire argument between the two friends. Everyone seemed to be hooked on the verbal quarrel. However, I had my eye on something else. I noticed Cobra coming out of the classroom Roz ran out from, which was the computer room.
"Oh boy... I know what Cobra did."
"WHAT? THIS IS COBRA'S DOING?" exclaimed Willow.
"...You really didn't get that?" The sheep looked at me more shocked than ever as I continued my theory, "Anyway, here's what happened. There was someone in the computer room capable of doing bad things to people without feeling any remorse afterwards... a human being, not Cobra. But I'm guessing she was there with this person, ready to influence them. And just like we saw a few months ago, she gave this person a sign, a bad one, no doubt.... Guess what article appeared on the mean human's computer?"
I wanted Willow to guess, but I swear sheep are the slowest beings in the universe!
"...FINE! It was the article of Rozella's father being released from prison."
"GOODNESS GRACIOUS ME! AND SHE THINKS EM DID IT BECAUSE SHE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO KNEW ABOUT IT!"
"Exactly. What I don't know is, who is the human who told the entire school about it..."
Willow and I kept on thinking of who this atrocious human could be, when we heard someone else enter Roz and Em's fight.
"Yeah! Why would you do something like that, Em? I mean, you know I get the whole being mean to others thing, but this is a whole new level! Even for someone like you." said Daphne as she made a dramatic entrance, making the rest of the students move to the sides of the hallway, for they all knew that if she was involved, things would get ugly.
Of course, it had to be her! Who else would've told the entire school? Only the meanest girl in Florence, the one who enjoyed causing these dramatic scenes whenever boredom invaded her life.
"WHAT? NO!" cried the red-headed girl before turning to her friend, "ARE YOU REALLY GOING TO TRUST SOMEONE LIKE DAPHNE? SHE'S LYING! ROZ, YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! I TOLD YOU I CAN KEEP A SECRET AND THAT'S THE TRUTH!!"
"You were the only one who knew... THE ONLY ONE! Not even the press knows about this! HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO BELIEVE THAT THIS WASN'T YOU?"
"YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE ME! PLEASE!"
"No. I don't trust you anymore... I wish I'd never met you." added Roz softly before leaving.
Daphne walked up to the girl she had just framed, and as she got closer to her she whispered, "I told you this wasn't over, Howell."
Em was about to break. She could feel her voice trembling and her eyes were tearing up more than before. Her entire body felt as if it were made of jelly, shaking at the thought of everyone believing Daphne's word over her's. Everyone's eyes were on her and she could not bear that kind of pressure. This was another moment where she wanted to disappear, to wake up from yet another nightmare, but it didn't happen.
"Lor, you do believe me, don't you?" asked fearfully with tears in her eyes, looking back at the only friend she had left.
Lorene's mind went to a dark place, a place she hadn't been a while, back when Emersyn betrayed her with one of her secrets. Em tried to help her with one of her heaviest secrets by telling one of Lorene's cousins, hoping they could help her out. If only she had known her cousin hated her, and would use her secret to make the girl's life Hell on Earth. She chose to suffer in silence and never tell Em the truth about the situation. Not to mention that she never shared her darkest secrets with anyone ever again. But even if she secretly forgave her, Lorene's heart still stung at the thought of all the things she'd been through because of Em's attempts to help her. A dark place nobody knew about, since sharing it with anyone could make her relive those painful months all over again.
"...You don't do that to a friend, Em." answered Lorene before going after Roz.
At the end of the hall, Daphne laughed at Emersyn, who now looked like her broken porcelain doll, left all alone in the hallway with just her thoughts and tears.
Jason was avoiding her, Roz hated her, Lorene, despite knowing her for all those years, took Roz's side, Daphne's comments only made everything worse, and the only thing Em wanted to do was to curl up and disappear. But then again, she couldn't skip school. She needed one good thing in her life, and school seemed like the only option. Even though she wasn't feeling like participating or taking notes, she still had to go and pretend to care about whatever the teacher was saying.
"Going to the diner after school is the only good thing about today. I just have to survive until the last period and I'll be fine." muttered Em to herself while she cried alone in front of her locker.
