The Garden of What Once Was

CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX

Many questions rampaged through Reed's mind, tearing it into a mess as he tried to control himself. His eyes began rapidly flashing between purple and red. 

A sudden weight fell onto his shoulder, startling him. He reluctantly tore his eyes away from Ember to look over his shoulder at Casper. 

"Reed," Casper softly said his name. "Let's just go. She must have a valid reason for–..."

"Don't, just don't," Reed abruptly cut into Casper's attempt to comfort him that only angered Reed even further. "I..." He looked away from Casper and to Ember. His eyes finally settled on a rageful red as he watched Cohen lean into Ember. "I can't do it. I want to respect her and her decisions, no matter how ridiculous they may be, but this...this I can't. She has to be doing this out of pity, and that's way too fucked for me to accept. You have to understand, Casper."

"I know but you can't." Casper placed himself in the way of Reed's view, purposefully blocking out Ember. "If you go in there, what are you going to do? Forcibly drag Ember away?"

"No, I won't have to force her. She'll...she'll come with me, and she'll never go near Cohen again. I'll make sure of it."

"You know that's not true. Look at her right now! Does she look like she'll blindly follow you out of the cafeteria without a struggle? Reed, its–..."

Once again, Reed cut off Casper, unable to hear the truth, "I don't want to hear it. I really don't."

"Well, you're going to have to!" Casper yelled, "I won't let you go in there and try to pull her away from Cohen. We both know the only guaranteed way for that to work is if you compel her, and I won't let you do that! Not to her!" At the sight of Reed's eyes finally turning back to purple, Casper lowered his voice, whispering, "I don't understand why she's with Cohen either, but it's her choice, not our's."

"Fine," Reed conceded, resentment and pain falling over his face, "I'm going back to my dorm. You can break the news to Jared and Landon. Have a grand old time trying to keep them from ripping Cohen apart."

"Reed, don't be like this. Hiding away won't change things," Casper tried to dissuade Reed from leaving but Reed paid no mind to him, quickly running off.

A heavy sigh came from Casper. With one last look at Ember, he went back to the gazebo where he carefully revealed why Ember wasn't at the celebration. As expected, the news wasn't taken well by either of them, especially not Jared. Shouts tore through the air almost immediately. It took everything in Landon's and Casper's power to keep Jared from going to find Cohen.

 Eventually, they were able to calm him down, though not entirely. A fragment of determination was still left inside of Jared, one that made him settle his mind on simply just questioning Ember. Unfortunately, such a simple task proved to be much harder than expected.

.... ... ... ...

No matter how hard Jared tried, he could not get a chance to talk to Ember. Every time Jared caught sight of her in the halls, she seemed to mysteriously slip away when he called to her. 

This continued on for days until he finally saw her in a crowd of students hurrying to get back to their dorms at the end of the day. Frantically, he pushed through every useless body that was in his way. When he reached her, she almost escaped him, but he was quick to snag a hold of her elbow. He silently dragged her away from all the other prying ears and eyes. A hint of pain ate into his heart as he felt her try to resist him. It was as if she had no desire to speak to him even after all this time they had spent away from each other.

"What's been going on with you, huh?" Jared asked her, searching her eyes for any possible answer they might provide, but he was given nothing except for a cold gaze. "You've been acting so damn weird, like a whole new person. I mean, just a week ago, you were head over heels for Reed. All you ever did was look at him as if he was the only damn guy in the world. Now you won't even glance his way, let alone mine or the other's! Are you being threatened, is that it? Come on, you can tell me, Ember. I can help you. We can help you like we always have!"