Emma González was in love with Chase Evans. Most people say that being in love means falling head over heals for every inch of the person; their hair, their eyes, they way the smile, they way they walk, the way they move their body, the way they breathe. But what Emma González was in love with was the part of Chase Evans that was nothing like Danny Murphy. Okay, she wasn't in love with Chase Evans. She was in love with the idea that he had a heart for humanity in a way Danny couldn't even have a heart for her. She was in love with the idea of being with someone so in touch with their emotions, someone who cared so much about how the both of you were feeling, someone who could handle all the above.
For Emma, Chase filled the empty gap in her and Danny's relationship that Danny never could've fill himself. The level of communication she could never have with Danny, she had with Chase. She verbally connected with him in a way Danny never did. He took one overbearing moment and made her feel better in it than Danny had in every moment she'd ever had alone with him.
Emma loved Danny, but she wholeheartedly believed he could never love her enough to care about every inch of her, not just the parts of her that affected his own self.
She was torn. Drafting tweets for a number of weeks about her unmentioned crush on Chase. He may have even been with Holly, Abby's best friend, at the time. And Emma herself was with Danny. So there was no right time or reason to ever let it get out.
They say it's impossible to love two people at once, and they're right. Emma loved Danny, and she loved how Chase made her feel. At the time, she didn't know that. All she knew was that Danny was almost everything she wanted. Almost. The rest of that "everything she wanted" idea was what Chase was.
So no, I don't believe she was in love with two people at once. She had been in love with Danny since April. It was June. And now, she realized Chase could give her the one and only thing Danny couldn't. Understanding.
Chase Evans wasn't in love with anyone. He was dating Holly Slade. But he wasn't in love with anyone. A year earlier, he'd been utterly confused about who he himself was. He didn't understand his feelings. He didn't understand anything. He was twelve.
And at twelve, Chase finally admitted to himself after many sexual encounters with the almost the entire body of seventh grade females at Cherry Hill East, he was in fact bisexual. I don't know how this came out, but somewhere along the way he was able to admit to to himself. And eventually to Abby.
Emma González has been a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community since ninth grade. She was the president of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Gay Straight Alliance two years running.
She also had a wicked gaydar.
One night, we were all out rollerblading. Abby and Chase were vaguely discussing something no one else could pick up on. It was a secret. But it wasn't for long. Emma picked up on it and swore on the name of a god she didn't even believe in that she picked up on the conversation.
Chase didn't believe her. Emma insisted she "was good at picking up on these kinds of things." And she was. But that wasn't good enough for Chase.
"Tell me then, tell me what you think it is" he said to her.
"You really want me to out it in front of everyone?" she raised her eyebrows.
"I know you're wrong so go ahead."
But before she could get partway through the Chase Evans exposed party, he interrupted her and told her to tell him on their own later.
No one, maybe not even Emma herself who was internally still in denial, knew how much Emma wanted to have any moment alone with Chase.
I can't tell you what it's like to be conflicted between one guy and another. I don't know how Emma felt about Danny in the moment, or even Chase. My personal opinion on Emma's feelings weren't exactly understanding. But to me, Emma was cheating on Danny in her mind. That is cheating, isn't it?
If that wasn't cheating, what came next was up on that scale.
For once in my happy life, I didn't have to give up my room to Emma and Danny. Abby, however, had to give hers up to Emma and Chase for their ever so private discussion.
It took Emma awhile to work up the nerve to ask Chase if he only liked girls. And actually, she didn't ask. She told him. And he didn't argue.
Now let's pause for a minute. Looking back, if Chase had never admitted to Emma he was bisexual, what comes after this never would've happened. So I blame Chase's sexuality. And Emma's communication issues. Anyway.
Here are two seemingly normal, barely even friends type of people laying together in a dark room talking about super dark secrets only one other soul in the world knew prior to that conversation.
And it was Emma's secret too.
She came out as, yeah you can probably guess, bisexual in ninth grade. In tenth and eleventh she was president of GSA and will most likely continue to be next year, her senior year.
Emma was probably the only person in our god green friend circle that understood how Chase was feeling. He was in the place she was in only a small number of years earlier. He was ashamed, embarrassed and more than anything, he wanted to block it out and force himself to be straight.
And here beside him we have Emma González, long-term pride activist who can't go a solid ten minutes without mentioning how prideful she is about her sexuality. And once upon a time, she was in his position.
To put really put all these pieces together, we have Emma González, female bisexual gay pride activist and next to her we have Chase Evans, misinformed uneducated confused and desperate to be straight as a ruler. This confused, highly emotional young child wanted nothing more than to only like girls. He'd been forcing himself to only like girls for a long long time. He'd been sexually active with girls and girls only as much as the average prostitute.
He wanted to like girls. Only girls.
And plot twist; Emma was a girl. And she was right there. In the perfect setting, in the perfect moment.
While here lies Emma González, trying to convince Chase that being bisexual wasn't a bad thing. There's a loving and supportive community all around the world that understood him. It's accepted. It's okay.
But it wasn't to him.
And that's why he turned towards Emma in that small twin bed of Abby's and kissed her passionately enough to seem real.
And the funny thing is, Chase had no bloody clue that Emma had been crushing on him since June 8th, the day Emma got attacked in New York. The night Danny flipped off. The night Chase told Emma he was there and he understood. The spell he cast on her.
Emma made it seem like she was on a rollercoaster when Chase's lips pressed up against hers. As someone who'd never been kissed, I didn't believe her. Kissing is nothing like rollercoasters. That was something I have been on.
And to make matters even more twisted, Danny walked in looking for Emma, only to find her lip locked with his best friend. What a night.
Danny stormed off, Chase stormed off after him and after recovering her sense of right and wrong, Emma stormed after them both.
Danny, as expected, was both heartbroken and furious. The heartbroken part was directed at Emma, where the furious part was directed at Chase.
Danny wouldn't even hear one word from his best friend. His anger consumed him, which usually it can take next to nothing to set him off. It's a miracle Emma managed to convince Danny to talk to her.
Shockingly, Danny listened to her side of the story and managed to forgive her. Emma knew how important Chase and Danny's friendship was and was seriously torn at the thought that she could be the reason they may never talk to each other again. She tried so hard to convince Danny to forgive Chase but he wouldn't budge.
Danny tried to show Emma he forgave her by engaging in their typical sex encounters. Emma wanted to, she really did, but she was still all gaga for Chase. And she couldn't physically be with Danny after kissing him. She made up some bullshit excuse as to why they couldn't do it, and life went on. But for how long?
