It started out as just something to do, a way to get ourselves out of the house. But meeting up with Emma and talking for hours, walking down the same long path everyday became routine.
We'd meet up outside my house, maybe get a milkshake or something and venture down the path. The path led us along the longest side road in Parkland. Houses stretched for miles and miles. On the other side of the road was a narrow pathway, in which Emma and I claimed sanctuary whenever we felt we had enough of binge watching Netflix.
But on June 29th in particular, I hadn't seen Emma all day. She too was mourning what was looking like yet another rough patch in hers and Danny's relationship. This was normal. They were always having issues. Always had been. But Danny was brutally obsessed with her. He wanted nothing but for things to be the beautiful normal they once were. Which meant I wasn't in the picture; Chase's picture to be specific.
Okay, so Jensen cleared up with Chase that my thing for him wasn't a sex thing. The fact that he was a sexual assault victim and I had barely just lost my virginity didn't tip it off to him. But once it was cleared, another excuse cane along to fill its place.
Danny didn't want things changing in any way, shape or form with Emma. She was his prized possession and no one was to mess with that. Which wasn't a problem for the longest time because nobody other than Chase trying to sabotage the relationship even attempted to get in his way. Until now. And he used that to keep me and Chase at a distance, to keep the problematic ball rolling.
Emma was becoming a distorted mess. Every other person from Douglas had their focus set on fixing me and getting vengeance for what was currently happening to me as a result of Chase fucking up everything he touched.
Meanwhile, Emma had to juggle both halves of the equation. Chase and me, as well as her and Danny. And as usual, Danny wasn't an easy fix. He was demanding, he always had been. He needed her attention all the time as well as reassurance and security. You couldn't leave him wondering for half a second, or you were in trouble.
Danny was a dangerous thing. And everyone knew it. But the rest of us only had this 'outside looking in' thing going on. We didn't see the deepest, most disturbing version of Danny that Emma saw when they were alone. We didn't know the pressure she was under.
Emma felt obligated to both Danny and I. She felt her dedication to her fellow Stoneman Douglas classmates but also to her demanding, clingy boyfriend. She'd always gone to bat for me every time Chase got after me. And now she had to choose between securing Danny's paranoia and going to bat for me while I slowly bled out.
The entire time, nobody understood. Nobody saw the exhaustion in her eyes, the bags underneath them, the quick, one-word responses, the tiredness. They were too busy looking at me. She was in the background, but we all forgot that the background was still there. It just went unnoticed.
Where June 29th stood, Emma and Danny's relationship was officially secured. They were together together, but they had their issues. We just didn't understand to what extent. It was typical. It was everyday, it was to be expected. Emma and Danny were about as solid as Chase and I. Still existent, but falling apart. Tense.
But Danny was still brutally obsessed with her. He was a huge part of the reason this fight had become so ugly. He saw Chase and me as a threat. He fought back for her. He nearly attempted suicide when he thought he'd lost her.
If you don't get how serious he was about her, let me tell you something she told me that night he came back from making everyone believe he legitimately killed himself. He and Emma talked upstairs in my room as per the usual arrangement (insert dramatic eye roll here). Emma asked Danny why he didn't do it, what stopped him if he really thought it was over between the two of them.
