Things Fall Apart: Chapter 16: Frey's Lock-In 1.1

Frey

Juno has safely been delivered into the heavily-muscled arms of Ben James the Boy With Two Names, Asteria is probably already on her second glass of smuggled vodka-in-a-water-bottle, and Arinna is at home with Dad. Mom has volunteered to chaperone the Lock-In, which doesn’t seem to have an effect on Asteria, and makes Juno feel way more at ease.

Juno hasn’t spent a night away from the house since she was seven, when The Incident happened.

I walk past Emma, hoping to get by unnoticed, but unfortunately, she sees me.

“Frey!” she squeals, leaving her squabble of friends to clutch me in her demon fingers before I can get away.

“Hi, Emma,” I say weakly. I look for a way to avoid this conversation, then I stop myself. Emma just wants someone to talk to. I feel a little ashamed, so I ask her a question for once. “How are you?”

Immediately, Emma responds, “Well, I’m okay. Juno is hanging out with Ben and my friends and I are having trouble deciding what we want to do.”

For a second, Emma looks really sad, like she doesn’t know what to do with herself. Maybe all she really needs is someone to want to hang out with her instead of the other way around.

Frey, no, I think to myself. Don't hang out with her out of pity.

But she needs someone, myself replies. Are you really going to let her be miserable? I mean, what has she ever done to you but like you? What would Adrian do?

I knew the answer to that one.

I can’t believe I’m about to do this.

“Why... why don’t we do something, Emma?” I hear my voice ask her. Emma’s face lights up in a way I didn’t notice before, probably because I’ve spent so much time trying not to make eye contact with her. “As friends,” I remember to add in time.

“That’d be really nice, Frey,” she breaths, so quiet I can barely hear her over the noise in the hallway. I consult the chart. There’s freeze tag in the quad, dodgeball in the wrestling room, basketball in the gym, soccer on the... baseball field? I knit my eyebrows and keep reading. Kickball on the lacrosse field. The art of making the perfect s’more in the art studio. Water gun fight in the swimming pool?

“How about the water gun fight?” I say, stabbing a finger into the paper.

“Sounds like fun, but I didn’t bring a bathing suit,” Emma says.

“Who says you need a bathing suit?” I ask. I find myself actually grinning, as if Emma’s voice doesn’t haunt my dreams at night. I take her by the arm (not the hand, Frey, you are a proud gay man) and half-drag her across campus to the pool. Emma laughs and feigns resistance the whole way, crying out for various people to save her. I laugh with her and we both laugh crazily until we finally reach the pool. Inside, two teams are gearing up for an epic battle of will. Water guns are strewn all across the floor. I motion for Emma to stay quiet, and we sneak in behind the two teams. I bend down and grab two big water guns from the pile as quietly as I can. I hand one to Emma and motion for her to follow me behind the group of students wearing red pennies. I flash her a grin and scream at the top of my lungs.

“WE’RE GOIN’ ROGUE!”

I start shooting everyone in sight, blasting water in every direction. Emma follows my lead, screaming out an Indian cry. The two teams scream back and launch into battle. Emma and I are back to back, fending off the invaders, clearly outnumbered and out-gunned but refusing to go down without a fight just the same.

At the end of the legendary Battle of Meltdown, Emma and I are sopping wet and breathless from laughter. We stumble around campus from activity to activity, looking for friends but mostly talking. Emma is surprising in a lot of ways. We decide to ask each other random questions to get to know each other better.

“What’s your favorite...” I think for a moment. We’re sitting in the quad munching some deliciously made s’mores and passing questions back and forth. “Animal?”

“Rabbit,” Emma says immediately, a smidge marshmallow hanging off her lower lip. “They’re so cute and fluffy and... Oh, I just love looking at them. How about you?”

“Probably the lion fish,” I say after I’ve swallowed the last of my s’more.

“The lion fish?” Emma asks, her mouth full. “Why?” Oh gosh, here I go.

“They have these awesome stingers that will poison and paralyze their prey,” I say, accidentally alliterating. “And they’re striped, and I love stripes, and they just look like the most bad-ass fish like, ‘Don’t come near me, peasant, I’m a lion fish, I will tear your tiny peasant fish head from your tiny peasant fish body!’” Emma almost chokes on her s’more from laughing. I laugh with her and then we move on to the next question.

“What’s your biggest dream?” I ask her.

“Probably to be a doctor,” she says after a moment. “I love helping people, but I really want to make more of a difference, ya know? I mean, helping Juno is great and all, but it’s not, like, saving her life or anything.” I give her A Look. “What?” she asks.

“You are saving her life,” I insist. “You’re too close to see what an impact you’re making on her life. I mean, before you, I was going to have to follow her everywhere and be her lackey.” Emma looks hurt. Her eyebrows knit together. I know that look. I’ve done it before.

“Her what?” I realize my mistake.

“I didn’t mean–”

“Oh, you meant it,” Emma says, getting up to leave. I catch her arm.

“Wait, Emma, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry for what?” she asks, tearing up. “Sorry for me, that I’m stuck being Juno’s lackey? Sorry for me because I apparently don’t have a life, according to you?”

“No,” I say. “I’m sorry I called you a lackey.”

“Whatever, Frey,” Emma says. She turns away and gets lost in the coming darkness of the quad. I sit down where we were and think.

Everything was going so well, I think. We were becoming friends. I could’ve really gotten to know Emma. What happened?

I’m thinking so hard that I don’t notice when Adrian sits next to me.

“Hey,” he says, nudging me. The sparks I feel when he touches me shake away my thoughts.

“Sorry, I was just...”

“I saw.”

“You did?” Adrian nods, and I groan. “I was so stupid.”

“Nah, you weren’t stupid,” Adrian replies, putting a hand on my back. That feels so good. “You just didn’t think, that’s all.”

“That’s kind of the definition of stupid, Adrian,” I say, chuckling in spite of myself.

“She’ll get over it,” Adrian says after he has a laugh.

“I hope so,” is my only reply. A silence rules our ears for a second or two. Finally, Adrian speaks.

“Wanna go play some ping pong in the activity center?”

“I don’t play ping pong,” I say. Adrian’s look questions me. “I rule ping pong.”

“Oh, it’s on!” Adrian laughs, helping me up.

“First one to the activity center gets first serve,” I yell, taking off toward the building.

I don’t see Emma behind me, crying into Henrietta Harlow’s shoulder. Maybe if I do, if I go to Emma and stop her from falling into Henrietta’s big-mouthed clutches, I might just save all of us a lot of trouble.

But I don’t.

So it goes.