The Funny One Dies First

- 8 -

― Emma ―

Love. Fear. Joy. Anticipation. Anxiety. Fear was the main emotion filling my veins. I could feel all the emotions swarming through my body. So many emotions were just running around all at once. Nervous, I smoothed out the silky material of my dress, subtly wiping the moisture from my hands on it. As I watched myself in the mirror, the door to the room opened. Seline and Anna walked inside with happy smiles on their faces. Their need to squeal at the events to take place in a few minutes were dying to be released. We completed the final touches before I shooed them away. I was left alone in my thought, deciding to rehearse my speech.

Tap Tap. The door clicked opened as my father's face emerged from behind it. Fully standing in the room, he smiled down at his little girl. A tear slipped his eye but he quickly wiped it away. Without an exchange of words, I latched onto his arm and together, we walked out to the backyard. My heart raced and raced the quicker we neared the ceremony. At one point, it felt like my heart wasn't there because it was beating too fast.

The warm autumn air drifted inside and as we stepped outside, the light music began playing. The soft, dewy grass tickled at my bare feet; the familiar feel of it began easing my nerves. My nervousness began flooding back into me as I looked up and met his smiling eyes. He stood just below my favorite tree in a relaxed dress shirt and suspenders. It was as if the air around us changed. The guests were all forgotten and it was just him and I standing there. Just as he would always calm my nerves, he began making subtle silly faces. I couldn't help but laugh at him and all at once, we were brought back to the real world.

Dad and I paced ourselves as he walked me to Ean. It took the two of us to make sure that the other wasn't walking too fast. We both wanted to get to the tree so I could marry the love of my life but also wanted to take our time just to bask in the last moments of my old name and old life. After ages of pacing ourselves, I was handed off to Ean but not before giving the first man of my life a kiss on the cheek. We began to speed through our vows and soon, we were married. Just like that, we were Mr. and Mrs. Parker. Ean and Emma Parker. It had a nice ring to it.

As the curtain in my room was thrown open I jumped up from my sleep. Oh, come on! It was all a freaking dream! Just to make sure, I looked down at my left hand and saw no wedding band. Yup, just some mean joke my mind came up with.

Looking up from it, I saw my mother standing by my windows with her hands on her hips.

"Have you seen Ean? He doesn't have work today and he isn't picking up his phone." she paused a beat. "Unless he does have work and forgot to tell us."

As she ran through the possible scenarios something felt weird. It was like Ean had disappeared from my heart and was just gone. The feeling wasn't settling any time soon. It kept eating away at me for quite some time before I couldn't resist reaching for my phone. Calling his cell, I listened to the ringing.

"Hello?" it answered.

"Ean, where are―"

"―Just kidding! Leave a message after the beep." An evil laugh belonging to me crackled in the background of the recording.

I looked at the phone. Did I really fall for that? Did I really think that his voicemail tone was him?

Yes, I did.

"Ean, you are an ass for that voicemail intro. Call me when you get this. We're getting worried. Love you."

I looked down at my phone, watching his name fade into my background of him. My lips tugged up as his sleeping face came to my view on the screen. "Mom, I don't know why, but it feels like Ean is gone from me. Like he was there but he just disappeared. Do you think something happened?"

She sat down next to me, wrapping me up in her arms. "I don't know, sweety. I hope not but you remember that one night your dad didn't come home from work? If it feels like that, then we could call around and see if anything happened. He will come back to you, I know it, he always does." We sat there for a few moments.

I went over that day my dad went MIA for a while. Mom got a call from his manager saying he wasn't there for his shift. It sent her in a panicked frenzy, no matter how much she tried to hide it from me, which sent my little child mind into crybaby mode. When I picked up the phone after a few silent hours, hearing his voice through the speaker eased both of our stress. It ended up with the family car needing a new engine and a tow company dropping him off home. Nothing big in the end.

"He didn't answer?" my dad's voice asked softly. I shook my head. "Okay, maybe he'll be back after breakfast. We'll keep him a plate till he gets back. If he isn't home before five, we'll go looking. He could be house hunting, just to make sure you two find a place before graduation."

The suggestion of this idea eased my nerves but not quite. All throughout breakfast we were quite. The feeling began spreading from me to my parents. Just to make sure he was okay, mom ended up calling up Nana who used her mystical powers and said he was fine. When she wished to speak with me in an empty room, I began to grow suspicious.

"The boy you love isn't one. He has company and is following blindly behind them. Be careful, this path could lead you to dangerous places." The line went silent and suddenly, I could feel the warm presence of Ean in my body.

An hour after I felt his warmth inside me, his car sounded in the driveway. Flinging the front door open, I ran down and hugged the life out of him. He returned the gesture and kissed the crown of my head. Mom eventually had to pry me from him to make sure he was okay. As she examined him, I noticed the fatigue in his eyes and the dark bags below them. Not only did I notice that, I also noticed the big cut on his lip and a few small bruises on his body. Upon further questioning, what happened, where he was, the questions filling my head, every response he gave was delayed and lazy as if he was loading the information to his brain. When I asked him where he was, he answered with a shrug. This wasn't like Ean. He wouldn't shrug without a verbal answer and wouldn't avoid looking at me.

"Babe," he started.

"You're tired. I know. Go to sleep. Anna texted me about some get together at Kyle's place, I'll be there. Meet me there if you wake up around that time?"

He nodded and climbed into bed. As he snoozed off, I watched him. His thick hair was covered in dirt and oils, his face was paler, and his eyes were so tired and strained. His now cleaned lip was starting to heal and so were the dark pigmented bruises. Where had he been all night? What happened? Why wasn't he telling me? What was he hiding?

'He was with another girl...' my mind kept saying over and over again on the ride there.

What if he was and... No. No, he wouldn't. He loves me, right?

'Forget it. No, he wouldn't do that. That isn't Ean. Just get to Kyle's house and just not think of it.'

'But what about the cuts and bruises? How could that be explained?' my mind kept going on. I didn't know the answer. He wasn't robbed, he had all his cash. He could have gotten jumped or something, yeah. He got jumped, that was the answer. 'But he would have fought back. There were no defense marks, his knuckles would have been bruised too.' They...

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I drove myself to Kyle's house. Hopefully, this takes my mind off things for a while. Hopefully things didn't go downhill from here.