Looking back, everything that followed what you already know could be prevented. There were about one hundred opportunities to prevent the exact order of events that went down. Opportunities not a single one of us took. And we all should have.
We pick back up at Emma and Danny's atrocious communication issues.
And now we head to New York, NY.
On June 8th 2018, my friends and I all got excused from school to spend the day in New York on official March For Our Lives business. We set up meetings with congressmen in NY and each planned pitches to make in attempt to take the next step towards gun reform.
It was a good day. For me, it was a good day. Successful, even. But for Emma, it was a horrible tragedy. It was unthinkable. It was terrifying.
Part of our jobs as the founders of the March For Our Lives movement is to discuss with those who have different viewpoints because usually we end the conversation with the knowledge that we agree on more things than we initially thought we did. We're all just trying to save lives here.
Emma had a meeting with one of the congressmen who's son was in the building at the time. He's a republican, and I guess so was his kid. I got to talk with him, the son, for a couple minutes myself. He told me that he admired that we were standing up and fighting for what we believed was right and gave his condolences for the shooting.
Sometime before Emma's meeting with his father, she went to use the bathroom on the south side of the building. No one saw him follow her. Right before she entered the girls washroom, she felt a tight grip on her arm. Turning around, expecting to see a friendly face of some kind, she was met with the face of this kid and the next thing she remembered was him physically attacking her. It lasted maybe five minutes at best, but left Emma running her fingers over cuts and bruises on the exposed skin of her body. She covered up what she could, but the marks on her face were blatantly obvious.
The story about her getting rammed in the face with an opening door spread through the building. Anyone who asked her what happened got an earful of the fake story she spread.
When we got back home and reunited with the group, she and Danny went upstairs to my room to talk for awhile. Cameron and I stayed up late downstairs to catch up on missed homework we got while we were gone.
The next day, Emma told us what happened that night with Danny and that day on our trip to New York.
We were all heartbroken and downright angry about what happened in New York.
"I wish you would've told someone then, we could've got the guy's ass busted. We could've made a statement. Republican's kid gets violent with gun reform activist! Seriously, Emma!" Cameron shouted.
"I didn't want that to happen, Cam. That's why I didn't say anything. Well, that and I didn't want people thinking some Republican's kid just beat me like it was nothing."
But the one person she did tell was Danny. Cameron told me that he came in my room while she and Danny were "talking" because Emma was wearing his sweater and he needed his wallet out of it. She said "ouch" and freaked when he touched her and he got confused because "the door" only hit her face. Danny made her tell him what really happened once Cameron left.
Emma started crying and begged him not to press this. She didn't want to tell him. She didn't want to tell anyone. She wanted it to be kept inside her forever, something she could eventually flush from her mind.
Danny couldn't handle all the emotions she was feeling. She was crying and eventually she did tell him. He forced her to tell him the kid's name and said he'd get even for her. She didn't want that even more than she didn't want it getting out into the headlines. She just kept crying over the fear and trauma she had just faced.
As previously mentioned, the main reason the two have communication issues is due to Danny's inability to deal with the burdens in Emma's life that have nothing to do with him. This New York thing was one of those.
Danny hugged her and the safety and security she felt overwhelmed her and she felt safe enough to just cry in his arms. However, Danny took her continued crying as him making it worse and he pushed her away. He couldn't handle it. He couldn't deal with her overbearing emotional trauma. He couldn't even understand that her crying into him wasn't because he was making it worse, but because he was making it better.
He freaked out and Emma said he started making it about him instead of her. What happened to her was now about how it affected him and how he couldn't handle her feelings about it. The two parted on an awful note. Danny came down the stairs evidently upset. Cameron and I started upstairs to see if Emma was okay and figure out what happened. When we got up there, Chase, who had been with Abby in the room next door, was talking with Emma. Cam and I couldn't assess the situation from the distance we had to stay at to keep from being noticed so we went back downstairs until we thought it could be clear.
Meanwhile, Chase sat in front of Emma on my bed, the place Danny was only moments before. She was exhausted, more than evidently hanging onto her last thread. Chase asked her what happened, gently prodding her to explain her side of the story.
When she did, Chase tried to help her understand Danny's position. As his best friend, it was his job to help people understand the parts of him he can't explain himself. This was one of those.
"I can't say this without totally breaking down right now, so I can't tell you what really got to me" Emma told Chase.
Chase put his hand on Emma's shoulder and looked her in the eye.
"I'm not like Danny, I can handle it. It's okay, I can deal with you crying. I'm not heartless like that."
And that was it. That was the final phase of the beginning of the end. The sentence that cast a spell on Emma González. A spell that could only be broken by something so much worse.
