Chapter Text
they used to be inseparable.
the four were just like any other rowdy ass group of teenagers. they hogged a round table in the cafeteria meant for six and hunted each other down in the hallways of their run down high school. they took turns driving each other in their busted up, hand-me-down trucks and made fun of the driver every time they hit a curb. april would make fun of how emmet's height made him stick out in crowds while deedee and baby immediately jumped to his defense.
they didn’t think anything in the world would change it.
everywhere one person pulled, the rest followed. the group made a pact one day on a cold winter morning that, even though april would be the first to graduate, they had to all choose the same college. it /had/ to be a group decision. it had to be something big, something everyone could get into.
no one says it, but everyone’s mind is on baby.
if he knew they were talking about him, he didnt seem to care.
none of them took promises lightly. when the four of them made a promise, it was a commitment. little things like promising to watch deedee’s competition, even if it was an hour away. little things like getting together to bother april at her dad’s shop after work. little things like graduating high school and terrorizing the same four-year institution together.
even so, emmet had never seen commitment from the bunch like he did over the winter going into spring of april’s senior year. he had never seen anyone as invested in anything like baby was invested in the career center’s book of scholarships or like deedee was invested in researching every college in the florida panhandle.
april opens her acceptance letter to the University of North Florida in front of her three favorite people over lunch.
it’s march when she’s accepted; three more months until graduation and five more until they’re moving her into her dorm.
they were convinced they were inseparable.
when baby misses two days of classes, it doesn’t seem to be the end of the world. it wasn’t an uncommon occurrence; no one asked the reason, and he never told. it was one of those things that no one talked about.
when a day or two spans into a week, april finally breaks the silence about it. the trio agrees to stop by his house later that day; visiting his home was a rare occurrence saved for situations like this.
emmet never liked baby’s parents. the only time he had met them, it seemed so tense and uncomfortable. almost as if they were putting on a front. the kind of front where they grit their teeth and pretended to like each other long enough for the strangers to leave.
unfortunately, he doesn't get far enough to see them again.
when he steps out of his last class for the day, april is already waiting for him. he doesn't get so much of a chance to greet her before she’s grabbing his arm and ordering him to walk and talk.
she’s fuming as she spits out a consolidated explanation. baby had been arrested eight days ago on felony robbery charges. he had been caught with an illegal firearm in a house in alabama in the middle of the night. he’s getting charged as an adult for every piece of it. she spares no detail; emmet can’t get a single word in with how loud and how fast she was talking. it takes him pulling her aside in the crowded hallway just to get her to lower her voice and speak calmly.
when she’s finally quieted down enough to get in at least a few huffs of air, she starts again. she explains that she’s already told deedee. she cried. she gets a little offended when emmet asks how she knows. if he paid any attention to the news, he would have known, she spits right back. ouch. she’s not going lightly about the matter.
despite trying to calm april himself, he's frozen where he stands. his blood runs cold as he takes a moment to process just exactly what he was just told. baby. sweet, timid baby, of all people, was going to prison. emmet's trying to keep himself calm enough to keep a straight face in front of april, but he can feel his chest grow tight as the situation settles on him.
when they part ways that afternoon, emmet skips practice and heads straight home.
his bag is dropped carelessly on the floor as soon as he steps inside. he can’t even process his father’s greeting as he pushes his way upstairs. aprils voice echoes in his head; it was all over the news, she said. how could you have missed it? his fingers are already flying to the keyboard of his computer as he slips into his desk chair. baby’s full name is filled into the search engine. for a moment as it loads, emmet wonders if baby is his real name, or if that was just another lie.
sure enough, the first link he's presented with has his mugshot front and center, teary eyed and sprinkled with an anger he's never seen in such a tender soul.
he hardly makes it to the bathroom before he vomits.
he can’t even read it. he doesn't want to know what he did, or why he did it. he didn’t want to know what those gentle hands were capable of.
the tension between the trio is suffocating. emmet catches deedee walking to a new table across the cafeteria during lunch, leaving him and april in silence. she doesn’t want to talk about it; emmet can hardly keep himself from holding back every word he wants to vomit. he wants to cry. he wants to yell and scream about how unfair it is and how baby lied to him and everyone in this room.
he was destined for hell and every one of them knew it.
april graduates without a hitch. its been months since emmet had a full conversation with either her or deedee, but deedee insists on throwing a party for her and he'd feel like shit if he didn’t go.
its a shitty party. its a bunch of girls deedee and april know getting drunk off of Mrs. Dawkins’ wine and gushing about how much fun april is going to have once she gets away from this washed up place. emmet's posted himself in the corner of deedee’s deck, leaning on the railing and looking out to the geese on her pond when the blonde in question approaches him. he catches himself leaning away.
she doesn’t hesitate to drill him with question after question. she accuses him of being distant. she asks why he's been avoiding her. deep down, he knows its all in good faith, but her questions are prying and too insistent for someone who had also just lost her best friend.
her and april are walking proof that life moves on. why couldn’t him?
he drives home that night a little more buzzed than he would have liked to be. a tiny piece of his mind doesn’t care if he ends up in a ditch somewhere.
unfortunately, him and his car get home in one piece.
he can’t even bring himself to get out of the car. around one am, his dad steps outside to find him sobbing over the wheel for no reason in particular. he catches the movement out of the corner of his eye; he only cries harder once he decides to step back inside and let him be.
in april of emmet's senior year, he's accepted into Brown University.
baby’s arrest had been a wake up call for him. life moves on, with or without him. he threw himself headfirst into his already rigorous studies, shot out every perfect grade and college essay he possibly could.
the work pays off when he gets his acceptance letter in the mail.
he doesn't tell anybody. he hasn't spoken to deedee and april since the party. baby had broken their promise. it all seemed to fall apart from there. there was a hole in his heart where baby once resided. all he could do now was fill it with studies and promises to himself to make himself into the best man he could be.
maybe they held him back. the thought makes him sick.
deedee and april miss his graduation. he's a shell at this point; the only path is forward. he won’t let a couple minor upsets let him down.
that’s all this was. one minor upset.
he graduates. he moves into college. he finishes his first semester. life moves on. with or without him.
all he can do is fight to keep up.