Our Town

Emma had been pacing her apartment since she had gotten a taxi home. She had turned her brain off and yet her feet kept going back and forth across the living room. She was sure that she had woken Carly and Kylie up by now but they had yet to emerge from their rooms.

Emma hadn't remembered what had happened. She knew that Ryan had spilled the beans on her past relationship, and that Tyler had gotten upset over Ryan telling him that he had gotten Emma pregnant, but after that everything was a blur. Tyler was out of her grasp and saying things to Ryan and his teammates were saying things too and Emma could of sworn that she had seen someone punch someone, but she didn't know who. All she did know was that she left, before she had to explain herself, and she also knew that if she ever talked to Tyler again she was pretty sure he was going to break up with her.

So Emma just paced her living room, wondering when Tyler would call and demand an explanation. Or at least call and say "it's okay, that was a big secret and I understand why you didn't tell me right away." Emma snorted. Like Tyler would ever forgive her for keeping a secret this big. Granted they had only met three months ago and they had only been dating for a month, and a secret like that wasn't just brought up at a dinner one night when they ran out of things to talk about.

Emma laughed again at the absurdity of the situation, then she felt her phone vibrate.

Tyler: Are you going to explain?

Emma took one look at the message and saw that this wasn't going to be a small fight. Normally Tyler would've started the conversation off with 'are you alright' or 'I'm coming over' but he had put everything on Emma. So she closed out of the message, walked to the kitchen where she had left her shoes and keys and walked out the door.

-----------

Tyler could vividly picture the night. At first it had started off better than he could've of imagined. His teammates loved Emma and she seemed to take to them and their annoying-ness well. He had scored multiple goals and assisted on some, and they had won their first preseason game, albeit not a big deal but it set the stage for the entire season. And then Tyler could remember the night going downhill, and fast, and he honestly couldn't run fast enough to catch up. It was like one minute, he was at the Exposition of the story and then all too suddenly he was at the Resolution and he had missed the entire story as a whole.

Now he was sitting in his apartment, laying on his bed, a bed that still smelled of Emma from the last time she had stayed over, and his senses were on an overload. He wanted to just hug and kiss Emma and make sure she was alright, but he also wanted to punch a couple walls for how annoyed and angry he was. He had thought that Emma would be damage free, that she would be a clean cut in his heart, but instead she was a jagged edge knife and she had ripped right down the middle, not slowing down for anything. And it had only been a month.

Tyler had some dirty laundry himself, that he had yet to air out, but he wouldn't tell that to Emma. Right now he needed an explanation, and fast, because he was sliding down a slippery slope of never really wanting to see her again. Of wanting to protect his heart, and his head, from the one atomic bomb that he hadn't seen coming.

Hell just a month ago he had told Emma that he was falling in love with her, and here Tyler thought that the only things he loved were hockey and his family. He hadn't seen Emma coming, he was completely blindsided. So when he texted Emma and asked her to explain, and Emma showed up at his apartment just ten minutes later, his head and his heart were not in the same place.

"Hi," Emma was quiet, feeling like she had to step on glass around Tyler. That one wrong word and she would be done for. He just nodded his head, still laying down on his bed, beer in his hand. Trying to act as casual as one can. He gestured for Emma to start her story. "I was seventeen when I met Ryan, he was just as douchey now as he was then, but I feel in love with him." Tyler sucked in a breath, Emma continued, "We spent a majority of our senior year together, and we applied to all of them same colleges, so that when the time came we wouldn't have to leave each other." Emma bit her lip, not really ready for the next part, "Push comes to shove and I get pregnant, I tell my family and they aren't proud of me but they took it well. I told Ryan and at first he was scared, hell I was scared shitless, but he told me he would help take care of the baby because he loved me and he would love me forever, cliche, but I was a teenager who believed love could solve anything. Ryan eventually asked me to marry him and even though neither of us were ready for marriage, it didn't matter." Tyler nodded his head, Emma stopped.

Tyler looked up from his beer to see Emma wiping away tears, and he fought every urge in his body not to get up and hug her, because hugging her would mean she would win the war, and Tyler wasn't quite ready for the loss. Emma sucked in a deep breath, "We went to this party after we graduated and Ryan drank a little too much and when it came time to leave I asked to drive home, but he wouldn't let me, he thought he was fine. So we got in the car and about a mile from my house Ryan ran a red light, as a car was coming through. Long story short, I lost the baby."

Tyler finally looked Emma in the eyes, they were dark and cold, nothing like he'd seen them before. He finally realized why Emma had kept that secret, "I left Ryan when I got out of the hospital, I threw the very expensive ring he gave me in the water somewhere, and then I went to Boston and never looked back. I never wanted to. Never needed to." Tyler still didn't say anything, he just took another swig from his now empty beer. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you Tyler, I just didn't want to live my past in my present."

Tyler set his beer on his bedside table, he could see a pair of earrings, and a watch, both belonging to Emma, "Do you still love him?"

Emma faltered, she hadn't thought about it in all honesty. She had just been going through life not even thinking about Ryan, much less thinking about if she still loved him. But after all he put Emma through, she couldn't find a bone in her body that didn't hate him. "No Tyler, I don't."

Tyler nodded his head, "Thanks for giving me an explanation, but I'm really tired and I have a big day tomorrow."

Emma laughed, shaking her head, "Really? That's it?"

Tyler scrunched his eyebrows together, "Look Emma I'm really sorry about what happened with Ryan when you were younger, but you not telling me something that big is a little hard to get over."

"It wasn't like I just forgot to tell you that my parents are divorced or that my both of my grandparents are dead, I lost a child Tyler, does that not register in your mind? I lost a child when I was still just a child." Emma was furious, she was expecting the benefit of the doubt because maybe he didn't understand how losing a child felt but he should understand that it isn't something small.

"I understand that Emma, but thank you for thinking I'm daft." Tyler said matter of factly.

Emma screamed, "It's not like you haven't slept with millions of women and it's not like you don't--" Emma stopped, tears were streaming down her face, her body was shaking uncontrollably and she didn't want to start something she wouldn't be able to stop, "You know what I'm done. Goodbye Tyler. Good luck with your season."

"Yeah see ya Emma." Tyler watched as she started walking out of the bedroom and towards the front door.

She stopped, Tyler's heart thumped with hope, and Emma turned around, sighing before she spoke, "I wish you the best Tyler, truly, but you're immature and childish and I wouldn't want you to lose something great in the future because of it."

Emma started walking again, and this time she didn't stop or turn around, she walked straight out the door and didn't look back.

It wasn't until Tyler heard the door click shut that he finally broke, "I just did."

Notes

:)

xoxx