Never Going Back Again || Jemma
Berry.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into a month, and enough was enough.
Five people were seated around at the dining room table when Jay entered for breakfast that morning, pulling an highlighter to finish the chapter of Jay and Emma’s adventures in Vegas. He couldn’t wait to get her opinion on it. It was, after all, her story too. His mother, Carlos, and Emma’s parents. Yip slept at their feet. A taller African American man with large glasses held a manila folder. They all stared at him with monotone eyes.
“May I help-”
“Jay.”
His mother stood up from the table.
“Did you see Emma yesterday morning?”
Jay’s eyebrows instantly furrowed in confusion at the mention of Emma. Her face, bright eyes and weak smile that she’d carried for months of being back, appeared in his mind. They talked books and memories, hugging coffee cups as they circled town square.
“Of course. We had coffee. What’s this all about?”
Jay’s voice dipped as the foreign man stood forward, speaking up with a booming voice in their small dining area.
“Detective Otis Warren.”
“Jay Bryant the-”
“The third, I’ve heard.”
“Though Emma Miller is technically an adult…her parents have declared her as missing.”
Jay’s first instinct was the thought was silly. Emma? Missing? It was laughable, even. Emma was always just..there. Even when they went to different schools, she was a mere phone call away. It took Jay the full day of making sent to voicemail phone calls, unanswered texts and emails, and searching around town to process that she was…possibly gone. Maybe she decided to take an out of town trip by herself. It wasn’t likely, at least without a heads up, but she’d return the next day.
Or the next day.
Maybe the one after that. Jay was hopeful.
He was hopeful until he wasn’t hopeful, as if her lack of presence was bringing out the childish coward in him. Where was Emma? Where was his best friend?
Berry’s population consisted of two hundred and sixty people. Within the small population, Jay could feel every millimeter of Emma’s absence. With every breath he took and word he muttered, he missed her immensely. He felt it in every part of his body that he wondered how he managed to stay standing. Berry felt it. Anywhere he went, he could hear the people muttered her name under their breaths, as if his lonely presence was the reminder that Emma Miller had vanished. Berry was like a monarchy, of sorts. When the infamous Emma Miller, daughter of the town dentist and the runaway bride, goes missing, things change. The town shifted.
Every morning at dawn, Jay went and stood outside of Emma Miller’s house, waiting for her bedroom light to switch on. It was something they used to do in high school, Emma’s bad habit of not setting an alarm leaving Jay to save the day, and her tardiness record from being tarnished. He waited, longer and longer everyday, until Mrs. Miller came out behind Emma’s brother as he went to catch the bus. Both of them looked to Jay with worisome eyes, as if they wished to give him hopeful information that they did not hold. They all knew the equal amount of information. Emma was just gone.
Days turned into weeks, weeks into a month, and enough was enough.
He didn’t know how and he didn’t know where but Jay had to find Emma. He couldn’t eat, sleep, let alone live until he at least knew her existence was continuing on. He had to find Emma Miller, wherever in the world she could be.
After the first day, time stopped being counted in days.
Emma hadn’t even remotely peered at a calendar in ages. Not since she’d left home however many days ago. She just hadn’t felt the need. Seeing how much time had gone by would only - well, Emma wasn’t sure what it would do. The fact that she had picked up and left, had run away yet again, wasn’t lost on her. There was no way it could be. Not when Emma had done the absolute worse thing she could have done before leaving.
See Jay.
If she was honest with herself, Emma knew the reason for her back and forth between guilt and contentment. She knew it exactly but saying that her only regret laid with her best friend, was simply a recipe for the kind of trouble Emma wasn’t ready to face. So she ran. She did what she thought was best. Did it hurt? Yes. Was it the hardest decision she had ever made? Definitely. But some decisions have to be made versus want to be made. In hindsight, it was more than obvious that she wouldn’t go unnoticed. That her disappearance would raise questions but Emma hoped that maybe, just maybe, they’d all learn to live without her. After all, in the last few months, all she had caused was trouble. Maybe a new start for her, would mean one for them.
Emma Miller wasn’t a careless girl though. Before she left, she made sure to leave behind notes - things that people might find with time. After they went through her room and picked through her things. They’d find their peace then. Once that happened, Emma figured she might call. Just a quick ‘hello’ to say she was okay. It was all very morbid when she thought of it but life was harsh that way. Maybe it was finally catching up to her.
For everyone.
Emma had arrived in upstate New Jersey a week ago. It was a small suburb that she had thrown a pencil at on some map in a hotel in Maryland but it worked. The life was easy to settle in, the people were kind, and generosity had found her a small room to live in for a week while she got in her feet. It wasn’t New York or a high rise apartment but it helped the ache. The farther she was from Berry - from Jay, it hurt less. It was enough for now.
Settling into her chair, Emma looked up to see another cup of coffee being brought to her and smiled. She had knocked back at least four in the last hour, knowing she had more travel ahead of her at some point. Sleep would only set her back. With a sigh, Emma pushed the cup to the side and continued twirling her pencil, aimlessly drawing the outline of a face while rain gently slid down the glass of the window beside her.
