Closed Contention

[Abian Hunter]

Abian was happy to be with Emily again, the two were catching up on one of the couches in the student lounge. Abian had an arm around his girlfriend, holding her close. He'd just told her about his break, and was listening as Emily told him about her own. He smiled as he listened to her, watching her closely. After Emily was done, Abian decided to speak about something that was on his mind. He'd thought a lot during break, and kind of wanted a second opinion. He and Emily had never really talked much about personal things, but he figured she could help him think things over. "Hey, can I ask your advice about my friend Amaya? You know, in Slytherin?" He asked her after a moment. He'd been close to Amaya for a while, so he figured Emily was somewhat aware of her. "We're kind of fighting, and I'm wondering what I can do to fix things..." He said, trailing off a bit. "Some stuff happened last year." He admitted, hoping she wouldn't mind that he hadn't told her at the time. It was always just a lot easier to kiss or skate with Emily than to talk about serious things.

 

[Emily Madison]

The holidays had given Emily some perspective on how much the last year had sucked for Charlie, and for the first time Emily was actually grateful to be the oldest member of their family at Hogwarts. Being apart from someone you were dating sucked, a lot, and it felt nice to be together again, settled where she belonged in Abian’s arms. Chatting about the holidays and catching up without a care in the world. Everything was always easy with Abian, and she appreciated that ease, relieved to just relax with someone as drama-free as her sweet Hufflepuff boyfriend. It was a surprise when he brought up a friend but Emily listened, nodding when Abian asked if she knew Amaya. Emily didn’t think she had ever met the Slytherin, but eventually it felt like everyone knew everyone at Hogwarts. As Abian went on Emily’s face fell, heart sinking as Abian explained the situation. “What happened?!” She asked, trying to push down the sudden spike of anger she felt at the thought of anyone hurting her boyfriend. “I’ll kick her arse if she’s done anything to you, babe, I swear.”

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian winced at Emily’s word choice, and he quickly shook his head. “Please don’t.” He said hurriedly. “She didn’t do anything… wrong, really. I’d rather have this solved without anyone kicking anything.” He said quickly. “That’s kind of the whole point.” He said, running a hand through his hair distractedly. “Okay, so… Amaya is like my best friend, besides you of course, and she was a bit annoyed when I didn’t tell her we were dating at first. I guess I didn’t realize you were supposed to say that stuff.” He shrugged a little awkwardly. “But we talked it out, and she told me about this boy she liked. Kace, he’s in your house.” Even as he said the boy’s name, Abian’s expression darkened. “She told me he had kind of hurt her feelings, like… how he wouldn’t dance with her because she was taller. So when I ran into him later, I felt protective and I asked him why he did that.” He winced at the memory. “And he got angry. Yelling and stuff. He kept shoving me and kicked my skateboard away. It was really weird and stupid.” Abian said, shaking his head. “I tried to get him to calm down but eventually Amaya showed up too. And Kace kept saying she shouldn’t have talked to me and talked to him instead. Like confiding in a friend is a bad thing.” He scoffed. “Anyway… I was pissed at him, but then I hear Amaya just… started dating him anyway. Like he didn’t do that stuff. She got upset when I told her I was hurt by that, but I guess it feels like she doesn’t care he treated both me and her badly.” He told Emily with a sigh. “And I had to hear from someone else too. I don’t care, but she made such a big deal about me not telling her… I guess it felt strange.” He glanced at Emily. “Do you think I overreacted? I just want the guy to apologize, then I think it’d be fine. I told her as much.” He explained.

 

[Emily Madison]

As Abian spoke the volcano Emily had been trying to suppress started to bubble and boil over and she couldn’t stay still, sitting up higher and turning to face Abian in disbelief. “What?!” Emily snapped, feeling her heart rate speed up as the adrenaline hit. “That’s disgusting, what a creeper! He’s like, trying to cut her off from having friends? That’s so gross! Someone should get her away from him, for real.” Emily clenched and relaxed her fists rhythmically, trying to work through the anger rather than do what she really wanted, which was to track Kace down and beat his little snot nosed face inside out. “Someone needs to stop him.”

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian was alarmed by the force of Emily’s response. It was a little validating to have her side with him, but she was a lot angrier than even he was, and it was disconcerting. “Well, I worry about that too, but he could also just have been angry because it could have been solved a lot easier if she spoke to him instead.” He said quickly, wincing at his own words. Was he now defending the behavior? “But yeah, he shouldn’t have told her not to talk to me.” He glanced at her hands in alarm, and shook his head a little. “I… think if he says sorry and just realizes he did something wrong it will be okay. I was wondering if I should try to talk to him. Though I’m not apologizing, I didn’t do anything wrong.” He hadn’t expected Emily to be so strongly affected by this. He was glad he hadn’t mentioned how Amaya had mentioned Emily’s fight with Eric in comparison to Kace’s reaction. He was suddenly afraid Emily would do something she’d regret. “I just wanted to ask your advice.” He said quickly, gently touching her arm.

 

[Emily Madison]

Emily closed her eyes as Abian spoke, trying to take slow, calm breaths, to breathe the anger out like Mum had taught her. That was hard to do though, when Abian kept talking. “That doesn’t give him the right to push you!” Emily snapped, her eyes flying open again. “Or freak out about his girlfriend having friends! I can’t believe you’re just okay with leaving Amaya in that situation! Like, yeah, he should apologise to you, but he should also stop trying to control his girlfriend or get the hell away from her! It’s messed up!” She insisted, fists clenched tight now, the sharp press of her fingernails into her palms helping Emily fight back the urge to hit something.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian was honestly alarmed at the amount of emotion Emily was showing, and he leaned away from her a little, looking at her in wide eyes. "Hey, please don't act like I did something wrong." He said quickly, moving away from her. "I talked to the guy one time. One time when he was clearly angry and in a bad mood. Yes, he did something wrong and yes, I'm concerned about Amaya but you're drawing a lot of conclusions about a situation you're not even in." He said, frowning. "You need to calm down, I was just asking your advice. Please stop yelling at me." He said, holding up his hands placatingly. His stomach was twisting, he hadn’t expected this conversation to go so badly. This was a side of Emily he’d never seen.

 

[Emily Madison]

The warmth of their earlier conversation was entirely gone now. Emily sat up straighter as Abian moved away, glaring at him slightly. Any hopes that she was going to be able to calm herself down were rapidly floating away. “I’m not yelling!” She snapped. “I can’t believe you’re not more worried! This is messed up, you can’t just… be fine letting people treat each other like that! Kace is a creep!” She said firmly, glaring at Abian. “You have to do something! Or I will, I don’t care, people can’t just go around… pushing people and controlling their girlfriends without consequences!”

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian moved away from Emily more at her glare, looking worried. “You are yelling.” He said, forcing his voice to remain calm. “Please stop. I am worried, I talked to her.” He told Emily, his own annoyance rising. “I asked you for advice, not for you to judge the whole situation based on my perspective alone!” He told her, shaking his head. “You’re overreacting…” He was worried about Amaya, but wasn’t he right to be hurt too? She kept ignoring his advice, and it had been her choice to date Kace despite his warnings. He bit his lip. “Don’t talk to them, you have nothing to do with it.” He said, sounding more frustrated than he wanted. “I thought you were supposed to be on my side in this.”

 

[Emily Madison]

At this point, although the effect her tone was having on Abian was clear, Emily was much too angry to stop. She dug her nails firmly into her palms, leaning closer as he moved back. “I am on your side!” She snapped. “This is messed up and something needs to be done! I’m agreeing with you! I just want to do something about it instead of talking about doing something! I don’t care if it’s got nothing to do with me, I’m not just gonna sit around if someone’s running around being a creeper!”

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian held up his hands. “Stop. Yelling.” He said firmly, glaring at her. “Forget I said anything. I wish I hadn’t brought it up.” He said with a scowl. “You can’t go talk to them. Because I don’t trust you to keep it to just talking.” He told her, glancing at her clenched fists and aggressive posture. “If you go hit him you’re just as bad as him. You know that, right? Violence is not the answer. I’ll handle it myself.” He told her, stepping back a bit. He couldn’t stop himself from looking disappointed. “I thought I could talk to you.” He told her. “But you’re not listening.”

 

[Emily Madison]

If Emily hadn’t been angry already, Abian’s tone would have sent her into a screaming rage and she stepped closer, hands coming up to shove him hard by the shoulders. “Don’t PATRONISE me!” She snapped. “I know what I’m talking about, you think I’m stupid? I’ve seen bullies like that, DOZENS of times, in DOZENS of different homes. You think you’re so much better than me because you’re willing to negotiate with someone who treats their girlfriend like sh*t? You think this is fine?” Emily shoved Abian again, harder. “It’s fine, right? This was fine for Kace to do, so it’s fine for me to do, right? You’re so much better than foster trash Emily standing up for other girls. I’m sure you can handle this all by yourself, since you’re so much better than me.” Emily gave Abian one more cold, angry look before turning and walking away, pain starting to twist in her stomach as she managed to tear herself away from the drive to lash out. She loved Abian, or she thought she had. Had she ever even really known him? Emily made it out of the lounge before breaking into a run, tears of frustration and pain and regret finally breaking from her eyes as she sprinted for her mum’s office.

 

[Abian Hunter]

Abian yelped as Emily shoved him, and he stumbled back. He held up his hands, shaking his head. “Hey, cut it out.” He told her weakly. He listened to her with widening eyes, shaking his head more and more. “No… that’s not… that’s not what I- Emily! Stop it!” He said, his back hitting the wall as she shoved him again. “That’s not what I MEAN!” He yelled, trying to get through to her. But he knew she wasn’t going to listen to him. He hadn’t even known she had felt this strongly about this, they had never talked much about Emily’s past in foster homes. If he was honest, he had kind of forgotten about it. But as he saw how she thought he would think and act, he realized that she didn’t really know him at all. More than that, he didn’t know her. He was ashamed to realize he felt mostly relieved when she ran away. He rubbed his shoulder, which hurt a bit. Emily had scared him, he couldn’t deny it. But she had also made him doubt himself. He felt a mixture of emotions and wished he knew who to talk to. A sob was building in his throat, and he made his way out of the student lounge as well. He had to get back to the common room, to his dorm. He wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he did know that the relationship he’d had with Emily was over now. There was no coming back from this.