baby i'm dyin'

Barkis shook his head, aghast at the accusations that Emily seemed quite content to level against him, and none with any basis. “I would never try to force you out of a life you built,” he murmured, softer now, and that was true enough. He likes to play, to see what he could do, to see what sort of influence he had on people, especially those he’d loved or lost in one way or another, and Emily was the most innocent candidate for both realities in Barkis’s life. He was listening to her, actively even, curious to see what she had left to fight him on, when the child came up to her again, and Barkis squinted. Smiled, of course - he wasn’t a monster - but he was certainly curious. Emily sent her away just as quickly as she’d arrived, and Barkis, against his best instincts, cocked his head just slightly to the side. “How old?”

when the bells of the front door chimed and poppy heard the familiar voice of emily softly calling out, she jumped up from her seat in the back where she’d been working on finishing touches for mabel’s birthday scrapbook. “for you i always have time,” she assures with a bright smile. now poppy had never been the greatest at reading people, so it took her a few moments to realize something seemed a bit off with the other woman. “we can go wherever you want. and you can either find the paints now or get them when we come back, that way you don’t have to carry them with you the whole time.”

emily nodded her head. she had a good point about the paints. “I don’t really care where we eat as long as it is outdoors? it’s so sunny and warm and beautiul outside. it would be a waste to miss a moment of it.” she tucked a braid behind her ear. “i’ll get the paints later. yeah..so...shall we?”

“poppy darling? are you busy?” emily asked softly, entering the arts and crafts store alone for once. she had a lot on her mind and there was no one on the island who she thought would understand more than poppy. emily had a real attachment to the woman; she finally found herself a kindred spirit of sorts and she felt like she could talk to her about the hard stuff without judgement. “i was wondering if you’d like to join me for some take-out? or some dessert? or...whatever comfort food feels best? feel free to take your time with your answer, i still need to buy some paints for helena.”

Barkis had not, in fact, gone out of his way since arriving in Corona to find Emily. He hadn’t kept tabs on her, hadn’t asked around to find her most frequent haunts to make himself a presence, because quite frankly he had better things to do with his time. And anyway, this was much better, the call of fate or chance, finding her doing her shopping of all things, with the little one he knew absolutely nothing about, but he still hadn’t seen a father. Perhaps not surprising, but still curious. More curious still, Emily sent her away. All Barkis had uttered was a coy, “Fancy seeing you here,” and Emily responded with quite disproportionate rage, he thought. He wondered why.

His answer came easily, unruffled. “To say hello? There’s nothing wrong with greeting an old friend, last time I checked, but I can tell you disagree. It’s been a while since I’ve seen you, Emily.” His voice grew softer then, less haughty though there was always an air of privilege in his tone that he couldn’t shake if he tried. “I almost thought you’d run off again. It’s good to see you.”

Coming to Corona had been a bit of a culture shock to Victoria. There were so many things she had never done before coming there and with her parents not breathing down her neck every second of the day it was freeing. It was also very confusing. She had to learn to do so many things the average adult should already know. Like grocery shopping! She’d never gone herself before coming there. She was getting the hang of it though but that didn’t mean she didn’t still struggle controlling the stupid grocery carts. “No, no it’s alright! I hate these stupid things.” She felt foolish sometimes about the things she couldn’t do but not having her parents around also meant she could buy whatever she’d liked. Even if she had to marry a man she barely knew at least she could still be free. “You didn’t drop anything, did you? You wouldn’t believe me when I say I’m no good at controlling these things.” She offers the other woman another smile.

Emily smiled at her.She was cute and Emily was a sucker for cute. “You haven’t done a single thing wrong,” Emily said with a laugh. “These carts are a little hard to manage on most days, but once we got the right balance it isn’t so bad.” She has run into her fair share of things here and she didn’t want this woman feeling like a fool. There’s nothing more upsetting than a woman being made a fool. Emily had been made a fool on more than one occasion in her life and she wasn’t ever going to share that kind of feeling to someone else. “If it makes you feel better, I knocked over a bunch of oranges earlier. So I guess this really isn’t my first accident today. Clumsy me.”

Emily didn’t like going to the store alone. Taking Helena with her everywhere was routine for her and sure, she liked to add way too many snacks into their cart, but without her she was feeling a little...lonely. But Helena was absorbed with one of her video games and didn’t want to go, so Emily left her with her neighbor who has watched her countless times and went herself. Humming to herself, she browsed with a dull look in her eyes, her mind drifting to Barkis. His presence was putting her on edge a little bit and she wanted to pretend it wasn’t a big deal, but it was. It was big enough of a deal to distract Emily and she ended up crashing her grocery cart into someone else’s. “Oops.I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to get in your way.”

emily had felt very lucky for not running into barkis in a long while. the island was bigger than it looked and she really was trying to keep to herself and her child and the few friends she made along the way to keep her sane. but she knew that there would be another time that she would run into him and have to deal with that heartbreak and that regret and rage and she was ready for it. but she also wasn’t. if helena wasn’t in the picture, she would have kicked his ass fully. but she had her and she couldn’t risk jail so she had to play nice. barkis was the type of man to get lawyers involved if she crossed a line. 

Emily had never thought a moment that was supposed to be so pure be so tainted by the one man she never thought she would see again in her life. She was so thrown off, so confused and angry that all she could do was slap him hard across the face. It was so impulsive that she was shocked at herself. She hadn’t had a sip of wine, hadn’t been doing anything bad. Just enjoying a little holiday gathering with a coworker. Thank the gods Helena wasn’t there. “Y-You.....” she finally managed to say, looking at him like she had seen a ghost. “What are....This isn’t real......”