I know I had previously been complaining about the cold but suddenly it just didn’t seem to matter. In fact, the longer I walked along the edge of the creek I had stumbled across, the more I didn’t notice the cold air.

My tears had long since ceased and now I was just numb. Six hours ago, everything had made complete sense. Now everything was complete chaos.

Ben cheated on me. He slept with some girl who wasn’t me. That truth completely disgusted me. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to throw up. I had already puked once but that was mostly because I had been running and crying at the same time.

To describe the emotions running through me would be like to describe the finer points of rocket science. I was experiencing every negative feeling that existed. All I really wanted to do was curl up in a ball and die. What else do you do when everything that you knew was good was destroyed?

I kept telling myself that people went through worse things every single day. Finding out your boyfriend is cheating on you pales in comparison to the reality of death and war and disease. But…Ben had cheated on me. My boyfriend, who I had trusted more than anything, had betrayed me.

Had there been signs that I had simply missed? Had Justin and Becca known about it? Had Ben been cheating on me for a while?

A particularly large gust of wind went through my hair and I looked up from the snow covered ground. I hadn’t been paying attention to where I was walking and I had made it back to the bungalow. I could see the lit up house in the distance.

The thought of seeing Ben made me want to be sick but I was becoming aware of how cold I was. I couldn’t just stay outside or I’d freeze.

My steps slowed more and more as I neared the house and by time I reached the front step, I came to a dead halt. I took a few deep breaths and wiped my cheeks, building up the courage to go inside.

Seconds after I opened the front door, Justin and Becca appeared.

“Where have you been?” Justin asked as he came over to me, giving me a hug. “You’ve been gone for three hours! We’ve been so worried!”

I stood still as he hugged me and didn’t say anything.

“Ben’s out looking for you,” Justin continued as he pulled back.

I simply stared at him.

Becca pushed Justin away from me. “Are you okay, Em?”

At her words, my chin trembled and my tears began to fall again. Becca wrapped her arms around me and hugged me tight. I leaned my head on her shoulder and stared across the room as my tears flowed.

“You’re so cold, Em,” Becca said, rubbing her hands over my back. “Justin, go grab her a sweater,” she instructed and then turned her attention back to me. She pulled back a bit to see my face and then hugged me again. “You’re going to be okay, Em. You’re going to get through this and you’ll be fine.”

I tried to nod but all that resulted in was more tears falling.

“Here, Chief.”

Becca pulled away and I looked towards Justin to see him holding one of his sweatshirts. He handed it to me and I slowly pulled it on over my sweater. When I had it on, Justin stepped up to me and took my face in his hands.

“I need to call Ben and tell him you’re okay,” he said softly.

“I can’t see him, Justin,” I said, beginning to cry. “I can’t. I-”

“Okay. Okay, Em.” He pulled me into a hug. “When he gets here I’ll tell him to leave you alone, alright? For tonight.”

I managed to nod and Justin pulled his head back so he could look at me again. He cupped my cheeks again, his thumbs wiping the moisture under my eyes.

“Hey, Ben’s the asshole. What he did was so so wrong and you didn’t deserve it. But you’re going to have to talk to him.”

“I can’t tonight.”

“I know. But eventually.”

I barely nodded and then he nodded.

“I’m going to call him.”

He let go of me and then went to the kitchen. I only stood there for a minute before I felt Becca pick up my hand.

“Do you want to go sit?” she asked softly. “We can talk.”

I allowed her to pull me to the other room where there was a couch. I sat even though talking was the last thing I wanted to do. After all, how could anyone say anything that would make me ever feel better?

* * *

“Hello?”

Ben’s voice was bordering on frantic when he answered his cell phone.

“Emily’s here.”

“Great. I’ll be there in five minutes.”

I closed my phone with a sigh and rubbed my forehead. I wandered over to the doorway of the living room and looked inside.

Emily was sitting on the couch, my sweatshirt pulled over her drawn up knees and her arms wrapped around her legs. Becca was sitting beside her, saying something, but Emily wasn’t responding. She was merely staring in front of her blankly.

This was really screwed up.

I stood there watching the girls for another few minutes before I saw headlights through the front window. I quickly walked to the front door. I had to catch Ben before he came in and messed things up even further.

Ben was getting out of the car when I stepped out the front door. He jogged towards the house.

“Where was she?” he asked when he reached me.

I shrugged. “She doesn’t want to talk to you, Ben.”

“Of course she doesn’t. But I’ve got to explain everything.”

I grabbed his arm when he tried to move past me and yanked him back. “Not tonight, you don’t. You’re not going to solve anything by talking to her now.”

“Look, Justin, this really isn’t any of your business. Move out of my way.”

I didn’t let go of his arm. “At this point this is all of our business. You’re my friend, Ben, but so is Emily and if she doesn’t want to talk to you tonight then you’re not talking to her.”

“Justin-”

“You’re not going to help anything by talking to her now. She’s pissed and hurt and whatever you say now is going to make it worse, not better.”

“But I have to talk to her.”

“Nothing you can say tonight will do any good. Give her a night to cool off a bit. Take it from someone who’s been there.”

Ben gave me a long look before relenting and letting his arm I was holding go limp. He seemed completely defeated and I took some pity on him.

“Do you want to go inside and talk for a bit?”

He slowly nodded and I let go of his arm and turned to go back inside the house. He didn’t attempt to go into the living room but I saw his neck crane as he looked into the room.

Once we were in his room and the door was shut, I turned to Ben, who had sat down on the bed. His shoulders were slumped and his head was down.

“I really messed up, Justin,” he finally said.

I sat down on a chair across from him. “Yeah, you did.”

“I don’t even know what I was thinking. I met that girl in the chalet and it just…” He gave a heavy sigh, “happened.” He shook his head. “If I had known she was coming…”

“You what? Would have waited until you knew she wouldn’t have walked in on you?”

“No. That’s not what I meant.” He sighed again. It was quiet for a minute before she looked up at me. “Do you think she’s gonna break up with me?”

I shook my head. “I dunno, Ben. She’s pretty upset.”

“I feel like shit.”

I said nothing, silently glad. He should feel like shit considering what he did to Emily.

We sat in his room for another hour. Ben didn’t say much and neither did I. There really wasn’t anything to say.

When Ben finally said he wanted to sleep, I was relieved to be out of there. Although Ben was my friend, so was Emily and I couldn’t really offer any words of comfort because what he did was so wrong and hurtful.

I immediately went to the living room but it was empty. The door to Becca’s room was shut and I went to it and knocked on it.

“Justin?” Becca’s voice came through the door.

“Yeah.”

“Come in.”

I eased the door open and stepped into the room. Becca was sitting on the edge of the bed, flipping through a magazine and laying on her back on the bed was Emily. Becca glanced up at me then back at her magazine.

“Where’s Ben.”

“Sleeping,” I replied, going over to the bed. Emily looked up at me.

“Do you want your sweater back?”

I smiled a bit. “Keep it as long as you need.” I sat down on the edge of the bed. “How’re you doing?”

She pressed her lips together and shook her had. “Just great,” she mumbled.

“Do you want to talk?”

She turned her head to the side, away from me. “No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Justin, leave her alone,” Becca spoke up. “She doesn’t want to talk.”

I sighed. “Fine. Are you going to sleep in here?”

Emily nodded and turned her head back to stare at the ceiling. I bit my lip when I saw a couple of fresh tears had fallen down her cheeks. Leaning down, I kissed her forehead and then stood.

“I guess I’ll let you sleep then.”

“Night, Justin,” Becca called after me as I opened the door.

“Night.”