Afterwards

Emma knocked loudly on the basement door. When nothing happened, she knocked again.
A rustling, and then a grumpy looking Brooke opened the door, a sleepy Stavo laying back on the couch covered in blankets. Her face immediately shifted from annoyance to concern when she saw Emma.
“What happened?”
Emma just sighed. “I wanted to talk to Audrey, but she totally flipped out on me. I don’t know what I did! I just – wanted her to hang out with me in my room, talk to me for a while…”
Brooke sighed and rolled her eyes. “One: you’re really dense sometimes. Two: maybe you should stop talking.” Her face softened from her usual resting bitch face. “Look, I know talking is good and all, but seriously, you take it a little too far. You talk yourself down into a depression and you get all…SAD…and you’re no fun anymore. Talking is supposed to make you better, but I swear you only get more down in the dumps.”
“It-it’s been hard on me and I kind of expected some support from the people who know exactly what I’m going through!”
“And we do support you Emma. Lord knows we do everything we can, especially Audrey. It’s just…we don’t deal like you do. You barely deal with it at all!”
“I’m trying, but people won’t talk to me!”
“You don’t even realize, do you?”
“Realize what?”
“You drag all of us down when you talk! That’s why none of us like talking to you anymore!”
“Audrey listens! At least, she used to…”
Brooke laughed drily. “You go on and on about how bad it was, which is fair, totally fair, but you talk about how awful it is now too! You can’t let us move on and have a good time! We want to enjoy our lives Emma! Especially Audrey! No wonder she doesn’t want to talk to you! Do you know how Audrey deals with it? Through drinking, and sarcasm, and punching things! Not by talking! Noah has his murder board, but he finished putting that back together weeks ago Emma! I party, and play matchmaker! I drink and laugh and bitch until everything feels better! For the rest of us, talking doesn’t do much good! And it doesn’t for you either! You never have fun anymore. You start talking and you get more and more depressed and you never smile, even when we try to cheer you up! We can laugh and smile and live our lives again Emma, but you can’t! I want to have fun Emma! We all do, except you! All you want to do is talk yourself down into some dark hole and die there! If you need to talk to someone Emma, it should probably be a professional, because we apparently can’t help you anymore!” Brooke was fuming and huffing angrily by the end of her rant.
Brooke grabbed Emma gently and guided her towards the door. “Look, I’m sorry Audrey blew up at you. I’m sorry I kinda just did too. But we both want what’s best for you and for us, and so for now maybe you should just stop talking about it. Isn’t that what you wanted the first time around? For things to go back to normal? So try to have a little fun! Loosen up a bit! It’s all done with. Everything’s fine, or at least it will be.”
Before Emma could say anything, Brooke gently nudged her out the door. “Get some sleep Emma.”
“Little bit harsh, don’t you think?” Stavo said after the door clicked shut.
“I just miss seeing her happy, and playing nice clearly isn’t helping anymore. I want to help her and support her, but maybe it’s time for some tough love.” She sighed and lowered herself back down onto the couch.
“I miss the old Emma. Hell, I miss the old me! I used to be the life of the party! If Brooke Maddox threw a party, everyone would show up! The old Brooke Maddox would get drunk, laugh, and have fun. The old Brooke Maddox would never have spent her Saturday night hanging out being gloomy with a bunch of nerds in a basement.”
“For what it’s worth, I think you’ve changed for the better.”
Brooke smiled, leaning into him. “You’re biased.”
“That I am. I have a feeling old Brooke wouldn’t have given me the time of day.”
Brooke giggled, placing her head on his shoulder. “She probably wouldn’t have!” She paused. “Maybe it’s time for another Brooke revamping. I can become a Brooke 3.0.” She shook her head. “No, Brooke 2.0 didn’t go as planned.”
“Maybe you should stop trying to be someone you’re not,” Stavo said. “You’re trying too hard if you ask me. Just do what you want, not what you think you should be doing.”
Brooke laughed. “What makes you think I know what I want? Everything I’ve wanted has turned out badly for me and everyone around me.”
Stavo grinned. “Don’t think about that. In fact, don’t think at all. You’re Brooke Maddox and you can do whatever you want, have whatever you want. So what do you want? Don’t think, just say it.”
“I just want to have fun again.”
Stavo laughed. “That’s too existential, just pick one tangible thing.”
“Let’s throw a party!” Brooke exclaimed, suddenly sitting up straight.
Stavo blinked, but smiled. “Sounds like a good time to me.”
Brooke nodded. “We haven’t sold Daddy’s house yet, so there’s a giant empty house just sitting there! No adults, no worries! School’s ending in two weeks, so two weeks from now we should throw the biggest party since…before the murders.” She didn’t mention that all of the biggest parties had been Nina’s. She didn’t feel like it.
Stavo nodded. “I like it. This town’s been a little dead recently.”
Brooke glared at him.
He shrugged.
Brooke sighed. “I wonder if I can get Emma to help plan it. Emma used to be the only thing that could keep a party from going off the rails.”
Stavo pulled Brooke a little closer. “Leave that to me this time. I’ll take care of everything.”
Brooke smiled and leaned into him. “I like the sound of that,” she said before shifting to kiss Stavo.
-----
“Shit…”
Emma flopped back onto the bed and stared blankly up at the ceiling.
“I’ve messed up with Audrey, and now Brooke. Nice work,” she muttered into thin air.
She paused like there was someone there to respond.
Only silence responded, so she continued on herself.
“Don’t talk, she says. Have fun…How are you supposed to have fun when everyone’s dead?”
She dragged her fingers through her hair, pulling it back painfully. Images came to the front of her mind faster than she could push them back.
She grabbed a pillow and buried her head under it.
The images only intensified.
“So much for blocking out the world.”
Silence was not helping.
“What the hell am I supposed to do? Normal is so far away…Everything’s wrong, and everyone knows it’s my fault.”
A wave of guilt hit her straight in the gut.
Talking wasn’t helping either.
“This is why I need Audrey.”
She tried to think about Audrey.
More things she didn’t need to think about.
“Fuck.”
-----
Audrey came back from her shower to find Noah taking up the entire bed.
She nudged him, and he groaned.
She could see he was smiling though. She grinned too, before grabbing a pillow from the end of the bed and whacking him with it.
“Enough with the assault…” he mumbled. “The pillow’s done nothing to deserve this brutality…”
“Move your butt!”
“And if I refuse?”
Audrey shoved him roughly to one side of the bed. Noah let out a muffled “Hey!”
“That’s what you get!”
Audrey threw herself down onto the bed next to him.
Normally she’d turn and set up a pile of pillows by his feet. They’d sit like that and talk or watch Netflix until they fell asleep.
She tucked a pillow under her head and burrowed under the covers.
“It’s way too early for me to be this tired.”
“Drama fatigue,” Noah said matter-of-factly. “All the drama you just experienced tired you out.”
“Sounds about right,” she muttered.
“I take it we’re not continuing our Netflix marathon then?” He wasn’t about to ask his real question and break the spell.
“Just go to sleep Foster.”
“Right.” He stretched for the light switch, and fell back into bed as the room went black.
He paused for only a second before crawling under the covers with Audrey. This was normal after all. She slept over all the time, just like this.
Audrey rolled over towards Noah, so now her back was to him, pressed against him. His arm went around her, almost reflexively.
Totally normal.