"Emily. Emily, wait!"
She drew to a halt in the corridor, hearing Daniel's pleading tone approaching from behind. He reached her and touched her arm with a tentative hand.
"I'm sorry," he said. "The stripper joke was one step too far. I'll have a word with them."
Emily led him into the living room, away from any prying ears, and closed the door. She faced him, finally, and saw the earnest expression in his eyes. Daniel's friends weren't a reflection on him, she knew that, but she also couldn't help her contradicting feelings, the ones telling her that in some way they were.
"They're jerks," she blurted out.
Daniel sighed. "It was a dumb joke. I can only apologize. But you know I never would do that, right?"
"It's more than just the joke, Daniel. It's everything. Their whole attitude stinks. How are you even comfortable having felons in the house with Chantelle?"
Daniel's expression began to change, to grow a little darker. "They're not dangerous."
Emily folded her arms. "Sure, as long as we keep them away from the hard liquor and hide all the car keys," she said sarcastically.
"What's gotten into you?" Daniel challenged. "I thought you'd be pleased to meet my friends. You know how much I struggle with compartmentalizing my life. Having you all together is stressful for me too."
"Oh, well I'm so sorry your childish oaf friends are making this difficult for you," Emily replied bluntly.
Daniel seemed to grow increasingly frustrated. He paced away, his arm folded, then back again, facing Emily down. "Sometimes I can't win with you. You asked me to invite my old friends and now they're here you're somehow angry with me?"
"I didn't know they'd be so horrible!" Emily wailed.
Daniel shook his head. "I get it. They're not smart or successful like your friends. But can I remind you that Amy and Jayne aren't always the easiest people for me to be around either?"
"Come off it, Daniel. Amy and Jayne aren't even in the same league as those…" She struggled to find a suitable word, and regretted the one she eventually blurted. "…baboons!"
Daniel grew immediately infuriated. "That's so unfair. You haven't even given them a chance."
"And I don't want to." Emily could hear the petulance in her voice but she couldn't help herself.
"Tough," Daniel retorted. "You haven't got a choice. They're my friends, they're part of my life."
"Hardly," she scoffed. "It's not like you ever talk about them, or talk on the phone to them. Sounds like you've barely even seen each other in the last decade!"
"That's just life," Daniel huffed. "Things get in the way. Hence people making the effort for weddings."
He'd started to sound condescending. Emily felt riled.
"What kind of things?" she snapped. "Prison sentences?"
Daniel seemed to suddenly deflate. He sat down on the couch and let his head drop into his hands. Emily paused, watching him. She'd never seen Daniel look so defeated.
The fight went out of her immediately. She sat tentatively beside him, perching on the edge of the couch.
"I'm sorry," she said, suddenly filled with remorse. "I'm just freaking out. They weren't what I was expecting and it's reminded me how many things I still don't know about you. I just don't understand how they fit into your life."
Daniel shook his head, his hair tousling as he did. "I know they don't make a good first impression," he said quietly. "But they've helped me through some really tough times. I'm eternally grateful to them for that."
"What kind of things?" Emily asked.
The conversation had taken on a different tone entirely. Now Daniel was the sad one and Emily in the comforting role.
"After my dad left, there were days when my mom was just out of it. Stuart's family used to feed me. Sometimes they even let me shower at their house, join in special occasions with them. I mean, they weren't exactly saints but they were there for me during those times when my mom couldn't be and my dad didn't want to be. Clyde has had a hard life, like me, but even though he acts dumb he's actually super smart. If he hadn't helped me with my school work I would have flunked out of school, I'm certain. And then Evan helped me get a job at his parents' mechanics store. We learned to fix up bikes together. That's where my love for them came from. And it kept us out of trouble. It meant I had a skill I could fall back on, a passion I could occupy myself with. A reason not to give in to the temptations of liquor like all the adults around me had. I owe that guy a lot. I owe all of them a lot."
Emily touched his arm lightly. Daniel spoke so rarely of his parents' problems with addiction. She always felt closer to him when he did; it was something they had in common.
"So how come you all fell out of touch?" Emily asked softly, curious. If they'd been so bonded in their youth what had caused them to become such infrequent players in one another's lives?
Daniel looked guilty. "It was me. My fault. I took off."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't judge me, Emily," he said, looking at her sadly. "I'm a different person now. I don't do things the same way I used to. But I had to leave. I'd changed my name and gotten a taste of the freedom I needed from my family and my ties to them. So one day I took one of the bikes Evan and I had fixed up and I left."
"You stole from your best friend?"
Daniel nodded glumly. "And I didn't tell any of them what I was doing. When I finally got in touch with Stuart he was so angry, saying the police had been informed and everything. I got him to swear to secrecy, to just let the cops know I was safe, that I'd gone of my own accord. Anyway, when Clyde and Evan found out that Stuart knew I was safe and hadn't told them, it tore the group apart. And typical me, I just avoided it."
"When did you make up?"
"Well, I came back to Maine seven years ago and took up the carriage house to look after this place as best I could. Whenever I felt brave I would ride back to our hometown and look around for them. I bumped into Stuart, finally, a couple of years ago. We went for a drink and he filled me in on what I'd missed out on. Who was in prison and why, that sort of thing. He said he'd talk to the others for me, see if we could start patching things back together. So over the last few years, here and there, we've met up a few times in various combinations for a bike ride or fishing trip, that kind of thing. But never as a group. Never like this. So really this has brought us all back together. I'm really hoping the trip will help us heal."
Emily's fears were finally set at ease. She understood now how they had been such important parts of each other's lives, how they were all trying to find their feet with each other again.
"Won't a long weekend hunting be a bit of an intense environment to sort through your past experiences?" Emily asked gently. She still wasn't happy about the trip, even if she was relieved that no strippers would be involved.
"I guess we'll find out," he said, smiling sheepishly.
Emily squeezed his arm, then pulled him into an embrace. She felt closer to Daniel now that she understood what his past had been like, what he had been through with these guys, and what they had been through together. Perhaps, however unlikely it seemed at this moment, they might grow on her, too. Either that or they'd have a huge bust-up on the trip.
Emily couldn't help but secretly wish for the latter.
