La Pequena Luz vs. “The One” Kirsten Scott

[TheOne]

{NEHMIAH: Chapter 5}

What makes a friend?  Is it someone who just enjoys the same things as you?  Is it someone who just agrees with you?  Is it someone who inflates your ego?

The answer is simple... Yes...

A friend is someone who will do anything for you.  A friend is someone who will be there for you through thick and thin, and fight your battles alongside you, never worrying about themselves in the process.  It's something that shows selflessness in the process, and shows them to be someone who you know you can look to in the good and bad times.

A friend is also someone who can be your worst enemy...

A true friend will never just let you down a path of negativity without standing up to you and telling you, "you're wrong."  A friend is someone who isn't afraid to make you mad by telling you things you do not want to hear.  A friend is willing to be "hated" for a day, if to be "loved for a lifetime," knowing they helped guide you on the right path.

And this is turn makes a real friend.

A "real friend" simply is there in the times of the good and the bad.  They will never cease to be there if you need to hear words of encouragement or words that make you hate them in the moment.  A "real friend" knows that when the dust settles the fact that they have become your conscience in your time of need supersedes the good or bad they have had to offer because in the end it was you who made the decision.  Because in the end, a "real friend" is your life, your blood, your sweat, and your tears, in your best of days, and your most difficult of times.

Several days after Emma and Hailey had talked about Kirsten and brought up everything that Emma had sensed about her truest, and dearest friend, Kirsten sits alone out on the same porch that Emma was on that very day.  This time, however, Kirsten isn't reflecting on that moment, but legitimately enjoying the sounds of the wildlife in the farm fields and creeks behind their complex.  Yes, thoughts of what Emma said circle through her mind, as would be normal for anyone, but she just sits there on their balcony, thinking about the grind she had been going through.

Every moment she had been through, cycles, but doesn't take over.  She let's the sounds of nature actually begin to sink in for the first time because she had spent the most time hiding her own perils and angers from everyone else, minus Emma.

As she sits and enjoys the random mooing of cows in the distant farm fields of the Midwest, and the croaking of the bullfrogs in the creek behind their complex, she slowly hears the sliding glass door to her balcony begin to open.  And she slowly looks over, she sees Hailey walking out, and taking a seat in the chair next to her.  There is a bit of an awkward pause as Hailey sits quietly, honestly also listening to the sounds of "nature," while also trying to figure out how to begin the conversation with Kirsten.  Several minutes later, the awkward feeling becomes too much and Hailey tries to begin the natural conversation...

Hailey Brooks: Do those frogs ever shut up?

Kirsten smirks.

Kirsten Scott: Well if you could find them all, I'm sure you could yell at them enough...

Hailey Brooks: And what's that supposed to mean?

Kirsten Scott: Let's be real, if anyone can yell, it's you... And even the creatures of nature would listen...

Hailey shakes her head.

Kirsten Scott: ... Besides, it's like crickets, to me.  They have a sense of calming and soothing to their tone.  It's a legit sound of ignorance to everything we have to deal with.  Their lives are simple.  Like the cows in the background of them.  They eat.  They are milked.  Yeah, they are slaughtered for meat, but the fact is, in their lifetime, they won't remember that last piece.  They';; think of how easy they have it.

Like the frogs....

Yeah we could go down there, run around the creek like lunatics, and probably scare a bunch away from where we are here.  But it would ultimately not shut them up.  They'd just relocate, and continue their lives.  It's a smile way of thinking about everything, you know?  It's a feeling of freedom, a feeling of everything just revolving around you, you know?

Hailey Brooks: For sure...

Kirsten Scott: ... And it's nice to think about a world where you're not always being chased, being fought, requiring to have your guard up, but instead, be rested.  There is no fight or flight... It's just... Nature... You know?

Hailey wipes her eyes, knowing Kirsten is oblivious, and pushes her chair back vigorously and walks toward their balcony railing, hoping it'll spawn a conversation with Kirsten.  Instead, Kirsten's focus is solid on the nature surrounding her.  Hailey keeps looking back, from her standing position, and sees she isn't being given the time of day.

Kirsten lets out a yawn before finally acknowledging her friend, who had been acting very over the top, since joining her on their balcony.

Kirsten Scott: So... Are you going to get angry enough that you finally tell me what's going on?  Or do I need to keep ignoring your fake ass antics more and more until you burst?  Face it, Hailey, I know you're not a "friend" with nature...

Hailey's head droops, realizing she had been caught, and Kirsten realizes this, and her empathy immediately kicks in.

Kirsten Scott: You ok?

Hailey spins around and looks Kirsten dead in the eyes.

Hailey Brooks: No... No I'm not... I am not OK in the least.  I am not OK because my BEST FRIEND won't be completely honest with me.  I am also not OK ith the fact that my best friend has the GALL to believe I'm perfect... Because that's not me...

Hailey slowly walks toward Kirsten, taking a very dominant position.

Hailey Brooks: ... You thinking that is fucking DELUSIONAL about me.  You think I have some family that is going to be written into some family drama on TV?  Fuck you... I don't have that, and you do NOT get the right to think that of me because it's nothing but BULLSHIT on TOAST!  Yeah, my family talks.  Yeah, my family has some kind of relationship.  But guess what, sister, my family is fucking splintered, and yes, I am doing my part to build it back up.  But in order to do so, guess what we have to do?  Guess what I have to do?

We have to pick those pieces up one by FUCKING one...

There is no white picket fence surrounding our house.  There isn't this perfect narrative making our life perfect out of nowhere.

Nah...

It's not that, Kirsten...

This is a Midwestern, fucking, tornado, that we are rebuilding between ALL of us.  It takes each, and every, one of us doing our part to make sure that things are right.  My mom... Ny dad... My brother... Us all have to go out there, night in, night out and make fucking sacrifices out of our ASSES to make this work.  We aren't perfect.  We aren't your TGIF family on TV, Kirsten... We fucking suck, and have to accept it, and have to do our parts to grow from it... We...

Kirsten finally jumps out of her chair and goes nose to nose with Hailey, gritting her teeth as she exclaims...

Kirsten Scott: FUCKING STOP RIGHT NOW...

Hailey snarls and doesn't back down from her friend's show of aggression, pitting the two in a confrontational position they have never been in before.

 

Kirsten Scott: You listen here, Hailey... I don't know where in the FUCK this comes from, or what this is about, but...

Hailey cuts her off.

Hailey Brooks: Emma told me EVERYTHING about your jealousy of me and my family... About you WISHED you had what had, and how you saw us as this perfect resolution to everything we went through, and you... You didn't get that...

Kirsten takes a step back.  She begins to feel a bit betrayed, but her backing down pushes Hailey forward, as she is not going to let Kirsten retreat.

Hailey Brooks: Sit... The... Fuck... Back... Down... And most importantly... LISTEN...

Kirsten realizes she's been backed into the corner of the balcony and has nowhere to go, but literally down back into her chair, and does so.

Hailey Brooks: ... I get it... On the surface I see what you see.  But my family is far from fucking perfect, Kirsten.  But what is perfect is what YOU have.  And what is perfect is what I have.  And it's here.  It's here in this fucking home.  Your "REAL" family is here with you, if you'd just open your damn eyes, and see it.  Yeah, I have my parents who we are working on a relationship with.  But if you look at you, you look at everything you told me, your parents never had YOU at that level.

You were a pawn to them...

You were just like Emma was...

You two are borderline one in the same, with parents who used you both to get what they wanted.  They didn't give a shit about you as children, and it fucking sucks, yeah, but the fact is, it is what it is.  You both had to endure things that you wouldn't wish on ANYONE else, and Ethan and I both watched it, and couldn't do anything about it.  It was the two of you that emerged stronger, together, because you saw in one another what nobody else did, nor could.

And now, now you need to move past that.  You need to move past your parents, as shitty as it sounds, but look AROUND you.  What do you have?  You have a "family."  It may not be that "perfect" family you hear about from the religious zealots, but it is OUR family.  We fucking care.  And we will not stop it.  But until you pull your head out of your ass and realize what you have, instead of what you don't, we can't "save" you, nor will I try.  Why?

Because I was you once...

When he beat me up, when he embarrassed me, I was shunned from my family.  They couldn't associate with me.  They couldn't go anywhere in their hometown.  They were as blackballed as anyone in this situation, when The Prophets were in power and she was the scapegoat.  So I get it.  But it's time you get it, too.  It's time you understand that biology is a big thing, yes, but it's not the ONLY THING in life that can fulfill your need for love and family.  You have that around you.  You have it more than you know.  And that's your life now.  It's not them.  It's not the ones who hurt you... It's...

Kirsten jumps up and resumes her place in Hailey's face, showing she isn't backing down from the situation.

Kirsten Scott: How dare you?

Hailey isn't deterred by Kirsten's show of strength.

Hailey Brooks: Oh shut up with your big girl, "I'm 'The One'," talk, and just fucking listen for once... This is your opportunity, Kirsten.  This is your chance to be free of every damn burden you have in your life, and do so with the "FAMILY" that YOU have chosen, and has chosen YOU!  This is OUR CHANCE to be free.

If you want to live your life in a cage, at The Compound, then fuck you... Do it alone.  None of us are going back to that lifestyle.  It consumed us once, and we are moving on.  We have each grown enough to kiss those days fully goodbye and embrace tne now in which we live.  When you get to that point... Then...

Hailey looks back at the sliding glass door.

Hailey Brooks: ... Then you're allowed back inside.  Until then, consider this balcony your home...

Kirsten continues to try and push a dominant position.

Kirsten Scott: I don't have to answer to ANYONE's timeline...

Hailey smirks.

Hailey Brooks: Well if you want to eat a fresh meal that Emma is making tonight, you sure as shit do... Otherwise, it's "Detroit Lock's City" on this sliding glass door until you get the fuck out of your own Goddamn head!

Hailey immediately pushes Kirsten back enough to where she can exit through the door without Kirsten chasing after her, or her stopping the lock from being applied to it.  Kirsten then hears the board applied to the railing area, adding the extra layer of security to the sliding glass door.  She is initially incensed, wanting to simply break the glass down, and charge her way in.  But as the initial moments pass, the words of Hailey begin to creep into her mind, and she begins to think about every one of them individually as time passes.

She ends up flopping back in her chair, realizing she has much to think about, and angry at herself that she was called out, and bested by someone else, verbally.  But after a couple of hours, she hears the board move from the railings, and the latch be undone.  The door slowly opens, and Emma walks out with a plate of food.  She sets it on the table they have outside between the chairs.

Emma Taylor: I'm not letting you miss a meal... Even if you may hate me for saying something...

The food is fresh, and Emma slowly leaves the balcony, closing the door behind her, but making it very apparent she didn't lock it.  It's this moment that Kirsten begins to start realizing that everyone around her is showing her what caring actually looks like, and in her mind, she begins to see how much happier she has been around them, than she has ever been before.  She looks down at the food, and realizes it's a meal she had once mentioned to Emma she loves, and realizes it was prepared just for her.  She begins to suck up her pride by picking the plate up and slowly walking into to home, where they are living, and simply sitting down at their table and beginning to eat.  She has no words to say, and everyone around her, doesn't try and force any out of her.  They understand the moment, and just let it happen naturally.