Empty Gold

Chapter 7: Hunting Happiness

Chapter 7

"We're here tonight with the estranged parents of superstar swimmer, Emily Fields who has been making headlines this year with her current behavior. Once named America's Sweetheart, we are wondering if there is an explanation to her new wild child lifestyle or are we just now meeting the real Emily Fields. Wayne and Pam Fields are here with us today to offer some insight. Thanks for being with us this morning," the news anchor smiles politely at her guests.

"Thank you for having us," Pam Fields all but gushes at the other woman. "It's been a rough last three years for us."

"Three years ago is when Emily left the family, correct?"

"When Emmy was 18, she cut us out of her life and signed with Cece Drake who encouraged her to keep us away," Wayne explains calmly.

"Now, let me ask this," the anchor continues. "In interviews, Emily is quoted as having said that you two were a very negative influence in her life—keeping money from her, strictly controlling her life, and disregarding her well being. Let's hear your side of the story though, how would you counter those statements?"

"Well, some of that is true," Pam admits after she takes a deep breath and sighs as if apologizing. "I mean Emily was 16 when things started happening for her career so of course we were managing the money. Would you let your teenage daughter have access to thousands of dollars, or would you save it? I don't see the argument behind that. As far as strictly controlling her life and disregarding her well being, I would like to say those are both false."

She smiles at the camera and nods to herself.

"We've always pushed Emily to be the best she could be, and we knew she had a talent for swimming so we encouraged it. We fostered her abilities, helped her launch a career— I signed notes so she didn't have to go to class, so she could train. We gave up everything for that girl," Pam takes a deep breath and tries to calm herself.

"She hasn't spoken to us in three years," she wipes at her eyes and Wayne puts an arm around his wife's shoulders in support. " Just look how her career has turned out? Instead of focusing on swimming, she's focused on...on dating that girl, drinking her money away, and running wild! I mean I am not surprised at all to see that she is getting in violent fights over slaves, she has always been fiercely aggressive but we tried to channel that into healthy competition. I hear rumors all the time that she is gambling her money away, it wouldn't be the first time she's made careless decisions. She needs boundaries and rules, she is naturally impulsive and reckless. Jumping straight from her caring home life, where we were fair but balanced into a life of glamour with everyone at her beck and call. You know I blame all her immature friends all they do is encourage her, I've heard she gets depressed—"

Pam Fields' voice is cut off and Emily sits with her head buried in her arms on the table, not only frustrated beyond belief but also horribly upset. The room is full of stressful tension, mostly radiating from the brunette.

"You've been watching this interview on repeat for hours," Aria scolds her gently as she snatches the laptop away from the brunette who makes no effort to fight back. "You're gonna drive yourself crazy."

Alison watches sympathetically from the kitchen, where Hanna stands with her sipping a water and shaking her head. The timid blonde has been with the three of them all morning and afternoon. From the moment Emily had seen the interview while watching the news with Alison, she had slipped into some sort of quiet, ghost-like state of grievance. The tiny blonde had initially tried to comfort Emily, too. But eventually she became worried about Emily's seemingly broken, eerily quiet state, and ran and got Aria and Hanna.

"Em, your mom is a piece of work. She's the last person you need back in your life," Hanna reiterates with a sigh. She hates the Fields more than most of the other girls as she has known Emily since kindergarten. There had been nights in middle school when Emily would show up at Hanna's house, crying and claiming she was running away from home. Mrs. Marin had always sympathetically let Emily in and dealt with the Fields as best she could. Often, Emily would be picked up within hours of showing up but Hanna always remembers how badly the fights affected her best friend. The sassy blonde knows it wasn't simply teenage angst causing problems in the Fields household. It was everything from Emily's easygoing attitude, to her sexuality, to her parents' rigidly strict discipline and terrifying expectations that the brunette constantly fell short of, because being an internationally ranked swimmer by 16 was just not good enough for some people. Hanna knows better than any of them the pressure Emily puts on herself is a hangover from her parents drilling and it's why Hanna is Emily's go to party pal, because the others don't understand Emily like Hanna does and the blonde doubts they ever will.