First
off, disease means someone was having sex before. Ethan is our hero
and must end up with Harper, so Emma has to bite the dust here, by
contracting syphilis. Can you imagine any way she doesn't bitterly
hate the nameless guy who gave it to her? Now Ethan was an idiot to
get carried away and not use a condom, but seriously, who wears those
things? When the magical event is just about to go down, Emma had a
problem on her hands just like in Chapter 10. As she succumbed to
his advances, every sexual response is associated with a self
loathing that she doesn't have the courage to tell Ethan she is not
currently available. No one particularly blames her, I mean look
what he went through, just on the off chance he could gain her favor?
Ethan is no virgin... he lost it in the tenth grade to his baby
brother's baby sitter, but he hasn't been humping the furniture
between lusty encounters. He's been keeping it in his pants, and
treating women with respect. Emma just knows that if she puts “love”
on hold, it will be the end of the relationship. Maybe he won't get
syphilis. Even if he does, maybe he'll understand somehow.
So
when does she tell him? “Oh Ethan, look for it to start burning
when you urinate in a week or so. I was saving it for a surprise!”
“Oh Ethan, I kept meaning to tell you, I want to rub it in your
face that you're getting someone else's leavings!” If Emma
couldn't screw up the courage to tell a doctor, there is no way Ethan
is finding out from her in any way. He has no idea, and when it
starts to burn, it doesn't matter who he tells. Dad in the head,
straight to a school nurse, or a buddy at a ball game (where Cameron
leads the Fighting Cougars to victory.) Whenever and however the
realization hits him, in that moment he is belittled and betrayed.
Someone else was there, and recently. (It doesn't matter if it was
recently or not – the evidence is brand new.) Emma couldn't be
bothered to tell him: Does she love this other guy more? Why
couldn't she share something like this with him? He feels like he
could do chin ups on a sewer grate.
He
hates Emma just as much as she hates the guy that gave it to her.
Now they are both equal in some ways. They have both been badly
betrayed by a member of the opposite sex. The have both been
humiliated and had infidelity rubbed in their faces. But chances
are, that this common experience is not going to be an experience
that leads them both to bond, or share new and more exotic sexually
transmitted diseases.
The
lessons we went over in Chapter Three, as this relationship dies a
horrible death, are etched so indelibly on the brain they may as well
be branded there. How much life will pass Ethan by, before he trusts
another girl that way? When will Emma ever learn that ALL GUYS are
not deserters, who ditch you at the first sign of trouble?
I
think we can all agree that sex was a bad idea in this example.
