Chapter Three

Emma's POV

I sighed and leaned my head back against the wall as I waited for Manny to show up. I'd never seen her so late before but I didn't blame her, on top of being in our senior year of college Manny was also getting work in as the actress she wanted to be. She was doing it so that she could make money to pay for her college tuition because although her father had been more softer towards what she wanted to do, he had refused to pay her way through college if she chose to persue it so now she didn't have any other choice but to work to pay off her tuition.

"Manny, come on, we're going to be late for English," I said to myself, looking at my watch. Although he had refused to pay her college tuition if she chose to persue acting, Manny's father had agreed to let her do it if she promised him she would take academics as well and that was why Manny and I had the same English class. I sighed again as I gently banged my head against the wall.

"Emma!" someone called and I looked to see Manny running towards me.

"Finally," I said under my breath. "Manny, what took you so long? I've never seen you this late before?" I asked when she had caught up to me. She looked at me for a moment and then dropped her head.

"Well, I kind of got into an argument with my agent," she responded quietly as we started walking. I stopped and put a hand on her shoulder.

"Good grief Manny, you didn't lose your job did you?" She shook her head.

"No, the dispute is settled but I'm not all that happy about it." We started walking again and I looked at her, pressing her with my eyes to go on. "Emma, I've been asked to do something that's not such a good idea." I didn't say anything but let her go on. "They want me to do a sex raided film." My eyes got really wide and I couldn't believe what I was hearing. They wanted Manny to perform in a phornography? "They said I need to stop doing all the other stuff because I have the perfection for a phorn star. They won't give me any other kind of work anymore. My agent and I argued about it and I told him that I didn't want to subject my body to such an uncomfortable field of film. I told him that's not who I am and I had a terrible experience once when I got drunk in high school that was something I didn't want to happen again and especially not when I'm sober. And you know what my agent said?" I shook my head and looked at her with an expression of deep concern. "He said that if I didn't do it, I would lose my position and I would lose him." There were tears streaming down her face now and I put a hand on her shoulder again. "When he said that, I had no choice but to agree to do it. I can't afford to lose my job Emma, I wouldn't have enough money to pay for college and then I'd have to drop out. I don't want to drop out, I want to graduate with you and go on to bigger and better things."

"Maybe you should talk to someone about this, Manny."

"I am Em, you." I shook my head.

"I mean someone who can help you. You need to tell someone who has authority over this kind of thing because they might be able to put a stop to it. Manny, I can't do that, you know I can't." She nodded, tears still rolling down her cheeks. "You need to tell someone because this isn't right and nor is it fair. Your agent can't threaten to fire you just because you disagree to do some sleezy sex movie. He's pushing you to the limit and I'm not sure but I think he can lose his license as an agent for that."

"I don't know if I can tell anyone else Em."

"Manny you have to. You can't just keep letting him push you around like this. If you do, he's gonna see it as okay and then one day you might find yourself in a whole lot of trouble." We had reached the classroom and had stopped just outside the door. "Manny, if you keep letting him do this to you, he's gonna start to think that he has total control over what you do and then he might start threatening your job to get you to do other things you really don't want to, like sleep with him for example." Manny's eyes got really wide. "I'm serious Manny. This is the kind of thing that leads to people getting raped and not doing anything about it. Do you want to be one of those people Manny?" She shook her head. "I didn't think so and I don't want you to either. That's why you have to put a stop to this before it gets too out of hand." She nodded. "Come on, let's go inside." I put a hand on her back and guided her into the classroom.

Sean's POV

I pulled up outside the college grounds and just sat there for a moment looking up at the school. I hadn't been able to get into college seeing as I hadn't finished high school and I wanted to turn my life around really bad but getting my high school diploma was proving harder than I thought. Nobody seemed to want to give me a chance and I was running out of options. So now, here I was, at the college I knew Emma was attending because I intended to ask her if her parents still lived in the same house. I wanted to go talk to Mr. Simpson to see if he had any ideas. I know, I know, I could've just gone to the house to see for myself but, okay, I'll admit it, I'm using this opportunity as an excuse to see Emma. I don't hardly get to see her anymore because she's so busy with school and not that close either. I can't stand being away from her. I love Emma with all my heart and I know she's the girl for me and she loves me too. I mean, just look at all we've been through together over the years. Our relationship has suffered some pretty difficult blows but we got through and now we're better than we ever have been. I can't remember a time in my life when I'd ever been this happy before.

After sitting and staring up at the school for several minutes, I finally got out of the car and headed into the main building in an attempt to find the office. Luckily for me, it wasn't that difficult, seeing as it was only just down the hall from where I had entered the building. I paused for a moment to take in a few breaths before slowly walking towards the office, pushing open the door, and heading inside. The secretary at the front desk looked up and raised her eyebrows at me suspiciously.

"May I help you, young man?" she asked in a confused voice. I nodded and walked up to the desk.

"Yes, I certainly hope so," I replied as politely as I could. She didn't say anything but merely looked at me so I cleared my throat and went on. "I need to speak to Miss. Emma Nelson, it's urgent." She looked at me for a moment before turning to her computer and looking up Emma to see where she might be at the time being. After a few moments, she turned back to face me.

"Miss. Nelson is in an English class right now, are you sure it's absolutely necessary that you speak to her now?"

"Oh yes ma'am, right away, it's urgent. I promise, it won't take long. There's just something important I need to ask her is all." She raised her eyebrows again.

"You're not going to propose to her, are you?" My eyes got wide and I stumbled backwards a few steps. Where on earth had she gotten the idea that I wanted to pull Emma out of class to propose to her? I mean I know I love Emma and all but the thought of marriage had never even crossed my mind yet.

"Oh no ma'am, nothing like that," I said hastily, waving my hands frantically back and forth in front of me.

"Good because if you were I could tell you that I think there are many much nicer ways to propose to a girl." I laughed nervously. She sighed. "Very well than, if you must, I will put a call in to her English class and have her sent to the office."

"Thank you."

"Mm-hm," was all she said as she picked up the phone. A minute later, she put it down and turned back to me. "She should be here in a few minutes, please," she indicated the chairs by the door, "Have a seat." I nodded, took a deep breath, and sat down to wait.

Manny's POV

I stared down at the book in my hands, unable to concentrate on the assignment as I was still thinking about the project my agent had given me and his threat to fire me if I didn't go through with it. It was at that moment that the phone in the room rang and the professor got up to answer it with a confused expression on her face. I glanced at Emma who hadn't seemed to even so much as glance up from her book and then looked back down at my own, hoping that I would be able to get at least a little reading in that day. After another moment of trying to read, I sighed and put the book down on my desk thinking that it was completely hopeless. Em had said I should tell someone and she meant someone other than her but I didn't know how I was going to do that and who that someone should be. I knew Em would be behind me one hundred percent but other than her, I had practically nothing to count on.

"Miss. Nelson," the professor said suddenly and both of us looked up at her. I could tell that Emma had a confused expression on her face out of the corner of my eye. "That was the secretary in the main office. She says there's a young man there who would like to see you." Emma seemed to think for a minute.

"Oh my gosh, Sean!" she said, dropping her book back into her bag. She got up to go but I grabbed her by the arm.

"Em, Sean?" I asked, puzzled. "What would he be doing here?"

"No idea Manny but I'll tell you later, after class." I nodded and watched her walk down the stairs and leave the classroom.

"Miss. Santos, is something wrong?" the professor asked me so suddenly that I jumped in my seat. I looked round at her and shook my head furiously. "Are you sure? You don't seem quite up to par today. Is something bothering you?"

"No Professor Horam, nothing is bothering me," I lied, "I just didn't get enough sleep last night is all." She looked unconvinced but nodded all the same.

"I see. Why don't you take the rest of the class period off to get some rest." I got up, grabbed my bag, and started down the stairs but when I reached the door she stopped me. "And Miss. Santos?" I turned to face her. "If something is bothering you, I want you to know that you can talk to me about it if you need to. I want you to also take some time to clear your head, we do have finals coming up and I need you to be in tiptop shape. You can't be off during the final, Miss. Santos because if you are, you will fail the final and if you don't getting a passing grade, you will not be able to graduate. You understand that don't you?" I nodded. "Good, go and get some rest dear." I walked out of the class and slumped against the wall, thinking that I would just wait here in the hall for Emma to come back, wondering what on earth Sean could want. I was sure I would find out soon and in the mean time, my head was unfortunately free to think about what was going on between me and my agent.

Emma's POV

I entered the main office with a confused look on my face and sure enough, there was Sean, sitting in one of the chairs by the door reading one of the out-dated magazines and looking a bit nervous. He looked up at me when I entered, hastily put down the magazine, and stood up.

"Emma," he said quietly. I smiled softly and he pulled me into a hug. "Um, let's just go outside for a moment, I need to talk to you." I nodded. The secretary looked at us suspiciously as Sean took my hand and began leading me out of the office and out of the building. When we were safely outside, I crossed my arms over my chest and turned to face him.

"Sean, what's this all about?" I asked. "What are you doing here?"

"What, you're not happy to see me?" he replied. I laughed and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

"Of course I'm happy to see you but I don't see what was so important you had to come while I was in class." Sean sighed and looked down at the ground momentarily. "Sean," I said, unfolding my arms and putting a hand on his shoulder, "What is it? What's going on? Did something happen?" He shook his head.

"No Emma, it's nothing like that. It's just that. . .well, I'm kind of embarrassed to talk about it." His face was slightly pink and he was started to flush into his ears, making them pink as well. I had never seen Sean embarrassed before and to be honest, I had to admit that I found it kind of cute. He sighed and looked back down at the ground again. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, he looked back up at me and cleared his throat. "I need to know if your parents still live in the same house they lived in when you were still at Degrassi." I smiled at him and broke out laughing. Sean looked down at the ground for a third time and without looking back up, he added, "I need to talk to your stepdad, it's really important."

"Oh Sean," I said, finally recovering from my fit of laughter, "Is that all?" He nodded. I sighed and put a hand under his chin, kissing him softly on the lips. "Sean, my mother and I have lived in that house for as long as I can remember, there's no way she would ever think of moving from it now. I can assure you that she and Archie are still there. They still have Jack to raise, remember?" He nodded and for the first time, I saw a smile spread across his face.

"Thanks Emma, that's all I needed to know." He kissed me and started heading for the car that was parked in front of the building. Suddenly he stopped and turned back to face me. "There is one more thing I wanted to ask you though."

"What's that?" I asked.

"I will get to see you this weekend, right?" I laughed again and nodded.

"Of course you will Sean, I think you've suffered without me long enough." He smiled.

"Good, I was hoping you would say yes." Then he turned on his heel and finished walking to his car. I stood there and watched him climb in, smile at me once more, and drive off. Sean was planning something, I just knew it. What it was, I had no idea.