Disclaimer: I don't own anything besides the story idea, which really belongs to the creators of Degrassi… Since all fan fiction is the rightful property of the people who own the thing is it based on. But if you steal my ideal or plagiarize me I'm still going to bitch you out hardcore. So don't, okay?
Day 9, Week 2
Jay
So, Sean was pissed at him. He'd gotten the memo by now. It had been a couple of weeks since he'd launched his brilliant plot against his ex-girlfriend. It had all been going according to plan, so well that he hadn't noticed at first that Sean was having a hissy fit. Okay, that was crap. He'd noticed but he hadn't cared enough to do anything about it. He figured it was something that would blow over.
It wasn't like Sean had made a big scene about it. He'd simply taken to glaring at Jay from across the lunch table and turning the other way when he saw Jay coming down the hall. Jay had decided if Sean was really upset he would have been a real ass about it and just popped Jay one.
Jay hadn't decided it was a problem until he'd given a call over to the Cameron residence, family of one. He'd only gotten as far as, "Hey, Cam-" before he heard the click. Jay would have taken the punching scenario over the passive aggressive bullshit.
He wasn't stupid, despite what people thought, so he knew it was somehow tied to Nelson. But why exactly was still a mystery to him. Sean had the little goth freak now, what did he want with the nature one?
It was bullshit to Jay, getting pissed over something like your best friend pretending to go out with your very ex-girlfriend. Even if he didn't know Jay was only pretending to date the annoying blonde, what was the big deal? But Jay wasn't so heartless that he didn't find himself worrying about it a bit, whether he thought it made sense or not.
The more he thought about it, the more restless he felt… like he had to do something about it.
Great, just great, Jay thought to himself as he sat at his kitchen table. There were deep stains on the old, creaking wood but Jay didn't mind. It wasn't like there had been a time he could remember where it sparkled.
Besides, why be annoyed at a few stains on the kitchen table when his house smelled like piss. He'd probably be disgusted if there had ever been a time where it smelled like lemons or fresh linen for a long period of time. Sometimes, when they had a relative crawl out of the woodwork to pay a visit or his Ma would get a new boyfriend, it smelled new. She'd spend a week or so cleaning the house up and when she was done it would have that strong, cleaning chemicals smell. But that wasn't often and the house never stayed smelling that clean. He supposed it probably said something that a person grew up in a house that always smelled like it was rotting away. Maybe it fit the people in it.
Not that he was complaining too much. Sure, his house wasn't pine-sol fresh but it wasn't terrible either. His Ma had done the best she could back when she was working two jobs, usually pulling overtime at both. There wasn't really enough time for her to fuss about making the house look and smell just right. Now that she had the time for cleaning, well… It just wasn't something she was going to be doing.
He looked over to the living room, seeing that his Ma was sprawled out on the couch staring at the blue light of the television with passive eyes. She had a cigarette in one hand, taking time in between lying there immobile to bring the cigarette to her lips and back away. The room had a smoky film that filled the air, the product of his mother's regular chain smoking.
He looked at the cigarette, getting a bit worried the way he always did whenever he was thinking about leaving her alone in front of the television. She could just fall right asleep with that in her hand, not even giving it a second thought, and that'd be it.
She's not that bad, he wanted to tell himself. But it would be a lie.
She hadn't worked since he was twelve. She was too bad to work, the doctors said. Since then she'd been collecting disability and welfare. But it hardly put food on their table or kept the bill collectors at bay every month.
"Ma," he called out, stepping into the living room and coming to stand behind her. He'd made a decision that would cut out the obnoxious voice in his head that had sprung up. "Ma?"
His mother took another long drag of her cigarette before answering. "Yes, honey," she said, smoke pouring out of her with each word. She was the only person in the world who could get away with calling him 'honey' or any other lame thing like that.
"I'm heading to Sean's for a bit. I'll be back later, okay?"
"Now?" She looked at the clock on the wall, her eyes squinting as if she was having a hard time reading the numbers. Her eyes cleared before her face clouded over with worry. She took another puff of her cigarette then said, "Isn't it a little late?"
Jay looked over to the same clock and saw that it was 10:30. Yeah, it was a little late if you were a preschooler. Jay thought for a second then said, "I need help with my english homework. Keep up with my work, ya know?"
His Ma wasn't too good at grasping the smaller details anymore and Jay knew this pretty well. She probably didn't remember how Sean wasn't in the same grade as him or that Sean sucked at english more than he did. He felt bad using her illness against her and he tried not to do it much. He'd much rather sneak out a window when she was already sleeping and wouldn't notice he was gone. But he knew he couldn't get out the front door while she was awake without saying something. He could wait but he really needed to talk to Sean before he lost the whim.
"Oh, alright," she said in response, smiling. "Just don't be too long."
"K, Ma" Jay said as he came over and placed a kiss on her forehead. Carefully he slid the pack of cigarettes off the table and into his pocket. She couldn't burn the house down if she was busy looking for her cigarettes.
"Love you," she called out at he opened the door and left.
Jay hopped into is car and peeled out of the driveway. He knew he was speeding unnecessarily but he wanted the smooth feel of the road tonight. The faster he went the more it drowned out his own thoughts. He figured that was a good thing since he'd been driving himself frickin' insane recently. Was he this annoying to everyone who knew him? If he was, fucking hell, they deserved a medal.
He got to Sean's in under ten only to find the time he'd burned off racing through the streets in his car wasted on him staring at the door. He heard the blare of the television inside, some cheesy horror flick by the sounds of it. He'd known Sean would be awake but what the hell had he been thinking? Did he really want to get into it now? And, Jesus, it wasn't Jay's fault Sean was being such a big baby over it.
Okay, so now Jay was just being a wuss and looking for a pansy ass excuse to back out. He banged on the door loudly as he came to that realization and yelled, "Sean, ya in there buddy?"
He heard rustling inside and the television became softer. There was more movement but no answer. Jay raised his fist again and knocked some more.
"Yo, Cameron, anytime! You can't ignore me all night."
The door finally swung open to show Sean standing there in a wrinkled t-shirt and a pair of shorts, glaring at him. Before Jay could get a word out a shadow fell over Sean from behind before someone saddled up to stand beside him, her ruffled red hair falling across her face awkwardly.
Jay moved his eyes over Ellie, smirking as he saw that her skirt was crooked and titled to one side too much. "Didn't mean to interrupt."
Sean just continued to glare as Ellie turned pink and began patting her hair down.
"Then don't," Sean finally bit out, the tone in his voice harsh. It, more than the words themselves, indicated how much Jay wasn't welcome.
"I have to get home anyway," Ellie said, though Jay could tell she was unsure about leaving the two guys alone with each other.
"You don't have to," Sean said, his tone becoming softer as he directed his words toward Ellie. Jay nearly groaned as he caught an underlying pout in Sean's voice.
He's so whipped, Jay thought in disgust.
Ellie mouth quirked into one of her 'I'm the saddest girl in the world but my boyfriend loves me' smiles. But her voice was firm as she said, "I do."
Jay wanted to gag but seeing as he was already in the friend dog house with Sean he figured it would be stupid to do anything. Jay silently commended himself for holding back a smartass comment.
Sean leaned down to meet his slightly shorter girlfriend at the mouth for a soft, but lingering, kiss. "Alright," Sean relinquished. "Call me when you get home, okay?"
Fucking shoot me, Jay said to himself.
"Okay," Ellie agreed. "I love you."
"Yeah," was Sean's response. Ellie raised her eyebrows but then let it slide. She moved past them and Jay was glad to see Sean wasn't so wrapped around his little girlfriend's pinky that he would drop the 'L' word in front of another guy.
"Don't kill each other," Ellie called out as she walked away.
Sean watched his girlfriend until she was out of sight then he looked at Jay with contempt, his entire face stiffening. "What do you want Jay?"
"Hey, is that anyway to greet your best friend?" Jay said lightly.
"The best friend is up for negotiation," Sean said, moving into his house.
Jay followed behind him, closing the door. "Oh, come on! Stop acting all high and mighty. Jeez, I didn't know you'd still get all hot and bothered over Nelson."
Sean whipped around, every part of his body conveying he didn't believe that for a second. "She was my first real girlfriend," Sean offered up, as though that was all that needed to be said.
"Aww, how adorable. For the record, it's cool if you date my first girlfriend. Shit, sleep with her fifteen different ways and take pictures while you do. Big deal," Jay said back, the words pouring out. Jay knew there were better ways to say all this but Jay had never been too good at the "better" ways of doing things. Why start now?
"Why are you always such an asshole? Do you even feel anything?"
"Oh, boo hoo, I'm an asshole. Tell me somethin' the entire world doesn't know." Jay paused. "You never cared about the asshole part before. Why the sour grapes now?"
"Because now you're messing with someone who matters to me. You never think beyond your own selfish motivations."
"I didn't know, okay? How was I suppose to know? I thought you were over the little nature freak. You sure acted like you were over her."
"Do you even listen to how you talk about her? Is she even a person to you at all?"
"What the hell are you talking about?"
Sean shook his head as if he was too disgusted about the entire thing to talk to Jay anymore. "Get out of my house, Jay."
Sean started heading toward the kitchen, leaving no room for anything else. Jay moved after him, not ready to admit defeat yet. Maybe he was suppose to grovel or something instead of being insulting. He didn't know how these best friend make-up sessions went. He'd always been the guy who had the other assholes around him but they'd never been his friends. Couldn't Sean cut him some slack here? He was trying.
"Cameron! Yo, Cameron!" Jay called as he followed Sean into the kitchen.
Sean turned around violently, causing Jay to nearly slam into him. "What?" Sean bit out in between clenched teeth. Sean had pent up anger coursing through his body.
"Can we just talk this out?" Jay finally said, then nearly sneered at himself. 'Can we talk?' What the freakin' hell was that? He was going soft on himself. Jesus.
"Talk?" Sean sounded out the one syllable word like it was foreign to him. It probably was coming from Jay Hogart.
"Look, this came out all wrong. I'm not too good with this whole… thing. Here's the deal…" Jay felt sick. But he couldn't back out now. "You haven't said more than a handful of words to me over the last few weeks. At lunch, in between sucking face with your girl, you shoot me death glares. And during shop you stay in a corner with that loser Manning."
Jay wanted to throw up at his own words. He was starting to sound like an attention needy girlfriend whose boyfriend had been spending too much time hanging with the guys. But Jay couldn't just come out and say, "Sorry you think I'm dating your ex in an attempt to get her out of her pink satin panties. Really, I'm just using her to piss off Alex. But, dude, she's wrecked anyway. No loss there, buddy."
Yeah, Jay didn't figure that would smooth things out so much. He also wasn't in the mood to go a few rounds with Sean's fists today so it was better to play it safe.
"Yeah, well, at least Craig wouldn't go behind my back and start dating my ex-girlfriend."
"Hey, can we focus on the ex part here? You don't have a claim on that piece of ass."
Wrong words, buddy, Jay instantly thought. Sean wasn't going to take kindly to Emma being called a piece of ass. Even if she was one hot piece of ass and Sean knew it he also thought the girl was some sort of saint that should be held to disgustingly high standards.
"Piece of ass?" Sean growled out, moving close to Jay's face. "Does Emma know her boyfriend is referring to her like she's meat? Cause I'm sure she'd love that. Do you even stop to think of how you view her? I'm sure she'd be real interested to know."
Right, like that girl needed another reason to rant about her feminism based points of view. Or to have another impromptu public fight. No, thanks.
"Look, I didn't mean anything by it," Jay said with a shrug. "I was just speaking guy to guy."
"Yeah? What if I said I thought Alex was a nice piece of ass. You'd like that? Huh?"
Ouch, low fucking blow, bud, Jay added to himself. Out loud he said, "Leave Alex the fuck out of this, Cameron."
Sean was playing dirty now, throwing the Alex card in though that made sense. Jay played dirty too and his best friend was no different on some days. Jay never really would have guessed Sean would be so pissed about his golden girl getting dirty with his bad seed best friend. Sean was acting like Jay had killed his fucking puppy or something. It was pathetic and grating on what little nerves he actually had.
Sean grabbed Jay's shirt, yanking him hard as he spoke. "Leave Emma out of everything. Just walk away from her, man. Now."
Jay was seeing red, never taking too lightly to being manhandled by anyone. But he was willing to cut some slack to Sean considering the circumstances. He patted himself on the back as he made an effort to count to ten before barking out, "Get your hands the fuck off of me, Cameron."
Sean let him go but kept his glare on him. "Look, you don't care about her, right? But Emma… She can't help but care about people. She deserves more than what she'll be getting from you."
"What's that? A no good loser, right? This your way of telling me I'm not good enough for the precious Miss Nelson." Jay wasn't sure why but he realized he kind of cared if Sean thought he was a loser.
"This is me telling you she deserves more than being some object of amusement in between you and Alex breaking up and getting back together. She deserves more than just being some side fun before you go back to the main attraction." Sean's eyes were honest, a hint of vulnerability in them that Jay wasn't sure whether he should berate or be humbled by. "Just walk away from her before she gets hurt."
Maybe if Jay wasn't a self-proclaimed selfish bastard he would have been more moved by Sean's sappy plea. But he was and that was where Sean could never win against him. He always looked out for himself first and those that made the mistake to care about him second.
Sean took Jay's silence for what it was: a decline of a request. To Sean's benefit he didn't lay his hands on Jay. "Fine," he said simply. Sean's face twisted as he turned away, Jay catching the disgusted look in his eyes as he did. "Get out."
Jay sighed, then walked toward the door with Sean moving behind him. Jesus, the guy didn't need to make sure Jay left. He was going toward the door, wasn't he? But Sean came with Jay the entire way, stopping to stand in the door way. Just as Jay was barely out the door Sean slammed the door behind him. Jay spent a brief moment staring at the closed door, knowing he wasn't going to be mending that bridge anytime soon.
When Sean was pissed at someone they might as well be dead to him until he cooled off. If they even tried to breech the barrier before Sean was ready they either ended up with a busted lip or a string of words that would follow them for months. Jay got that and he didn't care. Whatever, right? Let Sean ignore him all he wanted. Jay didn't freakin' care. Alex was equally pissed and that more than made up for the cold shoulder Sean was giving him. The plan was working and he wasn't going to shut down the scheme just when things were starting to heat up.
Still, Jay had a sour feeling tearing through his stomach that could have been guilt. Not that he knew too well since he wasn't used to actually letting anything like remorse get to him. But Sean was suppose to be his boy, his "best friend". Shit, Sean had always been there to bail him out when Jay needed him. The guy even put up with some of Jay's least endearing personality traits. The only time Sean had ever shown disgust at who Jay was had been when it had nearly cost Sean his student welfare. He couldn't blame him there.
Okay, Jay would admit it. It didn't sit well with him that he might be hurting his best friend. Sure, piss on Jay and he would piss on you. But Sean hadn't done anything to stir Jay's anger. Sean had turned out to be a pretty decent friend who could be depended on threw thick and thin. He didn't cut and run like so many others. He also wasn't the type of guy to go behind your back and steal your ex-girlfriend, which is what it looked like Jay had done to Sean. What if Sean suddenly started dating Alex?
The fact that he was screwing over Sean while getting back at Alex wasn't something he had really stopped to consider too much in the beginning. Yeah, he knew that Sean still had some type of feelings for Nelson. But he had never really thought it went too deep. The break-up wasn't recent and most days Sean acted like she didn't even exist. If Jay had been able to see how big the fallout with Sean would have been he might have pulled back before it was too late. He knew he owed Sean at least that much.
Jay told himself to shut the fuck up and got in his car to head home. He started heading back to his house when he realized he needed something else to take off the burn. Going home and rolling off to sleep wasn't going to cut it. Slamming on the breaks he made a hard turn, earning the sound of a loud car horn honking at him. He didn't care. He started speeding toward his new destination.
Pulling into the crusty Seven-Eleven he grabbed his fake ID from the glove compartment. Jack Daniels makes the best substitute friend, Jay thought to himself as he moved out of the car and toward the bright neon lights of the 24/7 store.
He didn't spend anytime inside poking around. He went straight to the alcohol and grabbed a Jack Daniels bottle off the shelf, moving to the counter swiftly. Then he tossed the fake ID in the cashier's direction, not worried that it would fail him. He'd used it too many times and, besides, it was prime product that he'd tossed out a lot of money to get.
The cashier looked between the fake ID and Jay a couple of times but eventually rung up the bottle.
"That'll be $5.75," the cashier said in words that had a heavy Canadian accent to them.
Jay reached into his pocket and pulled out the contents. With a clank he let all the money he had drop onto the counter and found 6 one dollar bills and various coins staring back at him. He pushed five dollar bills in the cashier's direction and counted out 75 cents, letting each coin slide across the counter with a scrape. Then he slid his hand across the counter, shoveling the coins into his cupped palm and then stuffing the dollar and the change into his pocket.
When Jay got home his Ma was asleep on the couch, the television still flashing animatedly through the room. Jay grabbed a blanket laying on top of the sofa chair then used it to cover his Ma. He turned down the television, knowing she liked to have it on while she slept, then headed toward his room.
He flipped the light on and closed the door, pushing the dirty clothes lying on the floor out of his way with his feet. He sat down on the edge of the bed, feeling the springs jut into him through the weakened material of the mattress. Jay didn't care, he was use to it. When he finally felt the burn of the alcohol going down his throat Jay wondered why he hadn't done this before. When him and Alex had broken up… When he was hatching over the top plans to hurt her… Before he'd fucked over his best friend.
Jay really was a stupid ass. The last coherent thought Jay had before falling into an alcohol induced oblivion was that he'd really fucked up this time.
