Chapter 27
Manny stepped back so Emma could open her locker. She shook her head disappointedly. She was so disgusted. "Sean's SUCH a jerk," she hissed with a curled lip.
Emma agreed with her friend, although she remained silent. She angrily slammed the books in her locker.
Sean and Devon turned the corner to head towards their lockers. "So what did Emma say when you called her yesterday?" Devon asked.
Sean shook his head. "She wouldn't come to the phone. I even dropped by her house last night, but Mr. Simpson said that she wasn't up for any visitors."
Devon looked down the hallway and saw Emma standing at her locker next to Manny. "Well, there's no way she can avoid you at school." She nodded her head towards Emma's direction.
Sean nervously took a deep breath.
Devon started to turn around. "Try to talk to her TODAY. Who knows what will spread around school about us!" She walked over to the Girl's wash room. "I've got to go to the restroom before class." In truth, she was almost nervous being seen around school with Sean. What if people actually thought they slept together? She wanted to try to stay distant from Sean today to spare his reputation. "Good luck."
Sean nodded and watched Devon swing open the door into the girl's wash room. He took another deep breath before approaching Emma's locker.
Emma kneeled down to the floor to zip up her bag.
Manny looked up and noticed Sean walking up to them. She slammed Emma's locker shut and stood in front of Sean with a scowl on her face. "Go away, Sean. Em doesn't want to speak to you."
Sean rolled his eyes. He leaned over to look around Manny. "Emma!" he called out. "Can we talk?" He looked at her hopefully. "Please?"
Emma looked up from her bag. She sighed as she stood up. Manny continued to stand between her and Sean with her arms crossed. "Manny...can you give us a minute?"
Manny looked at Emma with a surprised look on her face. She reluctantly looked over at Sean. She hesitated for a moment before giving in. "Fine," she replied back sternly while staring at Sean. Her eyes softened when she looked back at Emma. "I'll be in the wash room." She rudely brushed passed Sean with her nose in the air.
Sean gave a sigh of relief and leaned against Emma's locker. "I'm glad you're willing to hear me out—"
Emma crossed her arms and gritted her teeth. "No," she stated boldly. "I'M going to talk." Her eyes glared at Sean. "I've been so stupid!" Her eyes began to water. "To think...I actually thought that you—"
Her voice started to shake. "...that we—" She couldn't finish. It hurt her to stand next to him after finding out that he and Devon—she quickly closed her eyes. She couldn't even finish the thought in her head.
It was killing Sean seeing Emma so hurt. What bothered him even more was that he knew that Emma shouldn't even be feeling this way. In his eyes, he genuinely didn't do anything wrong to hurt her. He was dying to tell her the truth. He was dying to make her stop hurting.
Emma fought hard to compose herself. She held herself together to manage to look at Sean in the eyes. "You're just a waste of my time," she whispered coldly. She brushed passed Sean before he could see the tears rolling down her cheeks.
Sean wasn't even given the chance to do any explaining. He just accepted his defeat. He closed his eyes and sighed as he rested the back of his head against the locker behind him.
Devon was getting ready to turn around to flush the toilet, but stopped when she realized who was in the wash room with her.
Hazel and Paige strolled into the girl's wash room and saw Manny standing in front of the mirror. "What's up with Emma?" Paige asked. She placed her purse on top of one of the sinks. "Did she find out that another tree from the rainforest got knocked down?"
Manny widened her eyes as she brushed mascara on to her eyelashes. "Nope. But close." She turned as she closed her mascara container. "There's only one other thing besides the environment that could get her THAT upset."
Hazel and Paige glanced at each other and smirked. "Guy problems?" Hazel asked.
Paige looked at her reflection in the mirror and started to fluff her hair with her hand. "More specifically...Sean?" She rolled her eyes. "Is she STILL wasting her time with that walking temper tantrum?" She pulled out her lip gloss. "I mean...really!"
Devon leaned against the stall door and felt her jaw clench.
Manny leaned against the sink. "I know. I've been warning her about Sean for days!" She looked down at the floor. "I KNEW he would hurt her."
Hazel and Paige took a moment to look away from their reflections. They were always up for gossip.
Manny looked up at them. "Sean slept with someone this weekend. And it wasn't Emma."
Paige tried to refrain herself from grinning mischeviously. "Do tell."
"Sean and Emma sorta 'hooked-up' Friday night," Manny explained. "And just when she thought she and Sean were back together, she shows up at his place the next morning and finds another girl WITH him—wearing HIS shirt."
Paige gasped, then grinned. "I guess we all knew that Sean had it in him."
"What do you mean?" Manny asked.
Paige tossed her lip gloss back in her purse. "Come on, Manny! Sean is your typical bad boy. The guy girls DREAM about being with, but reality, KNOW they can never be with. He's such a loser. Right when you think his life can actually get decent, he manages to screw it up!"
"Like that one time he got in that fight with Jimmy?" Hazel chimed in. "He ended up shoving Emma, his own girlfriend, to the ground!"
Manny nodded in agreement. "And the other time he STOLE Mr. Simpson's laptop?" She frowned. "And Mr. Simpson was sick!"
"You see?" Paige asked haughtily. "He's a self-destructing time bomb. And as if he can't screw up his life any MORE, he decides to hurt the people who try to get close to him in the process."
Manny nodded again. "Like Emma."
Hazel gave a lop-sided grin. "She's better off without him." She shrugged. "Why be with Sean if she can be with somebody better?"
Devon waited until she heard the girls pack up their things and leave the wash room. She opened the stall door and frowned. She couldn't believe that this was how people thought about Sean. And they were supposedly his "friends".
She flushed the toilet, washed her hands, then walked out of the wash room. As she turned the corner, she stopped and took a few steps back. She noticed Manny talking to Sean in the hallway. She peeked around the corner to listen in on their conversation.
Sean pulled up the strap of his book bag that was slipping off his shoulder. "Manny...can you please try to find some way to get Emma to talk to me?"
Manny crossed her arms. "Why?" she snapped. She shook her head. "Don't even try to talk to her, Sean." She brushed past him again. "She's too good for you."
Devon saw the devastated look on Sean's face. What surprised her was that it appeared that Sean AGREED with Manny. She shook her head and watched Manny strut down the hallway. She narrowed her eyes and stared coldly at the back of Manny's head, as if she could burn a hole through it if she stared hard enough. She crossed her arms. It was obvious that Sean wasn't going to speak up for himself. Why SHOULD he? He would probably get reminded AGAIN of how Emma was out of his league. She also knew that he was staying quiet to prevent burning any bridges with his so-called "friends". Devon leaned against the wall and raised her eyebrows. If SEAN wasn't going to say anything...then maybe SHE should. And she knew exactly who to blow up at first.
xxx
Manny walked up her driveway and noticed a figure sitting on her porch. She suddenly became disappointed when she noticed who the figure was.
Devon stood up from the porch step and crossed her arms. "Hello, Manny," she replied in a not-so-friendly manner.
Manny sighed tiredly. "I'm not talking to you."
"Well, too bad, because I'm going to speak and you're going to listen." Devon refused to allow Manny to brush past her.
Manny started to get irritated. "Look, if you don't get out of my way, I swear I'll scream and get the neighbors' attention."
Devon couldn't help but be amused. "If you want to act like you're FIVE-YEARS-OLD, then go right ahead," she replied sarcastically. Her voice suddenly turned serious. "But, if you want to handle this in a MATURE way, you'll consider talking to me."
Manny had no choice but to give in. It was apparent that Devon wasn't going to leave. She rested her hands on her hips and slightly jutted out her lower jaw. "Fine."
Devon decided to get down to business. "What's your problem?"
Manny raised her eyebrows. "Excuse me?"
Devon paused for a moment. Her question seemed straightforward. What part did she not understand? "What is your problem?" she asked again, but this time, slightly slower.
"My PROBLEM?" She crossed her arms. "The fact that my friend is hurt because of you and Sean is my problem.
Devon shook her head. "The only person hurting Emma...is EMMA."
"What the hell is THAT supposed to mean?"
"Apparently Emma WANTS to get hurt," Devon answered back. "Her imagination is the only thing that's getting in the way. She thought the worst when she saw Sean and actually believed it. And what blows my mind is that she STILL believes it! She won't give us the chance to tell her the TRUTH."
"So, what IS the truth, Devon?" Manny demanded. "What 'really' happened with you and Sean?"
"Newsflash: Sean and I didn't sleep together." She shrugged. "Hate to disappoint you with such boring gossip. I'm just his friend."
"You mean, you're friends when you're not in bed together?" Manny snapped back.
"No," Devon stated boldly. "His friend. You see--unlike you hypocrites--I'm a REAL friend. I always have his back no matter what. I'll always give him the benefit of the doubt because I have faith in him. That's just what you DO for a friend. Now, with YOU guys..." She shook her head with disbelief. "Why do all of you automatically think the worst of him?"
Manny looked at Devon in the eyes. "Because that's just who he is."
Devon felt insulted for Sean. She held up a finger. "So...let me get this straight. You are the cheerleader, Emma's the environmentalist, JT's the joker, Toby and Liberty are the smarties...and Sean is...what? The troublemaker? The rebel? ...The guy who ALWAYS makes the mistakes?"
Manny refused to answer.
Devon was officially disgusted with the matter. "And to think...he told me how you guys have been his friends the past three years. All this time, it was just some inside joke to all of you. He was this kid from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks that lingered around you guys to make you feel more superior." She started to get even more angry when Manny didn't comment. That only meant that what she was saying was true in Manny's eyes. "What IS it about Emma Nelson that makes her worthy enough to be on this pedestal everyone has her on?"
It took a while for Manny to answer. "Sean is just not good enough for her," was all she can say.
"Why?" Devon asked nonchalantly. She wasn't convinced.
Manny started to become defensive. "Look—I'm not sure what Sean has or hasn't told you, but HE was the reason the two of them broke up...TWICE."
Devon disagreed and shook her head.
"You know what happened in Grade 7?" Manny asked. "For some reason, Sean and Jimmy Brooks got into some argument that eventually lead to a fight. When Emma tried to stop the fight, Sean shoved her to the ground! After all of the help she has given him, he does THAT to her."
Devon held her hands up. "What are you talking about?" she asked defensively. "Emma was physically getting herself in a middle of a fist fight between two guys that were obviously pissed off at each other. A NUN would have been shoved out of the way if she got in the middle of that fight!" She smirked. "Oh, and by the way...did that fight have ANYTHING to do with Emma?"
Manny didn't answer. She wasn't sure what point Devon was trying to make.
Devon decided to answer for her. "The fight had NOTHING to do with her. What was she doing in the middle of it anyway?"
In a way, Devon was right, but Manny wasn't going to admit that. "Well, Sean needs to learn how to control his temper," she stated in a matter-of-factly tone.
"Well...Emma needs to learn how to mind her own business and stay out of other people's affairs," Devon replied back in a similar tone.
Manny rolled her eyes. "Whatever," she muttered. She didn't care. She was positive that she was going to prove Devon wrong. "Do you know what happened last year with break-up #2?" She crossed her arms. "They broke up last year because Sean is a selfish jerk." She shook her head in disappointment. "He was JEALOUS that Emma was spending time with her SICK father and not him. He just dropped her like yesterday's trash for his new sleezy friends."
"Emma was JUST as selfish as Sean, Manny," Devon answered back. "Sean wasn't jealous of Emma because she was spending all of her time with her step-dad. He was hurt that she was putting EVERYTHING ELSE in front of him. School was more important than him. The ENVIRONMENTAL CLUB was more important than him!"
Manny was convinced that Devon didn't understand the situation. "Emma had a lot of things on her mind. She needed distractions."
"Was Sean not good enough to even be a distraction for her?" Devon frowned. "Why didn't she call him every once in a while to confide in him on how stressed she was getting? Why didn't she invite him to the house to help out or to visit Mr. Simpson? A father with cancer isn't an excuse to forget your boyfriend. She treated her time with Sean like it was an errand." She held her hands up as if she was checking off an imaginary list with an imaginary pen. "Get homework done? Check. Watch my brother this afternoon? Check. Work on environmental club? Make time for boyfriend?" She held a finger to her chin. "Hmmmm...if I hang out with Sean WHILE working on the environmental club...I can kill two birds with one stone!" she remarked sarcastically. "Check, check." She shook her head. "Sean was just an item on the BOTTOM of her check list and he was fed up with it!" She took another step towards Manny. "Let's face it! Your friend is selfish! She actually thought that it was okay to set Sean aside in her life, because she EXPECTED him to stick around. Well, guess what! Sean was smart enough not to take that." She laughed lightly. "You know why? Because he deserves BETTER than that." She raised her eyebrows. "Sean not good enough for Emma?" She shook her head. "Did you ever think that EMMA isn't good enough for SEAN?"
Manny pretty much took everything Devon was saying to her in one ear and out the other. She was too busy trying to think of what to rebuttal with. "Sean STOLE her dad's laptop." She waited to see what Devon was going to say next. She stood there confidently with a "so, what do you have to say about THAT?" look on her face.
"People change," Devon answered back without hesitating. She nodded. "And Sean's PROVEN that. He wasn't proud of what he did. He came clean to Mr. Simpson, and he worked on the guy's car for an entire summer to make it up to him. That took guts. And it shows character." She looked back at Manny and realized that her opponent couldn't think of anything else to come back with.
By this time, the intensity of their argument started to subside. Devon sat back down on the porch step. "Look, you can give me a million reasons why Sean isn't the perfect boyfriend...but, I can give you a million more reasons why EMMA isn't a perfect girlfriend. We can write a list as long as your driveway of reasons why the two of them shouldn't be together." She looked up at Manny. "But, whether you like it or not...the ONLY thing that matters is that they actually want to TRY to be together. That one reason alone cancels everything else out."
Manny actually took the time to soak in what Devon just said. She looked down at the ground and kicked a tiny cobblestone that was at her feet. She looked back at Devon seriously. "I just don't want my best friend to get hurt."
Devon smiled for the first time during the conversation. "Finally. Something we BOTH can agree on." She didn't want her own best friend to get hurt either.
Manny sighed. "So, why DID you come here?" She still didn't understand the purpose of this confrontation.
Devon stood up to walk up to Manny. "I came here to ask you stay out of this thing between Emma and Sean." She shrugged. "Actually, I think that it's best if we BOTH stay out of this. I've been pushing Sean to go for Emma just as hard as you've been pushing Emma to stay away from him. I think we need to let them work this out on their own without us pressuring them all the time."
Manny stood there quietly for a moment. It was hard for her to decide to back down at a time like this, especially with Emma feeling so vulnerable. On the other hand, she knew that it was best for Emma to figure out her own feelings for Sean without being influenced by her bickering friends. "Fine," she mumbled back under her breath.
Devon looked up. "What?" She didn't think that it would be this easy to get Manny to cooperate.
Manny shifted her weight from one foot to the other. "I said...fine. I'll agree to stay out of the way. ...For now."
