Sean was walking to his MI class to get his things; Joey was going to take him home. As he walked, Sean couldn't believe what he had just witnessed. You hear about teens committing suicide all the time, he sadly thought to himself, but you never think that it really will happen to you. As he reached the door, Sean wiped away his remaining tears. He was going to have to face Manny and give her Craig's message.

Sean stood in the open doorway. Everyone turned to look at him. "Sean," Mr. Simpson said, "is there a reason you're so late? I gave you a bathroom pass at least twenty minutes ago." Sean looked up at him, tears in his eyes. He wasn't going to tell the whole MI class about it. They would all know by tomorrow.

"Yes." he replied. "Well..." Mr. Simpson looked at him expectantly, "do you have a note or a message or something?" A message. Craig's message.

Sean scanned the room with his gaze. His eyes landed on Emma and locked. She looked concerned and confused. He detached his gaze from Emma and moved it next to her, onto Manny. Manny also looked confused.

"I need to talk to Manny." Sean managed to say. "Now?" Mr. Simpson asked impatiently. Sean nodded in response. "Fine. Manny..."

She got up and looking very nervous, followed Sean reluctantly out the door and into the hall.

"Sean, what is this? Where are we going?" Sean said nothing. He just kept walking until he was in front of the boys washroom, Manny at his side. "Okay...Sean, I'm not allowed in there." Again, Sean said nothing. He just grabbed her hand in his made her follow him in.

Manny's eyes locked on Craig's body. She screamed, loud and shriek-like. Manny burst into tears. Sean grabbed her arm and pulled her round into a hug. He held her until she could get the words out. "Wha...what happened?" she asked through her continuous tears.

"He's dead." Sean replied looking at the floor, silent streams of tears gliding down his cheeks. "Sean." Manny said thickly. She threw her arms around his neck once again and let out all her misery on his shoulder. Sean never let her go.

Once the police came, Sean and Manny, still holding one another, watched them zip up Craig's body into the body bag. The sight was too much for her. Sean felt Manny's legs give out from under her. "Manny." He said, holding her tightly to keep her limp body steady. "Manny."

One week later...

Almost the whole school was gathered at Craig's funeral. Manny was sitting in the pews with Sean and Emma. She still couldn't believe that he was dead. Craig, her Craig, first date Craig, first time Craig...no, she thought. Manny kept praying that she would jerk awake at any moment and this would all be a bad dream. Yes, she thought silently, and when I wake up, I'm going to go find Craig and give him a second chance, tell him that I love him....she was never going to get that chance.

Emma looked over at Manny; she felt so bad for her friend. She grabbed Manny's hand and held it in hers, rubbing little circle with her thumb. Manny looked over at Emma and gave a weak smile.

Manny turned her attention back to the podium. Joey was up at the front...desperately trying to get through his speech about the time he shared with Craig.

Manny couldn't bare it. She stood up suddenly and ran to the back door. Emma gave Sean a pleading look before getting up herself and following Manny outside. Once outside the building, Emma called Manny's name.

"Manny! Manny, where are you? Come on...talk to me." Manny walked back around the corner. She was in a fit of tears. "Manny, why did you just leave like that? What is wrong with you?" "Emma, there's something that I never told you about mine and Craig's date."

"What?" Emma asked. "We didn't go to the movies." Manny continued, "We went to the school and had sex." Emma's eyes bulged. "What?" "Let me finish, EM. It was going all right and then I started it got too hard. I started to bleed really bad. So...he took me to the hospital and I got stitches."

"Okay...what does this have to do with...well everything?"

"Trust me, you'll understand. Okay, so he asked what out third date was going to be like and I basically told him that it would never work. And he got really upset. And," Manny took a deep breath and held back her next batch of tears, "Sean said it was Craig's last request that Sean tell me that he loves me."

"O...okay?"

"Don't you get it, EM? My dumping Craig had a major impact on his suicide! I mean, people found out about what he did to me and they were horrible to him. Really, if I had just never said that I was ready for sex than none of this would have happened. But you know what? I'm glad that he was my first time. He was the only boy that I would ever done that with right now."

"Manny..." Emma said, almost in an exhausted way, "that's crazy. I mean...I'm sure he was upset but come on!"

"EM, I can't help but feel somewhat responsible. You know you would too."

"I'm sorry, Manny."

The church doors swung open and the guests started to file out. "Can we not talk about this anymore please?" Manny said to Emma as Sean joined them. He slipped his arm around Emma's waist. It was too much for Manny...to see them together, happy.

"I'm going." Manny said abruptly. "Um...okay..." Emma said, "you're not staying for the reception?" "No...no, I think I need to be alone."

Manny turned to walk away but Joey caught her arm. "Hi, Manny." "Hey, Joey." Manny said uncomfortably, "I'm really sorry about Craig." Joey looked down at the ground before responding. "Yeah...me too. So...how are you doing? Handling it all? I know you guys were close."

"Oh, I'm fine." Manny lied. "You know how it is. Getting better with each day." "Yeah, I know. Hey listen, I don't know if you already know or not but, Craig liked you very much. I know you guys didn't get off on very good terms but he really cared about you. I was impressed."

Manny's eyes stung. "Yeah, I liked him a lot too. Joey, it was nice talking to you. I need to run now though." Joey looked at her kindly, not asking anymore questions.

"Oh, alright. I understand." He surprised Manny and gave her a hug before she walked away.

Emma had been watching the whole conversation. She was mildly worried about Manny's sanity. Right now Manny was very upset and unstable; Emma didn't want her to do something rash.

Joey looked over and came to talk to them. "Hey guys." he said, trying his best to sound like his usual perky self.

Something had been bothering Sean all week. Now that Craig was gone, was he still welcome at Joey's? Would it even be right to stay there? Sean didn't know. Joey seemed to be thinking along the same lines.

"Sean," he spoke, "I hope that you're still planning to stay with me?" Sean looked strained. "Oh, Joey, I don't know. I don' think I should intrude. Besides it would be right with..."

"Oh, no Sean. I really would love the company. What do you say?" Joey's face was hopeful and made Sean's heart ache. Finally, Sean said, "Sure, why not!" Joey's face lifted. He did look genuinely happy for the first time in a week. "That's great man! I'll see you guys." Joey moved on to mingle with other guests.

"Soo..." Emma started, looking over at Sean, "how are you doing? This can't be easy for you."

"Ah, don't worry about me." Sean replied as if watching his best friend's suicide was no big deal.

"But I am. Sean, it's not the best way to end a school year." "Yeah, probably not, huh?" Sean was trying to joke around. Emma was becoming frustrated.

"Sean, why won't you say how you really feel for once?" There was a long and awkward pause that seemed to last forever before Sean finally replied.

"You know, I could have stopped him. But I didn't. I was right there, EM. I could have gotten the knife away from him. But I didn't." Emma wiped away a tear. "Sean, you have a broken arm. There's not much fighting power there. Don't blame this on yourself."

"But still," he said, "I could have tried harder. All I did was tell him to put it away. If I had tried harder, Craig would still be alive." Sean finished.

"No, that's not necessarily true. Sean, this is what Craig wanted. If he hadn't been able to do it then, then he might have tried to do it another way some other time. Don't you see? There was no stopping him. Stop blaming yourself. There's nothing you could have done."

"Yeah, I guess. But EM," he broke off, "it was so awful." Emma embraced Sean in a loving hug. She held him so close and so tight that she could feel his rapid heart beat as he let out his sadness. The whole time he was in her arms, Emma tried focusing all her happy energies on Sean, in hopes that they would somehow transport over from her heart and into his.