Author's Note: Same part, from Jay's perspective. I don't like it as much, so I don't know if I am going to do all of the chapters this way. I'll see what kind of feedback I get. And as usual, you probably needed to see "Time Stands Still" and "Back in Black" to understand this.

"Alex, you can't tell me you are seriously considering telling Raditch."

"It's not just me, its Spinner too. Maybe you don't feel guilty for what happened, I do. But you made it obvious the other day that what I feel doesn't matter."

She stormed off, and there was no point in me calling her name. She wasn't coming back. Not as the old Alex at least. Paige Michalchuk had gotten to her. Now all she could talk about were "feelings" and how she was going to express them. She even tried to get me to go to some bullshit counseling session with her. We didn't need counseling. We just needed to keep our mouths shut.

The lunch bell rang, and I decided against going to the cafeteria. Without Alex or my boy Cameron it just wasn't worth it. So like everyday that week, I headed out to my car. No one was there to notice me leaving, and no one was in the parking lot to count how many cigarettes I had smoked. When you're focusing on the perfect drag, you can't exactly be thinking about trying to patch things up with your all-of-the-sudden-ex-girlfriend.

I was halfway down the hall when I felt the eyes on me. I was probably busted, Alex had gone straight to Raditch and we were all about to enter the downward spiral of suspensions, yelling, detentions, more yelling, and expulsions. Would we even be back here? I didn't know and couldn't force myself to care. Then she called my name. This wasn't Raditch, it was a million times worse.

It was Degrassi's own personal super sleuth, Emma Nelson. What had I done to receive the honor of her attention? I was pretty sure that it had something to do with the conversation Alex and I just had. I bet she overheard everything, and now she knew what had pushed Rick over the edge. That it was our fault. She knew we were the criminals.

I couldn't turn around and look her in the eye. I kept walking, but slowly. She sped up and caught up to me just before the doors.

"What have I done that offends the peacemaker now?"

I'd figured my best bet was to play dumb. Alex and I hadn't said anything too convicting, but who knows how long she had been snooping around. I couldn't take any chances.

"You're leaving, that's what," she said.

She said it with the sort of desperation that really fucked with your mind. I lifted up my head to look at her and noticed her tear-stained face. Sure I've seen girls cry before, just never this girl. I thought she was some kind of environment saving robot, I guess she had feelings like the rest of them. I just hadn't been looking for them.

"I'm sorry, next time I plan on ditching school, I'll be sure to ask for your permission."

I was saying anything to get her away from me. My life had become fight after fight after fight, and I wasn't going to add this one to the tally. She was upset and I wasn't in the mood to be the victim for anymore misdirected anger. She didn't say anything else, but continued to follow me. I was opening my doors when she finally snapped back into things.

"Please don't tell me you stole my Father's laptop to fund a hideous coat of orange paint."

Was that really what this was all about? She was still holding that grudge. Well, there was nothing I could do about that now. We had made a truce in Wasaga to leave each other alone for a while. Not to be friends, not to get along, just to be civil. It was for Sean's sake, for her sake, for everyone's sake really. No one was handling what happened with Rick well, and we didn't want to make things more difficult. Maybe four days was a while to her, but it didn't seem like it to me.

For the first time in my life I was having difficulty reading someone. Most people are so easy to see right through. You can't keep a secret from a guy who has more than anyone will ever know. You can't hide a lie from the biggest liar of them all. Besides, everyone was always too afraid to even try. Except her.

Granted she was smart, but she knew about politicians and chlorophyll, I didn't expect her to have any street smarts. I looked her in the eyes and saw that she no longer looked so desperate, she was smiling.

I unlocked the passenger side door, and waited for her to climb in. If she was following me all the way out here, it had to mean she wanted to leave too.

"Are you getting in or what?"

Her smile faded into a frown. I was stupid for even suggesting it. Emma Nelson? Break a rule? It just wasn't possible.

"Then move out of the way."

This is where she lost me. Maybe it had been running through her mind all this time. Maybe she just came out here to prove she could outwit me. What came next was incoherent babbling about me ditching school. She didn't seem to think it was as simple as I did. For me, having a bad day meant it was time to leave and make it a whole hell of a lot better.

"Is this what you are going to do? Run away? So what, Sean's gone. We all have to deal with it some time. Escaping isn't going to solve anything."

I could barely keep myself from laughing at her. It was so typical female. What did she want to hear? Yes, my heart is pining for Sean Cameron to come home? I won't be able to go on without him? The more and more I thought about it, the more I realized that what she said applied more to herself than it would ever to me.

"Ha, I only wish that was the worst of my problems. You think I'd be that upset about Cameron? I guess you really aren't as smart as I thought you were. Look, my girlfriend and I broke up the other day, so forgive me if I don't want to spend time in a place where I know she is going to be. Plus, school food? It sucks. Now if you want some real food, and you look like you need it, you'll get in the car. Otherwise, go back inside with everyone who is still mourning over the "tragedy". I'm sure that will be a real good time."

I was right, but I could tell by her face that she was still processing it all. I had enough of the heart-to-heart and got in the car. It was only seconds later when she joined me. Tensions were high so I only saw it fit to do what I do best in these situations, make fun of her.

"Ditching school with the teacher's pet? I'm really asking for it, aren't I? This is sort of like a suicide mission. When I leave, I'm lucky if anyone even notices. Now it's quite possible that every teacher is going to go into convulsions. I guess you could say I'm some sort of a hero, I'm breaking you out for the good of the Degrassi student body."

She of course didn't find it as amusing as I did. It was so easy to press her buttons and really get to her. Her face showed that she was annoyed, and that meant that my job was done. I started to back out and we were on our way.

"Why are you doing this?"

There she went again, always trying to get to the bottom of everything. Maybe she was on a crusade to save Degrassi against it's resident rebel. She probably thought if Rick could do it, I could too. I'm not stupid, there's a difference from putting some nerd in a locker and blowing someone's brains out. You'd think she would know better.

"Well you see, if I hadn't put the car in reverse, we would have gone straight into 896 SFE."

"That's not what I meant."

I knew it wasn't what she meant. I guess I couldn't expect her to take any kind of a joke though. It wasn't her style. Almost everything she had said to me so far had been full of so much sincerity. As if I opened up to her, then everything would be okay again. I wonder how hard it is to pretend to care. Either way, I still felt her glaring at me.

"I know."

Enough was enough. I turned up the radio and headed toward the civilization outside of Degrassi Community School. I went to lift a cigarette, but stopped myself as soon as I realized Nancy Drew over there probably wouldn't appreciate it as much as I did. She didn't notice. Her eyes had become transfixed on that stupid picture on my dashboard. It was of Alex and me, that time we were at the lake. Why didn't I rip that fucking thing off the day we broke up? I guess I hadn't noticed it. I hadn't been noticing much of anything lately.

"What happened between you two?"

This girl was going to work for a newspaper someday.

"Come on, Agatha Christie, give it a rest."

"First of all, I'm shocked you even know who that is, but she wrote the mysteries, didn't solve them. Second, you two look so happy in this picture, it's like you actually meant something to each other. That's hard to find. Maybe you should talk to her."

I had never had someone ask this many questions about me before. I had to give her credit for her persistence, but I was sick of hearing her. It became apparent she wasn't going to stop. It was like she had forgotten everything your parents ever teach you about social cues.

"Well aren't I lucky that you are so concerned? And not that it matters, but we tried. We didn't agree, and we're done. It's as simple as that. I never gave you the third degree on that loser DJ, so can we end this conversation?"

And that's what set her off. I shouldn't have mentioned him. I figured it would be the thing to shut her up, but it was the exact opposite.

"He didn't get me, you know? He was thoughtful, funny, and genuinely cared about me, but it wasn't enough. He listened to me complain about school, he let me cry on his shoulder when something had gone wrong at home, and stood by me when I fought for something I believed in. Any girl would be crazy not to like him, but that's just it, I guess I'm just crazy. When we kissed, I didn't feel anything. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't there."

"Uh...well I'm so glad I asked."

What do you say to that? She just spilled her heart out to me like we were some sort of old friends. The scary thing was that I could almost relate. Alex and I had the same interests. We both handled people in the same way, and backed each other up when we needed it. There'd be times when I could barely get through a day without her, but not this year. She started doing all these other things, and between her Vice Presidential duties and new job, we started to see less and less of each other.

One Friday night, Sean and I went to a party in Montreal. Alex was working, and I was mad at her for never coming out with us anymore. You can only get so wasted before lines start to blur. The whole night I did nothing but watch this one girl turn down every guy that came near her. She wasn't all that beautiful, and probably not all that special, at least not in comparison to Alex. Still, I risked it all. Some drunken frat guy who had no business being there couldn't take her rejecting him. He started to yell, and looked like he was going to get violent very soon. I probably should have just punched him, but I did what seemed easiest at the time. I put my arm around her and kissed her. She didn't push me off, so we just kept going at it, long after Mr. Football was gone. The next day I could barely look at myself. I was so angry. And I was angry at Alex for making me feel guilty. Every time I saw her it reminded me of what happened the night before, and I hated her for it. I just wanted to forget.

"Sorry, I know you don't care, but you were the first person to even mention anything about him. I just wanted someone to know why. I didn't mean for it to come out like that," she said.

I couldn't even find it in me to make fun of her about this. Something she said clicked in my mind, and it made me see that Alex and I had made the right decision. The spark just wasn't there anymore.

"So, how does Friendly's sound?"