Chapter Two:

The deafening bell rang, indicating the day was over. Ellie stood up and smiled, she could now finally make her way to group. Her feet started to drag against the carpeting in her Algebra class until she reached the door. Reach her hand out, it met the cold metal. She tried to be the first out of class on the days of group. Tuesday, Wendsday and Thursday, today of which was Wendsday.

Turning the doorhandle, she stepped onto the perfectly tiled hallway and looked around. Students were already swarming out of their classroom, they were are ready to leave just like Ellie was. She didn't need to go to her locker. The class she had before Algebra was Gym. This gave her an excuse to bring her jacket and bookbag with her. She loved having that privilege.

Smiling, she made her way down the hallway. Everyone was still chatting enthusiastically about the upcoming dance. Personally, Ellie really didn't give a damn if she went or not. It's not like anyone would miss her if she didn't go. Ah, the perks of being an individualist.

Caught up in her thoughts, Ellie didn't see what was coming upon her. After three years at Degrassi, don't you think she'd know the school yet? Clearly she didn't. Because, the metal door beam and her face met. They hit in an instant, Ellie falling to the ground. She laid on the cold-flooring for a few second, glaring at the what she had ran into. Doorways really sucked. Why were they even invented? Sure, maybe they were a necessity to some people, she wasn't going to name who, but some people cherished their door ways. How come they couldn't be covered with some spongy cushioning? Or at least rubber?
"Why should I even bother getting up?" Ellie asked herself "I'll just let them trample me"

So, she just laid there. Waiting for someone to help her up or make her stand. It wasn't long before she heard a soft snicker. Rolling her eyes back as far as they could go, Ellie saw a familiar face. His straightened hair was combed over the left side of his forehead, blue eyes sparkling. It was Craig Manning, her best friend's Bipolar boyfriend. He smiled at Ellie and held out a helping hand.
"Finally, somebody notices me" Ellie said, sighing

"I don't think you'd be there for long without someone noticing" Craig said

Ellie rolled her eyes and took Craig's hand. He pulled her up onto her feet and smiled again. Ellie sighed and pushed a strand of loose hair behind her ear-lobe. She wiped her skirt quickly and sighed yet again.

"So...Are you going to group?" Ellie asked, picking some polish of her fingernail

"Yeah" Craig said "I actually like it there. It's..okay"

"Tell me about it. The first day I went I thought everyone there would be complete quacks. But, they weren't" Ellie said "Surprisingly"

Craig chuckled "Yeah" he said, smiling "Come one, walk to group with me"

"You don't have to meet you're other-half somewhere before you go?" Ellie asked, half sarcastically

"No" Craig said, quickly "She's not my life, you know"

"I didn't say she was" Ellie said "You're just always together. Every...single..second of the day"

"Yeah, yeah. I know" Craig said, sighing "Let's go. Jerry is probably already worrying his ass off about us"

Ellie nodded and smiled at Craig. Sighing, she made her way down the hallway. Craig picked up his pace and caught up to her. He looked pale today, maybe Ashley was finally wearing him down. Ellie knew the day would come. When she became attached to something, she wouldn't let go of it. She could only imagine how deep her fingernails had dug under his skin.

The stepped onto the sidewalk, stopping. Luckily, the community center was just down the street. So, they started to battle the frigid cold weather. Ellie carefully walked over the patches of ice, she sure as hell didn't want to slip when Craig was right there. It would be embarrassing. Even though she didn't care about being embarrassed. cough

When passing what it felt like miles of ice and slush ed snow, they finally made it to the community center, where group was held. Craig walk in front of Ellie and grabbed the doorhandle, opening the large wooden door for her.

"Thanks" Ellie said, stepping inside

"You're welcome...We don't need you colliding with anymore doors today" Craig said

Ellie looked away from Craig and slightly blushed, starting to walk towards group. For some reason that had embarrassed her more than slipping on the ice would of. She rolled her eyes and stopped, waiting for Craig. When he caught up to her, the two speed walked (lmfao) over to group. This time, Ellie opened the door for Craig. Ha! She proved him wrong! She could open a door without running into it.

Walking into the room, Ellie wiped her feet on the dirty "Home is Where the Heart Is" rug in front of her. She looked over at her usual seat to see nobody around it. They were actually gathered in a group at the other end of the room. Craig looked over at Ellie. He locked eyes with her, raising his eyebrow.

Ellie walked over towards the group, Craig at her heels. She could her soft sobbing and whispering. She sighed and walked closer to everybody. Already knowing who it was crying, she stood over the huddled "groupies," as she called them, and frowned.

"Nancy...Are you okay?" Ellie asked

"No" Nancy muttered, sniffling

"Gregory broke-up with her" Nigel said, rolling his eyes

"It isn't funny. He broke-up with me." Nancy muttered

"We know that" Nigel said "You've made your point pretty clear"

"Shut up, Nigel" Craig said "Are you going to be okay, Nancy"

"No. Love sucks" Nancy said, wiping her nose

"Yes, it does. Totally" Ellie said, sitting in her regular seat

Everyone scattered over to their regular seats, Craig dropping next to Ellie. Jerry took a pen out of his jean pocket and started writing down some notes on his precious clipboard. He just loved that thing so much. No wonder he wasn't married, all he needed was that clipboard to get him through the day. Ellie rolled her eyes at this thought, some of her little...observations were getting pretty boring.

"Okay, so...Love. What is it to all of you?" Jerry asked, eying everybody in the room

"I don't feel any love. I don't need it either, it just screws up your life" Nigel said, leaning back on his chair

"Ditto. I feel the same exact way" Craig said

"You do?" Ellie asked, surprised at what Craig had just said

"Well, yes. Love does screw-up your life...I should know. My experiences with love haven't been that great" Craig said

"I understand that" Ellie said, nodding "My love life sucks too. The first guy I actually thought I loved turned out to be gay and the other left me in the dust"

"I don't need love anymore" Nancy said "Everything about it sucks. Who needs a broken heart? It only gives you another reason to feel pain"

Ellie bit her lip, she knew exactly how Nancy felt...Or she thought she did. Looking over at Craig, she saw him with his head in his hands. This was only bringing back unwanted memories. Group continued on and they shifted from the subject of love to television. At least it made Nancy happy. Ellie didn't want her to purge or do anything she usually did later that day. She'd feel terrible then.

Time went on-and-on- and suddenly Ellie was bored with group. Which was a real shocker to her, group was usually fun. She guessed that television just wasn't an exciting subject for her, so she did the next best thing: watching the minutes tick away on the digital wall clock. She tapped her right foot to the tune playing in her mind and sighed. Ten seconds...That's all she had left. This is going to take forever. It really sucked when time went by slow for her like that. It was really annoying.

"Okay, kids. You can leave" Jerry said

Ellie jumped up out of her chair and ran to the door, suddenly stopping. She looked back at everyone else. They were all staring at her strangely. She chuckled nervously and walked back over near them, waiting for someone to leave before her.

"That really would of been a memorable exit" Craig said, sarcastically

"Shut up, Manning" Ellie said, punching him playfully in the arm

"Come on...We can be the first to leave. What an honor that is" Craig said

"Oh, yeah. It's just wonderful" Ellie said, rolling her eye inwardly

"I'll walk you home" Craig said, walking over to the doorway "Now, come on"

Ellie sighed and followed Craig. They waved at their fellow group members, walking into the hallway. Craig started humming a tune from The Ramones as they left the building. Ellie tried her hardest, she couldn't start singing along with him.

"That's a good song" Ellie said

"Yeah" Craig said, shaking his head

Walking a little faster, Ellie noticed it was getting darker out. Snow probably...She hated snow so damn much. It was as annoying as waiting for that stupid clock back at group. She looked ahead to see her apartment. Not more than two or three minutes later, they had arrived at Ellie's home. Craig stepped in front of the building and sighed, the snow starting to heavily fall.

"So...This is your home" Craig said

"Yeah. My lovely abode" Ellie said, sighing

"Well, I better get going" Craig said

"Yeah" Ellie said "See you tomorrow"

But, before Craig could say another word, the wind picked up. Snow was all either of them could see past the driveway of Ellie's apartment building. Ellie looked over at Craig and raised her eyebrow, nodding.

"You shouldn't go out in this weather. Why don't inside and wait until it calms down a bit out here" Ellie said, rubbing her hands together. It was so cold out!

"Okay, I'd really rather not get pneumonia" Craig said

Ellie nodded once again and started up a small flight of stairs, leading into the building. Craig opened the door and stepped inside, Ellie following behind him. They stomped their feet, getting all of the snow off of their shoes. Walking down a rather long hallway, Ellie stopped at the last room. Taking a key out of her jacket pocket, she placed it into the lock and twisted the doorhandle open.

Letting Craig step in first, she shut the door. It was even colder in the apartment. Ellie shivered, turning on all the lights she could find at the moment. Walking into her kitchen, she turned on the heat.

"It's really cold" Ellie said

"Definitely" Craig said

"Do you want some coffee? Or at least something warm" Ellie said, walking around the kitchen

"Sure" Craig said

Ellie started up the coffee and eyed into the living room. She noticed that her mother was still home. She wasn't awake though, she was passed out. Her body was sprawled across the couch, empty vodka bottle strewn around the room. Craig, who had been looking over at Ellie, followed her gaze into the living room. He saw her mother and sighed. Ellie cringed, sitting down on the carpeting.

"She has problems" Ellie said "It's been like this for awhile"

"I'm sorry about that" Craig said, sitting down next to Ellie

"There really is nothing to be sorry about" Ellie said, shrugging "It just really sucks to not have a stable parent"

"Yeah, it really does suck" Craig said, nodding

"And you would know this how?" Ellie asked "Sorry. I don't want to sound rude"

"You didn't, it's just...I know what it feels like to have your world torn apart" Craig said "My mother died of cancer a couple years ago and my father...It was an accident"

"I'm sorry" Ellie said

"Well, my father wasn't exactly the best person...So, there isn't a reason to be sorry about his death" Craig said "Sure, I miss him. But, I don't see any excuse for what he did to me"

Ellie locked eyes with Craig. She wanted to know what his father had done to him, but it would be too rude to ask that. So, she waited for either it to pop out of his mouth or for the question to come out of hers.

"He beat me" Craig said "He just flipped out one day and it kept going on until Joey found out and I got taken away from my dad"

Ellie didn't know what to say. She was speechless. Craig's father was abusive? She had no idea...Maybe that was a reason his bipolar triggered so severely. She sighed, tears filling her eyes. This was terrible. She suddenly felt like a terrible person for thinking all those things about him. Craig looked over at Ellie and saw the tears gathering in her eyes. He sighed as a single one slid down her cheek, blackened for her thick eyeliner.

"Hey...Ellie, don't cry" Craig said "It's not your fault. It was his fault. He made a mistake and paid for it" he paused "It's just not a reason for you to cry"

"I know, it's just...It's terrible what some people can do. My mother didn't even know how much her drinking was affecting me until the beginning of this year" Ellie said, crying harder "I hate the world. It's so cruel"

"Don't say that. You should not think like that" Craig said "Why? I don't even deserve to be here" Ellie said "Does anyone need another cutter like me on earth? No, because there are already too many out there"

"Don't say that! God, if anyone deserves to be on this earth...It's you, Ellie. You're a great person" Craig said "Beautiful...Inside and out"

"I don't really see myself as something beautiful" Ellie said, sniffling "All my scars show how weak I am"

"No, those are battle scars. They show how brave you are" Craig said "If you can get through what has happened in your life...You can get through anything"

Ellie sniffled, staring at her feet. Craig could see something in her he had never noticed before: Beauty. It was unnoticeable until then. She was beautiful, gorgeous. He wanted to hold her in his arms and say everything would be okay, but that would be wrong...He knew that but he also know that he could ignore what his mind was telling him and follow his gut for once.

"If I kissed you...Would you kill me?" Craig asked, quietly

"No" Ellie said, not blinking once

Ellie didn't know why, but he heart was suddenly beating at a pace unknown to herself before. She was nervous. Craig was making her nervous? How weird was that...She had no idea what was happen. Craig locked a gaze with Ellie again. This time he really searched for something. Her eyes were honey-brown and he could stop staring into them. He was melting away, his heart beating as quickly as hers was.

Placing a hand gently on her shoulder, Craig pushed himself closer to Ellie. She closed her eyes, his touch sent shivers up-and-down her spine. He leaned closer, taking in her beauty. She was so intoxicating. He had no idea why it had took him so long to notice that. He took in a shaky breath and finally kissed her.

The moment their lips met, it was amazing. He had never felt this way while kissing anyone. It was magical. Something neither of them had felt. Something Craig had never felt when kissing Manny or Ashley or something Ellie had never experience when kissing Marco or Sean. But, was this even the right thing to do? Ellie wondered this as she abruptly pulled back.

"I-...We shouldn't be doing this" Ellie said, wiping the tears off of her cheeks

"Yeah, we shouldn't be" Craig said, standing up

"Well, um...I'll see you tomorrow" Ellie said

"Yeah, um...Okay, bye" Craig said, quickly

"Bye" Ellie said

Craig walked towards the door and gave a nervous wave. Ellie dropped back down onto the floor and watched as he left her home. Sighing, she pounded her fist onto the carpeting. This was something she had never done or felt before...Craig made he feel good inside. He made this warm feeling come to her heart when they were talking. This really sucked, because she knew she had just kissed her best friends boyfriend. She had maybe helped him cheat on Ashley once again.