We walked for a little bit, not saying anything. Just when we were going to turn the corner to get to my street, I turned the opposite way, heading to Degrassi's pathetic excuse for a park instead.

"Don't feel like going home?" Paige asked me.

"You'd think I wouldn't mind being at home. I mean, he's gone. It's just so uncomfortable," I replied.

"After I told my family I was raped, Dylan and my mom avoided me for, like, two weeks. It felt like an eternity to me. And I couldn't understand it. But every time I headed into a room, they left. We didn't eat meals together anymore. Things were bad at home for a while. I found out later that they just didn't know what to say to me, and they didn't want to screw up and say the wrong thing. It worked itself out, more or less."

"I don't think this will work itself out. My mom, she, I mean..." I trailed off, not sure if I wanted to say anymore.

"What about her?" Paige asked, gently.

"She knew this was going on. I mean, I have no proof, but come on. In her own home, and she didn't notice? She works a lot, but she can't work that much. I completely changed when it started, I behaved like a scared puppy around my dad, and she didn't notice? I don't buy that for a second. She just didn't want to notice. She let it happen, and now that it's over, she's content to pretend that nothing ever happened."

We stopped talking for a while. Neither one of us really knew what to say.

"I know a million people have probably said this to you, but...well, have you thought about talking to Ms Sauve?"

"Nobody's really said it to me, and besides, I just won't talk to her. She reminds me of my mom. Like she has to care about me because that's her job, but she doesn't really care."

"Maybe someone else? Ms Sauve would give you the names of other people, if you asked. I'm sure she gets that not everyone can take a liking to her."

"Right, and how would I get my mom to pay? Like what would I say? 'Oh mom, I wanted to ask you to fork over 25 bucks an hour so I can talk to someone about that little problem I had that we're pretending doesn't exist.' Even I'd feel stupid saying that, and I did that idiotic French fry commercial."

"You should think about it," Paige said.

"I know you mean well, but it's not going to happen."

"You're a good guy JT, but this is too big for you to handle on your own. You can't deal with it by yourself."

"Paige, the most you know about me is that I do a lame mime in a box impression. You have no idea the limit to the amount I can handle. So just back off, alright? Mind your own business."

I took off running. I heard her call "I was just trying to help." But I ignored her.

Suddenly I ran into Spinner. Well, I didn't exactly run into him, but I stopped running a few feet in front of him.

"Quit talking to my girlfriend," he demanded, angrily.

"We were just talking. It was harmless."

"Stay away from her, alright, you daddy-loving faggot. She's got a real man."

My jaw dropped. I couldn't believe what he called me. My blood began to boil.

"What did you call me?" I asked. At this point, I knew that I was looking for a fight with him. I might not win, but I'd make damn sure I got in a few good punches.

"You heard me, Daddy-loving faggot. Don't tell me you didn't know that half the school thinks it's true. Otherwise you would have tried to stop him."

That's when I punched him. First time was right square in the face. He did that thing that guys always do in movies, which is put his hand to his nose to check out the blood, which is when I got in the second punch. I wasn't going to wait for him to realize he was bleeding before I got a second punch. He'd have a nice black eye, courtesy of me.

While I didn't get in any more punches like those two, I did hit him a few more times. Actually, I think I was winning until Jimmy came over. I liked to think that Jimmy was a good guy, but not when he joined Spinner.

Two against one isn't fair, and needless to say, I ended up the loser. I laid on the ground until they got about a block away, and then I pulled myself up. I was pretty sure I looked like hell, but I just wiped the blood away from my nose with my sleeve and started walking home.

The last person on earth that I wanted to see at that moment, Manny, was sitting on her front porch as I passed. She gasped when she saw me, and ran over.

"I'm fine," I told her, lying. I pretty much hurt all over.

"You are not," she said, pulling me inside. "And you avoided me in school all day today."

"You can't honestly say you wanted to talk to me, can you? Even I didn't want to talk to me."

"JT, you didn't care what happened to me. You just cared about me. Now get in this house so I can get you fixed up, and we'll talk."

I have to admit, this was a better reaction than I expected, so I followed her inside the house.