The Life of Manny Santos
by: SkittlesStar25
Disclaimer: I do not own Degrassi or any of the characters. I wish I did. If I did I would LOVE to own Marco, Craig, Spinner, and Sean. They are TOO DROOL! Anyway, I don't own jack so enjoy my ficcy!
Damn it. What did I do to ever deserve things to go so wrong? I really thought he loved me. He told me it wasn't just a fling. I was wrong, he was wrong, we were both so wrong. If I never took advantage of his position this would have never happened. I wouldn't want him as much as I do now. Getting that piece of him wasn't enough. I need more, but now....now he's with another. I don't know if we'll ever get back the happiness we once had. It's amazing how happy we were. It seemed like nothing could change. He told me he loved me and said he didn't love her.....he told me I was the one. It was nothing, but one huge lie. I can never forgive him for that, although he sees me and smiles I know that he has no idea how I feel. He may never know what it's like to be me. This is the life of Manny Santos.
Next Day
Another day of my life that I'm expected to either be a slut or a man-stealing whore. I realize that Ashley and Craig were dating when I was with him, but that's not completely my fault. He told me he didn't love her, so what mattered whether they were together or not? As I walked through the doors of Degrassi I slowly proceeded to my locker. Down the hall you could hear the bustling of people shoving books into their lockers and couples chatting and laughing with each other. Me? I was at my locker, alone as usual. Suddenly a shadow came over me. Thinking it was a teacher or something I turned around to be face to face with none other than Mr. Manning himself. As much as I wanted to talk to him I just turned around and continued grabbing my books.
"Manny, can we talk....please?" Craig pleaded.
I loved it when he begged. I knew I shouldn't, but I couldn't help myself.
"Ok Craig fine, you win...I'll talk to you."
I followed him into an empty classroom and sat down at a desk. He took one next to me and turned, it seemed as if he had gotten so little sleep since his eyes were red and he had black circles underneath them. I tried to smile, but I couldn't. Just staring into his chocolate eyes brought tears, but I quickly pushed them away. I didn't want to cry anymore, especially over Craig.
"Manny.......I'm so sorry. Sorry for ever hurting you, for making you feel as if you were a toy. Because it wasn't true. You do mean a lot to me."
He went to grab my hand, but I pulled back. Why? I may never know.
"Craig, I thought I was pregnant. You told me you loved me....you said I was the one."
The tears slowly formed in my eyes as one managed to escape down my cheek.
He took his hand and brushed it away.
"I understand that. I don't want you crying over me anymore. I hate seeing you like this. Everything I told you was true. It's just at that time I was so confused. I didn't know how I felt about anyone. My hormones were raging, but one thing was true, how I felt about you. I regret how I treated you and how I put you and Ashley in such a horrible position. I regret going so far with you, but not because I didn't want to. It was because I wanted it to be special, the person was right, it's just I didn't think Joey's garage was the most romantic place to be."
I slightly giggled, "Well, it's up to you Craig. You know how I feel, I think you know how Ashley feels and yes I do believe that you betrayed me and I hate you for it, but I could never really hate you. I care about you too much. No matter what you did to me, there would always be a place in my heart for you. So until you make your decision in front of both of us, I will be waiting, you know where to find me."
As I stood up I gently kissed his cheek and walked out of the classroom. I took one look back and saw him sitting there holding his cheek with a grin on his face. I smiled, something I don't do often, and walked back over to my locker to see JT. I rolled my eyes and opened my locker.
"Manny, last year, when we broke up. With the pump and all, I just don't really know what to say. I just wanted to be the man Craig was."
The picture of seeing JT sitting in his bed pumping himself popped into my head. I stifled my laughter as I placed my hand on his shoulder.
"JT, listen. I realize that you didn't think you could "measure" up to Craig, but the truth is that I didn't like Craig for his well..."size" it was more that I liked him for him. JT you messed everything up between us. I never wanted things to end the way they did, but it was for the best."
He just nodded his head and walked away. Another sigh escaped when suddenly I felt a hand collide with my ass. I screamed and turned around to see.......Spinner?!?
"Spinner?!? What the hell do you think you're doing!" I yelled as I rubbed my butt.
He smiled, "Manny what are you talking about? I thought you liked flirting with me?"
He put his hands around my waist, " Sp-Spinner. Paige will see you! Don't you care about her? You know....Paige.....your GIRLFRIEND?!?"
He laughed, "Paige? She's so last year. She saw what happened with the car wash and got all jealous, oh especially after Craig and I got into a fight over you. So she ended it. For a while I was heartbroken, but I realized hey....I can still have Manny."
Then he did the unthinkable, Spinner kissed me. Paige turned the corner and looked shocked.
I pushed Spinner off of me and slapped him across the face.
"What the hell are you thinking?!? We may have flirted at the car wash, but that was it. I don't steal men, no matter what the rumors are. And no offense Spinner, but you're not my type."
With that I slammed my locker and walked away from a dumbfounded Spin. Minutes later Paige walked up to me.
"Manny, I-"
"Save it Paige. You probably hate me because I "stole" Spinner from you. Well, it's not how it is."
"That's not what I was going to say."
I looked at her confused as hell. "Well then what were you going to say?"
"I was going to say that I have never seen you act so awesome in my entire life. I cannot believe you smacked him in the face! After he kissed you and all....." Her voice trailed off and she didn't talk for a while.
"Paige, I just want you to know that I never intended anything like this to happen. I know we were never really good friends, or maybe not even friends at all because I was the slut and everybody hated me, but I didn't want you and Spinner to break up. I'm not going to lie to you, I did flirt with him and he flirted back, but it was just harmless flirting. I never meant for you two to break up."
"Harmless flirting? HARMLESS FLIRTING?!? Manny this is me Paige Michaelchuk. You're telling me that you didn't mean for us to break up? You're telling me that you flirting with Spinner was a mistake and that you never meant for it to get out of hand?!? Well newsflash hun, because of you I had to break up with the love of my life okay. He was there through everything and now...because you decided to do some "harmless flirting" I may have lost him forever!"
Huffing, she stormed off in the opposite direction.
Great day I was having, it wasn't even first period and I already got into a few arguments and cried. Woohoo. I can tell this is going to be such a great day.
As I continued to walk down the hall I ran into Emma.
"Hey Em. What's up?"
Nothing. She didn't say anything. Didn't even stop to say hello. Just ignored me and continued walking right past me. I didn't understand it, I don't think I did anything with anyone Emma cared about and I don't think I did anything to her. Why was she suddenly shunning me into the dark?
"Emma wait up! What's going on?" I ran to catch up with her and she turned to face me.
"You wanna know what's going on Manny?!? You didn't call me ALL summer, we haven't spoken since the year end dance where you promised you would call me everyday. Do you have any idea what happened this summer?! I'm sure you don't because you don't care. Well, not that I think you deserve to know, but Mr. Simpson almost died okay. Right now he's in the hospital undergoing some new treatment for his cancer. I was home when he went into shock. I had to watch everything while my mom called 911. I watched him have multiple spasms right on my livingroom rug! I cried for a week straight and we didn't sleep at all. Even still I can't sleep."
Tears began to form in my eyes. I realized that I had neglected my friend, now that I need her more than ever, I'm realizing that she needed me SO much more.
"Emma....I don't know what to say. I-"
"Forget it Manny. There's nothing you can say to make me forgive you for this." And with those final words, Emma Nelson walked away from me, never to speak to me again.
Why did everything hafta go so wrong for me?!? Why can't things be simple. Why can't everybody be nice and understand. Why aren't people like "oh I'm sorry for what happened with Craig Manny. I'm sorry you were almost pregnant Manny. I'm glad you're not Manny. How are you Manny?!?" Things like this stress me out so much. As if the day wasn't horrible enough I watched as Ashley and Ellie approached me.
"Santos."
"Kerwin."
"So...I heard about you. Sucks that you were almost, but you're lucky you weren't."
Wait...was I hallucinating or was Ashley being somewhat NICE to me?!?
"Yea. I guess so. "
"Well, just realize that what you two did was the biggest mistake either of you could make. To think. You actually believe Craig loved you."
They both began to laugh as my fists tightened.
Through clenched teeth, "Well, I believe it's you that's mistaken Ashley. Craig does love me. He told me just this morning that I was the one."
They stopped for a brief moment, then began to laugh even harder. Ashley was laughing so hard she had to use a locker to keep her balance.
"M-Manny. You do realize he told me the exact same thing this morning."
"N-no. I don't believe you Ashley. I just don't."
Mimicking Craig "Oh Ashley! Why on earth did I ever play you for that 9th grader? You're the one I've always wanted and the one I'll love forever. Nothing can change that. I made a big mistake and almost had a kid, but I promise I'll never make that mistake again if you just forgive me, baby please."
Then she said something that got me super pissed.
"Ashley please, I love you."
"WHAM!!!!"
Ashley grabbed her lip as she licked off the blood. I hit her. I couldn't help it! She deserved it so much that I had to hit her for it. Nobody talks to me like that, friend or enemy.
"What the hell is your problem Manny?!? I'm just telling you straight out facts! Don't get pissed at the truth!!"
She got up off the floor and walked away with Ellie close at her heels.
I ran into the nearest empty classroom and just broke-down. I didn't know what else to do, but cry it out. The tears just kept on falling as I thought about what Ashley had said. Sure I told Craig earlier that I wasn't sure and that it was his decision, but seeing him pick Ashley, having her come up to me and tell me every little thing. It was too much pain to bare.
"Hey, aren't you Manny?"
I looked up to see Sean Cameron.
"Y-yea. Aren't you Sean, Emma's ex-boyfriend?"
"Well, I'm one of her ex's. So what's gotten you so upset? Is it Craig Manning? Because I know about you guys having that fling and everything."
I was amazed to see Sean, the gangster wanna-be, actually sitting her caring about my problems! He was the first one!
"Well, it's a really long story...It all started when..."
I sat there in that classroom and told Sean everything. I had never told anyone every little thing and Sean, someone who I barely even knew, just felt like the right person to open up to.
"And then she said he loved her so I freaked and punched her."
"Alright Manny!"
I smiled, "Thanks. Then I couldn't take it anymore and ran into here to vent everything out...then you came along and here we are."
"Well Manny you wanna know what I think?"
I nodded yes as he finished, "I think Craig is an asshole. He's an idiot for ever playing either one of you, mostly you because I know Ashley and she's so stuck up it's amazing Craig stayed with her as long as he did. I know if I was stuck with the decision I would pick you in a heartbeat."
I got up and gave him a big hug. Something I normally wouldn't do, but he received it with no problem and returned one.
"Manny, everything is going to get better I promise you."
"I'm holding you to that promise Sean."
He smiled at me, "Ok, do it."
Suddenly the four minute bell to get to class rang.
"Oops! Gotta run!" He said as he ran for the door.
I waved good-bye as I soon too left the room where so much was said in so little time.
A/N: So what do you think? This is my first degrassi fic. Well, at least this is the first one that I've posted here on Few flames please! But let me know if it was good, bad, ok, SOMETHING! Just please review. I'll love you forever.
Preview for chapter 2:
"Manny! What the hell are you doing with him!"
"What does it matter to you! You guys are history. Nothing is ever going to happen between you two again."
-She walks away-
'I might as well act like the man-stealing whore everyone thinks I am. It doesn't matter any more.'
