The Life Of Manny Santos
Chapter 3: Ending Friendships and Confusing Relationships
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Degrassi or any of the characters, the only thing I own is this plot.
Okay, can somebody tell me why God wants me to be miserable? It seems like everything I have gets taken from me. First Craig, then Sean..who's next! I mean it does all depend on how Craig decides to go. I want him to be with me, but I've realized I can't make him pick me. I don't make Craig's decisions, even though I wish I could.
Once I stopped crying I realized I couldn't go back to class, so I just sat outside until the bell rang. Just as I was walking go to back to class I heard someone. I turned around and saw Jimmy.
"Manny..."
"Jimmy, I'm glad that you're back. How are you feeling?"
He shook his head and replied, " I'm fine, but this isn't about me. It's about you...and Craig."
I turned away and pushed back my anxious tears. "What about us Jimmy?"
He rolled his wheelchair over to the bench I was sitting at. He motioned for me to sit down and I slowly sat.
"Manny, you know how Craig told you he loved you and then told Ash the same thing? I nod Well, Craig has been through a lot and he's got that whole bi-polar problem and everything. He can't always control the words that come out of his mouth."
"But Jimmy, I don't get it. Why can't he just tell me how he feels and leave Ashley out of it for once?"
He sighed, "Because him and Ashley have a past and as much as he doesn't want to admit it, there's still opened doors that need closing. All he needs to do is have a calm collective chat with her and everything will be over."
"So you mean to tell me that if Craig talks to Ashley and clears everything up he'll be fine?"
"Well, uh...he should be."
I squealed with joy, "Oh Jimmy! Thank you!" I got up and hugged him really tight. I could tell he felt awkward at first, but finally responded by wrapping his arms around me. When I finally let him go he was smiling. I quickly ran off to find Craig.
-Craig's Locker—
I began to approach Craig's locker when I saw Ashley standing on it clearly waiting for him to arrive. I watched from the corner as Craig approached his locker and smiled at Ashley. There lips were moving, but I couldn't figure out what they were saying. All I know is that when Ashley walked away she was smiling and humming to herself.
I hesitentally walked up to Craig wondering what he was going to say when I heard him call my name.
"Manny, hey."
"H-hi Craig. Listen I need to talk to you about Ashley."
"I have no idea why. I have everything with her taken care of."
"What do you mean? You do?"
"Well you told me that I had to decide what I wanted. I told Ashley that we could be friends, but anything more was out of the question."
"Oh my god!" I screamed for joy and hugged Craig the hardest I've ever hugged him. He lifted me into his arms and looked at me like he's never looked before, with a sense of love in his eyes.
I felt like I could float on air, I was the happiest girl in degrassi and there was nothing that could change it. Suddenly Emma approached me.
"We need to talk NOW!"
Craig held me defensively, "What's going on Emma?"
Emma scowled, "Well I need to talk to her about a little encounter she had with my boyfriend"
Craig looked down at me, I had the most innocent look as I assured him everything was okay. I followed Emma into an empty classroom before she slapped me.
"Emma! What the hell?"
"How do you go about flirting with my boyfriend and then practically raping him?"
I stood their with my mouth open just gaping at her.
"Don't play stupid Manny, I want to know why? Why did you have to ruin something that was finally going to work? Why did you have to make me MISERABLE?"
I began to choke up, "E-emma, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. It's just...well...Sean just understood me and was my friend. He wanted to help me and I had to ruin it. It wasn't completely my fault though."
"Oh of course not, it's never your fault is it Manny? It's not your fault Craig cheated on you, it's not your fault you broke JT's heart and I'm SO sure it's not your fault that you were pregnant."
Manny didn't understand why Emma had to always verbally attack her, it was like she got a certain thrill out of making her feel like shit.
"Emma, answer me this question. Why do you always have to attack me like some vicious animal!"
Emma walked right up to Manny's face, "Because I'm sick and tired of you ruining everyone else's life and mine. I want you to stay away from me, stay away from everyone, stay away from degrassi or else." And with that she opened the door and slammed it shut before I could say another word.
My knees buckled as I fell to the ground and sighed before tears began to slide down my cheek Why did Emma always know how to make me feel so bad? She knew everything about me and knew exactly how to push all the right buttons.
—Craig's locker-
Craig began to worry, Emma had come out of the room, but Manny was still nowhere to be seen. Before he could walk up to the room he was stopped by Ashley.
"Craig, listen I know what you said before, but-"
"Ashley I am in love with Manny. There is no place for you as more of a friend. We had a past yes, but it's gone."
"Craig you know that's not true. Look at you, are you off your meds or something? You're acting so completely ridiculous. Just yesterday you were telling me that you still loved me and missed me more than anything. Why is it that now all of a sudden you're in love with Manny?"
Craig began to wonder, why did he tell Ashley he loved her, "I...I don't know why. She's just the one."
"But I thought I was the one?" Ashley said with tears in her eyes. It was so hard for her to understand how Craig felt, she wanted to be back with him more than anything, but if Craig was in love with Manny what could she do? There was no way to change his mind unless she used a little reverse psychology.
"Ok Craig, fine be that way. You know what? I don't think I ever cared about you in the first place. I don't know why I've been trying to get back with you so bad, honestly I wouldn't care if you dropped dead." Ashley turned on her heels while Craig stood there unsure of what to say.
"Ashley wait," she smiled as she turned back to face him, her smile fading as she tried to look like she cared, " Look I guess I've been really mean to you. I do still care about you, but I'm with Manny now. I can't just dump her for you, it would completely break her heart."
"Oh Craig like she hasn't cheated on you? I heard she hooked up with Sean in the back of the school."
'Was that why Emma wanted to talk to her? No, she wouldn't cheat on me...would she?'
"No, she wouldn't cheat on me. That's below Manny, I know her."
"Well don't take my word for it, ask Emma yourself, that's where I heard it." She walked away before flashing him a smile, "Call me later Craig, let me know your answer."
'Could it be true? Could Manny have really cheated on me?' He wasn't sure, but he had to find out. Craig walked into the room that Manny followed Emma into.
"Manny? Are you in here?" He called out before he heard her sobbing.
Craig walked behind the teachers desk to find Manny curled up in a ball quietly sobbing to herself.
"Manny," He reached for her before she blurted out, "I RUINED EVERYTHING!"
She tried to run, but was stopped when Craig grabbed her, "Shhh, Manny it's alright. You haven't ruined anything. Don't worry, try to calm down."
She pushed me away, " NO CRAIG YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I RUINED EVERYTHING!"
"Manny, stop yelling and just tell me what happened."
He sat her down in the chair before she sighed and began to speak, "Look Craig. After the whole situation with you not knowing what you wanted I kind of felt bad. I wanted to be with you, but not if you were still in love with Ashley, so I went to talk to Sean. It was a mistake, he said he wanted to help me with my problems; someone to talk to you know? So we went to talk and he began to comfort me and I well..."
"You what Manny?"
"I...I kissed him. I know I shouldn't have, but I told him it was wrong and I-"
"You kissed SEAN? Manny do I mean ANYTHING to you at all? I think Ashley was right, how do I know you don't cheat on me? I guess this proves it."
"Craig why can't you let me explain!"
"Because you didn't let me explain when I screwed up. You'll never change Manny, you just don't know what you want." He began to walk away when she grabbed him this time.
"Oh no don't you dare! Don't try to lecture me like you're this Mr. Perfect and you've never made a mistake. If I recall I don't think I'm the only one who doesn't know what they want. Who keeps talking to their ex as if it's fine huh Craig? You don't know what you want either and yea I guess I should have given you a chance to explain yourself, but if you really cared what I thought then you should have said something, you didn't even TRY to get in a word."
"Manny why are we arguing over this? What happened in the past is in the past okay. I didn't know about my condition so I couldn't worn you about it."
"Yea, it's great that I have to find out from JIMMY that you're bipolar, what's wrong Craig? Too afraid to tell me yourself?"
"No, I just...I wanted everything to be okay between us," he sat down and ran his fingers through his hair, " I wanted to be the old Craig, the fun-loving sex machine you fell in love with."
Manny face was still stained with dry tears as fresh ones began to fall, "Oh Craig...You are the same old Craig to me, you haven't changed. Sure you have a mental condition, but it hasn't stopped you from getting jealous and yelling at me because you care." She touched his shoulder and he grabbed her hand.
"Craig why is it so hard to make things work between us?"
"I don't know. Complications keep getting in the way as if people want it to be hard for us, they want every little thing to be a huge challenge." He sighed as he let my hand go. "Tell me honestly, do you really have feelings for Sean?"
She stared at him for a while before responding, "No, I don't."
"Then why'd you do it?" Craig asked.
"Honestly Craig I don't really know why. I thought that you and I were over and it was an act of impulse. There was no specific reason, but I realized what I was doing was wrong and I told him that, but he leaned in for more. It wasn't a one sided argument. He wanted it just as much as I did, we were looking for someone to understand our pain and suffering and who better to understand then a broken soul?"
" I didn't know you felt that way...felt broken. If I knew I-"
"No Craig, it's not your fault. You couldn't have known, there was no way. I guess I was just being put through so much that the stress was eating away at me. I wanted to be with you, but the stress drove me crazy. I even..." tears began to form in her eyes as she lifted her sleeve to show him her arm. All along were cuts, small ones and large ones. Craig approached her and touched her arm.
"Manny, I...I had no idea." He began to choke up.
"It's okay, nobody does, you're the only person who knows and I plan to keep it this way. I don't want to hurt anymore Craig, I've been through so much during highschool, these are suppose to be the best years of our lives, not the worst."
Manny pulled her sleeve back down and sighed before getting up and walking toward the door.
"Manny where-"
"I'm going home, I need some time to think about everything that's going on, I love you Craig." Manny said before walking out of the room.
Craig let out a breath he didn't even know he had before getting up and hitting his head against the wall several times.
'God, everything is so hard with girls, especially this one.' He began to open the door, 'Maybe I was better off with Ashley, although Manny was definitely a great ride around the park.' He mentally smacked himself, 'What am I thinking! I'm talking about the girl I love, why am I acting like she means nothing to me, like all she is is a piece of ass.'
On his way out of the classroom he ran into Jimmy.
"Hey Craig,"
"Oh hey Jimmy."
"Um, I talked to Manny before, you know about your situation and everything."
"Yea...I know."
"I hope I uh...helped."
"Jimmy, you're not having any problems with Hazel are you? You know something you might be able to have me relate to by chance?"
He looked at Craig strangely, "Um, don't think so, but what's your problem?"
"Ok, what if you had a great girl like Ash that you've gone out with over and over, but might love her somewhere inside of you, but then you've got a girl like Manny. Hot, cute, bubbly, and everything Ashley isn't and you're already are almost 100 sure that you love her, but all of a sudden things keep getting in the way and it seems like it's not going to work with her?"
He ran his hand across his head (cuz Jimmy has like no hair), " Well it all depends on a few things, sure Ash is a great girl and you already know almost everything about her which is good, but also bad because it seems to predictable. Manny on the other hand is how you explain her and it seems like you're attracted to her because of not only her looks, but her younger personality, she's someone you don't know too much and might enjoy getting to know better. As for the things that keep getting in the way you have to ask yourself, is it worth it? Do you care about her enough to make it work no matter who tries to ruin everything and no matter how bad it gets? "
Craig smiled, "Thanks Jimmy, you're a lifesaver."
He began to run out of the school and back to his house.
-Craig's house-
Craig bolted up the stairs and into his room, he locked the door and began typing away madly at his laptop until he found the lyrics he wanted and printed them out. He ran back to the school with the lyrics and his guitar. Craig scribbled something on a piece of paper and stuck it to Ashley's locker before running to the auditorium. Hopefully Ashley was going to be easier then Manny, now all he could do was wait...
A/N: How was is? Sorry I left ya hanging, now I want him to sing Ashley a song, but im not 100 sure which song I want it to be. If you could give me some ideas that would be greatly appreciated, anyway please review...I'll love u forever!
SkittlesStar25
