Benny opened his house up quickly and Cara wandered inside. She'd been here only once before, and that was after an exam. Her and Devon were deathly thirsty, and neither of them had any money to buy a drink. So they had walked to Benny's, let themselves in only to find Benny sitting on the couch, with his brother Michael, playing the PlayStation. Both of them in their pajamas. Cara laughed at the memory, Benny had been so surprised to see them, and acted extremely strange, seeing as they had all been friends for 2 or 3 years, but Michael, who neither Cara nor Devon had met, was the one offering the girls a tour of the house and food and drinks.
"Benny" Jay called out, breaking Cara from her daydream. She noticed she was still standing in the entryway, so she moved into the lounge room and flopped onto the nearest couch, across from Emma.
"I needa piss" Jay said. Benny showed Jay to the toilet and returned to the kitchen, where he was getting food ready for a barbeque.
A few minutes later, Nat, Steph, Jake and Marco showed up and let themselves in. After them, Katy, Devon, Manny and Alex. Then Kyle, JT, Mark, followed by Jason, Brent, Craig and Toby. There was no sign of Paige or Ellie though, which didn't really bother anyone too much, as they were all to busy playing Twister to notice much more than where the nearest coloured spot was. Steph and Nat were proving to be too good for everyone else though, and so Mark decided they should compete against one another to see who would win. Everyone formed a tight circle around them, and their match began.
Meanwhile, Emma had disappeared from the group, and was off looking at the house. She wasn't really a big fan of Twister anyway. At least, not with that many people playing. Emma found herself in Benny's ensuite. 'Lucky him, he gets his own bathroom that he doesn't have to share with anyone at all' Emma thought, thinking about both her bathroom back home at Degrassi, and the one she was sharing with Nat and her family. Emma sat down on the edge of the bath, lost in her own world. A few minutes later, there was a knock on the door.
"Is anyone in there?" Jay asked.
"Me" Emma replied, shaking her head to clear her thoughts.
The door opened.
"Oh... You're me," Jay said.
"Very funny. What do you want?"
"Hmm… Lots of things. Someone to come with me while I go get us some alcohol would be good"
"I thought I heard Nat say she'd go?" Emma asked.
"She did. I want someone from home to come with me." Jay said, hoping Emma would get the point. The thought of making out in the bathroom really didn't do it for him.
"Sure, why not? As long as we're not walking…" Emma said.
Back at school, 2 girls sat nervously in the welfare offices waiting room. Ellie and Paige had been sitting in the room since the last group of their friends had left for Benny's. A lady with crazy coloured hair had already walked past them twice, both times offering to talk to them, but they had said that they were waiting for Antoinette. They waited for a few more minutes before Paige got up and started to pace.
"How long is this going to take? I get the feeling that we're missing out on a great party." Paige said, just as Antoinette's door opened.
"Missing out on a party? It's still only 6th period." Antoinette said, a smile on her face. "I won't say a word," she added, opening the door further to let the young girl who was inside out, and Paige and Ellie.
Once they were settled, Antoinette began. "So, what do I owe the pleasure of this visit to?"
"Um..." Ellie said, looking to Paige, who was too busy reading all the posters Antoinette had up on her walls. "Paige. Maybe you'd like to start?" Antoinette said, bringing Paige back to reality.
Paige took a deep breath and started to talk. "Right, well… um, there were a few things in Cara's speech that uh… kinda hit hard with me n Ellie."
"Do you mind telling me which parts? If not, we can skirt around them as much as possible. Or is that not why you're here at all?" Antoinette asked.
Ellie shook her head. "Its a bit of both." Inwardly, Antoinette smiled. She could see how alike Cara and Ellie were.
"Like, some of the things she said really got underneath my skin. But I'm worried for her. I'm scared that with all her history, reliving it all today was bad enough for her to go that little bit too far," Paige said.
"She wouldn't!" Ellie said, turning to look at Paige.
"I don't know her well enough, but she could. You can never tell" Paige said. Ellie rolled her eyes, and they all sat in silence for a few moments. There was a knock at the door, and Antoinette opened it.
"I'll be with you really soon Melissa."
She turned back to Paige and Ellie.
"Look girls, I've got another girl wanting to speak to me, so I say go to this party of yours. I'm assuming Cara will be there, so just watch out for her. As soon as you see her starting to go downhill, get her sobered up, and don't let her drink anymore. Make sure she's safe, and remember to get all the sharp objects away from her. If things get bad, I'm sure someone will know first aid, and if all else fails call 000, emergency services. Also, here's my number if you feel the need to ring me. Now this is the worst-case scenario. I don't think that this will happen, Cara's got good coping skills, but just in case…"
There was another knock on the door, and Ellie and Paige stood up and took Antoinette's number and then left.
Emma and Jay walked out of the bottle shop, carrying the assortment of bottles they'd been asked to buy. Why they were drinking this much on a school night Emma couldn't quite work out, but it didn't really matter, she was up for it. Emma put her bottles in the back seat of Benny's car and climbed into the front seat and pulled down the sun visor to look in the mirror. She fiddled with her hair for a few minutes as Jay organised the bottles so the wouldn't fall over and break. Then he climbed into the drivers seat and pulled out of the car park. They drove back towards Benny's house, but Jay pulled off into a park when they were about 5 minutes away from the house.
"This isn't Benny's house Jay" Emma said.
"Way to state the obvious Em," Jay retorted.
"Well, what are we doing here?" she asked, turning to look at Jay.
Jay didn't reply, and instead moved closer to Emma. He looked at her for a moment before he leant in towards her and kissed her lightly on the lips. Emma was shocked by Jay's actions, but returned the kiss gladly.
Emma and Jay returned half an hour later. They put the alcohol they had brought onto the kitchen bench, and saw that everyone had moved outside to help with the barbeque. Jay tried to pull Emma upstairs, but Emma didn't move.
"We have to talk Jay," she said. They went upstairs and headed to Benny's room, where they found Marco and Jake getting to know one another.
"Haven't you's ever heard of closing the door?" Jay said, kinda grumpy that the spot he had planned for him and Emma had been taken.
"You snooze you lose" Jake said. "Close the door on your way out wont you hun?" he added. Emma pulled Jay out of the room and shut the door behind them. They instead headed back to the bathroom.
"What you wanna talk about?" Jay said.
"You, me, the car… What was that Jay?" Emma said, trying to control the level of her voice.
"You know what it was Em. It was you and me and the good old days"
"The good old days involved you cheating on Alex with me, who just so happens to be on this trip with us, and also you giving me and STD!" Emma sat down on the edge of the bathtub again.
"Look, you know I'm sorry about the STD shit Em. And me and Alex is the past. I want to move onto the future."
"And you think that's with me?" Emma asked, half hopeful, half not.
"I'd like it to be" Jay said, sitting down next to Emma. "Unless you don't want it…"
Emma sat and thought for a moment. She did want Jay, but Jay was Degrassi's bad boy. Emma wasn't sure how they could make things work.
"Look, it's up to you Em. You decide" Jay said, standing up. Emma stood up too. She had made up her mind.
"I've decided," she said, pulling him into a tight embrace. "You" she whispered in his ear, which to Jay didn't really make any sense. All he knew was that she'd chosen to be with him.