Emma slammed shut her history book in exasperation. She and Manny had been doing nothing else but their ridiculous proect all day. So much, in fact, that she had almost forgotten about her throbbing stomach ache. Expectedly, after six straight hours of work, Manny was growing restless, too.

"Can we just give this up? Take an F?"" she asked, slumping into a chair. "C'mon, Em, we can give each other manicures."

Emma ran her ony fingers through her newly-blonde hair, sighing tediously. she had been looking forward to getting the project done in one day so she wouldn't have to worry about it any longer, but apparently it required a lot more work than she had thought... which she detested.

"Kwan said the project is due on Friday."

How uptight could she possibly be?

"I just want to get this done so we can have something to present on Friday."

Her statement seemed to have sucked all the energy out of Manny. She hunched over, smoothing her brows. "Em, this is torture."

"Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious. I'm the one with the stomach ache."

"And you're the one who ate three pieces of pizza." Manny replied, kicking her feet up on a stool.

The heat in the basement was absurd, and it only added to Emma's headache. So, I get a stomache and a headache... this is really my day.

"Fine, we'll take a ten minute break," she toned, spreading herself out of the bed, at last feeling comfort.

"Have you talked to Sean lately?" Manny inquired.

"Yeah, actually. He helped me in Math the other day... I think he thinks he's got to start from scratch or something after what I did with Jay. I don't think he wants to move too fast."

There was a twinge of shame from those last few words. Sean didn't know how fast she could be...

"So all's well in your twisted tangle of love?" Manny joked.

Emma gave no answer. Like she even had an answer.

"When Snake coming home?"

"He'll be back in about six weeks. My mom's over at the hospital now."

There was really nothing to talk about after that... which was strange. The two of them fell into silence, allowing Emma's stomachache to grow more bothersome.

You know, I think the sky should be blue. I mean what other --

Oh, no. Without warning, Emma felt something coming up in her throat, leaving her no time to finish her mindless thought. She was dashing rapidly to the bathroom, Manny following in concern.

"Emma? Em, what's wrong?"

Before she could give an answer -- for obvious reasons -- Emma's face was plummetting down the toilet bowl.

That's it, him and Ashley were over with. He had decided it. He was doing nothing but torturing himself by staying together with her... why even try -- to make her feel better?

Craig lay sprawled out lazily on his bed, phone to his ear. "Ashley... you called?"

"Yeah, I did. Sorry, I forgot you got a cell phone," she answered.

Craig coughed. His room was so dusty. "No, it's okay. Um, okay, just -- can you meet me at my locker after third period?"

"That actually depends," she replied in a rather business like tone. "Tomorrow I have to help my Debate teacher with something at that time, and the day after that I have to organize an article for the magazine."

"Fine," Craig said impatiently, shaking his head. "Just be at my locker on Friday after third period?"

"Umm, okay."

He could tell there was some concern coming from the other end of the phone.

"Bye, I love you."

Craig dropped the phone on the receiver like it was hot coal. It was a reflex, honestly. Well, not really...

Craig had no idea what he had done. Every day he woke up, unaware that a block away, Emma was waking up, too -- nauseated. He had no clue he was the cause.

It was eerie, thinking that she was probably going to be going out with someone else after what they had done. They had committed an act so serious... and she was going to treat it as if it were nothing. She was going to ignore it, like she ignored him. He would be nothing to her.

Shuffling to his locker the next morning, pitying his sad situation, he saw that Marco was waiting for him.

"Marco... what?"

Smoothing his hair, Marco straightened himself. "Don't need to sound so stingy."

"Stingy?" Craig asked as he opened his locker. "Who uses that word anymore?"

Moody Craig strikes again. He would have liked to calm down, to act kind, but his annoyance level was reaching its highest. He was such a bad person.

"Who cares? Ash has been talking about you."

Tension in his shoulders.

"And -- what's she saying?"

"Look, Craig. She didn't want me to tell you she's asking, but... are you taking your meds? Is something bugging you?"

Craig let the book in his hands slip, falling to the floor as he rested his head on the locker door.

"She's seriously asking?"

"She just cares about you. You can't blame her, you've been weird all year."

All year? They were only two months into the year.

Craig shoved the book into his backpack and started to walk off.

"Tell her not to balme everything on the --"

Coming to a halt, he felt his shoulders sag as he let out an audible sigh. Emma and Sean were sitting outside the school together, holding hands and laughing. Pretty picture. It made him sick.

"They're back together?" he asked in disbelief, feeling all hopes sliding away. He had been right to be so hopeless, he had been right to think she hadn't loved him -- all his horrible thoughts had been right and all his good ones had been wrong.

Marco shrugged. "I guess -- who cares?"

"Marco, I'm gonna go. I'm late."

Craig was going to get Emma into trouble. He was going to bring on a whole new flood of drama that she didn't want, that she knew she didn't deserve. He wouldn't mean to, but everything would all come out a catastrophe wheather he wanted it to or not. They were better off forgetting.