Encore
Manny rushed up to Emma, who stood at her locker. She was well aware of the stares and whispers that floated through the halls of the school about her and Sean. If she had known the rumors that would surface after her and Sean went into the van she would never have gone in there. Granted all they did was talk, add to that a bit of laughing, but that was it. Stupid perverted assholes and their pigheaded rationale," she said in frustration as she slammed her locker door shut and spun around to lean against it.
"Em…is it true?" Manny asked, "of course it's not, you would have told me,"
"No Manny it's not true,…we didn't do anything, I don't know why people are talking about me and Sean, like talking in a van is something scandalous."
"I hate rumors…"
"I do, too, but what am I supposed to do about it?"
Manny shrugged and they turned to walk to class when Emma was blindsided by a blonde girl. Amy had Emma pinned to the locker. Emma tried to push back but Amy clearly had the upper hand. Manny watched on as her friend was pinned against the row of lockers by the school slut. She looked around, not sure if she should find a teacher or to let Emma handle the situation on her own.
"Listen PETA Princess…Sean is mine, back off." Emma couldn't do anything but laugh before Amy slammed her into the locker and released her. "What's so funny?"
Emma regained her composure, "just the fact that you think Sean's yours…or that I have any interest in trying to get him." Emma spun on her heels and walked with Manny down the hall, leaving a bewildered and angry Amy alone in the hall as the bell rang.
"What was that about?" Manny asked.
Emma laughed, " I don't know, but I think I found out who started the rumors," she said looking back at Amy.
Manny rolled her eyes, "pa-thet-ick!...I mean did you see what she was wearing?"
Emma laughed, "I think you've been hanging around Paige to much."
-X-
" I didn't think you had the guts, Cameron…" Jay said slapping him on the back. Sean looked behind him and rolled his eyes.
"You do know those are just rumors, right?" Sean answered, as he grabbed a wrench and got to work on rebuilding the carburetor.
" yea, but rumors always start out with a bit of truth…I watched you two go into the van, and you were in there awhile…so what were you doing?"
"Eww, you were right about the shag carpeting," Emma said as she crawled into the van. Sean laughed.
"I'd watch where you sit, there's no guessing what could be floating around in here."
Emma's face twisted into a face of disgust and silently shuddered as she thought about what Sean meant, "And we're in here because."
"Hey, don't blame this on me, you're the one who wanted to see the inside of the van."
"Don't pin this blame on me Cameron!" Emma said gently pushing him. Losing her balance she fell on top of Sean.
"Hello there," he said smirking.
Emma lifted herself off of Sean and leaned back, as Sean laughed, "oh quit laughing."
"so how's Chris?" Sean asked.
"We were talking…" Sean said.
"About?" Jay asked intrigued, nudging his friend in the side.
"About her and Chris? Me and Ellie, just stuff…"
"We're good, sometimes I feel like I'm not good enough for him…" Emma said as she picked at her fingernails,
"Why would you think that?" Sean asked, "you're a strong and intelligent, beautiful young woman, any guy would be lucky to have you…" And Sean began to blush at his comment.
"You really mean that?" she asked.Sean nodded, and immediately knew the question that would follow, "why did we break up?"
Sean sighed, " I was stupid Em, you were a great girl, and I messed up," with that answer Emma felt hopeful, and her heart fluttered like it used to, but then he continued, "but I wouldn't change what happened for anything in the world, when you and I broke up I got myself in a lot of trouble, I got Saturday detention…where I met Ellie, and honestly Em, she does something for me that sometimes I don't think you ever could have done."
Emma smiled. That flicker of hope disappeared but Emma remained faithful to her friendship. "I don't think I'd change it either…you breaking my heart gave someone else a chance to mend it."
Sean frowned, " I didn't…you know I didn't mean to break your heart."
" I know…but you live…you learn."
They smiled, "I like this." Sean said, "you and me, and this friend thing, I like this…"
Emma smiled brighter, "I like this, too."
"Yo, Cameron!"
Sean and Jay spun around to see Chris Sharpe standing in the doorway to the auto shop class room. "Looks like someone believes the rumors," Jay said standing tall behind his friend. Mr. Ehl wheeled over to the doorway.
"Can I help you son? You're disrupting my class," Mr. Ehl said as she wheeled in front of Chris.
"I got Mr. Ehl," Sean said, wiping his greasy hands clean on a rag, "I'll only be a little bit."
"All right Sean, but any longer than fifteen minutes and I'm docking your grade," Mr. Ehl said turning to help another student.
Sean walked into the hallway, "what do you want Chris?"
" Do you enjoy messing with people's lives?" Chris asked.
" If you're upset about the rumors, let me clear things up for you, Emma and I are just friends, nothing more, nothing less, what you think you heard about us, and the van, is completely untrue, so please take your jealous attitude and shove it." Sean immediately regretted the attitude he gave the other boy, but he had an image to up hold. It was that typical bad boy image that he had to hold up when he got into that fight with Jimmy the two years prior. Sean sighed, "look, I didn't mean for it to come out like that, it's just that the rumors are bugging me too, man, I mean someone could easily take what happened the wrong way and tell Ellie and I don't want my chances messed up when she comes home."
Chris's angry glare softened, "so what did happen?"
" why don't you ask Emma?"
"Because I want to hear it from you"
"Nothing happened, we talked, about Ellie, about you…just talked." Chris sighed."Look, man," Sean said, "you can believe me or not…you can ask Em, and choose to believe her or not, but I gotta go back to class."
Sean turned and walked back into the classroom. "Everything okay,man?" Jay asked twirling a screwdriver between his fingers. Sean rolled his eyes and nodded as he walked over to the carburetor he was working on.
-X-
Manny looked over at Emma as they sat in the cafeteria, "Do you think I should talk to him?" she asked, while looking back across the cafeteria at Craig who was gently pulling his acoustic guitar from it's case.
"Talk to who?" Emma asked, but slowly realized who Manny had meant when she saw her gazing across the crowded lunch room. "I dunno, it's up to you Manny."
Manny twitched her face uncomfortably, "I mean…we had something…and I dunno…EMMA!"
Emma was staring off into space, "uh, sorry Manny, if you think you should talk to him, do it."
Manny smiled, "fine I'll do it…" she said standing up and sitting back down, "what do I say?"
Emma rolled her eyes, "I dunno Manny, maybe something like, Hi Craig I think it's been a few weeks since you and I hooked up in your garage and Ashley broke up with you cause you were cheating on her, wanna go out to a movie?"
Manny frowned, "Emma!"
Emma laughed, "How about…Hi Craig, how've you been?" Emma crumpled up her brown paper bag, "really Manny, you had enough nerve to go after him while he had a girlfriend, what's so hard about it now?"
Manny shrugged, "so should I talk to him?"
"It's up to you Manny, I can't do everything for you"
"So I'm talking to him?"
Emma laughed, "you obviously want to Manny, so go do it…" Emma nudged her friend who stood up again, tugging her tight camisole top down a bit and sauntered across the cafeteria, her tight rear-end swaying in her tight low-cut jeans.
Manny bit her lip nervously, "pull it together Santos…" Manny rolled her eyes and laughed at herself. No matter how many times she'd hooked up with Craig, and no matter how often she initiated the flirting there were always butterflies in her stomach. She was always nervous. Craig was leaning back, his chair tipped against the wall, and his feet propped up on the lunch table, his guitar in his lap, gently strumming with his fingers.
"Hi Craig"
Craig's feet slipped from the table and the chair rocked forward, he looked up to see Manny nervously twirling her hair. "Hey Manny," Craig answered, "what's up?" Craig mentally slapped himself in the forehead, for responding so casually.
" how've you been?" she asked, " I heard about you and Ash a few weeks ago…that incident at the Dot."
" I'm fine" Craig said gently touching his jaw as he thought about the punch Ashley swung at his face. "How about you?"
" Craig…" Manny said quickly jumping into the subject of them, " did you mean what you said, over the holidays, about me?"
Craig paused, and remained silent.
Manny waited patiently for an answer as she sat down.
"I…er…Manny?"
"Look, I know…we haven't talked in a while, but really, I'm just…I'm sorry about getting in between you and Ash, but I really like you Craig."
"I like you, too, Manny…"
"then…what's going on?" Manny asked. This situation was getting more than confusing. " I hate dancing around, unless we're actually dancing…" she was starting to ramble.
" Manny?"
Manny looked up into Craig's eyes.
" Yea?" Before Manny knew what was going on Craig had leaned across the table and had his lips pressed against hers, "so… that means what exactly?" she asked innocently.
"nothing, I was just trying to shut you up." Manny remained speechless, her jaw dropped slightly. Craig smirked, and kissed her forehead, " wanna come over and help me watch Angie tonight?"
Manny smiled brightly as Craig began to pack up his guitar and got ready for his next class.
-X-
"Whatcha looking at?" Chris asked sitting down next to Emma. Emma turned to him and smiled.
"Manny, I think her and Craig just hooked up." Chris smiled and nervously rapped his fingers on the table. "Go ahead and ask Chris"
Chris looked at her surprised, "ask what?"
"I may be blonde, but I'm not dumb, you want to know what happened down at the ravine over the weekend, with Sean, or don't tell me you haven't heard the rumors."
"No…it's just…"
"we talked" Emma answered simply.
" I know…Sean told me."
Emma turned to him surprised, "you talked to Sean?"
"Yea, Em…I believe it's just…rumors," he said.
"They're vicious, I know."
Chris closed his eyes and nodded, "it's just…I don't like being…"
"The center of attention, or having a girlfriend who's the butt of every rumor and joke that travels through the halls?" Emma was slowly starting to get agitated. She didn't know what Chris was getting at, but she was starting think he was hinting at breaking up, "Chris, what are you trying to say?"
" I … Em, I don't know if we should be together."
" Why?" she asked simply. But before Chris could answer Emma reached down and grabbed her bag, "better yet, save your breath, I don't want to know."
Emma walked out of the cafeteria, she really didn't want to know, but she had a feeling it had to do with the rumors. Whether he believed her or not it didn't matter, what mattered to her was that he couldn't handle the rumors, and maybe he wasn't everything she thought he was. "Any guy would be lucky to have you" She smiled as she remembered Sean's words. There will be other guys. There will always be other guys.
-X-
"You ready Ash?" Marco asked as he knocked on the frame of her bedroom door. Ashley literally fell out of her closet as she tugged at one of her hoodies hanging on a clothes hanger. She landed on the floor and Marco chuckled, " I guess not quite." He reached down and gave her hand, pulling her to her feet.
" almost, just have to grab something for Ellie and call Mark," Ashley said as she straightened her shirt, a vintage band t-shirt Ellie had given her for Christmas.
Marco smiled, "well hurry up, the bus leaves in" Marco checked his watch, "twenty minutes."
" You sure your mother doesn't mind that we're staying over at the Days Inn over there?" Ashley asked as she grabbed her stuffed duffle bag.
"I'm sure Ash, besides my Mom, she knows and it's alright with her."
Ashley smiled, "I'm so glad my Mom agreed to this."
Marco chuckled, " I can only imagine how you told her, Mom, can I stay over in a hotel with an extremely gorgeous Italian boy?"
Ash rolled her eyes and grabbed some books she'd bought for Ellie and lead Marco out of her room. As they reached the bottom of the stairs, Kate Kerwin stood waiting for her daughter, "call me when you get there, and the give Ellie a hug for me."
"I will mom," Ashley answered, hugging her mother, " thanks for letting us do this, I think Ellie will be happy to see her two best friends two days in a row."
Twenty minutes later Ashley had finished up a phone call with Mark and her and Marco boarded the charter bus for a hour long trip. They checked into the hotel, and grabbed a taxi over to Lake View Hospital.
They stood outside, Ashley tightly gripping Marco's arm, "I hate hospitals," she whispered, as they walked up to the front doors and toward the reception desk.
"Marco? Ash!" shrieked a surprised voice as they walked signed in with the nurse.
A/N: As usual, thanks for the reviews guys. I'm trying to keep up as much as possible with this, granted school is my main priority and this isn't that high on my list of things to accomplish during the day, but I do work on it bit by bit. I'm not going to abadon it. Believe me! Anyways, I'm happy with how it's turning out, and for those of you wondering about Mark and what's up with him?...just wait and see, it won't be a main focus in her, believe me, I'm working on putting together a spin off type story about Mark and Ash and most of it will be explained there. And regarding the Cranny-ness? before anyone asks, I'm a supporter of both Crash and Cranny, but I lean more for Crash, but believe me after that whole mess, Craig doesn't deserve either one. Ech, I'm going to ramble...
To answer a few questions, when will Ellie get out? Ellie is required to stay at LV for a minimum of two months, afterwhich she can check out unless she or the staff sees her fit to leave. something may happen that could extend her stay...
And regarding the pot smoking laws, from what I've learned (from friends) is that it's legal to grow, but not to sell, or to carry a certain amount on you? I'm not sure how it works, I don't really need to know how it works, but my friends do love British Columbia for a reason.