"Santos, Where's Nelson?" Jay asked running up to Manny, who unlike normally was decked out in a pair of black sweatpants and a hoodie. For Manny Santos, not dressing up for school was a signal something was wrong.

"She.. She.. she's at the hospital" Manny managed to get out between loud breaths trying to stop the tears. Emma WAS her sister, they may not be blood related, but they were sisters in every sense that mattered.

Jay's face fell, "Why"

"I can't tell you… she wouldn't want anyone to know, especially not you, you hate her" Manny bit back, wanting this conversation to end. Typical Jay, trying to make others miserable, and it's before homeroom too, great. So now I'm going to start crying, and my make up is going to get ruined, and I'm going to look like a lunatic, and everyone is going to want to know what's wrong, and...

"Manny, you have to tell me! Is it because of… you know?" Jay yelled, finishing the last part quieter.

"No, I don't know. And wait! You like her don't you?" Manny started to smirk. Who would have though, Jay falling for Greenpeace. That's so cliche. Bad boy + Good Girl, oh well, It always has been adorable.

"Do not" Jay breathed out, wanting the conversation about him to end, and focus back on why exactly Emma was in the hospital.

"Mhmmm. Do too" Manny giggled, she loved to torture Jay, especially now that she knew this wonderfully juicy information about the object of his desire.

"Just shut up Santos!"

"Ugh, dick" Manny said, rolling her eyes in her typical fashion, "I'll be quiet. But she's not doing too well, she's hooked up to a bunch of machines. It's all my fault"

In a voice barley audible, Jay whispered, "Wh.. What happened?"

"She wasn't eating, I should have noticed. She is my best friend! Instead I've been so focused on my soon-to-be-boyfriend Damien, which I'm not even with anymore"

"God damn! Nelson, how could you do this!" Jay bellowed out into the hall, "Come on Manny"

"Where are we going, Jay?" The skeptical brunette asked

"To the hospital"

Manny and Jay got into his orange Civic and started to drive to the hospital. Manny was fighting back tears the whole time, and Jay could notice.

"Listen, Manny" He began, surprising both of them by not calling her by her last name, or an insult stemming from her last name, "It's not your fault. You didn't even know"

"But I should have! She is my best friend, we live together, Jay! We share a bed!" Why did I just tell Hogart that Em and I share a bed? That's like every guys wet dream, "Not in that way Hogart!"

Jay just smirked, a soft smirk. There was something holding him back from his trademarked smirk, or was it someone?

"Manny, I knew" he mumbled

"What?"

"I knew she was… anorexic, or bulimic or whatever"

"How did you know but I didn't?" Manny gasped, her eyes bulging at the thought of her best friend keeping this a secret from her, but not Jay Hogart.

"I kind of heard her"

"You mean?" Manny suddenly felt very sick to her stomach, thinking of the noises he had to endure coming from her 'perfect' best friend.

"Yeah, but she promised me she was over it"

"You just don't get over it like that Jay, it's a fucking disorder"

Jay just sat there, unsure of what to say, "Miss Orderly Nelson with a disorder… that's just fucked up"

"I can't even imagine why she let you in on it but not me! You probably laughed in her face"

"It wasn't like that Manny. Now can you stop making me out to be the bad guy always. Where do I pull in?" He said, asking her for directions to where he should park the civic in the hospital parking lot.

"Here"

-xxx-

"Spike!" Manny screamed while running up to Christine Nelson, Emma's mom,

Jay strolled a reasonable distance behind Manny, hospitals were not his place. Everything was so white, the opposite of … everything he owned, which was black. It smelled like antiseptics, bandages, and death. It felt cold, and dark. It was the liaison between life and death.

"Manny. I'm so glad you're here. Wait, you should be in school" Christine 'spike' Nelson said pulling her as-close-as-can-be-to-a-real-daughter into a huge hug.

"Em's my sister. I think this warrants a day off. Can I go see her?"

"Sure go right in" Archie "Snake" Simpson assured her, putting his hands on his wife's shoulder.

-xxx-

Walking gently into Emma's hospital room, Manny nearly gasped at the site. Emma was hooked up to all these machines monitoring her functions, she had on the typical hospital gown and for once in her life, and she looked like death. Her once vivacious blonde hair seemed to fall limp around her pale face. Her hand, which was wired to the machine, was so tiny, and limp. All the weight loss made her face appear gaunt and thin.

"Emma, do you know how weird it is to see you here? I mean, you were always the strong one. You faced everything, and you always took it so well. You stood up and proved your point, always. Hell! You even started a petition to install tampon dispensers in the bathroom when you got your period, which you announced to the whole English class. And you, you Emma, were the one that was able to state her views, regardless of what others thought. So how did it come to this? Me, sitting here while you're hooked up to machines. This isn't right, this isn't. I was the weak one. I could never face the facts. I was the one that continued to hook up with Craig when I knew he didn't love me like he loved Ashley. I was the one that got drunk and had your ex boyfriend videotape me naked for the whole school to see. I came to you for everything. And now you're in that bed, unconscious"

Manny had to stop her rant in order to wipe all the tears that were appearing away.

"Em, you have to stop. You have to stop or you're gonna die. You can't do that to me"

"No one's gonna die, okay? I'm gonna try to beat this Manny. I'm gonna try to beat this", Emma whispered.

Manny just looked at her best friend and hugged her, the two girls sobbing together.

-xxx-

"Hi, um, I'm Jay" Jay said, extending his hand to shake Spike's, "I'm so sorry to hear about Emma"

"What are you doing here, Jayson!" Snake gritted

"Listen Mr. Simpson, I know I'm the last person you want to see at a time like this, but Emma and I have become friends and I just want to make sure she's okay"

"Why would Emma become your friend, Jay" He asked, obviously not amused at seeing the resident delinquent within a mere 50 feet of his daughter.

"She's been helping me study for my G.E.D. exam" Jay started

Jay was interrupted by Spike who turned to her husband and looked him in the eye, "Excuse me? Can you please tell me what is so wrong with Jay being here for his friend? Snake, stop being so rude"

"This is Jay, Christine"

"I still don't understand", Spike whispered back, at a time like this how was she supposed to remember the names of people that weren't frequent visitors at the Simpson-Nelson house?

"The one who gave Emma the ST-"

"Mr. Simpson! I had no idea I was giving it to her. But can we please put that in the past, I admit I wasn't there for Emma the way she needed me to be, but right now I am" Jay cut him off, trying not to relive the memory, or the embarrassment he was soon to feel when her mother realized who he was.

"My daughter is in the hospital and you're arguing over the past? Hey! You remember in Terms of Endearment that scene where Shirley MacLaine is in the hospital and freaks out because they won't give her daughter a shot? She got that from me and she toned it down a little."

"Um, the next person can go in now" Manny said, walking up to a hysterical spike, a pissed off Snake, and a timid, yes, timid, Jay Hogart.

-xxx-

She's lost in coma where it's beautiful

Intoxicated from the deep sleep, deep sleep.

Do you wonder what it's like,

Living in a permanent imagination?

Sleeping to escape reality, but you like it like that.

Guilty by design

She's nothing more than fiction.

She dreams in digital

'Cause its better than nothing,

Now that control is gone

It seems unreal

She's dreaming in digital

She dreams in digital.