Disclaimer:I do not own Degrassi

Chapter 3

"Just leave me alone," Manny mutters at her phone, glaring at the name that was on the screen. I glance over at her, knowing exactly who she's talking about. The past week Craig has been calling her two or three times a day. This time, instead of ignoring it like usual, she answers the phone. I watch her face turn red with anger at whatever Craig is saying and then her voice begins to fill the car. I almost laugh if I knew it wouldn't piss her off even more. She's completely belting out the song now.

"All those games you tried to play, oh they ain't gonna work on me now. I put a rock hard fist around my heart, baby, just to keep you out. You thought I'd wait around forever, but baby get real, I just kicked you to the curb in my red high heels. Oh you can watch me walk if you want to, want to. I bet you want me back now, don't you, don't you. I'm about to show you just how missin' me feels in my red high heels..."

By the end of the song, she was really into it, dancing around in her seat. When she finished I could tell that Craig was saying something, probably trying to apologize. She got a look of stone cold resolve come across her face.

"If you do love me, like you say you do. You'll leave me alone. Just let me be happy," she said, her voice soft and harsh at the same time. Before listening for his reply she snapped her phone shut and turned to me a with a wide smile.

"That felt incredible. God, I should have done that years ago!" She exclaimed, her face flushed. I laughed at her, watching the way her dark eyes sparkled with happiness. Had she always been so beautiful?

"Sean, let's skip out today. We can go get ice cream, go to the movies, go to the mall. Please, please, please!" Manny begged me, knowing I'd give in.

"We really shouldn't. We have the test in Media Immersion and Snake knows that neither of us are sick," I said, shrugging my shoulders. I looked over at her with a serious face, but she just stuck out her bottom lip giving me her best pouty face.

"Pretty please?"

"Where do you want to go for ice cream?"

"Ooooh! I know just the place. Pull over and let me drive, I want it to be a surprise!" She squealed. Yeah, she's crazy, thinking I'd let her drive.

"No way am I letting you drive my car Manny! Remember what happened last week?"

"Oh, come on Sean! That could happen to anyone, besides that sign came out of nowhere!" She said, frustrated. I shook my head in disbelief.

"Manny, it was there the whole time! You're just lucky that you didn't dent my baby!"

"Ugh, fine. You are way to protective of this car, Sean. I don't think it's healthy," she huffed out, crossing her arms across her chest. I just laughed and asked her to give me directions.

An hour and a half later we were at a run down looking custard stand that looked as if it had seen better days.

"Lenny's?" I questioned her, raising an eyebrow.

"My family used to come out here all the time. My aunt used to live like fifteen minutes away and whenever we'd go to visit her we'd stop at Lenny's. I swear you've never had custard until you've had Lenny's custard!"

We got out of the car and walked up to the window. A lady that looked about a hundred hears old and thin as a skeleton was sitting behind the counter, a dictionary open on her lap. She looked up at us when Manny cleared her throat and smiled softly.

"Hi, what can I do for you today?" She asked, her voice husky.

"I'll have two scoops of vanilla in a sugar cone," Manny said sweetly, smiling widely at the old lady.

"Um, I'll have a banana split," I told the lady. Manny turned and looked at me with wide eyes.

"Are you sure you want to do that, Sean? They are HUGE here," she asked me.

"I think I can handle it, Manny," I rolled my eyes at her.

Five minutes later we were sitting at an old picnic bench eating our ice cream. Manny had been right, the banana split was huge. I think it would be enough to feed a small army.

"Thanks for skipping with me, Sean. I know you're trying really hard to do well in school and everything," Manny said quietly.

"Hey, anything for a friend," I brushed it off. She sighed, staring off into the distance. I could see that the whole Craig deal was catching up with her again and the good mood she'd been in was slowly deteriorating.

"You know, he didn't deserve you, right?" I asked her, awkwardly. I've never been good at cheering people up. I never know quite what to say.She smiled at me sadly and nodded.

"It's not...I'ts not that I miss him or anything. I guess, it's just hard, you know? He was this huge part of me life for so long, even when we weren't together, I'd always thought he was the one I'd end up with. He's not the guy who I fell in love with anymore. I don't know who that person is," she said softly, tears filling her exotic eyes. I stayed quiet, sensing that she wasn't done talking yet. She took a breath and then looked up at me.

"I guess, I should have known that it would never last. There was so much, too much, that had happened in the past and it was only a matter of time before it caught up with both of us. I know it's not right, but I blame myself in a way for him ending up like this. I know how much...I know how much the abortion hurt him, still hurts him. We never talked about it after I told him that I was getting it. It was just this big elephant in the room that we both pretended wasn't there. I never had someone to talk to about it. I couldn't talk to Emma about it...you know why. Who else did I have?" I watched her face go from sad to mad in a about .5 seconds.

"He SHOULD have been there, Sean. No matter what he thought about what I was doing, he should have been there for me through it. I don't think he ever really loved me at all, or he would have. What's so wrong with me, that no one can love me?" She looked at me then and I could see that she was waiting for an answer. I could see that she was truly wondering this, asking herself this question. It hurt me inside to know that she thought she wasn't worthy of anyone's love.

"Craig's the idiot, Manny. You haven't done anything wrong. He was doing cocaine, for God's sake. No one should have to put up with the shit you put up with from him. He took advantage of that fact and now you've finally smartened up about it and he wants you back. Fuck that. You deserve so much more than he could ever give you," I broke out vehemently. I hadn't meant to blow up that way and I could see that she was just as shocked as I was at the way I reacted. Then she smiled at me and her tears receded.

"Thank you, Sean. I'm so happy I have you as a friend," she said to me, getting up from the bench and throwing her napkin in the trash.

Friend.

Why did it suddenly hurt to hear her say that word?

"So, Emma, you're up," Lily said, urging me on with her kind eyes. I sighed. Group therapy is not my most favorite thing in the world. I glanced around at the other girls and rolled my eyes.

"Uh...I don't know if I really have a lot to say right now," I offered up, hoping I could get out of this. Lily just smiled at me gently and nodded her head at me. Dammit.

"I guess, I'm doing pretty good. I mean it's still hard to get myself to take that first bite at meals, but...I've noticed after the first bite it's easier to eat more. I'm still scared of being fat, but in my condition that something I can't really avoid. It helps that I have Jay," I said, fiddling with a string hanging off my shirt.

"Why don't we talk about that, Emma. How are you and Jay going to deal with your pregnancy?" Lily prodded, trying to get more out of me.

"Um, well we're keeping the baby, as you all know. When I get out of here, we're going to start looking for an apartment. My parents said that they would help us out as much as they can and my mom is actually really excited about being a grandma, after she got over the whole shock factor. Jay works at the auto body shop in town as one of the mechanics and he makes pretty good money and I have some money in savings from baby-sitting and from when my grandma died, so we'll be okay. I guess...I'm scared, but I'm not as scared as I was when I first found out," I said softly. I don't like thinking about when I first found out. I don't like thinking about those three months with out Jay.

"When I first found out, it was about a month after Jay broke things off with me. I kind of...went into denial mode I guess. I already wasn't eating very much and that was mostly because every time I did eat something I felt like I was going to throw up. Probably a combination of being so depressed and the pregnancy. I thought about telling him, but...well it's complicated. He thought he wasn't good enough for me, so he made me believe he didn't love me and he was really, really cruel to me during that time. I thought he would hate me even more than he already did if he knew I was pregnant. But, that doesn't matter now. We worked things out and everything's going really great. I just can't wait to get out of here. I'm done," I said, carelessly wiping a stray tear away that had managed to fall from my eye.

I didn't really listen for the rest of group. Talking about when Jay left me had fear seizing me. The only thing I was completely terrified of anymore was of being with out him. I don't think I could make it through a second time and even though I knew he wouldn't leave me again...there was something inside of me that kept me from letting go of the idea.

"Sean, do you think that Emma's really going to be okay?" I asked my friend's ex-boyfriend as we waited for Spider Man 3 to start. He just shrugged and smiled that crooked smile at me. I felt my heart do a flip-flop and quickly shook my head at the thought. There was no possible way.

"Em's tough. She always bounces back, shorty," Sean whispered about an inch from my ear. His hot breath grazed my skin and a million tiny pin pricks traveled down my spine. I lowered my eyes and just nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked me, sensing my uneasiness. I'm not sure how we'd grown so close, maybe it was the absence of Emma, the one thing that had always connected us. She's my best friend and she's his...not really sure what she is to him anymore...friend, I guess...but she was all we'd ever had in common. It had never made sense to me to become real friends with him before and now I wish we had. I hadn't realized how much I was missing out on.

"I'm fine. Just thinking, is all," I said softly, still not looking at him.

"Watcha thinkin' about?" He asked with a teasing tone.

"Uh- Oh, shhh, the previews are starting. My favorite part about coming to the theater," I said, thankful for the interruption. What would I have said anyways? Well, Sean, I'm just thinking about how I might be falling for you? Yeah, that would have went over real great. He's in love with my best friend. Man, I know how to pick 'em.

I barely watched the movie, too aware of the fact that his arm was just grazing mine on the arm rest we shared. Every time he moved, his skin brushed against mine ever so softly and goose bumps would raise on my skin.

"Uh, Manny? The movies over," Sean said to me, looking at me like I'm crazy. I just forced out a laugh and stood from my seat.

"Right, I guess I wasn't really paying attention," I tried to save myself.

"God, I know what you mean. That seriously sucked. They hyped it up so much that I'm expecting this total block buster and we had to sit through that crap," he said disgusted. The movie sucked? God, I'm such a loser.

"I know, totally," I nodded my head emphatically.

"Hey you wanna see if Jay's up to go to the Dot?" Sean asked, already grabbing his cell phone out of his pocket. I just nodded a yes to him and followed him out of the theater to his car. I seriously need to get over this stupid crush that I just realized I have.

"Jay's gonna meet us at the Dot, he sounds kinda pissed. I wonder what has him all revved up this time," Sean said shaking his head wearily. I just shrugged and slid into the passenger seat.

A moody Jay, an incredibly sexy looking Sean, and a way to hormonal Manny...this should be great...