The Suffering

Disclaimer: Still don't own Degrassi. The title of this chapter is a song by Something Corporate. It's a good band.

A/N: Hey everyone thanks for the reviews! Keep 'em coming, they make me smile. Sorry it took me so long to update, I just hadn't been in much of a writing mood lately. I promise this chapter will be a good one. There might be some Paige and Alex interaction!

Hmm… did they ever say when Paige's birthday was? I didn't say what day it was on, but let's just assume that it's sometime before January.

Chapter II: Hurricane

October 19, 2007

Banting University – Co-Ed Dorms Room 274

There was a loud thump outside of the door followed by someone swearing loudly and a few giggles. After a few more minutes there was another thump, this time followed by the loud laughter of guys. The next sound came from someone yelling for more beer and someone else saying they were "too drunk to function." After a few more minutes of laughing and some yelling, the hallway was quiet once again. Now the only sound in the room came from Paige, who was sitting at her desk. Her fingers hit the laptop keyboard noisily as she sat there typing away at a paper. She would sigh every now and then, lean back in her seat and yawn before going back to the essay.

In the hallway, there was another loud thump, a crash and a scream. She stopped typing and shut the laptop, knowing nothing would get done now. She then picked up a pen and went over to her bed. She reached behind her pillow and pulled out a small notebook. It was one of those notebooks with the cover that you could put a picture in. She stopped to look over the picture. It was a picture from her fifteenth birthday party. She smiled at the memory- she had wanted an ice skating party that year.

"Come on, Marco, it's just a little ice!" Alex laughed and skated past her friend to link arms with her other friend, Paige. The two skated past Marco.
"Just a little ice," Marco raised his eyebrow. "I could fall or something."
"That's the fun in it, I guess." Paige smirked. "I wouldn't know about falling, my dad made me and Dylan take ice skating lessons."
Alex rolled her eyes. "Of course Paige never falls, she's gonna go pro and be the best ice skater in all of Canada!"
Marco laughed and reluctantly stepped on to the ice. "Well… if I fall, I'm blaming you guys, you know!"

Alex broke away from Paige and skated to Marco's left side. She linked her arm with his and looked over at Paige. Paige followed Alex's lead and linked arms with Marco on his right. The two girls started skating, with Marco taking smaller strides in the middle. He was glad that his two friends were supporting him. They had made a lap around the rink and were starting off on a second one when Paige's father came up to them and leaned against the railing with a camera.

"Smile," he called out, raising the camera.

The picture made Paige laugh. Marco had feigned a look of terror, Alex was laughing and Paige had an overconfident look on her face. She sighed heavily and continued to stare at the picture, allowing her eyes to stare at Alex for a few seconds longer than the rest of the picture. She missed the days where they were the "Three Amigos" of Degrassi, she really did. Although their reign had been a short one- lasting from the start of freshman year until about the beginning of their second semester- it had definitely been one of her best times in high school. It's not your fault, she reminded herself. It was all Alex. She sighed and starting writing in her notebook. If she couldn't type anything on her laptop because of the noise, she could at least try to jot down some notes for later.

Paige gave up on the note taking after the hallway became noisy again. There was always a party going on in the dorm, but for some reason she just couldn't bring herself to go out and have a good time. She always had that fear that any boy she ran into could be another Dean. She missed the parties back home where everyone would just get together at someone's house, listen to music and just be stupid. The graduation parties had been the best. Even though Jay hadn't graduated, he still managed to make appearances and supply alcohol at every party. Paige sighed. She would do anything to be at a Degrassi party right now. Just then, her phone rang. The caller ID read: Dylan.

"Hey Dylan," she said with a smile on her face. "What's up? It is 9:30 at night… why aren't you and Marco out somewhere?"
"Hey Paige," Dylan said in a tired tone. "No, we stayed in with Ellie today, and I'm glad we did."
"Wait, what do you mean by that?"
"Paige, you know that girl Emma? She had a party today..."
"Emma Nelson had a party? Then again, I forgot, she did become Jay Hogart's ravine ho, so I shouldn't be so surprised."
"Yeah… no… Paige, listen, Emma had a party and something happened… have you been watching TV lately?"
"No, you know I don't have a TV in my room and everyone else is in the hall partying." Her voice dropped. "You know after the whole Dean thing I'm kinda worried about going out there with so many drunk guys."
Dylan sighed on his end of the phone. "Well listen, I don't know how to tell you this, but someone died at her party. They… they were killed."
"Oh, that's terrible! Who was it, was it Manny? I know she's close with Emma."
"No, Paige, it was JT."

When Paige heard that JT was dead, she slid down on her bed so she went from sitting to lying down. The phone was still pressed to her ear, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything. She couldn't believe it. Sure, she and JT hadn't been super close lately, but they definitely had their share of memories. She thought about the time when her friends had paid her to go on a date with JT. She hadn't wanted to do it for the money, but she had been broke. She had actually had some small feelings for him and she felt horrible when he found out she only went on the date for the money. Those feelings had passed, but that didn't mean she stopped caring about JT. She knew he was a great kid who was always looking out for other people and she knew it should have been someone else to go.

"Paige?" Dylan's voice interrupted her thoughts. "Are you still there?"
"Oh, yeah, sorry," she said in a shaky tone. "So JT is really gone?"
"Yeah, we heard it from Al-" he started coughing. "Sorry, we heard it on the news just now. It was a breaking story."
Paige was silent for a moment. She glanced over at her laptop and made a decision. "Banting can go on hold for a few days, I'm coming home. I know I wasn't the closest with JT lately, but I feel that I need to go to his funeral."
"Coming home when? We have to clean the guest room up a little."
"I'll be there tomorrow morning so you guys better clean tonight."
"Call me tomorrow when you get into town so someone will be up to get the door for you. You know how much I like my sleep." Dylan said laughing.
"Such a bum, as always," she laughed with him. "I'll see you tomorrow… I love you, bye."
"I love you, too, bye." He sighed and their conversation ended.

Paige set her phone down on the table and picked up the notebook again. She thumbed through pages of random notes, memories and pictures before reaching a blank page. She quickly started writing.

October 20, 2007

The Del Rossi/Michalchuk/Nash Household

The guest room had been cleaned up and Marco had carried Alex upstairs and put her on the extra bed to continue sleeping. Dylan had told Marco that Paige would be coming and sleeping in that room, but Marco assured him that Alex would probably be awake and gone before Paige came home. When Ellie tried to ask Marco what the big deal was about Alex seeing Paige, he had changed the subject and then decided he wanted to go to bed. Tired and defeated, she too went to bed.

It was now about nine in the morning. The sun was fully shining when a buzzing sound accompanied with the Canadian anthem came from Marco and Dylan's bedside table. Marco grunted and wriggled out of Dylan's protective grip to shake him on the shoulder. Dylan opened his eyes and sat up yawning. He reached over on to the table and answered his phone.

"Hello," he said tiredly.
"Dylan, my favorite older brother, how long am I going to have to grace the doorstep with my presence?" Paige's tone was cheerful yet irritated.
"Paige, I told you to call me when you were coming into town, not when you were on the front step."
"I did, I called you at eight and you said to call back when I was here."
"You never called me at eight…"
"Yeah I did, hon. Did you fall back asleep or something?"
"I guess I did go back to sleep…" he winked at Marco. "Well you won't have to stand there much longer, Marco here will go get the door."
"Great!" Paige hung up before he had the chance to say anything else.

Dylan smiled over at Marco and lay back down. Marco groaned and got out of bed. He stretched and headed downstairs. On his way to the door, he stopped at the kitchen and looked at Ellie, who was sitting at the table drinking coffee. He was about to ask why she didn't get the door when she looked up and nodded towards the door, giving him a fake smile. Ellie didn't seem too excited to have Paige coming in, and Marco knew Alex wouldn't be too happy either when she woke up. He opened the front door and was suddenly locked in a hug with Paige.

Paige had a duffel bag slung across her shoulder and was gripping a suitcase in one hand. To say she was only saying for a few days, she packed as if she were going on a long vacation. She released Marco from the hug and stepped inside the house, letting her suitcase fall to the ground with a loud bang. Ellie looked in Paige's direction, clearly annoyed, but didn't say anything. Marco lifted up the suitcase and started heading upstairs with it. Paige followed behind him.

"Oh, um… wouldn't you rather have breakfast?" Marco said nervously.
"Have breakfast with Ellie?" Paige raised an eyebrow. "Thanks but no. Besides, I ate already. I need to go lay down." She sped ahead of Marco and ran to the guest room.

Marco winced and nearly dropped the suitcase when he heard Paige yell and the guest room door slammed shut.

"MARCO!!!!" Paige exclaimed. "Why is she in my bed?!"
"Paige," Marco came up the last few stairs as fast as he could with a heavy suitcase. "Well, you see, she came over last night from Emma's party to tell us about JT and well…"
"Oh, so she shows up wasted, tells you JT is dead and you let her crash in my room on my bed?"
"How was I supposed to know you were just gonna up and drop Banting to come running back here? And I didn't think you would be here this early."
"Marco," she whined.
"Paige, you haven't said more than maybe five words to her since freshman year, I think you need to get over it." He said firmly.

He walked past her into the gust room and set the suitcase down against the wall. He closed the door and walked over to the bed, gently shaking Alex awake. She swore and buried her head under the pillows.

"Alex," Marco said in an exasperated tone. "Paige is outside that door."
She suddenly sat up and moved a hand to her head. "Whoa, way too fast… Paige is really out there?" She said trying to hide her interest.
"Yeah, you didn't hear her yelling?"
"Oh, I thought that was Ellie." She yawned. "Why isn't she at school?"
"She came because of JT…" he said quietly.
"Right…" she shivered. "She doesn't do it on purpose, but she makes me shake."
"Still? Alex, it's been almost five years…"
"Five years of covering it up, Marco. Five years of hanging around dirty, cheating Jay and getting an STD and working in the movie theatre to cover my mom and her idiot boyfriend. Five years of going to the ravine and drinking the pain away. Five years of hooking up with any guy just to take my mind off of her."
Marco sighed and moved away from the window and closer to the door. "The two of you need to have a talk, I think."

Outside of the room, Paige was leaning against the door, lost in thought. Alex was lying in her bed. Alex her former best friend who had been or still was in love with her. Paige hated to admit it, but she did sort of miss the way things were. She thought about how her life would have been different had they stayed the Three Amigos. She looked down at her watch and sighed. From what she remembered, Alex could sleep through anything and wouldn't wake up until she was satisfied.

"Now I count the hours until you wake," Paige mumbled to the door, silently willing Alex to wake up. "With your baby's breath you breathe symphonies…" She sighed. She hated to admit it, but she did miss the old days. Or maybe she just missed Alex since she did still talk to Marco.

Marco sighed as he approached the door. "Come on, sweet catastrophe," he mumbled as he opened the door.
Paige fell forward into the room but caught herself. "Well, it looks like all three amigos in are together at last."
"Too bad it took a death to make you come around." Alex said bitterly.
"I'll leave you two to catch up… bye." Marco practically ran from the room.

A/N: Ok, I didn't really like this chapter, so if you think it sucked, too, feel free to leave a review saying that. If you thought it was good, review! I thought I was gonna have a Paige and Alex reunion in this chapter, but that would have may the chapter a lot longer, so look forward to the two of them talking next chapter! I'm debating on if iI wanna make the next chapter a sort of songfic. I have the song picked out, but I dunno if I should just leave it as the title or actually use it. Your call! So review and let me know!