Series Title: The Kids Aren't Alright

One-shot Title: The Beat Goes On

Rated: T, over all; light T this time.

Summary for this one-shot: Ellie Nash learns that, even if she doesn't want it to, the beat goes on.

Disclaimer: I own no characters from the show, but I own any titles or ideas used.

Author's Note: This series is basically a bunch of one shots about the graduating class of '06 and the class of '07 three-eleven years after 2006. I would also like to thank all those that reviewed. I'm really having fun with these stories.

November 13, 2012

Ellie Nash, with a little help from her friends, had started her own small magazine in college. The magazine had been more or less a place for she and her friends to print up their own thoughts and art work, but after a couple of years it got popular. So popular, that she had turned it into a real magazine after college. It was published all through Canada and Ellie hoped to have it in the States by the start of the next year.

She was a high powered business woman and owner of The Beat, but was she really happy? It was a question Ellie had asked herself many times over the years. She had her parents, she had her friends, she had her magazine, but she was alone.

During her freshmen year of college, she had had a one night stand with Craig Manning. Before that, Sean Cameron had left her. She supposed it was somewhere around those two that her love life started to go to hell. If she hadn't had been so busy trying to get Craig, maybe she would have lived happily ever after with Jimmy Brooks? Now, that was something she often thought about; if she had gone back to Sean or gone off with Jimmy, would she have been happy and married.

Maybe.

Of course, if Ellie had gone with Sean, he would have left her for Emma. And if she had gone with Jimmy, then he and Ashley would have never gotten together during their senior year. Ellie's romantic life was a world of 'ifs' and 'maybes'.

Marco Del Rossi had told her a dozen times: "El, you're successful and beautiful. Time to get over Craig and Sean and get back out there." Ellie never listened. She was bad at romance and that was just the way it was. On the bright side, she was just twenty-four, so she had time to start getting it right.

It didn't make her a bad person or a loser, just because she wanted to focus on her career and not on men. What had men given her anyway? They were nothing but trouble. All sweet talk and flirting, until their girlfriends showed up or until things got hard. Men left girls with the rent and with broken hearts.

Alright, she was a bit bitter. She could ambit it.

Still, she had to go on. She had her magazine to run, after all. A magazine, which was currently sporting none other then freaking Craig Manning on the cover. It amazed Ellie that some of her former classmates had appeared on the cover of her magazine and, or been the subject of articles over the last couple of years. What was more amazing was that none of them really seemed to have bad blood with her or issues with doing her magazine.

So, they could all let go and she couldn't?

According to Marco, it was a bit of both, actually. Everyone of them was still haunted by the past, they just did a better job of hiding it. Emma Nelson was currently with Peter Stone, but she'd follow her pattern and she'd soon go back to Sean. Craig couldn't get Manny Santos out of his head. Jay Hogart kept trying to back with Alex Nuñez, despite the fact that Alex claimed she was a lesbian. Spinner and Darcy Mason had their own issues with their relationship and one another. Paige Michalchuk was dating yet another loser. What it came down to was that no one was as happy as they were letting on.

Yet, Ellie still felt bitter. So much so, that she did the unthinkable. She called Sean.

"Hello?"

She sucked in a deep breath. "Uh, hey. It's Ellie."

There was a long and uncomfortable pause, before: "Ellie, hey. Are you okay?"

"No, I'm fine. How's the shop?"

"Fine." Another pause. "Guess you heard Emma married Peter. Look, you don't have to check up on me."

"What? No, no one told me." She nervously cleared her throat. Boy, she hadn't seen that coming. It had always been in her mind that Emma would forever go between Peter and Sean. "I'm sorry to hear it."

"I'm fine, Ellie. Emma and I haven't been together for months."

Well, now what? She sighed softly. "Yeah, but it can still hurt. Knowing that someone you love can't or won't love you back. Knowing that the person you love will never really be yours."

"Ellie!" Sean didn't sound happy and Ellie regretted saying anything. "I'm fine. Unlike you, whose still pining away for a guy you had a drunken one night stand with years ago, I've moved on. Not everyone's pinning away for someone."

"I'm not pinning away for Craig!" Ellie shouted into her phone. "It's been five years and I'm over it, Sean. I'm not some idiot who hangs around waiting for a guy to call. A guy that just slept with her, because he and his girlfriend had just gone through something terrible. Besides, Craig's still madly in love with Manny, despite the fact that she broke up with him six years ago today."

Sean laughed bitterly over the phone. "You're obsessed with him and you know it. You know when he and Manny broke up for God's sake!"

Ellie had been caught and she knew it. "I…shut up. You're still in love with Emma!" That was a good one, perfect way to get back at him.

"Ellie, you have no idea what you're talking about, okay? You have no idea. We haven't even spoken in nearly three years, so don't pretend you know anything about me." There was a long sigh. "Look, I'm busy, what do you want?"

Oh, why did he have to ask? "I guess I just wanted to hear your voice and know that you're well."

"Liar."

Ellie chuckled softly to herself, Sean always could read her like a book. "Guess so. Would you believe that I never really got over you, either?"

Another pregnant pause. "I can believe it. Kids from Degrassi always seemed to be going between two different people. Guess we're no different." He cleared his throat. "I'm on my way home, but if you'd want to, I could turn around and meet you at The Dot?"

Despite herself, Ellie felt a small smile form on her lips. "I'd like that. We could talk. I'll met you there." As she ended the call, Ellie felt happy for the first time in ages. She had wasted too many years on being bitter about the past. It was time to move on.

After all, the beat would go on, no matter how much Ellie Nash wished it won't. So, why not march along with it?