The time line has moved on. This is the summer before grade eight for Alex and Ellie, and the summer before grade nine for Jay and Sean.

Save Me From Myself

August 2002
Alex: 13
Jay: 15

Ellie was discharged after three days, and she was back at home living with her mom. Sean was warming toward Jay and they actually hit it off quite well. Soon, Ellie and Alex and Sean and Jay became a double act.

Jay found Ellie a difficult character to read. She tried to kill herself just four months ago, yet she was the one who was turning his life around for him and actually saving him from becoming a welfare-dependent bum. Things had moved along a lot in three months. When school started back in September, Jay was going back to grade nine at Degrassi, to try again with his education. He'd also got his own place. His remaining money that Sunny hadn't got from him was paying his first and last month rent, and he had a job at a garage in town that payed enough for Jay not to feel stranded.

Jay sat on the left side of the couch, diagonally, with his legs crossed over and his feet resting on the coffee table, so carefree. Alex was sat on the right side, with her legs draped over Jay's, her shorter legs meant her feet didn't reach the coffee table, so they were just suspended in air. Jay had the remote control in his hand, but he didn't change the channel, even though Alex could see his eyes drooping. It was like deja-vu.

"Jay, don't fall asleep." Alex's words plunged into the air, causing Jay's head to jerk up and his eyes to dart around in temporary sleepy confusion.

"I'm not asleep." Jay lied, yawning loudly. "Just resting my eyes."

"OK." Alex just smiled, her sarcastic tone not as harsh as usual. "You did insist of having everyone round on a work night."

"Don't worry. Oh, look, everyone'll be here soon." Jay announced, lifting Alex's legs up so he could spring up off the couch.

"Hey, Jay man, ready to Christen the new place?"

Ellie and Sean arrived, hand in hand, with a four pack of beers in their free hands. Matched with the sixteen cans and liter bottle of Vodka Jay had supplied, the party was good to go.

"You bet, man!" Sean dropped Ellie's hand and greeted Jay in that butch, manly way that 'brothers' do.

Ellie gravitated toward her best friend, who sighed at the two guys. "Well this is gonna be fun." Ellie commented dryly.

Jay's new place was small and boxy, with gray walls and wooden floors. They sat on wooden crates – there was one chair which Jay had claimed as his throne before anyone else got a look in. The main centerpiece was the huge sound system in the middle of the back wall.

Sean flicked the lights and turned on the stereo and

Ellie heard a knock at the door. No-one else noticed it, so she edged toward the door and awkwardly answered it.

Stood before her was a tall black guy wearing a blue basketball jersey over a white tee and baggy jeans, a shorter big chested brunette girl and a few other indistinguishable ones. "Uh, hi?" Ellie greeted the tallest guy and he stepped past her, like the rest of them, without so much as a nod.

"Yo, Towerz, Amy! How you doin', man?" Jay greeted this Towerz character in the same manly way he did Sean. Ellie and Alex had no idea who Towerz was, but it was clear to Ellie that Alex knew who Amy was.

Amy ran up to Alex and hugged her, and Alex hugged her back, although the look on her face was less than amused.

Ellie stood by the pounding speakers, all alone, the thoughts wandering around in her head were asking her what the hell she was doing here.

- - - - -

Plenty of beers later, teetotal Alex noticed the guys were verging on out of control. Since Towerz, Amy and the rest of the nobodies arrived, more and more people turned up at the door with even more alcohol. Alex was nervously hovering around all night, but Jay was having a wail of a time without her, obviously.

"Al, aren't you drinking?" Tipsy Ellie slurred. She'd never been addressed as 'Al' by anyone. The plastic red party cup that Ellie was clutching sloshed vodka and orange over the rim and onto the wooden floor.

"No." Alex replied firmly. She took the cup out of Ellie's unsteady hand. "Don't you think you've had enough, Ellie? You've not long got out of the hospital."

Ellie wanted to argue that it had been nearly four months, but instead she just opened her mouth and said, "OK. I'll stop."

Alex looked at her in doubt, but she still took this opportunity to open the nearby window and pour out the yellow drink.

"Hey, Lex, I'll be back in ten minutes, OK?" Jay breezed by, quickly checking in the ducking out just as quickly.

"Where are you going?" Alex called over the music but he was gone into the night and didn't look back.

- - - - -

Jay, Amy and Towerz ran down the stairs to the ground floor of Jay's apartment block, eager to get outside. Jay jabbed at the security pad, entering the wrong code three times, finally getting it right on the fourth try. At least it didn't have a limit on the amount of go's you got.

When the trio finally got outside, they wasted no time in lighting up. Towerz took a long, savoring hit, then a smaller, snappier one and held it out for Jay. He took hold of it and took a deep toke, taking advantage of the smoke billowing around in his lungs.

They all took two tokes then passed it to the next one in the circle.

- - - - -

Ellie saw Jay, Towerz and Amy sneak out, and she had a feeling she knew what they were up to, but there was something that stopped her telling Alex. After Alex had taken her drink from her, Ellie was on the look out for a moment when Alex's attention was divided and she could grab another drink. She didn't care what; a simple beer in a can would be easier to quickly grab, but her preferred vodka and orange sounded much more tempting. But alas, pouring the Vodka and rooting around for the orange was going to take time, and it was more likely Alex would notice her and give her another lecture.

She edged slowly toward the kitchen area and looked around breezily, trying to look nonchalant. She couldn't see Alex, well she was pretty sure she couldn't. She scanned the multiplying crowd of party goers. It had started out small, and then ballooned from then on in. Two people arrived, then another two, then two more turned up who had heard about it from the first two people, and so on. She stood in the kitchen, trying to blend into the darkness. She discretely and also quite drunkenly reached out for the Vodka and shakily poured it half way up the cup. She took a big sip in relief then crept around to the other side where she spied a bottle of orange. Her hand shook violently as she unscrewed the bottle top, but she didn't notice. As she lifted the bottle to pour, a big pair of arms wrapping around her waist from behind her made her jump. The orange liquid spouted out of the bottle and all over the kitchen unit.

"Oh, my God!"

"Guess who!" Sean shouted in her ear over the music.

"Sean!" Ellie exclaimed in her tipsiness. She spun around and wrapped her arms around his neck and began kissing him passionately.

- - - - -

Alex watched from the corner and was thankful to Sean for going over there and distracting Ellie from the drink like she had asked him.

I thought the characters deserved a little bit of fun, so I made this chapter. Hope you liked it. Please review!