Chapter Eleven: Crying, Begging Both Knees are On the Floor

New Scene

"Hey Alex!" Scott rushed to catch up with her as she slipped her sunglasses halfway off of her face. "What's with the glasses?" He wondered as Alex pushed them back on quickly. She didn't want anyone to talk about the huge bruise she had on her left eye.

"I don't want you talking to me." She decided.

"What about making Jay's life harder or whatever?"

"Always following me around, doesn't it get boring?" Alex reached into her back pocket for a cigarette. "I thought you were supposed to be hard."

"Stop acting like something's up your ass. You're the only chick I know here." Scott shot back as Alex smirked, surprised. Blondie boy had a mouth on him.

"Don't worry about what's up my ass." Alex paused. "You got a light?" She pointed at the cigarette still impressed by how he took her shit for with a grain of salt. Everyone around here got uptight about it …even Jay freaked out when she was at that party. Who cared?

"No, I don--"

"Save it." Alex rolled her eyes, putting the cigarette away. Her bruise was starting to ache. "Cigarette's suck, I know but are you ready for this?" Alex quickly pulled out a joint as Scott looked away. "Don't tell me you're a goody-good. Come on. There might be something in it for you." She lied really just liking the power she had over Scott. It felt good to add to his delinquency.

SCENE

"Where you going? We're not done yet!" Dani yelled at Manny who ran out because she couldn't take it anymore. Sitting up there and watching Craig, but pretending not to watch him … and he was so wrapped in what he was doing that he didn't care about the fact that he had just ruined her life.

"I'll get her." Aaron declared, with a clinched jaw. He glared at Craig. Because of his little love affair they were behind schedule and he was going to say whatever necessary to get Manny to stay.

"Don't say anything to me. I'm already leaving!" Manny yelled, thinking that it was Craig.

"Manny--"

"Oh. I thought you were … never mind." Manny whispered. "The one time I have to pursue my dream and who stands in the way? Craig, yet again. It's like he's a ghost haunting me or something."

"If I were him, I'd be stalking you too." Aaron joked, getting Manny to crack a smile. "You've gotta just go back in there and finish this thing. You gave up your school year for this."

"Which I am so regretting right now. Look, Aaron I really need to make this call." Manny pulled out her cell phone. Kiowi was on her mind again.

"He won't want to talk with you, but I will … let's just skip out on the rest of rehearsal tonight. I promise if you don't have a good time, I'll let you leave. I won't say anything."

"You'll let me leave?" Manny smirked. "What am I like, ten?"

"You know you want to. Come on." Aaron grabbed her hand and pulled her in the direction of the limo.

"Way to be discreet. You know how crazy American fans can get." Manny sighed. "Let's take my car." She decided before she could change her mind.

SCENE

"Close your eyes." Gianni muttered as Ellie reluctantly agreed. "Okay, open them!" He called from a farway location.

Ellie rolled her eyes. "Rose petals? How original." She continued noticing that the emptiness of the restaurant was starting to freak her out. "Can we get out of here?"

"What? I thought we had an agreement." Gianni rushed up to her, confused. "You'll miss the surprise."

"I don't care about the damn surprise. I want out of here, now Gianni."

"Just stay for a little while Ellie." He pleaded, reaching for her hand.

"No! Don't … I've gotta go." Ellie backed away quickly walking out of the restaurant. That was exactly how he … she couldn't believe that Gianni had done that, especially since he knew her history.

SCENE

"So this is it hon? You're leaving?" Paige burst into tears holding onto her best friend tightly.

"Yeah, but I won't be going to that all girls school." Hazel whispered.

"You won't?" Paige looked up confused. "How are you…"

"I'm gonna withdraw and take all that money they're spending there and doing something with it. I'm gonna live my life my way." Hazel kissed Paige on the cheek. "Don't worry. You're like a sister to me and I'll come back … promise."

"And what about Jimmy?"

"What about him … we made a really big mess. I wish I could fix it." Hazel looked around for him at the airport, pretending not to be hurt, but she was. "I love you guys." She turned around, hugging Marco tightly and Ashley before heading towards the plane.

"What do you want me to tell him?" Paige asked as Hazel stopped in her tracks.

"Just tell him…" Hazel played with her hands. "Tell him I said goodbye." She rushed to away from her friends, her family who she was no longer talking to, and everything that resembled Degrassi. And she didn't even get to see Jimmy. He didn't even show up.

SCENE

"I am so fucking high right now." Alex laughed as Scott fell back onto the grass beside her. "The stars are … bright." She giggled again.

"They're aren't any stars." He mumbled as Alex looked at him strangely.

"Don't ruin my high." She rolled her eyes, passing the rest of the joint to him. "You'll feel better. Promise."

Scott stared at the joint uneasily. He'd been there so many times—where Alex was—and knew what it felt like. It was good. It felt so good. Nothing mattered and he would be floating for what seemed like forever.

But then he started to think about Elaine and Horizon. He didn't want to remember.

"I have to go." He explained as Alex jumped up beside him.

"Stay with me. Please?" She smiled gazing at him deeply.

"Yeah. Sure." With one puff, all of his stress was steadily seething from his body. Shelby didn't matter, neither did Elanie or his dad, just this moment. Just this Alex. Just this high.

SCENE

"You're taking me shopping? How awesome are you!" Manny exclaimed after she and Aaron had gotten some ice cream, which was like her favorite comfort food of all time.

"Get whatever you want, on me but the arcade first."

"Typical dude." Manny smiled. "I warn you, I used to be awesome at that old Mortal Combat game." As they scoped out the place, Manny's phone rang. "What if it's Dani?"

"It's not. Don't answer it." Aaron suggested.

"It's Gianni. I haven't talk to him in forever. Chill out for a second, okay?"

"Manny, when are you coming back? I'm really sick of this Ellie shit." He complained.

"But you cheated on her—wait, did something happen?" Manny asked, interested.

"I tried to take her out. We actually went out and I did the whole restaurant thing--"

"That I taught you?" Manny interrupted.

"Yeah. Yeah, but instead of loving it, Ellie totally freaked out about it. I thought that if I reminded her of how we got together she'd take me back or something."

"So now you're admitting that a chick has you on a leash?" Manny chuckled to herself. "Classic. I'm almost jealous of her.

"You followed the scent of Craig's behind didn't you?"

"Ha. Ha. Thanks for bringing that asshole up. I'm coming home tomorrow. Meet me in the airport." She demanded.

"You're what?"

"I'll call you before I get on the plane. Be there." Manny hung up the phone quickly. Leave it to Gianni to bring her back down to the real world.

"What's up? You look down again." Aaron noticed.

"Yeah. I am. Can we rain check on this? I really need to get wasted right now."

SCENE

"Tell me that wasn't better than Kwan's class again?" Alex wondered as the high started to wear off a little.

"Yeah." Scott still seemed detached.

"Are you like one of those weird freaky people that gets all depressed and shit when under the influence? I can't deal with that." Alex admitted, pulling out a cigarette. She was starting to get stressed again.

"No. I'm cool." Scott whispered, detached. "What happened to your eye?"

"Nothing." Alex touched her face, realizing her sunglasses were gone. "We should get going, you know school's out and all."

"We?"

"I." Alex grabbed up her things, and tried to place her hair halfway in her face. She didn't want to hear any rumors going around about her tomorrow.

"Alex." Jay pulled up beside her in his car. "Hop in. I'll take you."

Exchanging glances with Scott she shrugged. "I've got everything I need right here." She smiled, wrapping her arm around Scott's waist. In an angry fit, Jay drove off with squealing tires, but not before flicking them off.

SCENE

"Are you wasted enough now?" Aaron wondered, watching Manny dancing on one of the tables at the club he snuck her into.

"Not yet. Come here!" She yelled almost falling off the bar trying to reach him. "Come on. Take a shot off me!" Manny grinned, getting a tube, jell-o, and a shaker from the bartender.

"Let's get back girl." Aaron called back, worried about the growing crowd that was gathering. Something like this could be bad publicity for them—but Dani always said negative exposure was better than none.

"Hurry." Manny commanded, pulling Aaron really close to her.

Before Aaron could barely get tube of alcohol down, Manny pounced on him, kissing him wildly. "Manny…" He mumbled, as she lead him into one of the back rooms.

"Don't say anything. Don't ruin it." Manny begged, making this process as quick as she could. The more "foreplay" the skipped, the faster they'd get to the part that would make her feel better. Who cared if she didn't love him or about the love triangle she was already in? This was Manny's way of taking things into her own hands.

"Are you okay?" Aaron asked when he heard Manny sniffing.

"Yeah. I suck at being drunk okay. It'll pass. Don't ruin it." She repeated wiping away the tears that were threatening to fall on him. "I so want this."

SCENE

"Alex." Ms. Nunez looked up at her still-high teenage daughter.

"Hi mom. Why aren't you at work?" She asked.

"I'm so sorry about last night baby." Ms. Nunez held her daughter close.

"Don't."

"He's won't touch you anymore. You guys won't be under the same roof anymore." She promised.

"And how are you gonna do that mom? You suck at it, see." Alex pointed to her bruise. "And don't forget that time he almost …"

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you Alex."

"Wait. There's something going on here." Alex noted, seeing that her mom was here, and evidently been here and was apologizing—and she wasn't drunk or anything.

"Yeah, there is … I quit my job."

"What? We can't afford to live here without your job, much less without his income." Alex shook her head angrily. "Go over there and say you changed your mind or whatever. This can't work."

"You're right. It's not." Ms. Nunex muttered quietly. "I hate seeing you destroy yourself like this Alex. You have to finish high school and college. You can't be like me." She hugged Alex tightly as though trying to make up for all those years of no-good boyfriend after no-good husbands.

"Do you have any idea what my scores look like? There's no way any college will take a C minus student. Let's not mention that we're BROKE." Alex shook her head. "You're on some deep shit right now. Talk to me later."

"Don't walk away from me!" Ms. Nunez yelled, and she never rose her voice at Alex. "You're going to claim yourself as an independent and the government will pay for you to go to college. You can start off at a community school." She handed Alex some pamphlets. "You've really been supporting yourself this whole last year."

"You're trying to get rid of me. Tell me what's really going on here." Alex demanded.

"You need to leave here, quickly." Ms. Nunez explained. As Alex stood in disbelief, Ms. Nunez shouted again. "But just let me ex--"

"No use. Pack my things and I'll come by tomorrow for them." Alex struggled to keep her voice narrow and unfeeling. "Can you come get me?" She wondered, making one quick call before leaving and not even looking her mom in the eye.

Alex was lucky that she kept her composure. With all that was bubbling inside, something was bound to erupt sooner or later. As she walked away from the house, everything felt cold and frozen. There was no way this could be real. There was no way she just got kicked out by her mother, the same mother that promised to always be there for her.

"You needed a ride?" Alex nodded hopping into the car she had ridden in so many times before.

"I need to spend the night again … I don't know for how long."

(a/n: I was supposed to put this up yesterday, but the ideas just wouldn't come. I think I'm slowly getting back on track with this so stay tuned. I should be updating once a week or once every two weeks on Fridays. Check out the schedule below and Review! –NL)

Tuesdays: Fool of Me/In the Deep

Thursdays: Wild Horses Two: La Tortura

Fridays: Double Standard or Beautiful Goodbye

Saturdays/Sundays: You're Gonna Burn Before You're Mellow