"Hey, Em!" Alice called to the blonde from down the hall. She had been doing her best to avoid the youngest Cameron sibling all day.
Emma grimaced as she turned to the direction of the voice, "hey, Al..."
"Sean's been staying with you, right?" Her words were panicked as she searched her eyes for an answer, "please tell me he stayed with you last night, right? He hasn't answered mine or Jay's calls or texts. I've been so worried, I hardly slept-"
"Yeah, Al," Emma sighed, "he's been at my place since he left Jay's. Is anyone going to tell me what happened between you and him?"
Alice let out a deep sigh, "Jay and I started sneaking around and seeing each other lately, and Sean just walked in on us..."
Her voice trailed off, allowing for Manny to express her disapprovement from next to Emma, "ew, even after what happened between you and him at the riv-"
She ended her sentence abruptly upon the sight of both Emma and Alice's shock and horror.
"Manny!" Emma cried, mortified.
All the colour in Emma's face drained as Alice asked the question she wished she wouldn't, "did you and Jay have a thing?"
The blonde ran a hand through her hair and clenched a handful of it in her fist. Mortified, she hesitantly answered the question, "it wasn't really anything. We fooled around. Once. He had more than I did for sure. It was right after the shooting, to say I was really messed up was an understatement."
"You mean the shooting where my brother jumped in front of the gun to save your life?"
Even though it had been almost two years since it happened, the guilt she felt back then came bubbling to the surface now.
"Does Sean even know?" Alice asked, sounding defeated.
The question made her wince; she couldn't help but think about the moment she had with him yesterday that would surely be ruined with this news. Emma simply shook her head, that was now hung in humiliation. She didn't bother to look up again until she heard Alice's footsteps in the distance. Now, there was a bag of Sean's things dropped at her feet.
"I'm sorry, Em," Manny said sicerely, "I thought she knew. I was trying to make a joke."
Emma sighed, "I just hope she doesn't tell Sean. He needs to hear it from me."
Meanwhile, Alice tried to make sense of everything as the bell rang for lunch. It just so happened Jay was coming to pick her up, since his break happened to be at the same time.
"Hey Lil Cam," Jay called to her from his parking spot at the bottom of the front steps, "hop in."
"What are you thinking for lunch? Pizza? Burger?"
"When were you going to tell me?" Alice asked, her voice monotone.
Jay thought carefully before he spoke, as to not incriminate himself any further, "...about what?"
"You and my brother's girlfriend," she rolled her eyes, "why would you do that to him?"
He pulled off to the side of the road before he responded, "I was young and stupid. Sean had been gone back to Wasaga for a while by that point. I was sad, too; he was my best friend. I missed him, but I realize now that fooling around with the love of his life was the worst way to cope."
Alice was pleasantly surprised by his response. She never would've guessed that the Jay she had met only a few weeks prior would've ever conjured up such a mature response.
"I'm sorry," he hung his head after receiving nothing in response, "to you and Sean."
"I appreciate your apology," she sighed, "but I'm not sure I'm ready to forgive you just yet. You've driven a wedge between my brother and I, and now I find out this information?"
He scoffed, "I know this is going to sound crazy, since we've known each other for such a short time, but there's something about you. You're it; you're the one I want to be with. No one else matters but you, Alice Cameron."
She could've melted then and there. Why hold a grudge against someone you didn't even know back then?
"Man, too bad your brother won't take the news as well as you did..." Jay scratched the back of his kneck, "I'm fully prepared to lose my best friend."
"Yeah," she sighed, "I guess I'll just tell him whenever he finally answers my calls..."
Jay's eyes grew large, "you can't tell him, Al."
Her eyes narrowed in his direction as he continued, "I mean, it shouldn't come from you."
"Hell, it shouldn't even come from me."
She thought for a moment. Maybe Jay was right; why would she want to be the one to drive a wedge further between him and his best friend?
She breathed a laugh at the thought of Jay's advice actually being beneficial, "since when are you a man of such wisdom and insight?"
He shrugged, "I guess I just surround myself with the right people now."
Only a small smile crept up on her face, revealing her prominent dimples that secretly made Jay fall head over heels. However, the thought of the situation at hand with her brother still put a damper on the excitement she felt from hearing Jay's sweet words.
"We better go grab a bite before lunch ends." She changed the subject at the rumbling of her empty stomach. Jay obliged and took them through a fast food drive-thru.
"Thanks, babe," Alice placed a gentle kiss on Jay's lips as she began to exit the vehicle with her root beer in tow, "will you be here to pick me up at the end of the day?"
He nodded, "should be done the Mercedes by then."
She smiled and waved happily in his direction. She really couldn't stay mad at hims long. Her excitement lasted only a brief moment, though, as she entered Mr. Simpson's classroom. She hadn't even thought about having to sit next to the blonde in class. She sat between Emma and Manny, but spoke only to the brunette on her left; her back turned to the blonde.
Emma cleared her throat, "can we at least talk about it?"
"What is there to talk about?" Alice snapped as she whipped around in her office chair, almost slashing Manny with her hair, "The fact that you continuously hurt my brother? Even after he quite literally saved your life? Were you ever going to tell him?"
"Of course I was," Emma's voice was soft now, barely above a whisper, "I've just been so excited to have him back in my life. Sue me for being reluctant to bring up the past to effectively ruin the best relationship we've ever had."
Alice rolled her eyes, "he deserves to know, whether you want to tell him or not."
"I will, Al," she pleaded, "just give me time. Give him time. He's already worked up about whatever the hell happened between you two. I don't think we need to throw this into the mix. Let him be mad at one girl at a time."
Alice stifled a laugh, "I guess you're right. Between the two of us, we're going to drive him crazy enough to pull out his long lucious locks." She mocked her brother.
Emma laughed, "he sure does care a little too much about his hair, huh? That's definitely not the Slim Shady I knew."
That joke didn't quite land with Alice. After all, she didn't know her brother outside of turtleneck sweaters and jean jackets. The Eminem look was a Degrassi special.
Emma sensed a slight awkward lull in their conversation and spoke again, "I promise you, I care about him. A lot."
Her eyes grew sincere as she continued, "the mistakes I made in the past - with you-know-who - are my biggest regret. I know who I want, and it's Sean."
She was still amazed that her brother, the Sean Cameron, found someone as crazy about him as he was about her. When she thought of her brother, she thought of the short-tempered, carefree boy who needed no one. Now, it was clear: it wasn't that he needed no one, he just needed the one.
Alice smiled sincerely as she placed a reassuring hand atop Emma's, "I know, Em."
