Laugh, I Nearly Died

A Degrassi: The Next Generation Story

Rated Teen: for course language, minor violence, non-explicit sexual situations, and adult content

... ... ...

Chapter One

“And don’t come back!” her father yelled, his anger making her tears fall faster as she slammed the front door closed behind her. A duffel bag in one hand and her cell phone in the other, Manny Santos stomped down the stairwell and out of the apartment building, sobbing hysterically.

She made her way down the sidewalk, headed for Degrassi St. towards her best friend’s house. It was over. Her life had finally fallen apart, completely. There was no fixing the mess she’d made of things now. She knew Mr. Simpson would let her stay with Emma. So, at least she had somewhere to go. But that wasn’t the problem. She was out of a home, a boyfriend, and going through the most humiliating time of her life. If only she could go back. If only she had never met Craig Manning. The bastard, she thought bitterly, swiping at the snotty, wet mess her face had become.

Little hiccups of hysteria bubbled up from her chest as she tried to wipe away the tears as fast as they were falling. She couldn’t make them stop, couldn’t catch her breath, and couldn’t stop crying. She hated it! She was so mad, so angry at Craig, at her father, at the world. Mostly though, she was mad at herself, for letting things get so bad. It was her choices that led to this, she knew that. She wouldn’t deny it. Not that she would admit it either, at least to anyone else.

She hurried past the Dot, the youth’s local café hangout, not wanting to be seen by anyone in her current condition. For a moment, she thought that maybe she’d gotten lucky all of a sudden, when she’d almost made it past the local hangout without running into anyone she knows… almost, but not quite. Keeping her head down and hidden by massive spiraled waves of raven hair as she cried made it impossible to see clearly where she was going, which was what caused her to ram straight into the hard back of a guy standing in the middle of the sidewalk, like he owned it. Her bag slipped from her shoulder and tumbled to the ground as she fumbled for balance.

“Damn, Santos. Why don’t you watch where you’re going next time?” A vaguely familiar male voice called to her after she barreled into him, a tinge of irritation in his tone, mixed with a lot of impatience.

She bent down to pick up her bag, and slung the strap over her shoulder, rubbing her hand over her cheeks and using her dark waves of hair to block her face from view. She glanced up quickly to see Jay Hogart staring down at her, his brow raised, unimpressed.

She looked over his shoulder to see Sean Cameron, and the rest of Jay’s posse of criminals all loitering by the corner. Exactly the last people she needed to see at this particular moment. She cringed at the idea of being fodder for their cruel amusement.

Shaking her head, and inwardly screaming her lungs out and childishly stamping her feet, Manny lowered her head and shoved past him, and hurried down the sidewalk past them all, sniveling quietly. She couldn’t believe her luck. And the smug looks on their faces, she just knew they were judging her. She cringed in anticipation of their lewd insults, mocking her, and cruelly rubbing her face in the mud. Luckily, nothing reached her ears, and she let out a heavy sigh of relief once she’d turned the corner and was out of their sights.

Everyone knew she had gotten pregnant by Craig, the cheating rocker scum, and now everyone would know that she’d had an abortion, again. It was the same exact situation as last year, same exact. Everyone would also know that Craig had gone back to his ex-girlfriend, Ashley friggin’ Kerwin. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her all over again. What had she done to deserve such a rotten life? Oh right, she’d fallen for Craig Manning. That had been the catalyst, the event that screwed her life up royally. She was definitely convinced that that was it. That was when everything started going downhill for her.

That was the only thing she was so sure of anymore. And there was nothing that would convince her otherwise. What she needed was to go about fixing her life, getting things on track again. She needed to be happy again. She needed to improve her life. She was at a fork in the road, and now was her chance. But what she needed wasn’t what she wanted at the moment. Here, on her best friend’s street corner, which would become her new home, Manny realized that the one thing she wanted more than anything right now was… revenge. The only problem was that she had no idea how to go about getting it.

Climbing the steps to Emma’s front porch, she looked over the humble two story house that had been her on again—off again home all of her adolescent life, and inhaled a shuddery breath. Things aren’t so bad, she thought, with a sudden wave of hope coming over her melancholy.

She knocked on the door, and hurried to clean up her face as much as possible before Emma’s stepdad answered the door. At school, in their media immersion class, he was Mr. Simpson, but here, he was known as Snake. He caught one look at her messy face and her black duffel bag, and waved for her to come inside, a sympathetic expression on his face as he pulled her into a half-hug. He knew the routine. They’d done this before, the last time her controlling father decided he’d disown her because she wanted to be an actress.

That thought would have sent a rejuvenated burst of tears to her eyes, if it hadn’t been that she was so preoccupied with brainstorming her revenge on Craig. She passed through the foyer, skipping the staircase, and going straight for the basement door in the kitchen. She went down into the basement, to find her blonde friend lounging on her bed, hunched over a textbook, tapping a pencil against the crisp page. She looked frazzled, Manny observed, dropping her bag on the floor by the stairs and opening her arms wide as Emma looked up from her book.

“Manny?” Emma muttered, her brow furrowing in confusion and worry as she scrambled up from the bed.

“Any chance you’re in the market for a roomy… again?”

“Oh, Manny,” Emma sighed heavily, her face falling as she looked on in pity at her best friend. Manny rolled her eyes and waggled her fingers at Emma. Emma had been selfishly beside herself the last time Manny had moved out, to go back home after patching things up with her father. She hadn’t wanted to let Manny leave. So Manny knew better than to believe her saddened act. She knew Emma would be inwardly ecstatic to get her back as a roommate.

Manny forced a happy smile on her face, and giggled as her blonde friend’s demeanor changed instantly; she hopped in the air and let out a giddy gasp of excitement.

“I’m so glad you’re back!” she exclaimed, sweeping Manny into a bone-crushing hug, and burrowing her face in the Filipino’s raven mane. Switching back to pity, Emma pulled away from Manny’s embrace and smiled comfortingly. “Are you okay?” she asked. Manny let out a heavy sigh and sunk down to her... their bed.

“Don’t depress me, Em,” she said, slapping Emma in the arm and flopping back onto the bed. She stared up at the grimy ceiling and resigned to her new life. It would be nice having Emma as a roommate again, she conceded with herself.

Once Emma had joined her on the bed, and they got to talking, Manny decided to tell Em all about her new ideas of vengeance, which of course her fluffy-loving friend did not approve of. She realized, after Emma had gone to bed, and she was lying there in the dark, lost in her own reverie, that she’d need a plan. She’d need to be conniving, and manipulative, and maybe a little slutty. But she could do it. She knew she wouldn’t make Craig love her, and she was so sure she didn’t want him to, not after this. But she could make him want her. And then, she would crush him.

But as it turned out, crushing him was not as easily to go about doing as she initially thought. It was in the afternoon of the next day, in the last period of the day at Degrassi High, when Manny and Emma were chatting, as usual, and overheard Ellie and Marco talking about an awesome party that night. Everyone would be there, they said.

That’s how Manny ended up walking up the drive in the sexiest thing she’d ever worn, hand in hand with Emma, and ready to party. That was when it all started, when it all got even messier than it had been.

The house was packed full of teenagers, loud music blared through the rooms, and a beer keg was set up in the kitchen, dispensing plastic cups of it to all the loud, obnoxious people.

She was pretty sure she was drunk. As she stumbled her way down the hall, shoving past the mass of partying people, and finally found her way to the bathroom, after like, twenty minutes of searching.

Yep, she thought sourly while staring in the mirror, I’m so totally wasted. She hadn’t planned on really drinking that much. Yet, as soon as Craig arrived with Ash hanging all over him, both looking sickeningly happy and carefree, Manny’s abstinence from alcohol went right out the window. “Oh God,” she groaned, her stomach doing summersaults. She lunged for the porcelain basin, hunching over it just in time to spew her guts out.

She couldn’t remember where Emma had gone off to, but she was pretty sure that Sean had pulled her away not even an hour ago. Manny fell back against the bathtub, groaning uncomfortably as she fought off dizziness and waited for her stomach to settle.

“I need another drink,” she muttered to herself, pushing up from her hands and knees and stumbling out of the bathroom. She spotted a red cup being held in the air by someone she didn’t recognize, and immediately went after it. She slid the thing from the dancing person’s hand and gulped down something extremely sour. It was like fire as it scorched down her throat. She just choked and shook her head, tossing the cup to the side and hurrying out of the living room, into the front hallway.

She bumped into a hard back, and had to rub her head at the impact, making a grimace as she swayed on her feet. Her eyes weren’t working very well, neither was her brain, or her mouth, but that didn’t stop her from swatting the guy she’d run into and calling him a slurred dirty word. Which dirty word she called him, she wasn’t quite sure.

It wasn’t until she was walking away from him that she realized that the guy had been Jay Hogart. She turned on her heels with wide eyes and rushed after him, grabbing his arm and twirling him back towards her.

“Hey, have you seen Emma?” she called over the music, her head tilting to the side as she squinted up at him. She waited, whining slightly and shifting from one foot to the other as his eyes took their time roaming up and down her form. Finally, his gaze returned to hers, and he smirked, shrugged noncommittally, and shook his head. “Great, thanks so much,” she drawled sarcastically, catching him with her shoulder as she pushed past him.

“Where’re you going, Santos? Stick around,” he commented suggestively, watching her leave with attentive eyes. She waved a hand dismissively over one shoulder, not bothering to look back as she made her way through the moving bodies, out to the front porch, where it was a little less crowded. She scanned her surroundings, hoping to find her blonde friend somewhere out here. Her eyes didn’t catch sight of Emma, but they did see Craig, leaning against a car by the curb, making out with Ashley.

Manny rolled her eyes at that, a cover for the hurt she was feeling, that damn pang in her chest. She turned and pushed her way back inside. A hand caught her wrist, twirling her mid-step, and she was suddenly pressed against a hard body. She would’ve pulled away, but something stopped her. What the hell, she thought.

“What’s your name?” someone yelled into her ear, leaning his stubbly chin on her shoulder, which was bare, thanks to the black halter top that kept her midriff exposed as well.

She swayed mindlessly, not even able to hear the beat in the music, and shouted back, “Manny Santos,” before letting her forehead fall against his shoulder. He stank of cigarette smoke and liquor, but she was too out of her mind to care. She let the heavy noise pound into her, and just went along for the ride as she was passed along the dance floor, from one pair of arms to another.

It all got kind of blurry and dark from then on in, and the next thing she was even slightly aware of was being led up the stairs, a hand tight as it gripped her wrist, leading her upwards. She glanced over her shoulder one last time, in hope of spotting her friend, before she let her head drift down to rest on a foreign shoulder, and her eyes fell closed.

Her feet shuffled onward, an arm around her waist kept her up. And she fell, crashing down to a bouncy mattress, covered in a very itchy comforter. She groaned uncomfortably, and rolled onto her side, frowning as she attempted to clear some of the fog from her mind. She was far too wasted to succeed, but she tried anyway. After a few minutes, all she cared about was sleep, without thought to where she was or who she was with. Manny let the darkness swallow her.