Don't Complain If You Can't Win

"I can't even concentrate on this stupid assignment!" Courtney sighed as frustration got the best of her. "Why do we even have to have homework? Isn't school work enough?" she asked as she spun around in the chair in front of Leighton's desk.

"Because teachers like to torture their students," Leigh replied dully from her chin resting on her mattress and the remote held firmly in her hand that was dangling off her bed.

"I know that," Courtney stood up from the chair and plopped down next to her best friend and took the TV remote from her hand. "That's not a good enough excuse though."

Leighton shrugged even though it wasn't very noticeable from how she was lying down. "It makes sense though," she sighed when Courtney set the TV on MTV. "Really, Court? How many times have you watched this episode of The Real World? Put something else on."

"Fine," she mumbled and began flipping through the channels, settling on a random movie that didn't even make sense on the SyFy channel. "I don't get this, how do bugs magically increase in size out of nowhere?"

"Change it; the graphics on this movie are shit," Leighton muttered with a heavy sigh.

"What crawled up your butt and died?" Courtney questioned her friend as she started surfing through every station.

"Nothing." Because she didn't sound too convincing, her best friend caught on and gave her a look that told her she knew she was lying. "Zack talked to me today."

After Leighton's words left her mouth, Courtney stopped switching channels and slowly turned her head to look at her best friend. "He talked to you? Like, a full on conversation?"

"He did most of the talking," she replied, laying the side of her face down flat on the mattress. "But pretty much."

"Well, what'd he say?" Courtney sat down on the bed with her legs crossed in front of her. "Did he just walk up to you?"

"No, not exactly. Mr. Holden changed everybody's seats and Zack sits in front of me now," Leigh explained. "Zack's been looking at me and smiling at me a lot in class and he finally just started talking about music."

"Music?"

"Yeah. He asked if I liked it and asked my name; he remembered my last name from how Mr. H calls us Miss or Mr. Whatever," she chuckled uneasily. "He said I have a pretty name and it suited me." A pink tint found its way to her cheeks causing her to shove her face in her mattress.

"Leighton," Courtney dragged out with a touch of disappointment on her voice. "Are we really going to have this conversation again? You already know what he wants from girls."

"Right now, he only wants me to go to a gig he and his band are having, and I'm sure it's nothing more than trying to expose his band to more people," Leighton sat up, getting defensive.

"Yeah, he wants to expose himself to your crotch, Leighton!"

Leighton's eyebrows furrowed and she felt herself becoming increasingly mad. "I wasn't planning on going anyway, Courtney, gosh! You didn't need to say that!" The anger cut through her words but Leigh took a deep breath to calm herself down. "Besides, you know I'm not like that Courtney."

"I know, and I'm sorry," her voice turned low as she looked down at her red painted toenails. "I don't want to hear about Zack anymore, okay? But just know, Leighton, that I'll always be here for you in whatever situation. I just want you to be happy, even if that means Zack Merrick."

--------------------

Rubbing her face to rid away the anxiety she was feeling, Leighton walked into her chemistry class, biting her lip and gripping her text book upon noticing Zack already in class. He lifted his head and subtly smiled while he sat up straighter. Leigh could feel his eyes glued to her as she walked to her seat behind his and set her stuff on the desk before adjusting the bottom of her shirt before sitting down. Her foot tapped nervously on the tiled floor and increased the speed when Zack turned in his chair.

"Hey, Leighton," he greeted with a smile and a head nod.

"Hi, Zack," she replied, hoping her nerves didn't show through her somewhat shaky voice.

"How are you?" he asked her, knowing where he was taking this conversation.

"I'm doing good, thanks. How about you?" she tried to sound as genuine as possible as she fiddled with her fingers.

"Well," he dragged out, "I would probably be doing much better if you would have shown up last night." Leighton's face contorted with confusion for a brief second. "You know, my band's gig? You didn't show up."

"Oh," she chuckled nervously. "Yeah, about that," Leigh scrambled to create an excuse that sounded logical, "I had somewhere else I had to be."

"Something more important? Like a date?" he questioned, tilting his chair and balancing himself with his hands holding onto his and Leighton's desk; Zack checked the clock on the wall to see just a couple minutes left before the bell rang for class to begin.

"Oh, heh," she muttered, "no, not a date."

"Good, because you already broke my heart once by not showing up to the show, I can't have you go breaking it again by dating some other guy," Zack smirked slightly and set his chair back down on all fours. "I was really disappointed when I didn't see your pretty little face in the crowd."

A blush quickly flushed her cheeks and she had to look away for a moment. Zack's eyes pierced hers when she made eye contact once more and her stomach began to flop around. "I'm sorry," she told him.

"I sure hope you are," he gave her a wink so she would catch on that he was only joking. "But you will be making up for it, won't you?"

"Is that more of a question or demand?" she asked him, raising an eyebrow and resting her chin in the palm of her hand.

"A little bit of both, actually."

"And how am I supposed to make up for it?"

"I don't know, but you will somehow. You don't think that I'm going to let you get away with breaking my little heart, do you?" his smirk was still plastered on his attractive face just as the bell rang. With another wink, Zack turned around just as Mr. Holden started his lecture.

Leighton, though, couldn't pay attention because her mind was stuck on Zack's words. She'd be making up for missing his band's show the previous night and thoughts of whether he was being serious or not rummaged through her head. A part of her really did hope he was telling the truth.