You Drain The Life From Me.

"Stephen Gomez, welcome to 8123."

"Whoa, this place is rad!"

"Yeah, and we never get in trouble, since it's abandoned and it's open space, so we're not trespassing."

"Nice."

Jared came towards us.

"We were looking for you, Leigh!"

"Did everyone get here alright?"

"Yup. I heard about the argument, actually."

"Yeah. This girl called me a slut and suggested that I was sleeping with Garrett, who stood up for me."

"He looked kinda angry when we left, actually."

"That's great. But I want nothing to do with him."

We walked towards the van where everyone was helping to bring out lawn chairs, beer, and food.

"Hey baby sister, hey baby sister's date," greeted John.

Stephen nodded and I blushed.

John chuckled and pulled a lawn chair over to a makeshift bonfire. Stephen left to help as well, and Lauren came over.

"Who's that really cute dude, Leigh?"

"Stephen Gomez, you know, John's brother? Kennedy's friend from Last Call For Camden?"

"Oh, yup, I remember seeing him at a party or something. What's he doing here with you?"

"He's my date."

Lauren shot me a disapproving look. "You know, Garrett is still, technically, your boyfriend."

"So? He doesn't act like it, so why should I?"

"Because you love him."

"I don't want to."

"Leigh--"

"Lauren, he's been avoiding me for the past week. He doesn't really seem to like it when I'm around. He didn't even want me to come tonight."

"But he stood up for you. You mean something to him, don't you get that?"

"But there's something going on. If I meant as much to him as you tell me, he wouldn't be doing this."

She sighed and took my hand. "Come on, let's get you a beer."

Once my red cup was filled, I reunited with Stephen and we sat in two of the lawn chairs.

Garrett walked up to us and I could see a frown on his face.

"Great show," complimented Stephen.

He grunted in reply.

"How rude of you, Garrett, to ignore someone after they compliment you. How rude of you to ignore someone in general, specifically your girlfriend."

"I..." he cut himself off and asked, "Why'd you bring him?"

"I can't bring anyone to a show?"

"No, it's just...I mean, you can't bring just anyone to 8123."

Before I could answer, Rachael Roberts came up next to Garrett, kissed him on the cheek, and handed him a beer. My hand tightened around my own can.

I nodded at Rachael. "That's a great double standard you got there, Garrett. If you don't mind, Stephen and I were talking."

Rachael shot me that same hateful look and said, "It's kinda funny how he ditched you for me without telling you."

I stood up, angry. I knew something was going on and she just made it official. Garrett was cheating on me.

I knew it. I knew something would go bad because things were going a little too perfect. But just because I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, it didn't mean that it hurt any less.

"Listen, Rachael. If you wanna give me bitchy looks, fine. But if I were you, I would be thankful that I'm not the one giving you those looks, since my boyfriend is cheating on me with you and that's where he's been all week. You're the reason he hasn't been around. If I were you, I would get the fuck out of here because pretty soon, you're going to get what's coming for you."

"Okay, O'Callaghan. But don't give me that, because if you were good enough for him, he would have stayed with you. I think I have the right to stand over you," I scoffed, since she was 5'2" and I was 5'5", "and call myself the winner because he left you. he left you for me. I win. You lose. Finders keepers, bitch."

I threw my can on the ground and came at her, and right before I swung my fist with my thumb on the bottom side of my fist like John taught me, John and Jared pulled me back. John wrapped his arms around me and told me to calm down and that she wasn't worth it.

She wasn't worth it, but Garrett was. At least, that's what I thought.