You Drain The Life From Me.

The minute my laptop was shut down, I tears ran down my cheeks and I lifted my feet onto my chair, arms around my knees. Well, as far as I could reach around them with my protruding stomach.

I had been in this position many times before. When my parents got angry at me for coming home so late, when John found out I got drunk for the first time and yelled at me so loud his voice bounced off the walls in my room, when Garrett ignored me for a whole day when I accidentally broke the head off his favorite Ninja Turtle toy.

But never did I think Stephen would be the cause for this.

Never.

Suddenly, the living room went silent and there was the sound of feet walking through the hallway and into my room. The door was gently pushed open and then his fingers untangled mine from the grasp they had on each other. My grip on my knees loosened and he pulled my feet back down onto the ground.

"You told him?"

My silence let him know that I indeed told my boyfriend that the boy I was cheating on him with was living with me.

I just left out the cheating on him part.

"He got mad, didn't he?"

"H-he tri-tried to tell me to stop hang-hanging out with y-you."

Garrett's expression hardened. "He said that?"

I nodded.

"What a dick."

"N-nice insult," I shot back with a small smile.

He shrugged with a similar smile. "I try."

I sighed and he ran a hand through his hair.

"So-"

I stood and lunged at him, wrapping my arms around his neck. "I love you. I'm not letting anything, or anyone get between us. I don't care about anything else anymore, okay? I really just love you a lot and want nothing more than to be with you."

He was taken aback, that was for sure. He definitely wasn't expecting that. But I meant every word of it.

"I-I love you too," he mumbled as he buried his face in my hair.

I let go of him and stood back, sighing.

"I won't ever let anything hurt you," Garrett promised, "How about we go watch some Killer Klowns, huh?" he offered with a smile, willing to do almost anything to take the frown off my face.


I felt something move from under my head and I blinked hard enough for my vision to come back.

"Did I wake you up?" Garrett whispered.

I had fallen asleep on Garrett's lap during the movie. Rubbing the sleep out of my eyes, I cleared my throat.

"It's no problem, honest," I told him with a smile.

He returned it and he lowered an open book down into my line of vision, holding onto it until my hands grabbed a hold of it. I moved it so that I could see the front cover. 1000 Baby Names. The page was open to the A section of the boy's names.

"Have you picked something out yet?" I asked with a smile.

"Nah, I just skimmed through it while you were sleeping."

I sat up and leaned my head on his shoulder.

"What about Luke?" he asked, smiling a sheepish smile.

"Luke, as in Luke Skywalker?"

His cheeks grew red as he nodded.

I gasped and threw the book down onto the ground. "That's perfect! Luke Nickeslen. I love it," I squealed, momentarily forgetting about Stephen.

"What would his middle name be, though?"

I picked the book back up and flipped through the pages. Garrett ran his hand up and down my arm as we thought for a while.

"Ryan?" I suggested.

"Like, Ryan Adams?"

I nodded enthusiastically.

"Luke Ryan Nickelsen," he beamed.

"I love it, personally. I think it sounds grand."

He mulled it over as I pulled out my phone and dialed my older brother's phone number.

"John!"

"Yeah, potato chip?"

"What do you think of the name Luke Ryan?"

"Lu-You're naming the baby Luke Ryan?"

I chewed on my lip, awaiting a more solid reaction.

"Wait wait wait wait, hold on. The baby is a boy?! How come you haven't told me yet?"

"Well, something happened," I informed him with a pout.

"What happened?"

"Nothing. Well, something, but I'd rather not talk about it."

"You do realize that your baby might not enjoy being named after a character from Star Wars, right?"

"Oh, we'll make sure he enjoys it."

"I like it, though."

"You do?!"

"Yeah, like, in all honesty."

"If you're lying, I'll make Pat cut your hair."

"I'm not lying!"

"Fine. But I'm glad you like the name."

"Have you asked Stephen?"

"No!" Garrett yelled.

"Jeez, calm down. But you need to at least tell him, I mean, the baby could be his."

"I refuse to listen to this sort of talk," said Garrett.

"We're not on speaking terms," I sighed.

"What? What happened? You guys were fine yester-"

"Nothing, okay? I just...I'll talk to him when he gets back, or whatever."

"Don't put this off, Leigh. It could turn into something bad."

"It's already bad as it is."

"Fix it!"

"I don't want to!"

"Why?"

"Because."

"That's a shit answer."

"John-"

"No. You need to talk to him, okay?"

"Fine. Eventually."

He realized that I probably wasn't going to talk to Stephen any time soon, so he gave up.

"I'll talk to you later, potato chip."

"Love you."

"Love you too. And Garrett, too."

After hanging up, I looked up at Garrett.

"We should go grocery shopping," he said.

"You're right."


"Cereal!" I skipped - well, more like waddled - over to the aisle of different brands of cereal.

For some reason, I just had the most odd obsession with cereal. I made it a point to buy every single kind.

This week, I was buying Apple Jacks.

But I felt conflicted, because the store had gotten a new shipment of Smorez cereal.

"Garrett," I whined, "I don't know which cereal to get."

He laughed. "Um, eenie meenie?"

I shook my head in protest. "No way! I hate doing that. Um...which one do you like better?"

"Don't ask me! If you ask me, and I pick one, when we get home, you're going to yell at me and tell me I should've picked the other one!"

I groaned. He was right. "How do you even do that, Garrett?"

"I know you like the back of my hand, baby. How about we come back for the cereal?"

I smiled. He took my hand and pulled me over to the cart. I placed both hands on it and started to push. I was expecting Garrett to walk ahead, but he just placed his hands on top of mine and helped me push, placing a kiss on the top of my forehead.

"What's next on the list?"

"Ice cream!"

"No, Leigh, I didn't see that on the list."

I pouted. "But I want ice cream."

"Do you have enough money for ice cream?"

"N-no...probably not..."

"You're so lucky I can't see your pout right now."

I elbowed him in the stomach and when he doubled over, I pushed him out of the way and waddled as fast as a pregnant woman can waddle to the ice cream section, pulling the door open and grabbing a pint of cookie dough ice cream, clutching it to my chest.

Then he came running down the aisle with the shopping cart.

"Don't you dare!"

"I'll buy ice cream if I want to, Garrett!"

"No!"

"Yes!"

He approached me slowly, and I narrowed my eyes at him.

"Give it to me."

"No."

"Yes. And don't even try pouting."

"I-"

"Put it back," he said, pausing in between each word.

I looked around and spotted Pat. What was Pat doing in the grocery store? And he was in the fruit section, of course.

"Pattycakes!" My pint of ice cream was shoved into Garrett's hands as Pat looked up and beamed at me.

"Leigh!"

I walked towards him and engulfed him in a hug.

"How's the baby doing?"

"The baby's gonna be a boy!"

His smile got even wider - I didn't know it was even possible - and he exclaimed, "That's a-awesome!"

Pat and his stutter. I chuckled.

"What was going on with you and Garrett over there?"

"He wouldn't let me get ice cream," I explained with a pout.

"Did you try that with him?" he asked, motioning to my facial expression.

I nodded. "Didn't work."

"Such a good boyfrie-"

"He's not my boyfriend," I interrupted.

"But he-"

"He's just..."

"He's just Garrett being your best friend."

"I guess."

"What about Ste-"

"We're not talking."

"Oh yeah, John was saying something about that today."

"Is he still butthurt about that?"

"I'm not quite sure, really."

"Hey, Pat!" I heard a voice from behind me. An arm made its way around my waist and I leaned into him, smiling. I was forgiven for running off and trying to buy ice cream.

"Hey, Gare. How's it going?"

"Grocery shopping with Leigh is like taking a safari through the jungle or something, I swear."

Pat chuckled and went back to examining apples.

I cleared my throat. "I'm right here, you know." Then I looked around. "Garrett?"

He turned to me.

"Where's the cart?"

His eyes widened and Pat turned back to us, trying to hold back a laugh.

"I-"

"Garrett!"

"I'll be back," he muttered, then jogged back over to the ice cream aisle.

"Hey, Pat, if Garrett asks, tell him I said I'm getting Apple Jacks, okay?"

He absentmindedly nodded and I turned and walked in the opposite direction, heading towards the cereal section that Garrett and I were in earlier.


"Well, that was fun," Garrett chuckled once we were in the car.

"It definitely brightened my day."

"And why is that? What about this shopping trip made you so happy?"

"Seeing Pat."

Garrett pouted. "I thought it was because you got to spend time with me."

"Oh please," I scoffed, "I spend too much time with you!"

"Take that back!"

"No!" I laughed, "I'm sick of you!"

"Lies!" he gasped.

"Truths!"

"Lies."

"Truths."

"Bullshit."

"Uhh..." I paused to pull out my phone and call someone. "Jared, what's the opposite of bullshit?"

"Are you and Garrett going at it again?"

"Maybe."

"I don't know what the opposite of bullshit is, Leigh."

"But...but you know everything, oh wise one!"

He chuckled. "I don't know everything. But tell Garrett to give up cause you'll probably end up winning anyway."

"Hear that, Garrett?"

"I hate you, Jared! I'm never watching movies with you again!"

"Love you too, buddy," Jared said before hanging up.

"Jared loves me," I said triumphantly.

"Then why isn't Jared the one living with you?" he grumbled softly.

"What was that, Butthurt Nickelsen?"

"Nothing."

At the stoplight, I leaned over and kissed his cheek. "I love you."

"I love you too, baby."

He drove for a little before I realized we weren't on our way home.

"Where are we going?"

"Don't you mean, where are we right now?"

I looked up and saw that we were in the parking lot of Daisy Dairy.

"Ice cream?"

He nodded and grinned.

"Thank you, Garrett!"

We got out and before he could take another step, I tackled him in a hug.

"Seriously, thank you."

"Anything to make you smile, Leigh."