You Drain The Life From Me.

It wasn't long before the whole band, plus Lauren, knew about my relationship with Garrett. They, like John, thought it was about time we got together.

"Finally!" Lauren whispered to me as we sat on the couch in the basement, watching the boys play.

"Shut up, Lauren. This is your fault," I accused with a smile.

"Thanks for the credit, hun," she shot back.

"Garrett, don't you find it rude when the audience talks while you're playing?" said John.

Garrett chuckled. "Well, yeah. Unless one half of the audience is my girlfriend and she happens to be talking about me."

"Stop using that icky word to describe my sister!" John whined.

I threw a stuffed giraffe that my nephew had left behind at John's face. He still wasn't used to the fact that Garrett was now my boyfriend. As I thought about that, a blush crept onto my cheeks and I tried to take it in. After nine years, Garrett and I were together.

In the past few days, we had grown inseparable once more. We were always somehow touching. I know that sounds weird, but it just happened that way. Whether it be my head on his shoulder, my hand in his, his arm around my waist, something like that, we were always (shut up, I know it's cheesy) connected.

I never knew people could kiss so many times in one day. And apparently, neither did any of the guys in the band. When they finished We Change, We Wait, Garrett squeezed in next to me on the couch and briefly pressed his lips to mine.

"Dudes! Enough already, Jesus!" exclaimed Kennedy.

"I don't want to see that, I just ate!" said Jared.

John just looked green.

Pat shook his head as he took apart his drum kit. "You guys have obviously never had girlfriends to kiss."

I chuckled and repeated, "Obviously."

"That's because we...are in a threesome with each other!" John explained.

The rest of us took on different forms of shock. Well, it wasn't shock as much as disbelief of how stupid John could possibly be.

When John realized that Jared and Kenny weren't going along with his explanation, John just shook his head and said, "That's okay. They're not saying anything because they're too shy to admit that they're both in love with me. I couldn't pick one dude so I volunteered the idea of a threesome. They both loved it."

Jared and Kennedy looked at each other and did that suggestive eyebrow thing. You know what I'm talking about!

John frowned. "What about me?!"

"Haven't you noticed? No one likes you, darling," Lauren told him in a FYI voice.

"Man, even Lauren's being mean to me now! I'm going over to Halvo's house. My true love awaits!"

"Yeah, your true love: Halvo's hamster," Garrett retorted with a chuckle.

*~*~*~*~*~*

"Hi," I said after dinner. Garrett and I were sitting in our secret hiding place, which was the dugout in the baseball field at the park. No one ever used this field, they always played on the newer one. This field was more like a sandlot.

He sighed with content. "I love this place,"

We sat in a comfortable silence before he spoke once more, "I like you," he said adoringly as I felt a blush creep up onto my cheeks.

Surprised that we aren't declaring our love for each other? Yeah, well, he only does that with Pat.

The real reason is that we had taken to going backwards in our relationship, since it started with us screaming angrily that we loved each other. We didn't want to go too fast, afraid that then, this whole thing would end just as quickly. Garrett wasn't used to taking it slow. For him, it was a, "Hi, I'm Garrett. Your name must be adorable," or something along the corny lines of that. Then it was a kiss, a fuck, and then a breakup. But he didn't do any of that shit with me.

I smiled at him and said, "I like you too." My eyes landed on an abandoned baseball bat lying on the floor next to a lonely baseball. "Wanna play me?" I challenged him in my best Napoleon Dynamite voice.

"It's on like Donkey Kong," he shot back. We both giggled at the phrase we had used in second grade and walked into the field. Garrett handed me a quarter and called, "Heads!" I groaned, but I flipped the coin anyway. It landed on my palm and I smacked it on the back of my hand.

"Tails," I smirked.

"Your smirk is just like John's, I swear!"

"Are you calling my smirk ugly?!"

He just shook his head and jerked his thumb in the direction of the home plate. The object of our baseball game was to hit as hard as you could and as far as you could in the time it took the pitcher to go find the ball and get you out.

I got ready to swing, twisting the tip of my shoe into the dirt, taking a deep breath.

One second. I stood in the right position.

Two seconds and I started to imagine the ball as John when he was being extra annoying.

Three and the ball came flying towards me. I swung the bat backwards then brung it back around, just in time for it to make contact with the ball. When I heard the satisfying crack of ball hitting bat, I set the bat down and ran.

I ran like John was trying to kiss me on the cheek. I ran like Rat Boy was behind me. I ran.

First base.

Second.

Third base.

One more. I didn't take a break to catch my breath, but I kept going. Right when I was about to set my foot on home plate, I heard screaming.

I raised my eyebrow and turned into the direction the sound was coming from.

Garrett was running towards me and I smiled as he screamed, "No! Don't you dare step on that home plate, O'Callaghan!"

I took two steps towards the plate, stuck my foot out, and touched it with the tippy toe of my shoe right when Garrett reached me and touched my arm with the baseball.

"I scored," I said in a smart ass voice.

"Nope," he replied, popping the p.

"Uhm, I think those glasses might be defective. Do you see my foot on this base?"

"Uhh," he stopped, scratched his head, took his foot and knocked mine off of the base. "No, I don't see your foot placed upon this white...dirty base. Which means you don't get the point."

"Oh well I didn't see this bat hitting your ass!" I giggled as I picked the bat off the floor and swung it lightly towards Garrett's butt.

"Liar!" he screamed.

I took off running straight towards the other side of the field and Garrett came after me, yelling, "Leigh O'Callghan is a weenie!" I rolled my eyes. That was the best he could come up with?

My feet didn't get tired at all as I circled around the sandlot once and then Garrett finally caught up to me. When he was right behind me, he wrapped his arms around my waist and we both stopped.

"I win!" I yelled in his ear.

"No, you don't!" he yelled back in mine.

"Prove it then!"

When Garrett didn't answer, I just laughed, but he silenced me with a kiss.

He smiled into the kiss as I started giggling again, then I pulled away and picked the baseball off the ground.

"Your turn, jackass!"