High School Has Its Perks

"Taking our minds off of Leena's missing stuff" Bryan said. "We need to discuss what happened this weekend" Ross put his head down on the table like Leena.

"We're all sad still" Joe said. "This weekend was like a rollercoaster of emotions"

"I made so many shitty decisions" Ross said. "My mom's coming back in two days and the house is a mess and her precious wedding dishes are broken...most of them are anyways. Maybe I could lie and maybe replace them" he said.

"I bet we can find replicates at like Wal-mart or something" Bryan said. "What about that girl you were with...the freshman?"

"Kara" Ross rolled his eyes.

"What an entitled little bitch" Leena said. "That girl is trouble. Out of all the girls you could have fucked, including myself, you chose the worst person in human history next to Hitler"

"I KNOW!" Ross said. "But I was tipsy, I couldn't have made a lucid decision"

Joe smirked. "You're tipsy a lot these days" he joked. Bryan chuckled, Leena and Sean tried not to smile. Ross even cracked a smile.

Bryan smiled as he thought about the weekend but then he thought about Sohee. He turned to Sean who turned to him.

"Hey I have something to confess" he said. "Sohee and I aren't together anymore" he said.

"Wait, what?" Ross asked. "Since when?"

"Since like two weeks ago" he said quietly.

Leena shrugged. "You make it seem like it wasn't obvious" she said. Bryan looked up from his lap. "You didn't even talk to her on saturday" she said. "You haven't talked about her for a while...I've been suspecting something was going on"

"We were waiting for you to say something" Joe said.

"When the fuck were you guys going to tell me?" Ross asked.

"You're drunk all the time, Ross!" Joe exclaimed, now it wasn't a joke. "Get your shit together" The five of them got pretty quiet. Leena left the table to sit with Brooklyn and Karo.

"Changing the subject..." Sean said quickly to avoid this awkward silence. "I need help"

"With what I'm good with everything" Joe said.

"With sex..."

"Nevermind" Joe said. Joe left the table with his trash to throw away.

"Come take a seat" Bryan patted the empty seat where Joe was sitting. Sean scooted next to him. "What kind of sex advice do you need?"

"Leena and I haven't had sex since...May" he said. Bryan didn't need Sean to say the exact date to know it was the direct result of Dakota's death. "I can't get it up anymore" he said.

"Watch porn" Ross said.

"I'm not into that"

"Open your eyes to the new possibilities" Bryan said.

"Getting drunk helps" Ross joked. the guys laughed. "Bu in all seriousness, don't worry about it. Leena loves you, you love Leena, that's all that matters, right?" Sean smiled and nodded.

...

"Ross has problems, though" Leena said. "I doubt we should be taking advice from him" Joe smirked. The two walked down the hall together at the end of the day.

"Should we tell his mom about the drinking?"

"I have a feeling she knows" Leena admitted. They started to walk down stairs. "There's only two people in that house and she doesn't drink" she said. "I think she notices the alcohol is missing and I think she's prepared to do something...well I hope"

"Different people deal with grief differently I guess" Joe said.

"Ross and Dakota weren't even friends, though" Leena said. "Dakota and I were friends, and I was fine"

"I still think you're holding back on me, Warren" Leena smirked. "The idea of death is complicated though. One minute someone is there, the next there gone. it can be a really difficult thing to under--" in that moment, Joe lost his balance and fell down the remaining steps. It wasn't far, just five steps, but still. "Awww---fuck" he cursed.

Leena helped him up. "You ok?"

"Yeah. I think I skipped a step" Leena chuckled.

"C'mon" the two headed outside. Joe zipped up the rest of his hoodie as he felt the cold October air around him.

"Do you think there's a heaven?" Joe asked randomly. They reached Leena's car.

"I hope so" Leena said. "And I hope Dakota's there"

"Watching down on us?" the two got into her car.

"Yeah" she said. "We need a guardian angel" Joe smiled.

"He'd be such a shit angel" Joe said. Leena laughed.

"He would be. He'd watch us live in torture" she said with a smirk. "But that's the vibe I always got from him. He was never really sympathetic or sensitive. He would let you cry it out and then he'd be there" Joe smiled.

"Are you going to cry?" Leena smirked.

"I'm not a pussy"

...

"This is not working" Sean said. He moved off of Leena, and together they lay side by side looking up at Sean's ceiling. He covered his ceiling with pictures of his friends off a polaroid camera his mom had.

"It's just not time" Leena said. Sean took her hand. "I don't mind. You're not really good at it anyways" Sean let go of her hand. She laughed.

"I got sex tips from the guys earlier today" Sean said.

"Would you really take advice from Ross the virgin and fucking Bryan"

"First of all, Ross isn't a virgin, and Bryan isn't bad" Leena laughed.

"Ross only had sex once with Holly and Bryan never does missionary. He lets the girl do all the work. Have a conversation about it, ask him to go into detail" she said. She got out of his bed and put her clothes back on. "And I'm pretty sure he suffers from pre-ejaculation" Sean chuckled. "You're better off taking sex advice from a blow up doll" got up and started to put his clothes on.

"Well I need sex advice" he said.

"You just can't get it up" she said. "Nothing can really explain it" she said. She kissed him. "And I don't care if we have sex. If we don't have sex then I don't have to shower afterwards" she winked. She sat on his bed to put her shoes on.

"Did Joe text you?" Sean asked.

"Yeah, about his seizure" Sean nodded. "He's scary me" she said. "He's never been the same since the accident. Before he could do anything and now he's so frail..."

"I miss the old Joe, too" he said. "What can we do?"

"He can't smoke weed, or smoke cigarettes...he can't play football, he can't do anything he liked to do before. There is nothing we can do" and that was the worst part. Admitting that there was nothing left they could possibly try to make things better.

Sean smirked. "It's weird. Joe is adjusting so much better than Ross is..."

"How do you know that?" Leena asked. Sean didn't need to ask further questions. He saw it in her eyes, Joe was hurting too. "I think we're all a bit damaged"