"Did you hear?" was the first thing I heard when I walked into school on Monday. I ignored it, since I was so used to hearing it that I didn't even care if it was about me or not anymore.

"About the two leads of the play?" the other girl now asked under her breath, and I only rolled my eyes. Wasn't there anything else to talk about at this school? There wasn't anything that great about my love life.

I didn't see what the big deal was. So what if Christian and I were dating now? It wasn't like that meant anything to anyone else. That didn't affect anyone else, did it? So why did they care so much? They needed to worry about their own problems and forget about mine.

When I saw Cassie making a beeline right toward me down the hall, I let out a long sigh. Here we go.

She slid to a halt in front of me. "Is it true?" she immediately demanded.

Though I knew was she was insinuating, I simply asked, "What are you talking about?"

She rolled her eyes at me and took a step in front of me to stop me from moving down the hall. If I had to push her down, I would. "Seriously, Leah," she continued on. "Is it true that you went on a date with Christian on Saturday?"

I shouldn't have been surprised that it got around. We had seen kids around school, and I even got super close to Christian just so they'd shut up and go away. But since it was all around school, that meant one certain person must have heard about it...

"Yes, it's true," I shrugged simply, trying to act like this wasn't a big deal. But truthfully, it really annoyed me that people couldn't mind their own freaking business. Including my best friend. "We went to the movies on Saturday. That was it."

"Did you kiss?"

What was this, twenty questions or something? Why did she have to know every single detail of my life when I barely knew anything about hers? I knew that she was dating Sean and that was pretty much it.

"Yes," I answered, since she would have assumed I was lying if I told her no. And who cared if she knew I had kissed him?

The smile on her face grew so much that I thought her lips might crack. It kind of annoyed me, honestly. I knew that she was glad that I was finally dating someone else, but she had been bugging me about it for so long that now I was just fed up with her.

"I'm so glad," she giggled, and I fought the urge to roll my eyes. "I thought you might never date anyone ever again after Blake! But at least now you'll have a date for the prom! It's only two months away!"

This made me stop dead in my tracks, right in the middle of the hallway. This caused someone behind me to ram right into me, and they glared before continuing on their way around me.

"What's wrong, Leah?" Cassie questioned.

If prom was only two months away, that meant the show was a month away. And then after that, graduation was three months away. How was high school almost over? And how had my life been so hectic that I didn't even notice?

I shook my head. "Nothing," I whispered, and just continued on my way toward my locker.

Cassie, continuing to be her selfish self, didn't notice that I was lying. "Okay," she smiled, turning away and waving at me. "I'll see you later, Leah!"

If only she wouldn't.

When I saw Thomas making his way toward me out of the corner of my eye once I got to my locker, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. I didn't know if he was going to talk to me about Christian or about something else. Now that he was finally dating Jane, he wasn't bugging me about that anymore.

"I have to say that I'm surprised," he said simply, leaning against the locker next to mine lazily.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You too?"

He laughed. "I'm guessing a lot of people have been talking to you about Christian."

"Talking to me, talking about me..." I shook my head and pulled my English book out of my locker. "It's all the same, really."

I still couldn't believe that there was only three months of high school left. What was I even going to do once it was all over? Would I still be dating Christian? I didn't even know which college I was going to yet. I wouldn't have been surprised if none of the ones I had applied to accepted me. I had good grades, but my mental state was questionable at times.

"I'm sorry," my ex-boyfriend's twin frowned at me. "I guess right now wouldn't be the best time to ask you a favor, huh?"

I let out a sigh. "What is it, Thomas?"

"Well," he started, rushed, "Jane has this formal family party this weekend, and she's invited me, and I obviously can't say no, right? Well, I don't have anything to wear. I told Jane this, so she said she'd take me shopping. But I feel like if I go shopping with her alone, I'll make a fool of myself. So is there any way that you could possibly—"

"You want me to go shopping with you?" I questioned, not sure if this was what he was trying to ask in his big spiel.

Thomas nodded. "Yep."

That didn't sound too bad. I thought he was going to ask me to talk to Blake or something, which was definitely not something I was going to do. But going shopping with him and Jane was sure to be easy, and I could even pick up some cute clothes while I was with them.

Thinking about clothes shopping was weird. I hadn't gone out to buy clothes in what felt like forever. It was something I had done with Cassie all the time, when I was still popular and cool. Before I met Blake. I used to rarely ever wear the same clothes twice. But now, I was wore the same clothes all the time.

The rest of the day went by as it usually always did, minus a few extra looks and whispers. But I ignored it like I usually did, since acknowledging them would only give them my attention, which was really what they wanted.

After rehearsal, Christian walked me to my locker. He seemed completely normal, which made me wonder if he had heard anything that was being said about us. Was anyone staring at him? Had anyone given him crap about going on a date with Leah the Loser?

Which was apparently my new nickname, by the way. The first time I had heard it was that day. I wondered who had come up with it. Probably one of the cheerleaders, since it wasn't exactly the smartest nickname someone could come up with.

When we stopped at my locker, Christian shoved his hands into his pockets and looked around. "So..." he chuckled nervously. "It seems like we're the hot talk of the day."

I wouldn't have been surprised if this was the time he told me he didn't want to see me anymore. He'd tell me he had been harassed for being seen with me, and now he no longer was going to date me because he didn't want people treating him this way. I wouldn't have blamed him.

I shrugged, opening my locker. "I'm used to it."

He frowned at this. Christian knew that I had been very popular in all the gossip, though not in a good way. Instead of being the pretty girl with all the friends like I was last year, I was the weird loner chick who everyone ignored except for her few friends that decided to stick around.

"But... you and me," he now started, and his tone made me look over at him. "Are we, you know... together? Like boyfriend and girlfriend. You know."

I bit the inside of my lip to stop myself from smiling. Nervous Christian was so cute.

"Yeah, we are." I answered his question simply with a nod, turning back toward my locker. "We're boyfriend and girlfriend. If you want us to be."

He now smiled. "Of course I want that."

I couldn't help but smile now. Obviously people had been saying bad things about me to him, but he didn't care. He still wanted to be with me. And that really meant a lot to me.

I stretched up onto my toes and kissed him. I don't know how long this kiss lasted before, because a set of footsteps immediately grabbed our attention, pulling us away from each other. My eyes went wide when I saw Blake make a stop beside us, football jersey and all.

"Hey," was all he said, though I could tell that he was not happy.

This was the second time Blake had interrupted Christian and I. Except last time, my ex-boyfriend had only interrupted a conversation I was having with my friend. Now, he was interrupting a conversation I was having with my new boyfriend.

It was weird to think that I had a boyfriend that wasn't Blake. But that was just going to take some getting used to.

"Um, Christian," I croaked, but then cleared my throat. "Could you give me a moment with Blake?"

I didn't know why I asked that. I just though having a conversation with both of them would be incredibly awkward and uncomfortable. Not to mention possibly dangerous.

Christian looked uncertain. "Are you sure?"

I nodded. "I'm sure."

He still didn't look like he wanted to leave, but he did as I asked anyway. Blake and I didn't say anything to each other until we knew that he was far enough away that he could see or hear us any longer.

Blake's eyebrows furrowed. "So you're dating him now?"

I rolled my eyes. "I don't think that's any of your business, now is it?"

He said nothing to this. He only continued to scowl at me. But I kept on a brave face, determined to show him that his presence wasn't upsetting me in the slightest.

Even though it really was.

I didn't need to answer Blake's question. He already knew the answer, and it seemed to upset him even more, because he now shoved his hands into his pockets and turned away from me, though he didn't walk away.

"Why?" he asked.

How was I supposed to answer that? Why wouldn't I date someone two months after we broke up? Some people started dating someone else even sooner after they broke up with someone!

"Because I wanted to date him," I answered him simply, since there wasn't anything more to it.

He shook his head. "That's a lie."

I felt my eyebrows shoot up. "Excuse me?"

"That's a lie," he repeated.

I didn't know what I was supposed to say to him. How did he know if what I was saying was a lie or not? He wasn't in my head!

"What are you even talking about?" I demanded.

"You're only dating him because you don't want to get back together with me," he finally explained, and my jaw nearly hit the floor.

"Well, that's true!" I practically shouted. "Of course I don't want to get back together with you! But I'm not only dating Christian because I don't want to get back together with you! I'm dating him because I want to!"

"Do you love him?"

My mouth went dry. Why was he asking me all of this?

"I don't," I answered honestly, looking him right in the eye. "But I could."

This was not the answer Blake wanted. When I first said that I didn't love Christian, he seemed relieved. But when I said that I could fall in love with him, his face went white.

"No," he almost whispered. "You can't fall in love with him."

I knew this was hurting him. But honestly, this was hurting me, too. I didn't want to hurt him, but I knew that I had to. He had to know that we were never getting back together.

"Maybe you should just get a new girlfriend," I told him, slamming my locker shut and glaring at him. "Just move on. It didn't work out between us and you have to accept that. I have. Just go date Mona or something."

He seemed shocked by this, but I wouldn't let any emotion cross my face. I wanted him to know that I was being serious. That I was really done. That I didn't want to hurt any longer, but I didn't want him to hurt either. The sooner he was with someone else, the sooner he would forget about me.

"You know what? You're right," Blake nodded, taking a step back away from me. "Waiting for you is useless. Obviously, you're happier with actor boy than you ever were with me. So have a nice life. I won't bother you anymore."

He then turned on his heel and started down the hall away from me. But head told me to let him go, but my heart told me to stop him.

"Blake," I called out, but he wouldn't stop. And I didn't blame him. I had hurt him enough.

I didn't want to end it this way. I didn't want to avoid him or have either of us hate each other. I wanted to be friends. I didn't want him thinking that I wanted absolutely nothing to do with him, because that wasn't true.

So I followed him in the direction of his locker, hoping that that was where he would be. It wasn't like I could just go to his apartment anymore, because who knew what might have happened if I went over there?

Turning the corner, I stopped dead in my tracks when I saw that Blake wasn't alone in front of his locker. I quickly took a step back, now hiding behind the wall so neither he nor Mona would see me.

"I have something I need to tell you," Blake informed her, letting out a nervous breath. "And it's important. I really need you to listen."

Mona nodded. "Of course, Blake."

I peeked out from behind the wall to see that he looked so nervous, so unsure. What was he going to tell her? I hid once again, not wanting to look.

I knew that I shouldn't have been eavesdropping. I knew that it wasn't right. But I didn't really care very much at that moment.

"Just say it, Blake," Mona urged, and then smiled. "Whatever it is, you can say it. You know you can tell me anything."

Blake nodded and let out a breath before then saying something that knocked the wind right out of me.

"I love you."

My jaw dropped. That was my initial reaction. Honestly, I didn't know what I was supposed to do. Blake had just confessed to Mona. Blake had just told Mona he loved her. What was I supposed to do now?

"You were always there for me," Blake continued now, and I squeezed my eyes shut and just kept listening. "And I've been really stupid and I didn't notice. But I don't want to not notice anymore. I want to fix this. I love you."

This couldn't be happening. After everything he said to me, about how he loved me and never loved or would love Mona... And now this was happening. I felt like I was going to be sick.

I could just tell Mona was smiling at him. "I'm so glad you finally let that out, Blake," she said, and I couldn't help but disagree. "But I just have to say this. I really think you're relationship with Leah is over, so what she said earlier is the best thing you can do. You know, getting a new girlfriend and everything."

Anger boiled up inside of me now. He had told her about our conversation earlier? Why the hell would he do that?

Why the hell wouldn't he? He did love her, after all. He told me everything when we were dating. And now that they were obviously going to start dating now, she was the one he was going to tell everything to.

"I know," Blake now sighed. "It's over between Leah and me."

I knew I had told him earlier to date Mona, but now I wasn't so sure if that was what I wanted anymore. I'd rather him date anyone else but her. I hated her. I absolutely hated her and I couldn't see why any guy would be interested in her.

I was going crazy. I had to stop caring. Blake and I had broken up months ago; it shouldn't have mattered to me any longer. But it did. And that was what really upset me the most.

I pushed myself away from the wall and practically ran down the hall, not wanting them to know that I had been there. It would have been humiliating for them to see me, and I didn't know how they would react to the fact that they were being watched by me.

When I rammed right into someone, I nearly fell down. I would have crashed right onto the ground if they didn't immediately grab onto me and stop me from tumbling over. I looked up, surprised to see that I had run into Christian.

"What are you still doing here?" I gasp, swallowing hard.

"I could ask you the same thing," he said, and then his eyes went wide. "Why are you crying?"

"What?" I blinked, reaching up to feel my cheeks were dry. None of my tears had fallen, but my eyes were still filled with them.

Christian's eyebrows now furrowed. "Did Blake make you cry?"

"No, no!" I shook my head and wiped at my teary eyes. "I'm not crying!"

I didn't know if that was a lie or not. Blake was the reason I was crying, but it wasn't like he had done this to me on purpose. He didn't know that I was listening to everything he had to Mona. He thought they were having a private conversation.

I was in shock. I couldn't believe that had just happened. Ten minutes after he had spoken to me, and he was telling Mona he loved her. Now they were going to date and I didn't think I'd be able to handle that. Anyone else would have been better than her. Anyone else.

"Come here," Christian now whispered, wrapping his arms around me and hugging me tightly. I buried my face in his chest, but I didn't cry. I wasn't going to allow myself to be upset over this. Because I had another guy by my side now. A great guy that liked me for me and always had. I didn't need Blake.

Two sets of footsteps caught my attention now, and I pulled away from Christian to look at who was walking by us. My stomach dropped when I saw that it was Mona and Blake.

"Hi, guys!" Mona greeted, smiling. She still never seemed to notice how much I didn't like her. "You guys are still here? I thought you would have left after rehearsal!"

Christian looked down at me. I knew that he knew that I didn't want to talk to her. So he simply smiled at her and said, "We're just about to go on a date, that's all."

I didn't say it was a lie, mostly because I didn't know if it was or not. Christian and I could have gone out after this, if we really wanted to. But I didn't know if I was that up for it.

I didn't dare look at Blake, especially since Christian's arms were still around me. I didn't want to know how he felt about this. Not that he would have cared all that much, now that he was with Mona.

"Oh," Mona nodded and then smiled, taking a step away. "Then we won't get in your way! Have fun, you two!"

She grabbed onto Blake's hand and then they were gone. I felt like I was going to be sick. I needed to do something that would make me forget all about what had just happened.

"Mr. Summers said that if you and I were still here, we could continue rehearsal with just the two of us," Christian now informed me softly, his hands on either side of my face. "Do you want to stay for a little while longer?"

And do something that made me forget about everything I had just heard Blake say? "Of course," I nodded, and then followed after him back toward the auditorium.

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I kind of never want to write ever again.

I'm totally kidding. I'm just going through a difficult time with my writing right now because, well... it's kind of a long and ridiculous story.

Most of you know I'm a huge fan of the Gallagher Girls Series. Like, these books are my life. I started reading them when I was eleven, about two months before my twelth birthday and before the third book came out. That was four and a half years ago. The sixth and final book of the series just came out earlier this week and I'm completely devastated.