"Want one?" Matt offers me one of his burgers.

"No, and who said you could eat in my van?"

"No one," he shrugged as he bit into it.

I shook my head in annoyance and kept driving. "Where am I dropping you off at?" I ask, considering that we've been cruising around like gas is free.

"Dropping me off?" His eyebrows furrow, "I thought we were hanging out."

I laugh at his response but stop when he doesn't join me. "Wait...are you serious?"

Matt and I don't hang out just the two of us. We haven't since junior high.

Leo is the glue between the three of us. It's either all or one and Leo. Without him, we would've drifted apart years ago. Matt is into slasher films and heavy metal, gore and Gwar. I like cars and money.

"Yeah— unless you secretly hate my guts or something."

"No..." and I don't, honestly. I'd take a stab wound for this kid. There's love here, just not the let's bond kind.

"So, what's the problem then?"

"There isn't one, I guess," I shrug, "but we have to do something light. I can't go on a bender or anything like last time." Once, we were all hanging out and Matt convinced us to drop acid. It must have been laced because I woke up the next day with a new tattoo, no pants, and we couldn't find Leo for like nine hours.

"I've got a gram, we can park outside of Benny's and hotbox the van."

I inhale sharply, "no can do. Val said I can't smoke in the van anymore. She goes to work smelling like bud."

"Oh..."

"We can just head back to my place and smoke it there."

"Won't your dad be mad?"

"He picked up another shift at the station. He won't be back until morning. Plus, fuck him anyway." If I have to raise myself then I will decide what I can or can't do.

"Cool," Matt smiles, "let's swing by the video store and pick up some movies that'll last through the night. I'm staying over."

"Says who?" I furrow my eyebrows.

"Me."

"Fine, but we're not watching any scary movies, alright? I hate that shit."

"Pussy," Matt sneered.

"Fuck off," I scoff and reach over to snatch his burger out of his hand before throwing it out the window.

"Hey!" He protests but laughs it off.

"Yeah, yeah, just turn up the music."

He did as I said and then proceeded to question when I started listening to Bush. The tape is Leo's, but I took credit for it anyway.

The video store is right next to a gas station, so I parked in front of a pump instead of in a space.

"You know, no one asks what I want to listen to or what I want to watch. I'm tired of being stuck with the things you people like. Leo and his grungey shit, you and your...you. I don't even fucking know with Val. I'm picking the movies out, alright?" I huff, "Matt— alright?" I stop when I see him staring off in the distance. I follow his eyes to where he's fixated on a guy standing near a Cadillac that looks straight off of the set of Grease. "Is that-"

"Chance Trainer," Matt answers.

"Fucking prick..." I glare at him.

Chance fucking Trainer had a habit of pushing Matt around. For two years straight, Matt took his shit, being beaten up on physically and verbally before anyone of us found out about it.

Matt was a slow grower, hell, he's still kinda scrawny. No amount of burgers or fast food is going to change that. Yet, guys like Chance Trainer thought that meant they could pick on him. And a guy like Matt, raised on the lower east side, had too much pride and courage to get other people to fight for him. If it wasn't for Leo walking in on Chance kicking the shit out of Matt in the boys' restroom at school in seventh grade, it would have gone on longer. I mean— Leo tried to help, but Chance is a buff, athletic kid with friends just like him, Leo ended up on the ground as well....and after I found out...there was hell to pay.

No one really got over it, though. One epic brawl doesn't make up for the couple years Matt was dragged through. We thought his bruises were from football, at least that's what he told us.

"We can still go in...I don't mind," Matt reassured me.

"Yeah," I nod and then walk around to the back of my van, "or we can do this, instead," I toss him a bat before taking out my tire iron

"Oh- whoa, Danny, man, we don't have to kill him," Matt says in horror.

"We're not gonna kill him," I narrow my eyes at him. "No...we're going to kill his car."

Matt smiles before turning to see where Chance is. "He's already in the store," he says excitedly, "come on, we gotta be quick."

I nod and follow after him once he starts running toward the shiny red Cadillac.

Matt looks around for witnesses, only spotting a few people who seem too occupied to care about us.

"Ready?" I raise my eyebrows.

Matt said nothing, instead, he pulled back the bat and immediately swung into the windshield. I watched in awe as he hit it over and over until the glass was completely smashed and little shards were all over the hood and granite.

When he moved onto denting the body of the car, I shattered the windows. Matt laughed as he broke wing mirrors off of the Cadillac, kicking them off and stomping on them when they hit the ground.

I looked around and saw that we were catching a few stares. But, hell, this is lower east Manhattan...we've got time before things get coppy.

"We should go," I stop him before he could begin fucking with the engine or something. "But first," I take out my switchblade, "this tire is looking a little flat..." I slash a tear into one of his back tires, "and uh- this one too, yeah?" I slash a tear into a front one as well. Matt claps happily and continues to laugh. "Come on," I nod in the direction I want him to follow me.

"To the store? Are you crazy?" Matt scoffs, but I keep walking.

"Hey," I wave to the guy at the register and he gives an insincere smile before looking toward the camera. As if I don't know it's hard to steal from here...hard, not impossible. I pull Matt with me behind a shelf full of discounted romance movies and try to subtly peer around the store for Trainer. "Do you see him?"

"Um..." he scopes the place, squinting his eyes and glancing around, but Chance was nowhere in sight. "Oh!" Matt gasps, "there he is." Chance emerges from a curtain that blocks the 18+ section.

"Ah," I press my lips together, "it's good that his car is fucked then. Now, he can spend all his time watching porn."

"...so, did we really punish him, then?"

"Shut up," I say through laughter and playfully shove Matt.

"Will this be all for you, today?" The cashier asked.

"Uh- yeah," Chance said lowly.

"Princess Erotica: A Medieval Orgy and E.T. The Extra Ter-sexual. That's a total of $11.39 for three-day rental and there's a $2 fee if returned late."

"Yeah, okay, I know," Chance tossed cash onto the counter and took his bag. "Keep the change," he said plainly before heading out of the door.

"Here we go, here we go!" Matt said excitedly and aggressively tapped on my arm as his eyes practically bulged out of his skull.

"Pfft, we can get better seats than this," I grab him and lead him outside again.

"What the— what happened to my car?" Chance fell to his knees with his hands on his head.

Matt nudged me, his infamous goofy smile spread out on his face.

"Hey, asshole," I called out for Trainer. He turned to me with his eyebrows furrowed as he tried to recognize me, "Remember Goldstone Junior High, bitch!"

I knocked feverishly on the paint- chipped door until it opened.

"Leo, what the fu-" Amanda starts to say before I silence her with a kiss. My hands cup either side of her face as we back into her apartment, not breaking the kiss.

"Mm," I hum against her lips. "Do you have time?"

She smirks and trails her hand down my body, gripping me through my jeans, "I don't think it will take long..."

"Fuck," I moan through light laughter when she slips her hand into my pants.

"Come on," Amanda smiles and pulls me away, guiding me to her room and pushing me up against every wall to kiss me on the way there.

I break away from her to lay on the bed, but she quickly straddles me, her lips moving to attack my neck.

I hear her moan against my skin and feel her hips rocking against me and know this is it. I can have her right now.

So why the fuck don't I want to?

"Mandy-" I try to push her back

"Yes..." She continues to moan, her fingers tracing up my chest

"Mandy," I say again when she doesn't let up, "stop," I move from underneath her. She sits up at my side and looks down at me in shock. "I'm sorry," I place my hands over my face in frustration.

"Whiplash, Leo. You give me whiplash," she sighs and reaches over her bedside to grab her pipe, sifting through the drawer of her nightstand for a dime bag of weed.

"I know, I know, I'm sorry," I turn away from her.

"Should I even ask-"

"Why did you think I liked Heather?"

The room falls silent.

"Heather," she nods, "now, I get it."

"Get what?"

"You realized I was right when I said you like her, and now you think fucking other girls will suddenly change your feelings about that one." I say nothing in response. "It won't." She lights up the bowl.

"Yeah, well, that's not what I asked," I mumble under my breath.

Amanda scoffs through laughter, "Fine, you wanna know how I knew?" She asks rhetorically. "Because you're different around her. At first, I thought it was because she wasn't one of us, but that wasn't it. Your eyes followed her, and you smiled even when she wasn't looking-"

"Bullshit," I shake my head in denial.

"Bullshit? I was there, Leo. I saw how protective you were of her. This can't be a surprise to you, you had to have liked her before I met her. Are you really just seeing it now?"

"We're friendly...I thought we were friends."

"You blush when you see all of your friends?"

"Ugh," I groan in annoyance. "I swear this is temporary."

"Well, good, because girls are clingy....guys are distant....and Heather would never go for you."

"Thanks," I say sarcastically.

"Serves you right, coming here getting me all worked up and leaving me hanging...again"

"Well..." I pull her down and hover over her, "that can always be fixed."

A sly smile forms on her face as I lean down to kiss her. But, she places her fingers over my lips..."not so fast," she smirks, "I don't have sex with guys who think about other girls while fucking me."

"Great game, Evan," a girl leans on the fence that blocks the bleachers from the baseball field.

"Thanks," he nods with a sly smile.

She purses her lips and looks over at him like he's prey. Her friends left without her, probably intentionally, I'm guessing this was the plan...

He glances over at me quickly but looks away again. I am one of the only people left on the bleachers, and I came alone.

"Are you going out for pizza with the rest of the team?" She tilts her head and lets her long hair fall to the side.

"Probably," he smiles again.

"Then I'll see you there, okay?" She says almost suggestively. What are you going to do? Seduce him with pepperoni and garlic crust?

"Later, Annette." Oh, that's her name.

Annette waves him off before walking away, turning back once to make sure he's watching. He was.

He walks closer to the fence, letting his arms drape over it as he takes off his baseball glove.

I take a few steps down the bleachers until I'm on the ground and then I approach him.

"Great game, Evan," I mock Annette.

He snickers, "she's not that bad."

"So, I've heard." If she's the same Annette the girls in my Algebra class were gossiping about than she gave Mark Rizzo a blowjob in the front seat of his car when he drove her home. But, then again, I don't listen to gossip. "Wanna hang? I feel like I haven't seen you in forever."

"You can see me whenever you want," he peers at me through the glare of the setting sun.

"It hasn't been easy, you know? You're kinda busy...with school and the Annettes of it all." I look down to avoid feeling pathetic for complaining like this.

"I'm sorry..." I can feel his eyes burning into me.

I shrug, "no big deal..."

"Come to the pizza place with me and afterward, I'll have my aunt take you home."

"Won't your new girlfriend be mad?"

He chuckles, "You really don't like her, do you?"

"She's alright...I'm not jealous or anything," I fidget with the button at the end of my shirt.

"I didn't say you were," he smirks.

But you know I am...

"Karlie Clemmons asked me out," I change the subject.

"Yeah? You gonna go?"

"No," I scoffed through laughter.

"Why not? She's cute."

"Wha- Karlie's not....well, I guess," I stumble over my words.

"You should go," he seemed indifferent

"Fine..." I tried to show that same lack of care.

"Fine."