Leonard and the girl.

You and Me: Lifehouse

Leonard Kingston prided himself on integrity. He had seen his basketball friends cheating on their girlfriends, their grades and the drug tests. But he was different.

He had a brain. He had a shot in life, to succeed. He wouldn't resort to becoming another Bennett Badeaux or Logan Takuda.

He knew of so many guys in school who aspired to become them. And he couldn't blame them. After all, they were the ones who landed the girls and lived out the lives of movie jocks to a tee. They relished in perpetuating their shallow counterparts, kings of high school now before going off to college football and fraternities, then finally settling down in a nice suburban neighbourhood with a family and a beer gut.

But after many years of being in close proximity, Leonard realised their lives weren't all that enviable. But there had always been just one thing Bennett had that Leonard wanted. More than anything.

She was currently standing right on his doorstep.

"Leo, kiss me."

Perhaps it was the way her damp shirt clung to her, or her rosy tinged cheeks that led Leonard to meet her lips with his own without hesitation. Oh who was he kidding, he kissed her because that's all he had wanted to do, ever since they had met two years ago.

It was selfish of him to do this. The vulnerable girl who wasn't thinking straight when she had turned up at his door, was offering herself to him.

He shouldn't have kissed her. She didn't want this. She just wanted to get back at Bennett. This was playing out nothing like the way he had envisioned in his many dreams.

In his dreams, there was no Bennett. No thought of him anywhere. Not like this, where every action was fuelled by the mere thought of the asshole.

Did they break up? Or was this Gisele finally coming to her senses? Was he the other man? Did he want to be the other man?

A fury of questions sped through Leo's brain, watching as Gisele's eyes searched his face. But these thoughts were soon overthrown by his inner horny teenager.

The girl who he had loved for about forever, was willing to fuck him.

And so he let her.

She stared at the ceiling for a while after they had finished.

"We got into a fight."

"He was really mad. It was his father's death all over again. Except this time, he hated me. You should have heard the way he spoke to me. Like I was gum on his shoe."

"And you know the worst part? I still love him."

It was stupid of Leo to hope she would fall out of love with her boyfriend after sharing an intimate moment with him. A fool's fantasy. That's all it was.

She appreciated Leo's guaranteed friendship, but Gisele Hamilton would always want the boy who would break her heart endlessly.

Bennett Fucking Badeaux.

From that night onwards, Leo and Gisele continued their affair. For Gisele, it was an outlet and a form of payback to Bennett, and for Leo; the only version of his dream girl he'd ever get. That, in addition to the thought that Bennett was completely oblivious to the fact that Leonard knew his way around his girlfriend's body far better than he did.

That thought alone kept Leonard sane through lunch whenever Bennett's hands would disappear under Gisele's clothing. Sure, the dates, parties and PDA were exclusively Bennett's territory but the raw, real vulnerable moments? Those were purely his. He could take pride in that.

But recently, things had changed. Translation: Rayna's death had consequently closed off Gisele to Leonard.

He didn't know whether it was guilt or the grief that had caused her to immediately clam up whenever the topic of her best friend sprung up. He could sense the irrational guilt she dwelled over, probably rethinking that night and what she could have-should have done differently.

Pulled her off the road. Called her. Or perhaps, she was attempting to find the driver. Little did she know the perpetrator was probably closer than she thought. Leonard only had assumptions to work off of. God knew Gisele wouldn't give him any answers.

But the only thing he knew for sure? Gisele was depending on Bennett emotionally. And what's worse, he was actually reciprocating. This was not the usual material tactic Bennett had often relied on, no. This was un-chartered territory. The more Bennett forced his way back into her heart, the further Leonard was left out in the cold.

If only she knew her boyfriend was a criminal.