Chapter 3

Fred walked inside his apartment ten minutes after he'd left Will and the rest of his friends. He listened carefully wondering if Rob was with someone.

"Rob." He called from outside his bedroom.

"Yeah Fred, come in," his voice came out sleepy. Fred opened his door slowly and the moment he did he started coughing, "damn it Rob, how can you live like that?"

"Like what?"

Looking around him Fred found him sleeping on his back with a cigarette in his mouth. He walked to the foot of the bed and stared at his friend.

"What happened?" he asked as he sat down next to him. Rob straightened up and sighed.

"It's Mandy," Rob answered shortly as if the name explained everything.

"You didn't fight again, did you?"

"Yeah, we did."

Fred nodded his head thoughtfully. Rob and Mandy had been together for five months or something. It was too soon to be fighting all the time. He knew his friend was stubborn and knew Mandy was too, but frankly it irritated him how they fought and made up twice a week.

"She is so stubborn." Rob screamed suddenly.

"I know man but you are more stubborn than she is. What is it this time?" Fred asked freely knowing that Rob wouldn't mind telling him about his problems. They were good friends and Rob had told Fred everything about him, and Fred had told Rob everything about him too. It was like that all the time. The first time they met they became friends immediately and Fred told him all about his past and about the make-over thing. He wasn't afraid Rob would tell anyone as he was such a good friend. Rob helped him at the beginning, introducing him to all of his friends and his girlfriend's friends, everybody. And in no time Fred was popular, known as "the sexy new guy".

'Sexy new guy?' he'd thought ironically 'If only they could know how hard it was for me to go through school. How hard it was to take it from people who were very cruel to me just because I wasn't good enough for them. And more importantly how hard it was to change.'

It took him three months to change the way he looked. Only three months, but there was still this part of him that wasn't changed. Something he knew would always be inside of him; the feeling of trying to do his best to win the approval of everyone. He was one of the people who wanted everyone to love him. Fred wanted to feel, and believe that he was popular after all these years of mockery and sneering. He knew he was still insecure but being around the team and the beautiful cheerleaders had made this part of him somehow feel complete on the outside. That was why he went out with every girl available. It didn't matter to him how he felt about her. It didn't even matter to him that the girls were using him in a way; they just wanted to be with him because he was the cute sexy guy, not because of his personality. Well truthfully he too used them, jumping into bed with each girl, knowing that it was the only way to gain a good reputation in this society.

"So, what do you think?" Rob's questioning voice startled him and brought him back to his surroundings.

"Huh? Sorry Rob, run that by me again please."

"I've been talking for about ten minutes and it seems you heard nothing from what I said." Rob mumbled.

Rubbing the back of his neck Fred sighed, "I'm sorry man, have some things on my mind."

"Don't tell me that girl again?" Rob chuckled.

"Oh, you got that right." Fred leaned forward and stared at the wall in front of him.

"I'm wondering who she really is."

"Well, I got this new information about her today," Fred started and smiled as he remembered the way she walked past him with her head down, "I asked Will about her and he said she was called shy girl. Know her?"

"No way!" Rob screamed "you actually have a crush on Leila Charles?" he asked in a disbelieved tone.

"Leila?" Fred repeated after his friend, liking the way her name sounded, unaware of the astonished look his friend was throwing him.

"Yeah well, if you say Will called her shy girl then it must be her. I went to school with Will and there was definitely a girl called shy girl in school, Leila Charles."

Fred stared at him for a while before he got up and walked outside his friend's room.

"Wait, you didn't tell me what shall I do with Mandy? Do you think I have to go with her or just go have dinner with Chris and his girlfriend?" he shouted but Fred didn't give him any attention.

"Chris's girlfriend is Leila's friend!" he stated as he watched Fred enter his bed room.

"What did you say?" Fred asked carefully as he turned around the moment he heard Rob's last words.

Rob stared at him for a while before grinning, "I said Casey, Chris's girlfriend knows Leila."

"Chris who?"

"Chris!! You don't remember Chris? You saw him few weeks ago at my birthday party." He explained but when Fred's expression didn't change he continued, "The short guy you almost killed when you were too drunk to see in front of you that night."