Leigh's eyes followed Arnie's mother and she swallowed back a fresh flood of tears as she watched her scoop up some soil from the mound and throw it on the coffin as her son was lowered into the ground. At the same moment, a cool breeze swept through the cemetery as soon as it hit the solid wood, causing her curled brown hair to fly into her face. She didn't bother to correct it as her turn came to throw a handful of soil on the coffin.

It shouldn't have been this way; none of them should be standing in the cemetery on this cloudy day in January, burying a boy who should have been going off to college in September. This was not the way the year was supposed to start. Arnie should have been there with them, not in the cemetery, but at Dennis's house, while they watched the game and gorged on pizza and having burp wars after drinking way too much soda. Instead, he was dead. His life had been stolen by her. By Christine.

Leigh drew in a shaky breath as she brushed her hands clean and paced away from the coffin, and glanced up at Dennis. Though she quickly averted her eyes when he looked back at her and continued towards the stoney path with her head down. She didn't stop until she neared the church building, realizing that she didn't know what to do with herself now that the funeral was coming to an end.

What was one supposed to do after burying the one they loved? The one they were sure they'd spend their life with.

Go back home and watch crappy daytime TV? Hang out with friends? Go and eat dinner?

None of that felt right to her. Life went on long after death, but filling that void left behind by the person seemed impossible.

“Hey!” Dennis's voice called, his footsteps thundering along the gravel as he ran to catch her up. “Leigh!”

“Oh.” She mouthed. “Hi Dennis.” She greeted him flatly.

“I was going to offer you a ride home, I saw you walk over here, but the group that you came with have already left.”

“They have?” She questioned.

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “But I can give you a ride- a lift home, if you want.”

“You really don't have to do that.”

“No, really. I would like to.” He insisted.

Leigh forced a smile. “Okay… yeah.” She agreed, glancing across the lot towards the familiar blue Duster. “Thanks.”

Dennis nodded his head and placed his hand in the middle of her back, guiding her over to the car. She stood quietly as he opened the passenger side door for her and muttered a thank you before she got in. He headed around to the driver's side and joined her. Leigh remained silent as he started the engine and pulled out of the church yard.

What was she supposed to say anyway? That it was good to see him? That she wished it could have been under better circumstances?

Where Christine was concerned, there were no better circumstances.

Leigh liked Dennis. He was nice enough, and he had handled everything that happened like a champ, but they hadn't spoken since the day they'd destroyed Christine. It felt wrong. She had loved Arnie, despite his obsession with that car of his, and her and Dennis had only just started doing… whatever it was that they were doing; she didn't know how exactly to define it. They'd teamed up to take down Christine, and somewhere along the way feelings were developed. But things are different now. Arnie is dead. Dennis was Arnie's best friend, and she had been Arnie's girlfriend. Yet while trying to save him from his own madness, they had failed and nothing could possibly justify them continuing what they had been doing before he was killed. Leigh exhaled silently, and propped her elbow on the narrow window ledge, and her head in her hand, staring absentmindedly out of the window.

“Hey… Leigh… Can I ask you something?” Dennis spoke, his voice cutting through the silence like a knife.

“If you must.” She answered.

“It feels like forever ago that we last saw each other, and back outside the church you seemed… I don't know… like you didn't wanna be talking to me.” He began, testing the waters before moving on. “Are you avoiding me?”

Leigh kept her gaze on the blur of trees and strangers as the car kept moving. She didn't dare to look at him. It was a good question, and in truth, she hadn't been going extra lengths to avoid him, but then again she hadn't bothered to visit or even call over the last few weeks.

“Maybe.” She shrugged. “I don't know.”

“Come on, that's not an answer.” He groaned.

“Dennis, we are coming back from your best friend's funeral. Do you really want to be talking about this now?”

“About what? I asked a simple question, that's all. I'm not meaning any disrespect to Arnie.” He sighed. She had given him his answer without even saying it, and to say that it stung would be an understatement. “Doesn't matter now.”

Leigh felt a pang of guilt. He was grieving Arnie just as much as she was, and he was the only one who truly knew and understood her pain because he shared it. He watched Arnie die, just as she did. She hadn't meant to twist that knife and suggest that he didn't care.

“I'm sorry, I didn't mean it that way.” She quickly apologized. “I know you cared about him too.”

“It's fine.” He shrugged. “I guess I'm just confused.”

“Confused about what?”

“Doesn't matter.”

“Yes, it does.” She bit back.

“Are you trying to argue with me?” He almost laughed. “I don't know, I'm confused because up until Arnie was killed you were all over me and now it's… it's like you refuse to acknowledge me. Without him I- I'm lonely, and we went through all of that stuff together, you and I, yet somehow it feels like you stopped caring.”

As soon as the words left his lips, Leigh turned her head and looked at him with wide, pleading eyes. She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it again and frowned. Then lost the control that she'd managed to maintain all day.

“Pull over!”

“What?”

“Stop the car!”

“Leigh, did I upset you? I'm sorry, I was just saying-”

“I said pull over!” She raised her voice.

Dennis caught a glimpse of her out of the side of his eye, then settled them back on the road and ahead and as the car in front turned off into a side road, he swerved off the road and pulled up along the side.

“I'm sorry, okay?” He surrendered. “If I upset you then I didn't mean-”

“You didn't!” She snapped.

“Oh, okay.” He muttered quietly. “Please can we just-”

Leigh didn't have the chance to register what she was doing before she stretched herself across the console between the driver and passenger seats, with his face in her hands and crushing her lips on his. Dennis's eyes widened and his hands slipped from the wheel. He hesitated before moving them to her waist, grabbing and pulling her over to the driver's side and into his lap. Leigh's hands slid down from his face to his chest, and she licked at her lips, then went in to kiss him again. This time, he closed his eyes and kissed her first, before she'd had the chance. After a minute, his leg started to cramp under her weight, still recovering from the break, and he shifted. Sensing his discomfort, Leigh leaned back and lifted herself onto her knees allowing him to move forward and as he went to kiss her again, she lowered her head. Though as he leaned forward even more, she leaned further back, and unknowingly, her backside hit the steering wheel causing it to let out a loud honk that startled them both.

“Heh, even the car knows how to be horny.” He chuckled nervously.

“What are we doing?” Leigh muttered under her breath.

“Leigh?”

“Arnie is dead! We buried him less than ten minutes ago and now we're here… doing this… What does that say about us, Dennis?”

Dennis exhaled and bit down on his lower lip, removing his hands from her waist as she climbed back over to the passenger seat. Another question without a good answer. They'd just come from his best friend's funeral, and he'd come seconds away from disrespecting his memory in the most disgusting way. It wasn't Leigh. His attraction to her was undeniable. But every time they were together there was a weight in the air between them. That weight's name was Arnold Cunningham.

“I don't know.” He answered uselessly. “Says we're human…”

“Pretty trashy ones at that.” She scoffed.

“Leigh, I have a question for you and I want you to be honest with me. Don't sugar coat it and please don't answer a certain way because Arnie is dead. I need to know this one thing. Please.” He pleaded.

“Okay.” She said calmly.

“If Arnie had survived that night, and you had to make a choice between me and him, who would you choose?”

“Oh, Dennis I-” She stopped, unsure of how to answer. From the beginning she had known that if Arnie had survived then a choice would have to be made. But he didn't, and at first that made everything seem so easy, until now. She had loved Arnie, and her feelings for Dennis had grown over the last few months, spanning back to when the former's behaviour had started to change, but she couldn't imagine having to choose between them now. “How am I supposed to answer that?”

“With the truth.” He suggested.

“Obviously.” She rolled her eyes. “But what if I don't know… Arnie is gone and he's not coming back, but if he were here without Christine then we'd probably be together.”

There it was. The truth that eased his guilt and made him feel worse all at the same time. He didn't know what to say, so he didn't bother.

“But Arnie is dead.”

“So… what?” He arched an eyebrow. “How am I supposed to look at you now, knowing that I'm nothing but your back up, your second choice and that if things had turned out differently, I'd have never crossed your mind.”

“I-” She tried, but didn't bother finishing. “Just take me home.”

“But Leigh-”

“Take me home. Please!” She cut in.

“Alright.” He sighed, twisting the key in the ignition.

Leigh was silent the rest of the drive to her house, and he didn't speak either. There was nothing left to be said, it was that simple. She opened the door as soon as he pulled up along the sidewalk, and only muttered a small word of thanks before she slammed it shut and hurried up the path and to the porch. Dennis didn't move until she'd disappeared through the door. Then smacked the steering wheel with a force that stung his hand. Arnie had left such an impact on their lives and his death even more so, and every time he thought back over the past year, he wished that he'd never stopped and reversed the day Arnie had first spotted Christine. He often thought about how different it would be if he hadn't stopped. His best friend wouldn't have bought that damn car, and he'd still be alive… and Leigh would have been his, because there was no doubt that if Christine hadn't changed Arnie, he'd never have had the courage to talk to her.

It wasn't the ifs that mattered now. He wasn't entirely sure that anything mattered anymore. Either way, he had lost. In a few short months, high school would be over and he'd be out of this town for good. He would carry what happened throughout the past year with him forever, wherever he ended up. That didn't mean that he couldn't move on from it. After all, that was the only thing left to do now.