Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize in this one-shot. All song titles, plot points, and characters belong to their respective creators and owners, I am merely borrowing them.

Author's Notes: Dammit, Microsoft, Peridot is so a word!

I realize the last chapter wasn't my best. In fact, despite what I say in the comments, I was actually leery about posting it. I'd take it down, but it'd feel like copping out. If you guys don't get to see some of my worst, how do you know when you're reading my best?

As it is, I enjoy this one. I do, genuinely. However, given that I like to try and be sneaky and that might confuse my more observant readers because of some contradictions in Christy's thinking, I want to leave you with something to keep in mind while reading this fic. As pointed out by Ben Lee, the title of this song is a metaphor for going back to or continuing with a bad relationship even though you know it's bad for you. Everyone knows how bad cigarettes are for them, but they smoke them anyway.

Next Up: I'm cutting this part out as of next chapter, I am not reliable enough to have any frickin' clue…

Chapter Summary: ChristyXGary; Much like cigarettes, you know they aren't good for you, but you just can't stay away…

Cigarettes Will Kill You – Ben Lee

You throw me in a pan, you cook me in a can, you stretch me with your hands…

She knew it would end badly. Christy was a lot of things, but she wasn't so stupid to think that going into a relationship with Gary Smith would be a good idea.

And fuck if she hadn't been right.

Pinky had been sugary sweet enough to point it out when the relationship started, that Gary was a total psycho and would screw her over just like he screwed over everyone. (Like she could talk, wasn't it her boyfriend who'd trusted him enough to go along with his plans?) And Mandy hadn't been pleased either, but Christy had her thing for bad boys and scars and Gary… Gary was very, very bad.

He lied, he cheated, he stole, he conned and connived and Christy, having been on the sidelines, had been floored then at how easy he'd made it all look. He'd frequently reassured her that she'd be right there with him, ruling the school and watching everything burn from the safety of the bell tower. But these comments were frequently made with the same breathe as comments such as "Friends are for the weak."

And they'd never been friends. Christy knew next to nothing about Gary, absolutely jack-squat. For all his arrogant boasting about himself, he never really revealed anything. Idle comments about his bad home life were it, but that was information anyone could get from town. Smith was a common name, but Bullworth was small, and all the Smiths here were related. He never really revealed anything of any substance, not even to people he claimed to care about.

No. They'd never been friends, but they had been more. The thing was, for all her sarcasm and gossiping, Christy was actually pretty hard to impress. It took more than a bouquet of flowers or some shiny jewelry to win her over. It took charm, and Gary was nothing if not charming. And he'd known exactly how to get in, how to unstitch her and make her feel all stupid and gooey and ridiculous. He was like a tomcat, all sweet and purring and making you giggle and go 'aw, how sweet'. And then you bring him inside, feed him a bit, and wake up the next morning with your curtains shredded, goldfish gone, chairs and sofas clawed up and the window open and him gone.

Now, to give some credit, the relationship hadn't been bad: regular dates that he always paid for, a bouquet of flowers sitting on her bedside table that one weekend she'd had the flu, private and intimate make out sessions… and he'd been good at pretending to listen. Christy was never sure if he had actually listened to a word she said when she wasn't gossiping or whispering something dirty in his ear. She'd always wondered after once mentioning that she preferred peridot jewelry because it was her birthstone and an argument later he'd left her a pair of peridot earrings as a peace offering.

Thing was, there'd always been this sense that it wasn't going to last, that tomorrow or the next day the relationship would be over. When he'd dumped her she hadn't been all that surprised. He'd been cracking for weeks, slipping deeper and deeper into this obsession of his, and she'd been avoiding him as much as possible. Calling her a pawn had been low, but he'd been right, and Christy had known it the whole. Damn. Time.

She still didn't know why she'd stayed with him. Hope? Curiosity? Masochism? She didn't want to over think it. She didn't know… no. That was a lie. Even now she couldn't help lying to herself. She'd wanted to prove her friends wrong. Prove that Gary wasn't that bad, because she really had liked him, prove that maybe she could tame him. Isn't that why girls go for bad boys? To try and change them? To fix the hurt, pat out all the bruises, and soften the scars a bit? To make them something better?

And maybe just a little, tiny piece of her had wanted something sweet and real and knew Gary was a lot of things, but he wasn't fake. Hey, if you didn't know he was a liar and snake by looking at him, that was your own dam problem, and he'd take advantage. He could con and connive with the best of them, but in the end, he wasn't fake. He gave you exactly what he promised you: whether you knew about the real agreement or not wasn't his problem.

In a sick way it sort of worked.

Thing was, she'd known all his flaws going in and had still gone out with him, gossiped for him, ruined reputations for him. She'd reasoned, after he'd been carted off to Happy Volts on a stretcher, staring blankly at the sky, that there was something wrong with her. She should've probably gone in there with him for treatment to sort out her issues.

That was the only possible explanation why, watching him move across campus, now so ostracized the prefects didn't even threaten him, she wanted to approach and… what? Apologize? She wasn't stupid enough to think she'd done a thing wrong. She was, however, apparently stupid enough to want him back on some sick, deep level.

It's been nice, being with someone who'd actually treated her like… well, a lady. He didn't pull out chairs or anything, Gary wasn't like that, but he hadn't moved too fast. Their first kiss hadn't been anything more than that: a heated kiss. She'd been with guys who'd had their hands up her skirt so fast she'd nearly gotten whiplash. Gary had his issues, but he'd always treated her right, at least when it counted.

He glanced up, brown eyes carefully neutral and looked at Christy, who gave him a very small smile. His slightly relieved expression had her convinced they'd be back together. She knew, right then, waiting for the new semester to start, that by the end of the first term she and Gary would be back together. She was already ignoring Pinky and Mandy's disapproving stares, Angie's downcast expression. She was already ignoring the whispers circulating around the school, the downright murderous stares Gary was getting…

As much as she knew they'd be together by the end of the year, she also wished that everyone was wrong. But they weren't. They were right about his being malicious and a sociopath. They were right that she was in over her head, getting involved with a guy who'd only screw her over again. They were right about everything.

And God she wished they weren't.

I wish I could say that everyone was wrong… I wish everyone was wrong…