Amy leaned over her nightstand, holding a short plastic straw to her right nostril and rapidly inhaling one of two lines of cocaine. Her eyes fell closed as she raised her chin towards the ceiling of her bedroom, and exuded a deep sigh. This "high" she continuously obtained from the drug was amazing. It made all of her problems evaporate within a matter of seconds, leaving them nothing but a distant memory, and her biggest problem of the moment was, Courtney Price. The bitch! What had given her the right to hit on her father like that? Was she insane? No, she was far from insane. She was a slut! A slut who lived her life, wearing tight and provacative outfits, swaying her hips as she walked and flaunting her flawless figure wherever she went, and for what? All for attention.

She scoffed, feeling the rate of her heart increase in her chest, and a wave of dizzness swirl around her head. Well, she was tired of letting Courtney walk all over her, but more than anything else, she was tired of being her little side-kick. All these years, Courtney had overshadowed her, made her feel like the third wheel time and time again. She shook her head in disbelief at the thought. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The room was a wavering swirl of colors. She blinked a few times in an urge to focus more clearly. There had even been times when they'd been out somewhere, having a gay old time, but the moment a hot guy walked by, off Courtney would go, leaving Amy, once again, all by her lonesome. Well, their friendship was over with. If Courtney wanted a friend, especially one who played by her rules, she could go make friends with Britney Spears.

Holding the short plastic straw to her left nostril, Amy leaned over her nightstand once again to take another hit. Within seconds, the white line of powder disappeared. She brought one of her hands up to her face, wiping at her nose with her index finger and thumb. Lying back against her comfy mattress, she sighed softly, the sound of her pounding heart echoing in her ears. Her eyes fell closed once more as the ceiling started to shift. Beads of sweat broke out at her temples as her breathing grew heavy. A light laugh escaped her. Her hand came up to her forehead, wiping at the sweat that was already accumulating there.

Suddenly, a sound similiar to a ringing phone caught her ears. It sounded so far away, and even somewhat like a buzzer, but she still heard it. Her eyes came open, following the sound as it continued to drone on and on. She reached for her celluar phone -- which sat right next to the regular phone -- and flipped it open, holding it to her ear.

"Hello?"

No answer.

"Hello?"

There was no one there, but the ringing didn't stop. Pulling the celluar away from her ear, it was then she realized that she'd picked up the wrong phone. With an irritable sigh, she tossed the celluar aside and reached over to snatch the cordless phone off its base. She exhaled sharply, holding it to her ear. "Hello?"

"Hey Amy, it's Matt."

Her brows furrowed inquisitively. "Uh, Matt?"

"Yeah, Matt. Matt McNamara. Ring any bells?"

Matt McNamara. Matt McNamara. Why wasn't that name ringing any bells? Did she even know a Matt? She couldn't remember. "Um, no, not really." Suddenly, a memory flashed through her head. "Oh wait, yeah. Matt, right. Sorry. I'm like kind of out of it right now. Sorry."

"It's okay. Listen, I hope it's all right that I call you. Uh, I got your number from Courtney."

She silently fumed at the name of her "former" best friend, but pushed her aggravation out of her head, for now, and tried to focus on the conversation. Wiping the sweat off her forehead, she shifted on the mattress beneath her, pushing herself up to a seated position and leaning against the oak headboard. "Oh, no, it's cool. Just as long as you don't give this number out to anyone else. I just moved in here so I don't want some freaks calling me that I don't know." She laughed lightly. "Not that you're a freak or anything. Anyway, what's up?"

There was a pause from Matt's end before he finally spoke. "Well, I know you and Courtney are best friends, and I'm not trying to ruin your friendship or anything, but seeing as how you've known her longer than I have, you probably know more about her."

Oh great. This conversation was going to be about her least favorite person. She rolled her eyes dramatically. "Yeah," was all she could say in response. Frankly, that was the last thing she wanted to talk about, unless of course he wanted to trash talk Courtney, but considering that he was her boyfriend, the possibility was probably slim to none.

"Look, I love her, and the last thing I want is for us to break-up, especially over something like sex, but in the past couple days, she hasn't returned a single one of my phone calls. For all I know she's probably screwing some other guy right now." He paused, and then posed his question. "She's not a virgin, is she?"

She sighed deeply, running her fingers through her short and wavy hair. Her eyes narrowed in vexation and her teeth clenched. She shifted restlessly on her mattress. Oh she could picture exactly what that bitch was doing right now, but if it was screwing her father, she'd kill her. She'd pull all her hair out the first chance she got. "No, she's not a virgin. She lost her virginity a long time ago, back when we were in high school. She was voted 'Little Miss Popular' in our senior class, and guess who she ended up screwing? The guy who was voted 'Mister Popular.'" A scoff escaped her.

Matt exuded a heavy and somewhat irritable sigh. "Well, that doesn't surprise me. She hardly wants to do it with me anymore, and I'm guessing if the guys before me weren't up to her standards either, she probably treated them the same way. I'm right, aren't I?"

"I didn't ask her about her sex life back then so I wouldn't really know. The thought of my best--the thought of her having sex with some random guy, wasn't a picture I wanted to have in my head. Besides, she was usually too busy with them to even spend any time being my friend. Oh, no offense." She went on and pushed herself up to her feet. For a brief moment, she wavered on her heels, that dizziness looming over her head, stronger than before. Squaring her shoulders, she shook the feeling off before striding out of her bedroom and towards her kitchen.

"I want to know. How many boyfriends has she had before me anyway?"

"Well, I haven't really been keeping track or anything. I don't know, let me see. Maybe, like, four or five. Something like that."

"Whoa, four or five? Holy shit! Are you kidding me?"

"I don't know. Why don't you just ask her? She and I aren't exactly in the 'talking' mood right now anyway. She pissed me off."

"I can't just ask her about this kind of stuff. I mean, jesus, I'm her boyfriend. Do you have any idea how much of an asshole I would look to her? And why exactly are you pissed at her? What the hell did she do to you?"

She rolled her eyes to glare up at the ceiling. Turning right, she entered her spacious kitchen. If Matt was siding with Courtney, Amy could wind up being without any friends. Of course, there was always Kimber. "She was a total bitch to me earlier today. Oh, and not only that, but she had the nerve to hit..." Her voice trailed off as she paused in front of the sink. All of a sudden, she was compelled to tell Matt everything. Everything that had happened between Courtney and Christian. Not only would she be able to get back at Courtney for even hitting on her father, but if Matt knew about Courtney's heated attraction with Christian, Matt would be on her side.

"Hit what?"

Amy snapped out of her thoughts. "Huh? What?"

"You said she had the nerve to hit something. What the hell did she hit?"

"Uh...well," she wiped at the sweat on her forehead with the back of her hand, just before she reached up and opened one of the cupboards above the counter, "she hit me. We were fighting over something stupid, and she went and hit me. I dont know what her problem is lately, but she's been being a major bitch. I mean, I apologized for what happened in drama class, but it's like she didn't even care."

"Well, I was planning on getting together with her tonight, but I been waiting around here for about an hour, and guess what? I haven't heard a damn thing from her. Looks like she doesn't give a shit about either one of us anymore."

"You got that right." She scoffed once again, retrieving a glass from the bottom shelf and shutting the cupboard door. Whirling around, she stepped towards her refrigerator, holding her glass under the ice dispenser, and then placing it beneath the one beside it, filling her glass to the brim with water. All this sweating had made her parched. "Look, Matt, I think there's something you should know. I didn't want to say too much about it, but..." She paused, bringing the rim of the glass up to her lips, and taking a guzzle.

"What is it?"

She shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "Nothing, nevermind. It's stupid. I probably shouldn't have even brought it up. Forget it."

"No. No, you can't just start something like that and not finish it. If there's something I should know, and it has to do with my girlfriend then just cut the bullshit and tell me. I'm not going to play guessing games with you either, all right? Now tell me."

She rolled her eyes, leaning her back against the refrigerator. God, he was as stubborn as her father about this sort of thing. "Okay, fine. You really want to know? I'll tell you." She sighed deeply, her heart constricting in her chest. "When Courtney was here earlier, I asked her how things were going between you two, and she started talking about finding another guy. Another guy who could please her, well, sexually. I guess she thought you weren't good enough, at that."

"She said that?"

Amy took a large gulp of her water and pushed herself away from the refrigerator, heading back in the direction of her bedroom. "Well, she didn't really say that, but she told me that you weren't exactly great at it. Look, no offense or anything, I know you probably still think of her as your girlfriend, but back in high school, people used to call her a 'slut.'"

"You know what? I think I've heard enough, thanks." The vexation in his voice was evident.

"Sorry. I didn't want to be the one to tell you, but I thought you should at least know the person she truly is and was, and probably always will be."

Matt sighed wearily. "Listen, hang on a second, I got another call."

"Okay." She flopped back down on her bed, waiting rather impatiently for him to return. Taking another guzzle from her glass of water, she wiped at her sweaty forehead once more and sighed deeply. She shifted on the mattress beneath her, leaning her back once again against the headboard of her bed. Another minute later and she heard Matt's voice.

"Amy?"

"Yeah?"

"I gotta go, Courtney is on the other line, and I think she wants to talk."

Amy rolled her eyes. "Okay, well, there is one more thing I think you should know, Matt."

"Oh yeah? What's that?"

Suddenly, without thinking, the words came spilling out of her mouth. "She mentioned something to me about some guy. A guy that she met at a club last night. What was his name? Oh yeah! Christian. It could just be sheer coincidence that he has the same name as my father, but you never know. Especially when it comes to Courtney."

There was a brief moment of silence from Matt's end. Finally, he spoke, but from the tone of his voice, he clearly didn't sound too thrilled to hear what she'd said. "Thanks." Then, before she had a chance to say anymore, she heard a click and a dial tone. He'd hung up on her.

She pulled the phone away from her ear, staring at it in bewilderment. Exhaling sharply, she shook her head in disbelief and placed the cordless phone back on its base. To be honest, she didn't know what more there was to say, but somewhere, deep down inside, a part of her was actually feeling remorse for Matt. If Courtney hadn't been such a bitch to her, and if she were even her friend anymore, Amy would hate to see the two break-up. Especially now that she was starting to think they made a cute couple. Well it was Courtney's fault that their friendship had been broken. Not hers.

Her head began to pound as she took a large gulp from her water glass. She seriously needed to push all thoughts of Courtney and her father out of her head. It wasn't doing her any good to stress about it. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and rose to her feet. Pulling back the covers, she crawled beneath them, and pulled them up and over her head. It was a bit too early to be going to bed -- especially at seven thirty at night -- and she wasn't exactly dressed for it either, but with the migraine taking it's toll on her nervous system, she figured she should at least try and get some rest. Whether it got rid of her migraine or not, she could always call up Kimber and talk to her. That would get her mind off all this stress, wouldn't it?

After all, Kimber was the only real friend she actually had left. To hell with what Christian thought about the woman. She was her friend whether he or anyone else liked it or not, and that was the way it would stay from now on.