Adam sighed as he ran his hand through his short blonde locks. He knew he shouldn't be begging, but he was rejected. The word hung in the air like a dirty swear in church, and he hated that for once in his life it applied to him. He was the player, the one with all the moves and all the lines; every girl he'd ever met had gone out of her own way to throw herself at him.

Rejected, denied, slighted, snubbed, refused--whatever the word, it all led to the same idea. Dana Cruz did not want to date Adam Hartsdale. He shook his head ruefully, he should never have even bothered asking her. But, it seemed like time was finally working on his side -- she did come back from France, didn't she?

So one last chance was all he requested. As he walked down the hallway to the dorm she shared with Zoey and their other friend, Adam prepared himself for more humiliation. And with a cool smile on his face, and his frame casually leaned against the door, he was ready to take on anyone.

He only waited a few seconds after his light knocking before the door swung open. And suddenly, brown locked on green and he couldn't look away even if he wanted to.

"Uh, um. Hi," Adam stuttered out. He tried to regain control of his senses--he was a ladies man, so the fact that his palms were sweating and little tiny flutters erupting in his lower stomach caught him completely off-guard.

"Hi," the brown-haired girl breathed. He took comfort in the fact that she seemed equally as discombobulated.

Point, point, what was your point? went through his head, as he tried to remember what had brought him to this doorway to see this amazing girl.

"I was um, looking for... Dana." Not anymore.

"Oh," he wondered if it was just him, but she seemed to stand rigid. "She's not here right now."

"Alright, I'm Adam, by the way."

"Nicole," came her simple introduction. Her eyes were no longer deeply glued to his, and he took the moment to remember where he had heard her name before. Then he was reminded of something Zoey said the other day.

Out of all the Nicoles, in all the dormrooms, in all the boarding schools, the most entrancing of them just had to be roommates with his friend and the girl he was chasing after.

Before he even realized what he was doing, he found himself inviting her to Sushi Rox. A voice in his head asked him about Dana, and told him he should find her first. But as Nicole simply shrugged a "Sure," his heart was beating triple-time. He was so out of his element.

Half of her body quickly disappeared inside of the door as she grabbed her brightly-coloured key and a bag, and he took the moment to attempt to compose himself. It wasn't working well. All he could do was sneak glances at her from the corner of his eye. Either she didn't notice, or she just didn't mind, he couldn't tell which one it was.

"So Nicole," he attempted conversation. "How long have you known Dana and Zoey?"

"Oh, since forever! Well, no, not really. The first year they let girls into PCA we were all roomies. Can I tell you a secret?"

Adam nodded, and was silently thrilled as she leaned closer to him. "I didn't like Dana that much back then. We fought all the time. Zoey even moved out once 'cause she couldn't take us."

"So if you've been here so long, how come I haven't seen you around?"

"Oh, I got shipped off to this totally boring all-girls school. Ugh, it was such a bummer!" she exclaimed, laughing as memories seemed to cloud her vision.

"Did you do something naughty?"

She laughed, "Oh no, nothing like that! My doctor just came up with some crazy story about me being obsessed with boys. I mean, come on, that is so not true."

And Adam surprised himself again, because he was actually hanging on to every word that came out of Nicole's mouth. It was easy to tune out all of the other dronings of the girls he usually went out with, but Nicole wasn't prattling on about nonsensical things he didn't particularly care about. In fact, she seemed to actually want him to participate in the conversation, which was something new altogether.

But as she finished speaking about her not being obsessed with guys, her eyes followed a few baseball players heading off to the field. The scene would have amused him, had he not wanted to strangle every single one for capturing her attention. She was supposedly supposed to be obsessed with guys, so what was wrong with the one right next to her?

"What was I saying? Oh yeah! So then Quinn hypnotized me so everytime I saw a boy, it would look like my grandpa! Can you believe that?"

Adam quickly decided they needed to get Sushi Rox soon, because lack of food was making him dizzy. Either that, or it was being in the presence of the girl next to him. He chose the former because frankly, he was scared about what the other option implied.

But her laughter echoed lightly in his ears, and he couldn't help but smile.

---

Zoey shivered as she pulled her sweater tighter around her. California always guaranteed that it wouldn't be freezing, but by mid-October, it wasn't exactly a smart idea to be outside in only shorts and a t-shirt as she was. The campus had mostly emptied out, as days like today were usually used for last-minute study time, or even an impromptu movie marathon.

The dormroom had seemed suffocating as she sat alone, typing randomly onto her laptop. Nicole hadn't been seen since she disappeared to scope out guys earlier that morning and Dana was yet again on the phone with Jacques, seemingly oblivious to the fact that once her phone bill came the long distance charge would be sky high. So instead of vegging even longer as her brain rotted into nothingness, she decided to retake her pursuit of her former roommates.

She had been regretting her decision ever since her brand new flip flops began to dig marks into her almost-numb feet. It was all too obvious that Lola and Quinn didn't want to be found, wherever they were. Zoey couldn't understand how they could just up and leave, no note, no explanation. Sure things weren't always perfect between them, but they were like sisters. At least, that's what she thought. And she'd be lying if she said it didn't hurt.

Upon seeing a coffee cart just a few feet away, she pulled out some loose singles that were crumpled in her pocket; a large cup of warm java sounded like just what she needed to raise her spirits. She waited behind a shorter blonde trying to balance two hot chocolates while searching her bag for money.

"Shoot!" the girl said under her breath. She turned to the barista, "I swear I have the rest, just hold on."

Noticing she had more cash than she needed and feeling a wave of generosity, she said "Hey, um, do you need me to spot you some money?"

The girl looked up, eyes widening slightly, and Zoey thought she looked oddly familiar. "Oh no, I couldn't ask you to do that."

"Really, it's no problem."

The girl's eyes widened, "Are you sure?"

"Yeah, positive."

She smiled gratefully, "Thank you so much. I only need fifty cents."

Zoey nodded and placed two quarters onto the edge of the cart, where the vendor quickly snatched them up; he seemed to be a little annoyed the girl had taken so long.

"You're Zoey, right? Third period English with Chambers?"

"Yeah, how did you--"

"Sarah!" a voice shouted from behind Zoey. The voice sounded strangely like Logan, which caused her brow to crinkle as she mentally smacked herself for imagining the voice was his.

Then she froze as it hit her: Sarah Watson from third period English, the school's future author, and Logan's new girlfriend. At least she wasn't going crazy. Yet.

The brunet she had been growing closer to the past few days then sidled up to Sarah. "Hey, what took so long? Did you get the hot chocolate?"

"Yeah, sorry. I had to borrow some change from Zoey, do you think you can pay her back?"

"Zoey?" He turned his face from his girlfriend's before his eyes locked on hers and his brows raised slightly. "Oh, hey Zo!"

"What's up, Logan?" she questioned in a would-be casual tone.

"Not much. So then you've met Sarah," he said easily. There was no trace of awkwardness in his voice as he motioned to the girl at his side.

"Yeah, we know each other from English," she said with a tight smile, trying to exude the confidence that seemed to just spill from his every pore.

"That's cool. Well we were just gonna go catch that new action movie they're screening on campus, you should come if you're not busy."

"Oh, that'd be so much fun!" Sarah exclaimed. "I think I've been hanging around with just Logan way too much recently. If I'm going to see a guy's movie, I'm definitely going to need some female company."

Zoey tried to hate Sarah, she really did. But the beaming smile coming off her glossed lips was too genuine. Sarah Watson seemed like a person impossible to hate. However, that didn't change the fact that everything from the couple's entwined hands to the sappy looks they were giving each other was too much for her to stomach at the moment.

"I would, but I really have to find my friends."

"Oh, that's too bad. I mean, that you can't, not that you have to find your friends," she trailed off laughing. "Rain date?"

Zoey gritted her teeth together, trying as hard as she could to give a real smile. "Sure."

"We should get going," Logan piped up. "There's only ten minutes until it starts."

"Oh, okay. Seeya later, Zoey!"

"Yeah, bye Sarah, bye Logan."

Zoey watched as Logan let Sarah walk ahead of him a few feet as he hung back and whispered, "Try not to look so glum," before jogging off to join his girlfriend.

Sometimes, she really couldn't figure that boy out.

---

And he wasn't jealous. He didn't bat an eyelash when the waiter started flirting with her. He didn't fidget in his seat when she laughed at his unfunny jokes. He didn't even curl his hands into fists when she placed her own delicate hand on Sushi Boy's arm.

Because jealousy is an emotion unknown to Adam Hartsdale.

In reality, he was only uncaring about the obvious glances a girl was shooting him from across the room. What he presumed was her boyfriend sat there, an angry look on his face as his whispered harshly to her. Even from his place, Adam could clearly make out the guy's mouth saying "What are you doing?"

If this was a month ago--or heck, even yesterday--he would have winked straight back at this unknown girl, fully enjoying the envious looks her boyfriend was giving him. But he couldn't bring himself to be that cruel at the moment. Because he and this unknown guy, they were in the same boat.

"So, I'm done!" he shouted, tearing the eye contact between Nicole and the waiter. "Are you done, Nicole?"

"Oh. Um, okay," she squinted.

Sushi Boy gave him a dirty look as he left to get them their check. Nicole sighed as he walked away, looking a touch regretful. He coughed lightly into his fist, seeing that did not make his blood boil. At all.

The waiter returned just a few moments later, giving Nicole an indiscreet wink and slamming the check down in front of him, making sure he saw the angry glare on his face. Adam supposed he'd be stuck eating pizza from then on, but he didn't really mind much. Enemies came and went so quickly it was pointless to dwell on them.

"How much do I owe?" Nicole asked, reaching in her sparkly silver bag for money.

Adam shook his head, and pulled out a handful of his own bills. "Don't worry about it."

"No really, I want to pay my half."

"But I invited you here!" he insisted.

"Yeah, but I can pay for my own!" she tried to slide a few fives his way.

He wasn't amused anymore, "Just let me pay."

"I can't."

"Why not?"

"Because then it will be too much like a date!" she finally blurted out.

Her voice became louder than he'd heard it all day, and she even looked surprised at herself. Their fellow restaurant-goers just stared at them strangely, and the raven-haired chick from across the room still had her vulture-like gaze on him.

"So what?" Adam asked, affronted. Would that really be so bad?

"So what?" she repeated. Then she cried, "I can't go out on a date with you!"

Ouch. Way to crush a man's ego. "And why's that?" he questioned bitterly.

"Just because," she said softer. He couldn't help but notice that the way she looked down at the table, with a faint blush rising from her neck to her cheeks, and the way it made her look completely irresistible to him.

"Whatever. I'll pay, but it's not a date. Alright?" he muttered. He hated compromising when he knew he was right.

She deliberated for a moment before eventually consenting.

The walk back to the dorms was silent and tense. Nicole seemed to not notice the way Adam's hands were shoved deep into his pockets, and the way his eyes were concentrated straight ahead. He couldn't bear to study her anymore, not while she just scoped out the other guys walking around campus.

But, he wasn't jealous. Not one damn bit.

---

"Zoey!"

She paused mid-step, wondering who could possibly be calling her in that desperate tone of voice. Of course, her heart resumed it's natural pace as she realized it was coming from a male, and therefore not nearly who she wanted to talk to. Attempting to rub away some more goosebumps, she craned her neck to see a mass of dark hair running towards her.

"Hey Chase," she remarked with laughter in her voice. He waved with his left hand, using his right to place pressure on what she assumed (from the heavy breathing) was a stitch in his side.

"What're you up to?" he questioned, breathing heavily.

"I was just looking for Lola and Quinn. You haven't seen them, have you?"

He motioned her over to a couple of chairs on the immaculate lawns and she followed. "No. They're not in the dorm?"

"That's the weird thing," she said as she took a seat next to him. "It's like they've moved out or something. I don't even know where to find them."

"Well, I'll keep my eyes open."

She thanked him, relaxing into the canvas of the chairs and slipping off her shoes to place her feet in the soft grass. She'd forgotten how nice it was to be around Chase. He just seemed to have something about him that put people at ease. Or, maybe that was just the way it was for her.

The guilt set in quickly, spreading up through her veins and strangling her heart with an invisible lasso. Looking up at him, he was wringing his hands nervously and staring intently at something in the distance. Once she thought they were the perfect couple, but she was beginning to think she didn't deserve him at all, not when she kept having oh-so-confusing thoughts about one of his best friends.

"You haven't been around a lot lately," he mentioned quietly. He wouldn't meet her eyes.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that. Things have just been kinda crazy, you know?"

"Oh yeah, yeah," he replied in a would-be nonchalant way, as if to show that's what he'd been thinking all along.

His words were like a trigger, and with them the calm atmosphere turned into something tense and awkward. She knew if was her fault; she built this wall around them. She tried to smile, it'd always loosened him up before, and pretend (at least for now) that things were normal.

"So what have you been up to lately?" she asked.

He looked at her briefly, and she was thankful this time he caught her eyes. "Not much. You know, homework, studying, trying to keep Michael from getting too sugar high."

"Uh oh," she said playfully. "Who gave him sugar this time?"

He put his hands up in mock-defense,"Not me. I've learned my lesson. But the vending machine down in the quad broke, so he's been going there constantly for free candy. I don't think he slept at all last night, just twitched a lot."

Another pang of regret hit her then. The realization that she truly missed just hanging out with Chase, Michael, Lola, and Quinn like they all used to -- back when Logan was nothing more than an arrogant rich kid who they loved to tease. It didn't matter what they were doing, or if they sat doing nothing at all, because it was good just to be together.

"So what about you?" Chase asked. She heard his silent question: Who have you been with?

"Same mostly... except, without the Michael part. It's been really great to catch up with Nicole and Dana. They've got so many stories, but it with them both here it feels like they never left."

He smiled, "It must be really great. What've they been doing?"

"Well, Dana's got a French boyfriend that she's absolutely in love with," she dished. "It's really cute. They're on the phone together at the oddest hours though, because of the time difference."

"Oh man, I can't even imagine Dana as a lovestruck girl," he chuckled.

And suddenly they were laughing like the old friends they were. Zoey continued sharing their friend's stories--how Nicole once managed to organize a group of girls to escape from school, the time Dana walked straight through a proposal in front of the Eiffel Tower without even realizing it--and always making sure to not bring up any of her own stories involving Logan or Adam. She would let herself feel regret at keeping secrets later, because at the moment she was enjoying herself too much to kill the moment.

They sat there, in someone else's lawn chairs, laughing into the late hours of the night.

---

Logan tried to hide his triumphant grin as he leaned in to give Sarah a goodnight kiss on the cheek at the end of their date. So far things had been going just as he planned them. If he dwelled too long, he felt a little bad for using Sarah this way, she really was a nice girl. Some sacrifices had to be made, though. Including ignoring the pang in his chest that erupted when he saw Zoey's face at the coffee cart. But well, a pang was just a pang and he could easily fool himself into believing it was nothing but an after effect of that spicy enchilada he'd consumed so quickly for lunch.

"Phase IV is a success," Logan typed into his cell as he made his way towards his own dorm.

As he read Adam's response of "Go fuck yourself," he couldn't help but laugh loudly; things for him may have been going smoothly, but it was obvious things for Adam were a different story (one which he'd have to get later).

"Hey girls, I'm home," he shouted upon entering the room he shared with Chase and Michael.

The room was quiet, for once their HD television wasn't booming with the special effects of some random movie, and only one bedside lamp was on to illuminate the entire place.

"He-wo Lufgan," Michael's voice greeted from somewhere within the dorm.

He turned in circles, trying to find his friend, but to no avail. Suddenly the crinkling of aluminum sounded and two figures--Michael, and a girl from Math class he vaguely remembered as Theresa--emerged from under an enormous pile of candy wrappers, chocolate smeared across both their faces.

Logan simply stared, jaw dropped.

"Candy machine broke," they answered in unison, as if that answer made all the sense in the world.

He shook his head up and down, as if he understood them by any means, and walked backwards out of the room. Sleeping in the lounge suddenly seemed like a good idea.

---

a/n: So, Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant... lmfao, It's so amusing that I still can't get over it. Anyways, kinda short, I apologize. And, of course, I apologize for the wait. This chapter was so not worth the 8 months it took to get this up, I know that. It's choppy, it's a bit rushed in places, and the characters are a touch off, and this is all making me angry because I used to love writing this. I would sit around and think about what stupid thing Adam would say next, or what devious plot Logan would come up with next to bag Zoey, but now things are different. Now that it's taking me so long between updates I think I'm losing my feel for a lot of stuff in here, but I'm desperately trying to get it back.

next on the agenda: doing major editing to the first few chapters . I feel like I've grown so much as a writer in the two years since I've opened this account (there were others before it, and we won't even get started on how much those sucked), and Heartbreaker doesn't really reflect that in any way. If I have enough time, I might try to even lengthen them somewhat, because the first four chapters are ridiculously short. I don't really know, we'll see what happens. Whatever it is, it'll change this story for the better, and that's a guarantee.

Thanks to those who have stuck with this. Your support means everything. The next chapter will be up MUCH quicker.