"I got that job," Rebecca tells Coby when he picks up the phone. "It's a gallery in Santa Monica, not far from the beach...so you'll be able to take me to lunch pretty often." Coby was sure she wasn't even going call him, and here she is scheduling 'lunches' for them. "Hey, sure, lunch," Coby says hesitantly, thinking of Nina & their 'lunches'. "Do you feel like coming out to Hollywood?" Rebecca asks. Shit no, Hollywood just keeps getting worse everyday & Coby is glad he doesn't live there anymore. "Yeah, sure, Becca," Coby answers. "All right, come & get me," Rebecca says, "I live on Whitley, 1/2 block north of Hollywood Blvd., right across from the Motel 6, you can't miss it. The place is called La Leyenda. I'm in Apt 2." "Dude, no way," Coby stammers incredulously, "You live in my old apartment!" It would just be a funny coincidence, except that it's where most of his memories with Ti come from, and where she still lives, with that French guy across the hall. Coby enters the building hesitantly, not wanting to run into Ti while he's picking up Rebecca. But of course, while Coby waits for Becca in the lobby, Ti comes in & throws her arms around him & and says she wasn't expecting him, like he's here for her. "Hey, Ti," he says, pulling out of her arms before Rebecca walks in, "I'm here to meet my...friend...Rebecca." Would Becca be jealous to see him hugging another girl, a girl he might be just as in love with as he is with Rebecca? Would Becca even care? "Rebecca? The chick who moved into your old apartment?" Xtina asks him, and before he can answer, Rebecca is beside her answering for him, "Pretty bizarre coincidence, isn't it?" Then she takes him by the arm & pulls him toward the door, like she barely noticed Ti was there at all. "You didn't used to date her, did you?" Rebecca asks as they head out the door. And no, not with even a hint of jealousy, just complete scorn for his ex-girlfriend, like she can't believe he stooped that low. "Let's just go, Becca," Coby sighs.

Rebecca wants to check out Los Feliz, she's heard so much about it since she's come back to town. "It's not really all that," Coby warns her, but as they drive around looking for a place to park, Rebecca looks really happy. It didn't used to be anything, just a little neighborhood, then it became fashionable for people like Ti & Rebecca. Coby doesn't tell Becca how much Ti loved the Electric Lotus as she drags him into the restaurant, saying, "Let's check this out." They don't talk much during dinner: Coby doesn't talk at all really, while Rebecca voices an occaisional opinion about politics or whatever, nothing Coby is interested in, all that stuff she & Heather are into. After dinner they hit an art cafe, poke around a couple of shops until Rebecca says she's ready to go home. "Do you want to come back to my place?" Coby asks, kind of knowing she'll say no. "I don't want to drive out to the westside & back tonight," she says. So he drives her back to Hollywood & she invites him upstairs.

It's his old room, but Coby barely recognizes it now that it's Becca's. He doesn't have any significant memories attached to this room, Ti's room is where everything important happened. Coby leans in to kiss Becca, but she smiles & laughs, and pulls off her shirt, so Coby can't get his lips on hers. It's all about the sex, and she gets right down to it, not romancing or even talking. At one point, she sighs a name, Shannon, and Coby couldn't even say for sure if that's a girl or a guy, he doesn't know Becca well enough to guess. Whoever Shannon is, it's who Rebecca is using him to get over, Coby realises, she didn't just come back to L.A., to his life, she left someone else's.

"So this is basically a rebound thing," Coby says bluntly, "You're with me to get over 'Shannon'." Rebecca glares for a second then smiles, "Nonsense. First, I'm not 'with' you, let's get that straight. I'm not into 'relationships', I don't know how long I'm staying in town anyway. And that's how it was with Shannon, too, got it? We were together a lot because of our political activities, and we played around, that's it. There was no relationship for me to 'get over'. How do you know about him anyway? Did Heather tell you?" Coby doesn't believe for a second that his 'non-relationship' with her is anything like whatever she had with this Shannon dude, he's very sure when she moves on she won't be sighing Coby's name to her next lover. "Heather didn't tell me anything," Coby replies, "You said his name. Just now. While we were on the desk." "Oh," Rebecca says, squirming uncomfortably.

So she tells him she needs to get some sleep, and hugs him briefly before kicking him out. "Come by the gallery & meet me for lunch tomorrow." Coby closes the door behind him, takes a breath, looks at Ti's door, considers knocking...she used to leave it unlocked so often,Coby pictures himself walking in, stepping into the past. And he turns his head as he considers the possibility of walking in on her with the French guy, and heads down the stairs with his head hung low. In the past, when Coby has gotten something he wanted, it always made him happy, but being with Rebecca is making him miserable. Before he gets to the bottom of the stairs he hears Ti say his name. He looks up, not sure if it's real or a memory. But there she is at the bottom of the stairs, looking up at him. She looks a little sad, like she did when he came to pick up Becca earlier. The French guy is not around, it seems like he's never around. "Alone again?" Coby asks sadly, wanting to tell her he knows how she feels, to get what you were after only to find you just don't have it and never really will.

"I hate you," Xtina hisses as she turns on her heel to run away into the kitchen. Coby chides himself for nor knowing better, everytime he's called & the French guy wasn't around, it has been a real sensitive point with her. So he follows, taking her arm & stopping her flight, "I'm sorry, that was stupid," he apologizes, "I've been stupider than usual lately, I'm not sure why." Coby tries to smile, but everything is so messed up right now, he can't even do that right. She has this way of looking him, that melts his heart...she does that now, while brushing her fingers over his hair. "I was going to go whip something up in the kitchen...you want to join me?" she asks.

The best thing Coby has going for him now is that Ti is still his friend, no matter what. He can talk to her about anything, he can talk to her about things he won't even discuss with his sister. She asks him when he met met Rebecca, so he tells her the whole story about his high school crush, her leaving town after graduation & her recent return, and how it made him fall for her all over again. His life's gotten caught in a heinous riptide, he thinks: girls used to be easy, and life was one golden sweet ride, but lately it's been nothing but sex & heartache. "So I guess you must be happy now?" Xtina asks. Is she crazy? Coby wonders, he was practically in tears just a minute ago, back on the stairs.."Ti, look at me, do I look like I'm happy now?" he asks. She looks up at him, and Coby knows she knows him well enough to see the fatigue that's been wearing him down. She asks him what's wrong...oh, what isn't wrong, he wonders. "She's just playing with me. I know it's not like I deserve better, considering what I've done with girls. But knowing that doesn't stop it from hurting. I want her to love me, but I don't think she ever will," Coby tells Xtina. He hates saying it, but it's the truth he has to face, Rebecca is with him because he's easy, he's there, and she's trying to forget someone else. He's Rebecca's Hayley...