[𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐃𝐎𝐍]

"𝐇𝐈, 𝐆𝐎𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐔𝐒," 𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐈𝐒 𝐔𝐓𝐓𝐄𝐑𝐄𝐃 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐎 𝐌𝐘 neck.

I lifted Paris off the ground and kissed down her neck sloppily. I hadn't seen her in three days.

"How are you?" I asked.

"Amazing now that you're here." Paris beamed and I set her down. "Look! I got you flowers!"

"I see!" In her hand was a bouquet of yellow flowers. "They're Dahlias."

I sighed and looked down. "No, sweetie, they're Daffodils. You're allergic to Dahlias."

"Oh," she muttered.

"It's okay, they're wonderful, thank you." I bent down to kiss her lips.

Sean and Shannon were having their moment a few feet away from us.

"Come on, let's go. Shannon, Sean." Paris intertwined her pinky with mine and led me to Shannon's car.

Sean and I put our bags in the trunk. Paris and I sat in the back while Shannon and Sean took the driver and passenger.

"How was the game?" Paris asked.

"It was great, thank you for the tickets."

"Yeah, thanks, Paris," Sean said.

Throughout the car ride to l, the four of us decided to play a little family feud.

"What's something that looks real but isn't?"

"London's teeth," Paris answered.

"Excuse me?"

"Oh my god, I knew I wasn't the only one who thought that," Shannon agreed and she and Paris burst out into obnoxious laughter.

"So wait, I'm confused, how did my teeth become part of the conversation?" I asked.

"The question was, 'What's something that looks real but isn't?' " Paris said.

"Right," I agreed.

"And I said your teeth, because I don't think they are real. You were not born with those."

"Well, duh, nobody's born with a full set of teeth."

Paris sucked her teeth. "You know what I mean."

"So, Shannon, you don't think my teeth are real?"

"Nah, not really," she said.

"What about you, Sean?"

"I think your teeth are fraud," he replied.

"Okay, so it's clear to me that nobody in this car has ever heard of braces, Invisalign, or a retainer. That's what I'm hearing."

"We have, but the thing is, London, we all had braces and our teeth don't look like that," Paris explained.

"I had braces and my gap is low-key starting to come back," Shannon added.

"I still don't understand why you guys think my teeth aren't real. I'm not even old enough to get denture implants."

Perhaps my teeth are better-looking than there's, maybe that's because when I got braces, I followed the food rules I was given, though I'm not even sure that that really affects your teeth, more so the bracket. Plus, I got my teeth whitened professionally once in a while.

Shannon dropped Paris and me off at home. I was greeted by Diane and Ezra, along with Cosmo who couldn't stop jumping up and down.

Paris followed me to my room to watch me unpack my clothes and put them in my laundry bag.

"Our birthday's coming up," she said.

"That's right." I smiled. Paris and I both shared a birthday, April fifteenth. "What do you want to do for your seventeenth?"

"What do you want to do for your seventeenth?"

"I feel like parties are a no because we both had a sweet sixteen."

"Yeah mine was better but that's not the point," she muttered quickly.

I chuckled. "It's cute that you still think that. Anyways, what if we have a small get-together? Inner circle only?"

"I like the sound of that. I have to tell my parents, though. London?"

"Paris?"

"Let's go to a party tonight, please."

"What party?"

"Aiden Caulfield is throwing it. You like Aiden, right?"

"I guess, he's cool."

"So can you come with me? If you don't go then I won't go."

"I'll go, Paris."

"Yayy." She clapped happily. I leaned down, lightly held her chin, and kissed her.

Of course, without expressing to each other what we were going to wear, Paris and I ended up coordinating.

☽☽☽

Paris and I made our way into the party hand in hand.

We were greeted by Aiden who wrapped both his arms around us. He was patently faded.

"Friendsss!" he slurred. "Glad you could make it. Hey, uh, a bunch of us are taking shots. You guys have to take at least one."

I looked to Paris who looked back at me. Neither of us drank

"I'll do it if you do it," she said in my ear.

"For real?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, let's do it then."

Aiden led Paris and me to the kitchen where we caught a bunch of other people taking shots.

Aiden handed us the shots.

"At the same time," Paris said. "Ready, go."

I threw back the liquor quickly.

"How was it?" I asked Paris.

"Shit was nasty," she said, making a face. "Let's go." She took my hand and led the way to the dance.

On the way there, I immediately got angry when I spotted the waste of space with his little date. Darion and Priscilla. Though I don't pay attention to Priscilla enough to notice certain things about her, I did notice this; she was wearing a dress that was similar to a dress I'd seen Paris in.

Paris noticed my mood change. "What's wrong?"

She turned around and saw what I was seeing.

"Ohh," she realized. "Yo, she is a fucking fan," Paris shouted over the loud music to me.

"Ignore her," I told Paris. "She doesn't exist."

"She's a nonentity."

"Exactly," I agreed.

"And so is he, ignore him."

I'd done a good job at one focusing on Paris and no one else, that is, until, someone got too close to me.

"Ignore him," Paris said, referring to Darion.

"So niggas can't say excuse me?"

Paris took my face in her hands. "I thought you didn't like saying the n-word."

"I don't, but he's taking me there."

"Remember what you said, you can't give people the power to make you angry."

I didn't respond.

"London—?"

"I'm sorry." I moved away from her and quickly spotted Priscilla and Darion sitting on the sofa in the corner, Priscilla on Darion's lap and Darion's hand rested on her ass. I went over quickly.

"Hey, excuse me."

"What's up, London? I haven't seen you in a minute—"

"Look, when you walk past people, you say excuse me. You just brushed past me like I wasn't there."

"Well, I didn't know."

"You didn't know? Even though you felt my shoulder touch yours, you didn't know? Don't lie to me, please don't."

"Okay, you right, I did feel it." He smirked.

"I just want to say this and then I'm done, don't come near me or my lady tonight."

"Nigga, I don't even know who your girl is—"

And that's when I lightly dashed the bottom of Darion's drink on Darion. Was Priscilla supposed to get hit with the alcohol in it? No, not really. She did, though. Oh well. She's mean to my girlfriend.