𝙵𝚛𝚘𝚖 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚏𝚒𝚛𝚜𝚝 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝙸 𝚖𝚎𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞

𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚜 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜.

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚎 𝚔𝚗𝚎𝚠 𝚒𝚝.

𝙸'𝚍 𝚗𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛 𝚏𝚎𝚕𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎.

𝚃𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍 𝙸 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚐𝚘

𝙸𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞'𝚍 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚊𝚜𝚔 𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍.

𝙸 𝚠𝚒𝚜𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍.

𝙱𝚞𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚌𝚊𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘.

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚝𝚛𝚞𝚝𝚑.

𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎

𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌.

𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞

𝙽𝚘 𝙸 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚠𝚑𝚢 𝙸 𝚍𝚘 𝚒𝚝.

𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚜 𝚜𝚘 𝚑𝚊𝚛𝚍

𝙸𝚝 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚋𝚛𝚞𝚒𝚜𝚎𝚜.

𝙻𝚘𝚟𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎

𝙳𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚖𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚌.

By the end of the day, Lennon was in the middle of practice when one of the flyers slipped and overextended a muscle in their leg and sprained their wrist. She was immediately taken to the hospital by the basketball coach which happened to be her dad but her fall put their routine on hold.

The basketball team was forced to meet in the gym with the cheerleaders when their coach stepped out with his daughter and after some conversing and debate, the cheer coach agreed to send them all home early and agreed to a meeting during lunch on Monday after the break.

The coach rescheduled practice for that following Tuesday afternoon and everyone went along with it despite it being on such short notice.

Everybody ended up leaving the gym together. Lennon was walking beside Heather and Rebecca who were both gossiping about how tragic it was that one of the three flyers got hurt. All Lennon could think about was how tragic it was that these girls thought a sprained wrist was their idea of a 'tragedy'.

They walked the halls in a spread-out crowd as people left for their cars and others lingered to ask for a ride. Steve had made his way to Lennon but she didn't want to talk to him after the interrogation he gave her after lunch.

Almost everyone had exited the building and made their way towards the front of the building by then and Lennon hoped for a quick escape.

"Lenny, I can give you a ride. I'm heading to yours now," Steve ushered her towards the parking lot.

Lennon scoffed. "I'd rather take Kaitlyn's place at the hospital," she replied disinterestedly, turning towards the telephone. "Thanks," she said snobbishly before people were snickering and calling out 'oohs' and 'ahs' as if Lennon had intentionally wanted to cause a scene. She hated crowds and the only thing she was trying to do was blend in. Bullying Steve in front of everyone was the opposite of what she wanted.

She had turned towards everyone who was staring and poking fun at Steve before he was swallowed by them.

Lennon moved for some coins but she couldn't find any in her pockets or her gym bag. "Damn..." she muttered, shaking her head and moving to look down the hall in hopes of seeing someone she recognized to ask for a quarter to call her brother.

The crowd that laughed at Lennon and Steve's conversation had moved further towards the parking lot but they didn't look interested in dispersing yet.

They stood together chatting and laughing in the near distance from where the phone was and the soft sound of their company eased some of Lennon's anxiety.

Maybe she was getting used to this new life. It took a lot, costing her a lot more than she was willing to give, but maybe she was finally recovering and healing from it all. Why else would their existence make her feel better?

She turned down the hall but the only person there was Max's brother, Billy.

He was wearing tight denim pants and a denim jacket to keep warm as he was riffling through the things in his duffel bag mindlessly.

"Billy?" she called out curiously, causing his beautiful head of hair to bounce as he looked up.

Immediately, Lennon was struck silent, finding herself completely stunned by his instantly intense stare. The blue in his eyes sparkled when directed towards her and the color stood out more prominently due to the blue he dressed himself in.

"Hi," she approached him shyly. "Uhm..." she clasped her hands together and rubbed them together for warmth, offering him a sensitive smile to keep him from brushing her off. "Is there any way I can borrow a quarter from you for the phone? I swear I can give one back if that's okay..."

He was intently staring at Lennon and that much attention caused her to clam up. His lips started to curl into a sideways smirk as he chewed on a piece of gum and everything about him screamed 'lust'. From his seductive eyes to the smell of his musky cologne. She wondered if he was the personified image of one of the deadly sins. He was beautifully deceptive and alluring and that strange, dark mystery that he tried to hide made her cheeks turn red.

"I don't think we've met," Billy drew out mischievously. He extended his hand, shifting the weight of his duffel bag to his left hand as he shot Lennon a smile.

"Not officially," she agreed, extending her hand to meet his. "But it's hard not to know who you are when you're all the girls on the team talk about," she giggled, searching his face for a flaw to convince herself he was real. She thought that maybe if she caught a spot of acne or a double chin that she wouldn't be as nervous or intimidated as she felt. But he had none. He didn't have a single, visible flaw.

"I could say the same thing, Lennon Seagrave," he played with the minty gum in his mouth, playfully looking her up and down with a lascivious glint in his sterling blue eyes. "I've heard a lot about you. I think I can salvage a quarter for a darling such as yourself," he rummaged through his pockets and pulled a handful of change out.

Lennon sighed, pulling her hand back and placing it to the side of her cheek to cool the heat riding to them.

She could think of a thousand things that would match his flirtatious tone. She could think of a thousand ways to charm him and show him she was interested in him. And yet what came out of her mouth was more abrupt than she thought.

"Thank you," she whipped up the quarter he had sorted out for her. "I uh..." she bit her lip as her eyes skittishly went to the ground in thought. "I owe you one," she smiled innocently up at the daunting man as she backed away. "A quarter..." she kept rambling. "I... Thank you..." she quickly turned on her heels and mentally cursed herself for acting so childish.

"Blubbering idiot..." she hissed under her breath. She had buried her head in shame once she reached the phone and had to press all her weight against the glass around it to keep it from passing out. She would rather the world swallow her whole than to tolerate the knowledge of her disgraceful behavior.

"Y'ello?"

"Brontë, practice was canceled. A girl got hurt. Come pick me up?" she grumbled, rubbing her face into her fist as she tried to recover from her earlier embarrassment.

"Are you alright?"

"Fine," she sighed. "Are you able to come to get me?"

"Yeah, just... You could ask a little nicer. Give me a second and I should be there in ten."

"Ten?" she scoffed, opening her eyes and smiling. "You own a hovercraft and didn't tell me abut or something? The roads are snowed in and it's Friday..."

"Yeah, yeah," Brontë's voice turned muffled and far away all of a sudden. "I found a shortcut. See you soon."

Then he ended the call. She pulled the phone from her ear and stared down at it incredulously. He sounded distracted. He sounded strange.

"The fuck does that mean?" she whispered to herself, lifting the phone back onto the handle and turning towards the crowd by the parking lot. However, she quickly flinched when she found someone staring back at her as they leaned against the wall by the corner.

"You might act like a saint but you've got a dirty mouth, Miss Seagrave," Billy drew out seductively, not looking over or even acknowledging her as he ran his tongue over the surface of his teeth.

He was pressed to the same place she first met Eddie.

She moved away from the phone and felt the desire to move him. She couldn't quite explain why, but she didn't feel good knowing he stood in a similar position as Eddie all those weeks ago. But unlike him, Billy had his back pressed to the wall and he was holding onto his duffel bag like he was waiting for her to finish her phone call.

Was he waiting to use the phone or was he waiting for her?

"I never said I was saint," she huffed out softly, walking towards him and finally catching his eye.

Please move. Please don't lean against the wall like that. Please move. I don't it. Please move. Please move.

His eyes traveled up her leg, over her pale fingertips, up her sleeve, and rested on her rosy cheeks. She didn't stop in front of him but made her way away from the corner of the hall, hoping he would see that she wasn't interested in sitting idle and follow her away from the phone.

"You certainly look like one," Billy licked his lips and pushed himself off the wall.

Thank the angels...

"Well, looks can be deceiving," she replied quicker than her brain could comprehend the consequences of her actions. Once he had moved from Eddie's previous position, she was able to think a lot clearer; a lot clearer than she expected...

"Oh, I can see that," Billy responded playfully, falling into a slow step beside Lennon as she continued to lure him away from the corner hall outside. "I've seen you around the track," his eyes followed her like a kite in the wind and his tone was handsomely even and deep as he walked beside her. "You're fast," he complimented, raising his brows slightly as he smirked. "And you've got to be strong to hold a one-hundred-pound girl over your head for a solid sixty seconds. I bet you're a real commander outside that uniform."

Billy narrowed his eyes at her as Lennon tried not to smile as effortlessly as it felt in his presence. She giggled and turned away from his intense stare.

"I look less sugary sweet... Yes," she smiled warmly up at Billy, not wanting to terminate the chat-up he started.

"I bet," Billy replied leisurely. "At the end of the day, I'd never doubt someone who looks like that to be any less dirty than that mouth of yours."

Lennon giggled.

"You haven't seen anything yet," she warned teasingly, causing Billy to chuckle and lower his head to the ground.

Lennon's eyes went out to the feeling she got of being watched. She looked up from her feet and saw the crowd of cheerleaders and basketball players snickering and watching them from afar. There was whispering, giggling, nervously glancing around, poking, and shoving within the cluster.

Lennon realized what she was doing wasn't at all what she had planned and put a few inches between them as they continued to walk. There was a gust of wind that swept Billy's light-brown hair away from his face, forcing Lennon's eyes to his radiant skin and glowing eyes from under the hood of his perfectly thick and dark eyebrows.

"So uh," Billy chuckled charmingly. "Do you need a ride or was the quarter worth the summons?"

Lennon snickered and curled a loose end of hair around her ear. "We shall see," she replied with a sigh, stopping in her tracks and turning towards the nearly vacant parking lot to distract herself from Billy's game. "The cavalry isn't as reliable as it once was these days," she smiled with a hypnotic hum of appreciation, infecting Billy in a way he didn't expect.

"Well," Billy offered. "My sister's hitched a ride with one of her friends so I've got an extra seat if you want it."

Shit. Stop. No. You're so... No. Don't think it. Just... Say no and be thankful. There's no need to freak out, Lennon. You can do this. Say no. Stop leading him on, you idiot.

"That's..." she drew out with a smile. "That's really kind of you but my brother is already up my ass as it is so I'd hate to freak him out," she frowned sympathetically.

"We aren't talking about Harrington, are we?" Billy leered suspiciously.

"No," Lennon giggled. "My brother is an ass and Steve is just his hemorrhoid," she rolled her eyes.

Billy chuckled and found himself simmering in surprise with just how amusing this innocent girl was. She acted so sweet and compliant, like the mere mention of inappropriate topics would send her straight to a chapel to repent.

He didn't think she would be this daring and openly comedic. She wasn't afraid to talk about the things no one wanted to talk about and she seemed so easy to talk to once he introduced himself, even if she was shy and awkward.

"They're a packed deal so he might as well be my brother," Lennon clarified humorously.

"Double the trouble them, huh?" Billy smirked.

"Say it louder for the folks in the back," she groaned sarcastically, eyeing the crowd nearby cautiously before turning back to the man who decided that keeping her company was more interesting than going home.

Billy smirked impishly. "Harrington's a fucking hemorrhoid!" Billy shouted angrily.

Lennon gasped. "Stop!" she hissed, covering her mouth and spitting out a sputtering laugh of shocked joy.

She playfully tackled Billy, knocking him back a few steps before pulling away and looking down the sidewalk to see the crowd start to laugh louder and buckle over with amusement.

"Oh my god..." she laughed, turning away from their classmates and hiding her reddening cheeks with her hands.

Billy chuckled and watched as Steve ascended from the crowd. He wasn't approaching them but he was glaring at them with his hands in the air like he didn't understand what the purpose of that was.

If he wasn't such a passive person, Billy would've thought Steve was trying to start something with him. But he wouldn't. He just stood there incredulously as he took the disturbing backlash.

Lennon wondered why he was still hanging around school but she couldn't help but mock him first. She turned and convulsed with laughter, wiping her eyes before turning her back on Steve again.

"You're gonna get me in serious fucking trouble..." she sighed, easing her chest from its sudden boil of amusement.

"I'd like to see that," Billy drew out darkly, charming her and finding her creased eyes more alluring the longer he stared. "I can't imagine you taking shit from anybody, if I'm being honest," he replied, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets and swiping his gum from his left cheek to his right.

Lennon hummed and sniffled as she found her composure. "Oh I don't," she replied cheekily. "But that just gets me into more trouble, doesn't it?" she giggled, turning towards the ground in fear of pushing her luck with his playful tone.

She wasn't an 'all bark no bite' kind of person, she meant what she said. She just didn't want everything she said as a playful way of gaining someone's affections or flirtations to be taken straight into bed.

She enjoyed the chase, sometimes more than the actual foreplay. And guys just didn't seem to get that.

"You make trouble seem like a bad thing..." Billy shook his head sportively. "Nobody ever told a good story without a bit of trouble..."

Lennon kicked at some pebbles that were too small to be rocks but too big to be considered sand which would've come up from between the blocks of pavement beneath her feet. She needed to ground herself. She was getting too wrapped up in Billy's grafting.

She was having too much fun; and when a girl has too much fun, boys tend to desire the destruction of it for their own amusement. She didn't want to write Billy off as the villain; not when he was being nice and charming, but to hard not to consider it.

"And yet when you get yourself into enough trouble, you can't tell the story if you're locked up..." Lennon pressed her lips together and met Billy's blue eyes with a look of disappointment. "A girl knows her limits," she assured, replacing the slightly depressed mood with one more enticing.

Billy quirked an eyebrow and hummed with satisfaction. "She's a poet too... The full package..."

"I wouldn't call myself a poet but I sure hope I know what I'm talking about, seeing as I write for the school paper every other week..." She was caught off guard when a familiar car pulled onto the premises.

Billy followed her line of sight curiously and watched as Brontë pulled into the parking lot.

Lennon expected to see Brontë make his way towards her but instead, her eyes were drawn to Steve who had wasted no time jumping out into the street and pulling Brontë over into a parking spot a little ways from the crowd of people huddled together.

"That the brother?" Billy questioned.

"Mmhm..." Lennon hummed, not looking away as Steve bent down and started talking to Brontë through the driver's window.

She couldn't read their lips from far away but whatever they were talking about couldn't have been good. She watched intently. Her lips slightly agape and her eyes narrowed on them in a desperate attempt to eavesdrop, but wasn't much use. No matter how hard she looked, she couldn't make out any coherent words falling from their lips.

However, she was instantly struck with fear when Steve looked in Lennon's direction and Brontë's head was turned towards her with an unnerving look of disbelief.

There was only one thing she could think of that would make her brother look at her like that. Steve was definitely telling him something that was bound to get her in major trouble and the only thing he had as ammo would've been the conversation she had with Eddie.

"Oh fuck..." she cursed, closing her eyes and turning away from them anxiously. "Mmhm, shit... Fucking... snitch..." she muttered under her breath as she clutched onto her book bag for support.

"What's wrong?" Billy scoffed, noticing her sickened expression on her face but finding her cursing too humorous not to laugh at.

"Harrington the hemorrhoid," she replied in a low, anxious tone.

What could she do?

What were Steve and Brontë accusing her of?

Steve was pressing her on the idea that she was hanging out with Eddie, and because in their minds, people of the opposite gender couldn't be friends and hang out without wanting more... She knew exactly what they were talking about.

And maybe that was the case. But they didn't need to know that.

What could she do?

She had to throw them off. She had to confuse them and hide her trail.

Then it hit her.

"What'd he do?" Billy chuckled.

"Please don't freak out," she snapped bluntly.

Lennon ignored Billy's question and shook her head drearily, looking up into those dazzling blue eyes of his with a lost, desperate look in her own.

He had one eyebrow lifted with curiosity but she didn't have time to explain.

"Just go along with it and please don't push me away," she begged in a whisper.

Lennon sucked in a quick breath of frosty air and pulled Billy in by the neck, catching him off guard, and pressed her lips to his.