𝚁𝚞𝚗𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢𝚜,

𝚆𝚎'𝚛𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚗𝚐 𝚕𝚘𝚜𝚝 𝚌𝚑𝚒𝚕𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚗

𝚁𝚞𝚗𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚎𝚍𝚐𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍.

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚋𝚘𝚍𝚢 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚠 𝚞𝚜 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚢.

𝙱𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚗 𝚋𝚘𝚢 𝚖𝚎𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚋𝚛𝚘𝚔𝚎𝚗 𝚐𝚒𝚛𝚕.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚜𝚊𝚒𝚍 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚛𝚒𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚝 𝚘𝚗𝚕𝚢 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚒𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚜𝚎.

𝙾𝚑, 𝚋𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎,

𝙼𝚊𝚢𝚋𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎,

𝚃𝚠𝚘 𝚠𝚛𝚘𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚖𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚒𝚝 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝.

Lennon's chest rose and fell rapidly as she gently bit down on her lip in anticipation.

Eddie's head was telling him it was a trap. He kept telling himself this wasn't real. This was a trick, some ruse, a game she was winning by getting whatever she wanted. But a part of him didn't care either; not when her eyes were wide and begging for him to kiss her.

His half-lidded eyes met hers in an enchantment of assurance. It was like the soil and the grass had turned against each other and got lost in the beauty of what gave them strength and purpose. Eddie's vision blurred in an instant and he lost all sense of self-control.

His head was bent as hers was tilted up, not needing much encouragement to lean into the desperation they shared.

Lennon's eyes fell shut with relief, feeling the pressure of his warm lips against hers. He immediately hummed against her and found his hands secured to the back of her head and neck. He was reeling her in, clawing at the side of her neck and causing a ripple of goosebumps to shoot up the base of her skull. The static force of his fingertips digging into her skin caused her body to straighten desirably to deepen the kiss, filling in the three-inch height difference more passionately.

Eddie hissed between their lips and furrowed his brows, consumed with the overwhelming relief that invaded his body. His hand trailed over her shoulder and down the soft valley of her spine.

She felt powerless under his touch. Her back arched at the drawing of his hands and her lips reached out for him.

She could taste the bitter bite of beer off the tip of his tongue. Never liking it before, she surprised herself when she kept asking for more. Her fingers traced the soft curvature of his collarbone before finding the frayed ends of Eddie's hair. They traveled up the side of his neck and she was able to feel the rough scruff of his unshaven face.

Her fingers felt like spiders spinning silk against his skin and her body's response to his needy pawing was most desirable.

He didn't care how reckless, he didn't care how vulnerable he was, he didn't care how needy he might have seemed, he couldn't even convince himself she was faking her affections. Nobody could touch another body like that and say they didn't like it.

His shoulders felt loose and soft under her hand. He was practically begging for her to pull him in closer.

Having him follow her guiding hand was easier than she thought. She didn't know if the drugs relaxed him so much that any form of restrain was nonexistent or if he was just that willing to her touch.

His lips weren't soft or conventionally desirable but she wanted them like she wanted air in her lungs. They were cracked from the cold and they tasted slightly bitter from being recently awoken. His lips were anything but sweet and yet the locking of them around her bottom lip caused her mind to grow foggy and she was suddenly outside her own body.

She wasn't concerned with her technique, if she was giving him the wrong impression, or if the kiss was going to go anywhere. She wasn't thinking about kissing him right or if she used too much tongue, she wasn't thinking about where to put her hands or when to breathe.

His body, his kiss, he caused her to have an out-of-body experience, feeling more elated than she ever thought possible.

As cliché and mawkish as it sounded, she swore she could feel a jolt of electricity race through her veins when he kissed her. The drive to learn was becoming too much. The need to know what his body felt like and how it responded to her touch started to grow prominent in her inarticulate mind.

She wanted to open up, she wanted to undress him, she wanted to bury her nose in his head of unwashed hair, she wanted to touch him, she wanted to kiss him, she wanted to know about the placement of every one of his tattoos, she wanted to watch him, she wanted to feel him, she wanted him in more ways than one and she knew she shouldn't.

She sighed against his swelling lips and pulled away.

"You're high," she repeated nervously, turning her head down and staring at her hand placed over his heart.

His head fell slack before stuttering and catching on a muscle that brought his head back up. The hand he had resting at the nape of her neck fell to her back and rested at her hips. He was using his thumb and rubbed small, affectionate circles into her jacket as he clung to her for as long as she allowed.

"I'm fine," he whispered, staring down at the revealing skin around her neck and chest and wanting nothing more but to lean down and pepper her body in kisses.

"You're..." she sighed, looking up and taking his cheeks into her palms with a delicate touch. "You're not thinking straight," she scoffed softly, peering up into those delirious eyes of his and smiling.

What the fuck did you just do? What the fuck have you just gotten yourself into, Lennon? How could something be so wrong but feel so right?

"Nope," he quickly agreed, half-drunk on pills and beer and half-drunk on her and sleep. He nuzzled closer and gained himself a passionate kiss in the process. He smirked into this one and deeply inhaled the scent of her face wash before she pulled back again.

"You shouldn't..." she whispered. "We," she corrected, "shouldn't do anything we might regret when you are not totally yourself..." she whined charmingly, staring up at Eddie with creased eyes and flushed cheeks.

"I'm well aware of what I'm doing," he promised huskily, leaning down and swiping another kiss from her lips.

"I think," she spoke in a hushed tone between kisses. "I don't think," she hummed as he invaded her privacy in all the right ways, running his warm hands underneath her jacket and softly rubbing his nose against her cheek as he kissed her. "I'm not so sure I am," she finally turned her head away and forced Eddie's head back.

"This... I... you..." she sighed, taking a deep breath to clear her head. "I don't know about you, or if you wanna blame the drugs, but I don't feel the best having kissed two people in less than twenty-four hours and I'm not so sure you should either," she dropped her hands from his face and waited for him to release her from his grasp but he never did.

Instead, he sputtered out a bubbly, raspy laugh under his breath and ran the tip of his tongue over his upper lip mischievously. "Oh, wait till the town hears the new girl was not only sent to this tiny shit hole to spread herpes but she's a floozy too," he smirked. "You're disgusting," he teased.

She clicked her tongue and giggled, pushing against his chest and causing him to lose balance more than she intended.

"Seriously though," she was quick to catch him from falling back. "Would you please take care of yourself? I really do not need your heart failing on me now," she chuckled nervously.

"Impossible when you're here," he pulled his hand to his mouth and started chewing at his cuticle again, only this time, he took a seat at the edge of his bed and watched Lennon with a careful eye. "Out of sight out of mind, right?" he chuckled, pulling his hand away from his mouth and rubbing at his eye again. "So, by that analogy, the old blood pumper can't quit when you're around."

Lennon rolled her eyes and sighed. Her eyes fell to the floor and she started to shake her head in disbelief. As she resurfaced from her earlier enchantment, she remembered why she was there in the first place.

"Analogies," she smiled. "That's good. Glad to know you paid some attention in class," she moved to take her bag off her shoulder and took a seat beside Eddie.

"Mmhm," he complained. "No. No class today," he pushed his palms into his eyes and fell back on the bed.

"Yes," she corrected him. "You have an entire book to read, analyze, construct a rough draft, and write an entire paper on by next week."

"It's too early..." he groaned.

"It's a quarter to eleven," she replied dully.

"You can't read time," he mumbled, keeping his eyes closed as his body was overfilled with serotonin and melatonin.

"How do you figure?" she giggled, pulling her books out of her bag and setting them down between them.

"I remember saying to come at noon..."

"And I remember having to leave early to avoid Steve," she shot back.

"Harrington a sleeping at your place now? What does he think he is, a security guard?" he cringed and continued to rub at his sore and tired eyes.

"How can you be so unresponsive?" Lennon scoffed. "You were mad and disbelieving of me a second ago and now what? You just... you don't make any sense..." she leaned over her knees and buried her burning face in her hands as she smiled.

Eddie found that remark amusing. He smiled to himself and lifted his tired body to face Lennon who refused to meet his eye as she hide her flustered and shameful face.

She knew what she did was wrong, she could feel it in her belly. Kissing Billy and kissing Eddie didn't feel right. But what felt worse was liking it.

"Probably because I'm high," Eddie spoke lifelessly, bending his knee under his body and leaning his weight on his palms which were nestled in the sheets between him and her.

"Mmhm," Lennon hummed cheekily, turning her face and looking between her fingers to see Eddie with half-lidded eyes and a helpless smile strung thin on his lips. His head fell into his shoulders a little as he rested his body on his hands, leaning forward and watching how her lips moved when she spoke.

"I thought so," she giggled, extending her hand towards the center of the bed and leaning all her weight on her one arm. She faced Eddie and watched his eyes follow her as she settled in beside him.

"Mmhm" he hummed deeply as he slowly nodded his head. He was pressing his teeth into the reddened flesh of his bottom lip as his eyes grew with want and the distance between them seemed to reduce the longer they stared.

"Mmhm," she replied, being unable to keep her eyes off his lips now as her breath became shallow and slow.

His lips fell apart, studying hers and being unable to ignore them. "Uh-hm," he hummed, sharply inhaling and pressing his lips to hers.

His head nuzzled closely, pushing her back and causing her head to tilt towards his infectous kiss. He leaned in and she instantly fell helpless.

He smelled so human. There were pheromones that drew her into him and the faint cologne clinging to the back of his neck still resided underneath the warmer, muskier tones that couldn't be identified through words.

His skin was smooth but the wirey hairs sprouting from the surface of his face made him feel rough and scratchy. His hair was soft when her hands clung to his neck and the bandana around his head was preventing her from feeling more of it.

Her eyes crossed underneath her lids when introduced to the tip of his tongue, playing with the sentsitive skin of her lips and begging for access to her gasping mouth.

His knees bent and his weight started to shift as he leaned over her, causing her hand to slid back to keep her back from hitting the surface of his mattress. Both his hands were suddenly on either side of her hips and the heat between them that started out as an innocent bonfire was beginning to spread into a wildfire. The destruction the would follow would be irreversible and that's what forced Lennon from submitting to him.

She hummed against his insistent and tasteful tongue and pressed her lips to his chin, taking both her hands and stabilizing herself on his tensing shoulders as she kissed along his neck. He tasted even more desirable than before which made the fight for rationality that much harder.

"Mmhm," she hummed against his neck and peeled her face from his skin. "English paper," she grumbled in a terse voice.

"Hmmhm," Eddie crinkled his nose as his head was thrown back, leaving him to peer down at her with a frown.

"Mmhm," she looked back sympathetically, nodding her head whenever he shook his in disagreement.

"That paper can wait," his voice turned groggy and drawn out as he moved forward and planted another kiss to her lips.

Her eyes fell shut as a wave of ecstacy washed over her. She could feel her back arch as she straightened her posture and kissed him back.

His thumb rubbed tender circles into the burning skin of her cheek and the subtle touch of his hand made her hands grip the back of his neck with curling fingers. She pulled him closer and smirked. She sighed into his mouth before clasping her lips around his and twisting free.

"Paper, Eddie..." she had her eyes closed as she relished in the moment.

His hand fell from its position against her face to her knee which remained the only thing that kept her from being swallowed by his bed as her foot was still planted into his carpet.

She didn't face him which made her think he would give up in his attempt to convince her to ignore their homework but instead, Eddie took advantage of her exposed skin and unguarded attention.

"I don't want to," he whispered huskily, sliding up beside her ear and kissing the place just below it. He peppered her neck in kisses which caused her hands to find their way into the mess of his curly head. She grabbed fistfuls of frizzy brown hair and encouraged him to keep doing exactly what he was doing.

Her head fell back, stretching her tense muscles and revealing more skin to him as his tender kisses started to turn into somehting more possessive.

"Alright," she put a hand against his chest and pushed him back. "You seriously need to stop that," she sighed, caressing the heated skin of his collar. "I... am not starting something other than a paper with you right now... Got it?" she warned him as she tried to recover from her intense exposure of emotion.

"What is it you want, princess?" he teased darkly, grinning and watching how she fought to contain her visible amusement.

"Hmnhm..." she hummed negatively, pressing her lips into a thin line and shaking her head disapprovingly. "Don't do that. Don't 'princess' me. Not gonna work," she put up her index finger and chuckled under her breath.

"What's not gonna work?" he asked mischievously.

"You know what. You're just being a tease now," she giggled, rolling her eyes and sliding her bent leg to the floor.

Eddie's eyes turned towards the creases around her eyes and how they illuminated her face in a way that made his yearning for her more radiant.

"Well, uhm..." Eddie stifled his amusement. If she thought he was being a tease now, she was in for a real treat.

He then rubbed at his eye and got to his feet. "You've got a fantastic list of words in that head of yours. I wish you luck with that paper. I'm gonna take a shower," he swiped some clothes out from the mess his uncle left on the ground and exited the room.

"Eddie..." she complained but he was already sluggishly making his way into the bathroom.

He smirked at his feet as he went inside and closed the door behind him. He could feel the smile refusing to leave his lips until his cheeks began to ache. But even as the warm water washed him of his dried sweat and sleep, he couldn't stop thinking about her.

He was enamored by her. He wasn't thinking straight the night before. But he wasn't thinking straight now. She had pretended to be this person she wasn't true to but she let him see her. So surely when she promised her reason for kissing Billy Hargrove was strictly for show, he had no reason not to trust her.

She was a complicated character. She was confusing and intelligent and mysterious and Eddie was completely enthralled. He wanted to know more. He wanted to figure her out. He wanted her.

She had never lied to him before. So why would she now? Why would she be so openly vulnerable? Why would she even be there with him all alone, after what she saw, after hearing what she heard? Why would she do all that and put in all that work if she didn't mean it?

Lennon sighed when Eddie disappeared but she was far from comforted by his behavior. She wasn't thinking straight. But even as he abruptly left her all alone in his room after relentlessly teasing her, all she could think about was his safety.

She had cautiously put her ear up to the door to hear if he had fallen or if he had gotten hurt but all she could hear was the sound of running water and an air vent.

She paced between his room and the bathroom door, just waiting for his body to fail him. She hated him for doing that. Not only to her but to his uncle, to himself...

He wasn't in the right state of mind. She had to question whether what he said was the full truth or if it was something his brain managed to come up with out of nowhere. Or maybe it was a line he used before. Maybe they were words that got him what he wanted in the past. She had to wonder if he wasn't high, would he have kissed her just the same? What did she have to offer him? What did she symbolize to him, especially like this?

But she also worried about his well-being. She didn't know what drugs he took nor how many, and she didn't know what they did to the human body either. So if he did pass out, or if he started to convulse, what was she to do? What if he passed out in the shower and drowned? What if he was taking more pills in there?

She didn't know what to think. She just wished he would come back out so she could monitor him.

She just wanted him to be okay.

She had gotten to know his room in the meantime. She was able to recite every mixtape, every cassette tape, the location of all his speakers and amps, his pile of clean and dirty clothes, his records, the contents on his desk and bedside table, and all his guitars.

She felt crazy walking back and forth between his room and the hallway. But she wasn't going to take any chances. And by the time his shower was starting to last over twenty minutes, the water stopped.

She let out a breath of air she wasn't aware she was holding in and was about to walk away and sit in his room until there was a thud. She was quick to put her ear to the surface of the door and listened closely.

She held her breath again and waited to see if she could make out mumbling or clattering to know he was okay but it seemed like everything was so still and silent and she couldn't stand it.

She was about to lift her hand to the door but it swung open before she had the opportunity. She whipped back and reeled her head away from the door before she had the chance to fall against the man coming out of it.

"Oh, shit..." Eddie giggled, watching Lennon as she held her hand over her heart and sighed.

He had walked out with his curls more defined than she had ever seen before, dripping with water and hydrating the skin of his exposed shoulders with little droplets that started to stream down the dip of his spine and collarbone. He wore a pair of black sweatpants with a little devil pressed onto the fabric of one of the pockets but lacked the clothing of a shirt.

"Were you-" Eddie leered.

"No," she quickly defended, forcing her eyes to the ground to keep from staring at the soft molding of his body that was still damp and radiating with warmth.