𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚖𝚎.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝, 𝚐𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚢𝚘𝚞.

𝚆𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚍𝚘 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞.

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚜𝚝𝚎 𝚗𝚘 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎, 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞?

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝙸'𝚖 𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞.

𝚆𝚑𝚢 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚗𝚊 𝚝𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚖𝚎?

𝙸 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚎 𝚖𝚎.

Things between Lennon and Billy got heated. Kissing her lips wasn't enough and his lips started traveling down her chin and rested around her neck.

Lennon's head fell back when she started imagining Billy to be someone else. He lapped up the taste of her from her aromatic neck but she didn't let that break her lecherous concentration from the man across the room.

Her hands were buried in Billy's curls as he kissed her collar and nuzzled closer. She was waiting for Eddie to pull away from Tina before she pulled away from Billy. She wanted him to lose the game they played with one another. She only wanted to push Billy away if Eddie stopped kissing Tina. That was the only way she wanted it to stop.

However, she found Eddie smiling into Tina's gaping mouth instead. His eyes squinting with humor put Lennon off her game. She stopped leering with unrequited lust and started to furrow her brows in question. Whatever he thought was funny couldn't have been caused by Tina. He had his eyes on Lennon the entire time.

Tina was disheartened by his strange amusement. Lennon wanted to feel a sense of victory in winning the game but the source of his stifled laugh was unnerving. Then it hit her...

Lennon sucked in a quick breath of air through her teeth in fear. She pulled back and held Billy's face in between her hands, having to look away from Eddie first to find Billy's blue gaze amid her horror.

"Not so fast, Hargrove," she forced a smile and tilted her head to hide the darkening bruise on the side of her neck that was now a little more noticeable than when she first arrived.

Billy's kissing was taking her concealer off and Eddie was far too pleased with his mark being seen not to have laughed. When Lennon's eyes briefly shifted back to Eddie, Tina was rolling her eyes and smiling before stalking off into the other room.

Eddie fell back in his step and found Lennon looking back at him. However, she didn't stare for very long, or else Billy would have grown suspicious of her divided attention.

"I..." she drew out playfully, turning away but maintaining eye contact as her hands disconnected from his face. "Am going to pee and I hope to have that drink you promised waiting for me when I get back," she winked, giving Billy her backside and stalking back into the other side of the lounge.

She took a deep breath and puffed out her cheeks as she exhaled deliriously. She turned into the living area on purpose even though she could have reached the bathroom in the hall a lot quicker if she had gone back towards the foyer. However, she needed to find Heather.

To her luck, the girl was sitting on the couch with Rebecca, Kaitlyn, and Grant who looked to be enjoying the female attention for all it was worth.

"Heather!" she called out, pulling her hair over her shoulder to try and hide the heart-shaped hickey Eddie left on her neck the night before. "Where's your bathroom?"

"There's a bathroom in the hall and-"

"No," Lennon interrupted a little frantically. "Where's your bathroom?" she asked more confidently.

Heather furrowed her brows and smiled nervously. "Why?" she scoffed.

"I uh... I just need like a drop of concealer... Please? I promise I'll be quick," she asked desperately.

Heather sighed and looked Lennon up and down with consideration. "Just you? No Billy?" she smirked mischievously, causing Grant to grow uncomfortable at the mention of the new girl's affiliation with the guy who wasn't his dungeon master.

"No," Lennon was quick to assure. "Just me. Please," she begged again, shooting Heather her big green eyes as a plea.

Heather contemplated and agreed. She told Lennon which room it was upstairs and that there was a key on the top of the doorframe. Half-jokingly, she told Lennon that if anything was stolen or left a mess or if her key didn't get back to her that she'd be pressing charges.

Lennon thanked her wholeheartedly and hurried upstairs. She noticed the party had died down considerably once she reached the top floor. There were only a few people in the hallway who were drinking and started a game of bowling with some empty bottles of beer and a small disco ball that came from God knows where. The people downstairs mainly crowded the living room and kitchen but Lennon had no clue how many people were still outside where the keg was. There was a hot tub as well which Lennon was sure was occupied by horny teens.

She reached the door to the left, one door down from the balcony, and got on her tippy toes to reach for the top of the doorframe.

She struggled to curl the tip of her middle finger over the lip before sliding only an inch and falling short.

She took a breath of air and tried again. She reached up, slid over another inch, and still felt nothing. She reached for the third time but once she had reached the top of the door, there was suddenly another hand reaching up above her. This hand was heavily decorated in silver rings and had a tattoo between their thumb and index finger. Lennon knew who it belonged to immediately before she even turned towards them but she was happy to look anyway.

"Need some help, sweetheart?" Eddie smirked, lifting the key from the spot above the doorframe and leveling it between them at eye height.

Lennon's eyes moved passed the piece of metal and planted her forestry deep within the earth of his brown gaze. "You brown-eyed boys need to find someone else to pick fights with tonight," she scoffed, snatching the key from his fingers and wasting no time putting the key into the handle of the door.

"Hey. Whoa," Eddie rebuked, putting his hands up in surrender. "I'm not picking a fight with anyone, Clever One," he tried defending, watching her eyes as they moved around the door handle before it popped open. "And I thought you liked my shit-brown eyes... Don't tell me you've found another!" he gasped dramatically with his jaw unhinged and his hand pressed over his heart.

"No," she grumbled. "You're enjoying this a little too much, Munson," she widened her eyes and entered the room. When she turned to shut the door behind her, Eddie had his hand on the wood and approached her like he was going to follow. "Uh. Not so fast," she put her foot behind the door and stopped Eddie from coming in after her.

"What?" he shot back incredulously. "You afraid the band geeks are going to out you to your new boyfriend?" he scoffed, turning over his shoulder and seeing about four of the antisocials talking amongst themselves as they watched the bowling game on the other end of the hall.

"I need a piss. You donnn't have to follow me into the bathroom," she cringed, putting some force into closing the door but failing to counter Eddie.

"Well..." he drew out cheekily.

Lennon terminated his dirty mind with one unamused glance. "I think I'll wait for the taste of Tina to be washed out of your mouth before I even consider taking you up on that offer. Thanks," she crinkled her nose with subtle disgust.

"Oh no," Eddie whined mockingly. His cry caused Lennon to turn to him with alarm but he wasn't in any danger or pain when he continued to poke fun at her and that only frustrated her further. "It looks like Hargrove missed a spot," he couldn't help but smile when he pounced on her neck to wipe what was left of Lennon's makeup from her neck to reveal the deep purple heart he left in his wake the night before.

"Fuck off," she sneered, pushing Eddie's hand away and closing the door on him.

"C'mon, Clever One!" he groaned on the other side of the door and pulled the attention of the band geeks in the process. "You started sucking the soul out of Hargrove first!"

"Oh, my God!" she shouted back through the door. "Shut the fuck up!" she told him in disbelief.

She kept her hands on the door in case Eddie tried forcing himself into Heather's room but he never did. She could've locked him out, but when she took her hands off the door and stared at it questioningly, she couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't know why, exactly. She just didn't like the idea of locking Eddie out of anywhere.

She backed away, keeping the door closed but left it unlocked.

On the other side, Eddie chuckled to himself and threw his back against the door in defeat. His eyes found the four band members staring at him and all he could think to do was glower. He was staring at them devilishly from underneath the brush of his eyelashes which made their skin crawl in an instant.

He smirked, leered darkly, stood still menacingly, then jumped out sporadically. "Boo!" he retaliated with a raspy voice. His eyes bolted open, his hands were clawed, and his bottom lip was being bitten down between his teeth tauntingly. He watched the band geeks flinch and tense up and felt a tug at his lips as he smiled.

They backed away and muttered boring defenses among themselves before leaving Eddie with his thoughts.

"Pft," Eddie snickered, watching in satisfaction as they left. The sound of silence was agonizing now that everyone was on the other end of the hall and Lennon refused to have any fun with him. He sighed and pushed himself off the door and waited for her to come back so he could continue to torture her.

He stood there picking at his cuticles and pacing from the door on the left to the right. He did that on a loop for nearly five minutes before the door opened. Eddie stopped his endless fiddling, looked up from his cracked nails, and watched as Lennon turned to lock the door.

She didn't even bother trying to put the key back because she knew she wouldn't be able to reach and it meant anyone who saw her go inside would know about it and sneak inside. She moved from the door towards the staircase and didn't even seem to notice Eddie's presence by the balcony before walking off.

"Lennon," Eddie called out.

She flinched and froze in place. Her hands had balled into fists again and her jaw was tightly tensed at the sudden address of her name.

She held her breath and released it roughly. "You have got to stop doing that," she gritted through her teeth, forcing herself to move and continue towards the stairs.

"What?" Eddie asked innocently, following her in her step and riding up to her side.

"You know what," she replied, refusing to meet his eye when people were watching.

Eddie scoffed. "That clears it up," he rolled his eyes, reaching the ground floor and refusing to leave Lennon alone.

"I think you've done enough, Eddie," she stopped in her tracks and sighed. "I appreciate you coming, but I'd rather not be around you right now..." she swallowed uncomfortably, walking towards the living room where there were fewer dancers than before.

She was predominately looking for Heather, but she kept her eye out for Billy. However, he wasn't where she left him. She had asked for a drink so it was no surprise that he wasn't there anymore, but it was still worth checking.

"Hey," Eddie knit his brows together and called out for Lennon softly. "If this is about that cheerleader... I was only pretending like you were with-"

"It's-!" she shouted before she could form a coherent thought. She turned around and faced him, lifting her index finger like she was about to make a good point but when she opened her mouth, nothing came out. "I-" she stuttered, briskly scanning his left and right eye before sighing. "Not mad," she concluded poorly, turning back around and continuing towards the kitchen while also checking the hallway for Heather who would be needing her key back.

"Then why do look mad-"

"Because-" she hissed, turning on her heel and realizing what she wanted couldn't be said aloud when so many people were nearby. She found safety in his eyes before her attention shot out to those around them. Nobody was looking at them but she was still cautious and scared of what rumors would arise.

She scoffed and shook her head in disbelief. She lowered her voice and got close to Eddie so nobody could hear her when she whispered, "Because the things I wanna do to you right now can't be done in public."

When Lennon retreated after being too close to his chest for comfort out in the open, Eddie reeled back and stared at her in disbelief as she made her exit. He watched her waste no time putting distance between them. Her hips swayed slightly and suddenly, all Eddie could think about were how well those unworn slacks looked on her powerful legs and how perfectly they fit her.

His head had become a dangerous place. It was imagining things and using his muscle memory to aid in things more severe than a simple kiss or a midnight cuddle. His head was using the memory of her lips and manipulating them in ways he wished it hadn't because now he was stuck standing in the middle of the hall with a stupid, dazed look of crazed lechery on his face and nobody to accompany him.

Lennon was sharing things with him that she wasn't prepared to be sharing with him. When had she become so open to him? When did she let him peel open her pages and read from her forbidden stanzas? When did she feel confident enough to utter such words to him?

No matter how truthful they were, she didn't think she'd ever say something like that to him.

After accepting the repetition, she initially thought it was her instinctual trust in him that provoked such dirty words from her mouth. In reality, the alcohol helped and the stress and anxiety she kept pushing down was mixing with the substance to create a very unstable and harmful concoction inside her head.

As she walked away, what she said was all she could think about.

She wondered what he thought about her. She wondered how much longer she was supposed to be on this date so she could be freed from its shackles. She wanted to know what Eddie was doing now. She thought about him and how he had kissed Tina. She thought about how much she wanted to do the same things to him.

She walked into the kitchen and thought if she saw Billy waiting for her that the thoughts about Eddie would stop or at least become less intoxicated with sexual desire. But she didn't see him.

There were people making out on the island and someone had fallen asleep against the cabinets beneath the countertop. There were two people chatting with cups in their hands by the wall that separated the kitchen from the lounge and a boy who was taking the remaining bottles of alcohol into his arm and walking past Lennon as if he had somewhere else to be.

Lennon saw how empty it was and checked the time.

01:38

Shit... Beer pong was over an hour and a half ago? It's getting late...

It was no wonder why the house was clearing out. It was getting a bit late to still be at a Christmas party. Sleep was better than what remained from the party earlier. Lennon took a deep breath and looked over into the lounge. A group of friends continued to occupy the couches there. More people clung to walls but there was still a large reduction in congestion.

Lennon moved into the dining hall and found someone sleeping on top of one of the tables with scribbles of black ink across their bare back. A group of six was still playing beer pong in one of the corners but the room was the most vacant of them all.

As she movies near the entrance of the lounge, she found another boy who had fallen asleep against the wall and that's when Lennon recognized Gareth and Jeff crouched down beside him. Each of them had a black marker at hand and she assumed it had to be them who decorated the other sleeping drunk.

She let out a chuckle and walked over to them. "What are you guys doing?"

They both turned to her nonchalantly as they stopped making jokes but something washed over Gareth's face when he realized who she was.

Jeff chuckled, knowing Eddie and his interest better than the other guys in the band. He couldn't help himself. With Eddie and Lennon hanging out more often, and now with her approaching them without Eddie's coaxing, he knew the older man managed to wedge himself into her life somehow.

"We're just leaving our mark," Jeff informed her with cheer. He seemed tipsy. Happily drunk but not overly intoxicated like Lennon. Both the boys seemed content in their drink consumption.

"Just having some harmless fun," Gareth added, causing Lennon to look over and see the pink color of his cheeks get more intense.

"Do you know him, at least?" she giggled in response, causing Gareth's stomach to tighten.

"Reg, yeah," Jeff informed her chaotically, signing his name on the man's cheek before getting to his feet. "That's Frosty," he said and pointed to the man on the table with more penned on penises than Lennon could count. "They'll be fine."

"Is that really his name?" she asked, smiling innocently and being unable to keep herself quiet when she had so much alcohol coursing through her system.

She examined the ink on his torso and recognized him to be one of the basketball players.

If Jeff, Gareth, and Frosty knew each other, why were the social classes so segregated? Or maybe they weren't friends at all and this was some scheme to get back at a bully.

"We grew up in the same neighborhood so we went to the same schools our entire lives," Jeff explained. "We're not exactly friends but he has brothers who call him Frosty because he was the palest of them all when he was first born," he laughed. "You know... Frosty... like Frosty the Snowman. It's really mean but he sticks with it," Jeff began to cackle and all Lennon was capable of doing was smile.

"Well," she scoffed and rolled her eyes, realizing how severe her vision had become laggy. "You guys have fun with that." She waved at them and made her leave.

She could see the look of disappointment on Gareth's face as she walked away. She wondered why he seemed a little upset and started to rerun the conversation they had im through her head. She tried to think of something she might have done to offend him but the thought left her empty handed.

She stopped wondering about Gareth and redirected her attention to finding Heather. Moving into the lounge, Lennon didn't know where else she would have been.

She didn't take very long in the bathroom and if she were up there, Lennon would have seen her. She wasn't in the hallway downstairs, in the kitchen, in the dining hall, or on the dancefloor. Furthermore, she hadn't seen Billy either. She thought he would be in the kitchen but he wasn't, and finding the host of the party shouldn't have been that difficult either.

She found it to be the most crowded room in the house. Coming from inside the empty dining hall and into the lounge which still contained a lot of company alarmed Lennon.

People were throwing something she couldn't distinguish into the fire, boys were snickering as they rifled through some of the things left out on the desk in the back, a blonde was checking herself hair in the mirror by the entryway, some girls were standing nearby as they gossiped, and a large group was crowded around the couch which had managed its way back to its original position with the coffee table returned as well.