I Want You

Chapter 1

Lennon.

Junior Year

"You wanna come to a party with me tonight?" Tayen asks from the open doorway of my bedroom.

I'm stretched out on my stomach across my bed with season 2 of Emily In Paris playing on my laptop and an open bag of sour gummy worms beside me.

"Who's party?" I ask, pressing pause before glancing up at her curiously.

I could use some fun, especially tonight of all nights since it's New Years Eve but I hate Frat parties which is why I'm watching Netflix instead of getting dressed. Sigma Phi always has theirs in the basement and it's musty, hot and reeks of mildew. I go in smelling like a flower and come out smelling like road kill, it's awful and I try to avoid going but sometimes the frats are the only places throwing parties. Plus the guys in Sigma Phi are all douche bags, I'd rather not ring the New Year in surrounded by them in their matching baby blue polos.

If it weren't for cheerleading I wouldn't be back on campus before the start of the new semester, I've only been back for a day and I miss my family already. Tayen doesn't always fly home during breaks because she doesn't have the extra money to spend on flights so she never left our apartment.

"Ace's. His roommates are throwing a New Years Eve party, it shouldn't get too crazy." She shrugs.

My eyes widen comically large. "You mean I finally get to meet him?"

Tayen and Ace have been dating for months now but she refused to bring him around, adamant they weren't 'official' when really she's a commitment-phobe who didn't want to believe she was falling in love. She's smiled more in the last few months than she has since I met her freshman year, that told me all I needed to know when it came to him but I'd still been dying to meet him.

She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms. "Do you want me to change my mind?"

"Hell no!" I laugh and jump off the bed quickly before she gets a chance. "I get to meet your beau, this calls for dressing up!"

She groans and leaves my room muttering, "Why am I already regretting this?"

I throw open my closet door and start searching through the over stuffed clothes I have on hangers. I have an obsession with thrift shopping so I tend to over buy. How can I pass up a shirt for three dollars and jeans for five? It doesn't take me long to find what I want, I had purchased the pants with a fun night in mind. I don't know what suddenly changed Tayens mind about me meeting Ace but I'm happy for it, maybe she's finally admitting to herself that she's in love with him.

"Lennon, you look like a disco ball." Tayen laughs when I exit my bedroom.

"I'll take that as a compliment." I flash her a smile and give my hips a wiggle, the lights reflecting off the sequins on my pants and onto the walls in response— just like a disco ball.

I go to the bathroom and pull my honey blonde hair up into two space buns. I don't normally wear makeup, there's nothing wrong with it and I do have to wear it during games and competitions for cheerleading but I'm not very good at it and usually end up having one of my friends on the squad do it for me, tonight is a special night so I swipe some mascara across my lashes and red lipstick on my lips. I grab Tayen from the living room and pull her into my room to my full length mirror so I can snap some pictures of us.

Tayen is beautiful. She has long, black hair and she's pulled the top half back in a braid, she has brown eyes that are so dark they look black sometimes and flawless golden brown skin that she was blessed with from her Native American genes. Even dressed simply in a long sleeved black crop top, boyfriend jeans, and sneakers she looks like a goddess.