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AS LENNON WALKED down the hall at lunch, jocks yelled profanities and derogatory terms at her. "Hey Jade, wanna lick my lollipop?" one asked with a smirk. "Hey Josh, want to wear your ass for a hat?" she fired back. "Bitch" he mumbled.
Lennon rolled her eyes and kept walking. She was used to this. In the ninth grade, a rumour went around saying she hooked up with a college boy. Since then, a few people choose to tease her about it every now and then.
"How about my lollipop?" a boy named Curt asked with a wink. "Next time someone says anything to me, I'm going to punch them" Lennon warned them, but being cocky assholes, the didn't take her seriously.
"Do you have a sweet tooth? You can swallow my icing" another one said, and as River walked out of the men's room, Lennon had punched the guy in the throat, making him drop to the ground instantly. "What the fuck" all the others said. "Lennon?" River asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Hey" she smiled at him. "Are you okay?" he asked, walking closer to her. "Just peachy. Let's leave before I get detention" she said, linking arms with him and walking the other way. "What shall we do during this fine lunch hour?"
"That's a question I don't have the answer to" River told her. "Wanna go get ice cream?" she asked, and River nodded. "Sure, is it cool if Sam comes along? I told him we'd hang out."
"Yeah of course! Where is he?"
They walked to the office and waited for him to get out of the principles. "Oh no, did you two get in shit too?"
"No, we were waiting for you. We're going for ice cream" Lennon told him, and he nodded. "Cool" he said, following her out of the room and towards the parking lot.
They got to the ice cream shop, Sam and Lennon both getting a cone. River just got a lemonade. "No ice cream? Weirdo" Sam commented. "I'm vegan" River told them, and Lennon went wide eyed. "Jesus, River! Why didn't you tell me? We could have went somewhere else for something!"
"It's fine, I don't mind it. This lemonade is pretty good" he shrugged. Lennon felt bad, but did her best to hide it. She had often thought of going vegan herself, but her and her grandpa had a weekly tradition of going to the drive in for burgers - best ones in town, and she didn't want to ruin it.
"Can I try?" Lennon asked, River giving her the drink without a second thought. She took a small sip, her eyes widening, and then took a gulp. "That's amazing" she exclaimed, mouth watering for more. "I wanna try" Sam said, grabbing the drink from Lennon and making the same expressions she had.
As they sat outside the shop on a bench, River learned that Sam and Lennon used to hangout as kids, being family friends. "Why don't you anymore?" River asked. "Yeah, Lennon, why don't we?"
"Honestly, after that rumour in freshman year I thought you would want nothing to do with me, so instead of you cutting me off, I did it for you" Lennon shrugged. Sam felt bad for her, and slightly upset she thought he would do that to her. "Well, you were wrong" he smiled at her.
After school, the three of them went to Lennon's house to hangout and play Mario. She won't against them every time, eventually getting bored with their suckiness. They flipped through tv channels, landing on The Fly. Lennon made popcorn and brought some chips out, they all sprawled out across the living room getting comfy for the movie.
Every so often River would catch himself looking at Lennon. She was distractingly pretty, he almost couldn't look away. She sat there eating popcorn, holding a bunch in her hand and grabbing individual pieces with her tongue like a frog, making River laugh. "What are you doing?" He asked.
"Eating popcorn" she said, confused why he would even ask. "Like a frog?" "It's fun" she shrugged. "You still do that?" Asked Sam. "Don't even, I saw you do it too" she smirked, and Sam went red.
Lennon drove Sam home first, since he lived closer, and then River. "So surfer boy, why'd you move to Canada?" She asked, and River chuckled. "I never really went surfing" he told her. "Bull. What's the reason? There's no way Cali wasn't good enough".
"Parents got divorced. My mom grew up in BC and wanted to come back" River shrugged. "That's nice, except this isn't BC" Lennon laughed, and River stuck his tongue out at her mockingly. When they pulled up to his house and said their goodbyes, Lennon lit a cigarette before driving back home.
It was almost dark, and Frankie Valli's rag doll was playing on the radio. For the first time in a while, Lennon felt content with the people she was surrounding herself with. She hoped it would last.
~ haven't updated this in forever but someone asked and reminded me of this long forgotten story, so here it is!! i reread the first chapter and I forgot how fun it was to write this🥺 I'm gonna keep it updated I promise!!! hopefully once a week at least! (i work full time and live on my own which means i have no time ever)
HONESTLY THO so shocked this is at 1k reads??? hopefully u guys still read it LOL
