Chapter One
Chapter One
Dax
6th grade
“Goose,” I whisper through the slight crack in the door.
It’s dark inside, other than the faint glow of Lennon’s fairy lights that hang around the entirety of her bedroom. I’ve never understood how she was able to sleep with lights on in her room all night when I needed
to be enthralled in darkness.
“I think we’re golden,” I tell her, waiting for a response.
Instead, her face suddenly pops into the door frame in front of me, causing me to take a step back. She grins triumphantly at me, but I’m not sure if it’s because she succeeded in catching me off guard or because she’s getting her way and choosing the movie and the snacks tonight.
I can tell she’s ready for our night by the haphazard bun that her long, hazelnut-colored hair is tucked into on top of her head, and she’s wearing her oversized, clear-frame glasses, which she tends to only wear at home. She’s wearing her usual oversized sweatshirt and leggings with the light pink fuzzy socks she requested for Christmas. I ended up buying her several pairs after she spent fifteen minutes raving about how much she liked them and all the comfy and cozy things.
“I am so excited,” she whisper-yells at me as she shuts her bedroom door behind her and all but starts skipping down the hall. “Tonight I’m making you watch the rom com to end all rom coms, my friend.”
I sigh heavily as I follow her downstairs and toward the dark and quiet living room. Her mom was an early riser, which meant that after 8 pm, the downstairs was cleared out for the night. Her brother and my best friend, Jasper, was also steadfastly asleep like he usually was after he’d eaten half his weight in pizza like he had done tonight.
“If there’s no Cheetos in the snack bag, I swear-”
She whirls around to face me suddenly, once again catching me by surprise and forcing me a step back. “No, no, no, I won the coin toss. You can not complain about the movie, the snacks, or my company for the next two hours, sir.”
I roll my eyes at her, but I have to laugh a bit as she flips on the kitchen light, hums a little tune, and heads towards the pantry to grab the snacks she’d picked out for us for our late-night movie.
We’d only begun this tradition earlier this year on the nights I stayed over, but already we were invested in our habits. And Lennon absolutely loved to win a coin toss, putting her in complete control of our night.
It was nice, though. Just Lennon and I. We’d known each other since second grade, when I had transferred to Fairmont Prep, the same small private school as her and Jasper. And no matter how much time I spent around her, I’ve always been drawn to her energy. She was just unapologetically herself.
She grabs the snack bag that we keep hidden in the very corner behind the oatmeal cans for our movie nights and heads towards the couch, where her favorite cream colored, fluffy, and cozy blanket lies, which had been Jasper’s Christmas gift to her.
She sits down on her end of the couch, laying her feet across the middle seat, and I sit in my usual spot opposite her. She tosses me the Christmas bear-themed blanket from behind her that her mom puts out every year for the holidays, and she grins as I lay said blanket over my own legs, kicked into the middle seat next to hers.
“You are adorable,” she giggles as she turns on the TV.
I roll my eyes at her, but as she focuses on turning on the movie, I have to look away to make sure she doesn’t see my smile. She might be teasing me about my Christmas bear blanket, but having Lennon call me adorable will probably never not make me smile.
My enthusiasm is, however, short-lived as she begins playing her movie pick. “No,” I groan, really drawing out the torture I feel inside.
“No complaining, we have rules in this house.” She attempts to smack my chest with the back of her hand, but realizes too late she’s too far away, so she’s just swatting at air, which makes me laugh.
“You will watch this movie and smile as they fall in love, even though they’re complete opposites, and then you will quietly cry when you realize the girl is dying, and they only have the summer left together, okay?”
“No, Pix, you’ll smile as they fall in love, and you’ll cry when she dies. I’ll be asleep.” I patted on a fake and grossly exaggerated yawn to make my point.
She fights back a smile and tries her best to look aggravated, but I happen to know she loves it when I refer to her by her nickname. Pixie. Pix for short. In second grade, when I met her, she was in the same class as Jasper and me, even though she was a year younger. She was incredibly smart, even as a kid, and bypassed first grade altogether. Which also happened to make her the smallest in the class, and combined with her personality of laughter and mischief, she reminded me of a pixie. Her entire family called her Lemon as a kid, but I knew for a fact that she liked my nickname best.
“If you want movie nights, you have to play by the rules.”
“I can not wait to make you watch Godzilla and eat nothing but caramels when it’s my turn.”
She scrunched up her face at this, deciding it was a disgusting visual, and pressed play on the movie. After a moment, she finally relinquished the bag of snacks to me after picking out what she wanted - Nerds clusters and a Hershey’s bar with almonds, of course.
I smiled at the bag of crunchy Cheetos and a small 4-piece box of dark chocolate-covered caramels she must have picked up for me earlier when she went to the store with her mom, since no one else in the house ever ate them.
“Aw, you do like me,” I tease.
“Shut it, Dax, or you get nothing next time,” she playfully winks at me, and my heart does a stupid little flutter it tends to do when a girl- Lennon, specifically- ever gives me a hint of flirtatious attention.
We settle into our spots and begin on our snacks, and before we know it, we’re halfway through the movie and the front door is slowly opening behind us.
This phases neither of us, since it’s a frequent occurrence during our sneaky nights downstairs.
“Hey Cory,” Lennon greets as Cory shuts the door behind him and locks it.
“Hey guys,” he greets, standing behind the couch now to check out what movie we’re watching tonight. “Len won the coin toss, huh, bud?” he directs towards me with a smirk.
“Unfortunately,” I grumble, and Cory laughs.
I’ve always really liked Cory. He had been dating Lennon and Jasper’s mom seriously for the last year and a half, but their mom, Janice, was still sure the kids were reeling from having a new man around the house after their father had left when they were young. They weren’t, though. They both loved Cory, too. Their father had left their mom for someone he met at work, and they now lived halfway across the country and had two toddlers together. Lennon and Jasper visited in the summers, but beyond those two weeks out of the year, their father might as well not exist.
I didn’t really remember their dad, even though I’d met him a few times. I remember he seemed angry a lot, though. Cory, however, was always smiling, always centered, and a lot of fun.
Best of all, he never ratted Lennon and me out for staying up to have our movie nights when I stayed over, something Janice and Jasper had no idea we did.
We preferred it to be our own thing, especially since Jasper and Janice loved to be in bed early and then up before the sun, while Lennon and I liked to stay up and sleep in.
“Well, I’ll let you guys get back to it.”
“Goodnight,man-I-never-saw-sneaking-back-into-the-house-after-going-home-after-dinner,” Lennon grins at him over her shoulder as he heads towards the stairs.
He’d been sneaking in after the kids went to bed almost every night for the last six months, something we’d learned when we started having our movie nights this last summer. Janice thought the kids would be uncomfortable with it, but really, we all knew that she was afraid to get too comfortable in fear of Cory hurting her the same way their dad had.
But Cory was patient, and I knew Lennon and Jasper both appreciated him for this.
“Goodnight, kids-who-are-canoodling-on-the-couch,” he teases.
Cory and both of our moms loved to tease Lennon and me about one day being a couple. Honestly, it’s been a running joke for so long that neither of us is really affected to be tied together in that way.
“Canoodling from opposite ends is really taking a creative license, Cory,” she laughs, but then sits up and scoots over next to me and lays her head on my shoulder, because Lennon loves to prove a point. “See, now we’re canoodling.”
“Yes, well, whatever it is you’re doing, let’s keep it all very PG and kid-friendly, yeah? Love you guys, goodnight.” Cory calls as he heads up the stairs, slightly shaking his head at us and chuckling.
I expect Lennon to move back over to her spot after Cory goes upstairs, but her head is still on my shoulder. If anything, she actually moves just a bit closer, and she must be comfortable because she lets out a yawn.
“You make a decent pillow,” she murmurs as her eyes slowly close.
I had to laugh a bit because Lennon had always been the type that seemed like she could just go forever, like a little Energizer Bunny. But the moment her head hit a pillow (or in this case a shoulder), it took no time at all for her to crash.
I peek down at her, noticing how long her lashes are with her eyes closed, the top of her head nestled into my neck. I don’t usually take a lot of time to look at Lennon, mostly for fear of looking too long, but when I have the opportunity to take in the freckles dusting her cheeks and nose, I can’t help but think she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen.
I’ve always thought she was pretty. I’ve always thought she was funny, smart, sweet, fun, and a bit chaotic. I’ve just always liked her.
But something about her falling asleep on my shoulder during our secret movie night, and getting the chance to really study her, I realize that these unexplainable feelings I’ve had for her since I met her might be more than just one friend admiring another.
I might just be falling for Lennon Wells.
