Take it All (Blinded by Love) (3 page)

Lennox’s eyebrows scrunched together before she said, “I don’t need a new outfit.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Dollface,” Londyn said, as she came around the corner holding a pair of skinny jeans in her hand, “you need something for Tuesday night.”

Lennox pushed herself away from the pillar and stood up straight as she looked between her friends, confused. “Tuesday night? What exactly is going on Tuesday night?”

Londyn and Tatum looked at each other; waiting for the other to speak up and tell her what was going on. “What’d you guys do?” Lennox asked unsure whether she wanted to actually know.

“Okay, now Lennox, don’t flip your lid or anything,” Tatum said, cautious. “Lond and I, we love you, and just want to see you happy.”

“Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

“Babe, you kinda, sorta, have a date– a coffee date, Tuesday night at Fizzy Wigs, seven o’clock,” Londyn said, in a rush, her voice hopeful.

Lennox blinked, and then pulled her lip between her teeth as she looked from Londyn to Tatum and back again. “What do you mean I have a date Tuesday night? With who?” she asked sharply.

Londyn averted her eyes away from Lennox as she nervously started playing with the jeans in her hands as she mumbled, “Ummm…”

“Don’t worry,” Tatum cut in, “you know him, well kinda.”

“Know who?”

“Your date.”

Lennox lifted her arm and ran her fingers through her long blonde hair, pulling it back and securing it on top of her head. “I’m confused, please tell me it’s not one of the many guys you... well you know.”

“Like I’d set you up with any of them! Those guys are horn dogs and you babe, deserve flowers and chocolate.”

“Okay, then who?”

Tatum’s eyes locked onto Lennox, and she spoke the name of the last person she was expecting to hear. “KingK.”

“What?” Lennox asked her voice breathy as her face paled. Her hand reached out, flattened against the pillar, as she steadied herself.

Lennox met KingK online back in January on a fan site for one of her favorite bands. After making a post about their newest release, he sent her a private message, and they began talking and had been so ever since. She kept him a secret, not telling either of her friends because she didn’t want to jinx the possibility of something coming from it, even though she didn’t think they’d ever meet. It wasn’t until the second last weekend in January, when Tatum and Londyn spent the night. She was finally forced to tell her friends about him when Tatum signed onto her computer and saw a message pop up from him.

Like any friends, they were excited, asking question after question about him and trying to push her into asking him out but she turned that idea down real fast, telling them it wasn’t going to happen unless he asked her first, but even then she wasn’t sure if she’d say yes.

“Why the hell not?” Tatum questioned, as she threw herself down on Lennox’s bed.

Lennox shrugged her shoulders and mumbled, “Because,” then turned and closed the message box on her computer.

Tatum’s eyebrows rose as she said, “Because isn’t an answer Lenny. What’s so bad with asking him to have coffee or something?”

“Tate, leave her alone. If she doesn’t want to, then that’s her choice,” Londyn said, looking up from the magazine she was reading, looking between the two. “Though, Lennox, Tatum does have a point; because isn’t a valid answer.”

Throwing her head back, Lennox looked up at the ceiling with her eyes closed. “I barely know him okay? Sure we talk every day, but that doesn’t mean I know him enough to meet him. Plus, if he wanted to meet then he would have asked me.”

“Is he hot?” Tatum blurted out, pulling herself into a sitting position in the middle of the bed.

Lennox had only seen one picture of him and from that one picture she settled on the fact he was gorgeous. There was a familiarity about him but a familiarity she couldn’t quite place. His eyes were an amazing shade of azure blue that were bright and piercing, and stuck with her from the moment she looked at the picture. His dark brown hair was short in a messy faux hawk. His smile was bright and loose, in a laid back way, and she loved the small faint dimples that came with it. His jaw and cheekbones were strong and well defined, while his nose was the perfect shape, making Lennox instantly attracted to him.

“He’s not bad,” she played it off knowing what would happen if she admitted how good looking he really was. Because as much as Lennox loved her friends, she knew how Tatum got when it came to guys.

Tatum, with her chocolate brown hair knew she was a beautiful girl and worked it when it came to guys. She was, of the three of them, the overly confident, extremely flirtatious one. She was always putting herself out there, throwing herself at guys; guys who were clearly involved with someone but it never stopped her. She was a social dater, a different guy every couple of weeks, sometimes days apart. She lost her virginity at the age of fourteen, at a party she had snuck out to go to. She had tried convincing Lennox and Londyn to go with her that night, but both had told her no, in fear of getting busted.

The morning after, Tatum woke up in an unknown bed, naked, having no idea who she spent the night with. Something she, to this day, still didn’t know. It was that moment that changed Tatum. She figured losing her virginity to some guy at a high school party made it okay for her to sleep with any guy who gave her attention. And that’s exactly what she did; of the three of them, Tatum was the wild one, always out partying, drinking, and sleeping around, all the while not having a care in the world. This was something Londyn and Lennox were unable to understand or wrap their heads around.

Unlike Tatum, Londyn was in a two year committed relationship with her boyfriend Jeremy. Like Lennox, Londyn was only about one guy and one guy only. She wasn’t giving her virginity to anyone until she knew he was the one for her and she still didn’t know if Jeremy was it, therefore she was still a virgin. Something Lennox envied and found herself, at times, being jealous of. There were times when she would find herself remembering what happened the night she went out drinking with Tatum and found herself waking up in the bed of a stranger, naked, and no longer a virgin.

It had happened as quickly as snapping your fingers. One minute she’s drinking and shooting pool with Tatum at Aces, the local bar; the next, two guys are joining them, buying them drinks and inviting them to go back to their place to finish the party. It was a moment Lennox wished she could take back. Her virginity was something she wanted to hold onto; not necessarily to save for marriage, but to give to the right person, the person she loved. Even if he turned out to be the person she didn’t marry, she could at least say her first time was special and with someone she loved. Instead, it had been a foggy haze; a drunken one night stand with a guy whose name she didn’t even remember.

There was a part of her that wanted to blame Tatum for what happened; for making her go out drinking, inviting the guys over to their table, and for agreeing to go back to their place. But she knew it was all on her, that no matter the amount of alcohol she had drank, she could have said no and just caught a cab home. Instead, she went against her gut feeling and went with Tatum back to the guys’ place where later she left with nothing but a headache and an achy feeling between her legs.

Therefore, it was no surprise that Lennox stood in the clothing store, her eyes narrowed at Tatum, as Tatum answered her question. “I said your date is with that guy you met online, KingK.”

Lennox didn’t say anything, only stood in her spot looking back at Tatum, fighting herself on what she wanted to say, or more, what she wanted to do. Her eyes narrowed as she brought her arms across her chest, crossing them tightly, her body looking stiff.

“How?” she asked, her voice just above a tight whisper.

“I told you so,” Londyn interjected in a sing song voice as she turned and walked away from the two, heading over to the other side of the store where they had their shoes.

“Lenny, just chill okay?”

“How Tatum; what the hell did you do?” Lennox whispered harshly as she stepped closer towards Tatum, her arms still crossed over her chest, while her eyes glared into hers, daring her to lie or try and make up an excuse.

“Well, you know when I came over Thursday night, to borrow that movie?”

Lennox nodded her head, and her lips parted lightly as she waited for her to continue. “Your mom called you downstairs and I…well, I logged onto your computer and he was online. So I sent him a message pretending to be you, asking him when he was going to find his balls, and ask you out–”

“What the hell Tatum!”

“What, he laughed. It’s obvious that he likes you. I mean if he didn’t, why would he talk to you every damn day? Plus, he asked you, well technically me but you know what I mean, out on a date,” Tatum said, defensively.

“That’s not the point, and you know it! The point is, you went into
my
personal stuff and
pretended
to be
me
;
that’s
not cool
,” Lennox huffed, her arms dropping from her chest before reaching up and pulling the elastic from her hair causing her blonde locks to fall over her shoulders and down.

“We were just–”

“Oh no, don’t go bringing me into this! It was all you, Tate,” Londyn cut her off as she joined the girls. “I told you it was a bad idea, but you wouldn’t listen to me.”

Tatum looked from Lennox to Londyn, her one eyebrow kinked as she said, “Is that why you were all excited after I told you he said yes?”

“That was after I pointed out it was a bad idea,” Londyn rationalized.

Lennox stood watching her friends argue back and forth on whose fault it was. She knew it wasn’t so much Londyn’s fault as it was Tatum’s. The whole situation was Tatum being nosy and because she wasn’t the type of person to sit back and let people, especially her friends, make their own choices. Not when she could butt in and try and help, but it was never in a helping manner, no matter what it was, there was always motive behind her reason; motive she’d never share.

Having enough, Lennox sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to get anywhere with them when they were arguing back and forth, so she turned on her heels and walked out of the store, leaving them behind. She headed back in the direction they had came then turned off at the sporting goods store and started in the direction of the exit where her car was parked.

Lennox didn’t want to be at the mall in the first place. She was looking forward to spending her Saturday in front of the fireplace, on the couch, with the new chick flick that had came out a few days before. But Tatum and Londyn ambushed her in the morning, forcing her to get dressed then begged until she finally gave in, almost forty minutes later. While agreeing she also told them she was driving, and if they took too long she’d leave them behind.

And that was exactly what she planned to do as soon as the words left Tatum’s mouth about KingK. Standing in the store, it had been the last straw in Tatum’s twisted ploy to get her to do what she wanted and at the moment Lennox had been done with it, finally done with it all. As feelings of anger shot through her, she was consumed in a rage she didn’t think she could hold back any longer.

Luckily, walking through the mall knowing they’d catch up eventually, the anger began to evaporate, leaving her feeling relieved. The more she began to think about what had happened; she realized it might not be as bad as she thought. With a clearer head, she began to see the bigger picture. After all the weeks of talking to KingK, she had waited, secretly hoping for him to ask her out but it never came up and she wasn’t confident enough to be the one who brought it up, only to have him turn her down. But he hadn’t turned
her
down; he didn’t know it was Tatum and still had done the asking.

As Lennox arrived at the exit, she stopped and looked out at the weather that was before her. It hadn’t changed from when they arrived. The giant snowflakes were softly falling from the sky; the air was cold, so cold there were white puffs all over from the buildings, cars and people as they walked quickly through the cold. Lennox wasn’t a fan of winter; she hated the snow and that you had to wear multiple layers just to keep warm. She hated driving in the bad road conditions, brushing off her car after a large snow fall, not being able to wear her flip flops or purple chucks every day, but most of all she just hated anything cold or wet; it was just how she was.

“See, told you she’d wait for us.” Lennox heard Tatum’s voice come from behind, followed by the sound of her heels from her winter boats clicking on the ground.

“She’s probably waiting just for me,” Londyn laughed as the bags she was carrying in her hands rustled together when she switched hands, moving her purse over to her right shoulder.

Lennox rolled her eyes before turning around to face the girls. She was no longer upset with what happened but she still felt violated at Tatum’s actions; it was a trust issue. Lennox never had an issue trusting people; trusting people came naturally to her. That was unless she was given a reason not to.

Grinning, Lennox turned around and faced her friends, only to have Tatum stop in her tracks and look at her with her head cocked to the side. With her one brow arched and a grin slowly starting, Tatum said, “You’re going.”

Rolling her eyes, “Whatever,” she said, unable to hide the small smirk that danced on her lips as she dug through her purse for her keys, “Can we go now?”

Both girls laughed as they followed Lennox out into the cold, heading towards her car that was parked on the other side of the parking lot, all the while telling her about the cute outfit they had picked out for her date. Lennox couldn’t deny they knew her and her tastes in what she would or wouldn’t wear, and picking out skinny jeans with the purple shirt they had shown her in the store was just the right thing for her date.

The three days leading up to her date, Lennox spent them on edge and extremely anxious; she wanted to be able to blame it solely on the upcoming date, but that wasn’t the case. A lot of what she was feeling was due to not hearing from KingK. She’d talked to him before she found out about the date but that was the last time. He hadn’t been online the days leading up to their Tuesday night date and he hadn’t returned any of her messages to confirm they were, in fact, still on.