Chapter Twenty-One - "You Know I Love To Embarrass You"

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If I was cleaning my room, it was likely that I wouldn't answer anyone if they tried to reach out to me. Once my stereo went on and I started rummaging through things, causing a ruckus and probably a headache for anyone in my house, there was no pulling me out of my zone.

Now there were two ways I cleaned my room – the first was just to vacuum and dust, put away random pieces of clothing, and to make my bed. That happened a couple times a month, but it all depended on if I was in the mood. Then there was the second way.

I only got to this point every few months when I needed a deep cleaning. It meant going into the bowels of my closet and finding things I hadn't seen in years. It was gathering a bunch of stuff I had no idea why I kept over the years, tossing it into a big garbage bag, and throwing it out.

Now that we were fully into the fall season and Halloween was in four days, I thought it was appropriate to do a full-on cleansing ceremony in my place of rest. It was time to get rid of a lot and clear the air in the place where I'd done too much thinking, crying, and sleeping over the past couple of rough months.

So you could imagine the heart attack I nearly suffered from when my phone started blaring its ringtone as I was tearing apart the drawers of my sleek, white bureau.

I snapped my head up with a sharp inhale, glaring over at my bed where my phone was resting on the mattress. With an aggravated sigh, I helped myself off the floor and carefully danced over the chaos that was covering my floors. Once I picked my phone up and saw Dylan's name on the screen, a small smile started to extend its way across my face.

Before I answered, I lowered the volume on my stereo so it was just a faint murmur, then answered the call with a casual greeting.

"Dylan, hey," I breathed, trying not to seem like I was too eager or anything.

"Hi," he replied happily.

"What's up?" I raised an eyebrow and cocked my head to the side. My eyes momentarily went back over to the mess by my drawers, thinking about how all I wanted to do was finish going through it.

But talking to Dylan was nice too.

"So, it's Saturday afternoon and I've been thinking," he explained with a light chuckle.

"Oh have you?" I smirked.

"Yes, for once," he laughed again, making a warm feeling swirl in my chest; something that tends to occur around Dylan. "What do you say about hitting up Level 3 tonight?"

"Just the two of us?" I asked for clarification.

"Well, I'll bring some of my friends, you bring some of yours. It'll be fun, what do you think?" He suggested with a persuasive tone.

"Hm," I pretended to think, giggling afterwards. "I think that sounds fun."

"Great," he said, and I practically heard the grin through the phone. "It's going to sound stupid, but my mom can take us. She's got a big car that could fit everyone."

"Alright," I giggled again. Stop giggling, you idiot.

He told me that he'd text me about time details and everything later, then the phone call didn't last too much longer. Although honestly, his voice put me in such a calm state of mind that I could've talked to him for another two hours.

While things were taking off with Dylan, they came to a rapid end with Eric. We were still friends though, and there was no awkward tension between us. Even though I didn't directly tell him that I wanted to end things because I didn't want to get attached to him, I think he understood it anyway.

I was just looking for a way to have some fun and ignore my heartbreak, which I think was nearly gone by now. Nothing more than that.

Glancing at the time on my phone's screen, I swiped my thumb across to unlock it and sent a text in my group chat with Ashley and Brooke about tonight's plans. It could be like a girls night. With some boys that weren't in our usual friend group. Ones that could buy us drinks.

It didn't take five minutes for them to hop on board and agree. So with that, I finished up my drawer cleansing and got ready for the night.

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Hours later as the sun set and the moon came into view, I was sitting on my living room couch waiting for my friends to arrive. Even though I told them what time we were leaving and warned them about being ready, they were still late.

Dylan wasn't coming for another twenty minutes, so they still had some time. For now.

A heavy sigh left my lips as I propped my chin in my hands, swinging my crossed leg around aimlessly. Nobody was home but me, so all I had for a friend was the TV, and I wasn't even sure what I was watching at this point.

My outfit ended up being pretty simple – a black bodycon dress with nude heels and a messy ponytail – but I left it up to the details to do most of the work. Like the small cutout in between my ribs on the dress, the delicate rhinestones on the toe strap of my heels, and my sparkling, diamond stud earrings. And the only other accessory I had on was my gold Marc Jacobs watch.

The one Chase got me for my birthday. That watch. But at this point, I thought, why let a perfectly good watch go to waste? I liked it and should wear it, regardless of where it came from.

Just as I felt myself getting lost in a daze while staring at the golden time-teller wrapped around my wrist, shining in all its glory in the dim lighting of my lonely living room, a knock came at the front door. I pushed myself off my couch and strolled over to the door, pulling it open to see my two – very late – best friends brushing past me with a million words flying out of their mouths.

"You know what, I was getting ready and I was on time," Ashley spewed out as I shut the door behind them and she took a second to catch her breath. "But my freaking brother was having a crisis and-"

"I was ready," Brooke interjected, glancing at Ashley with raised brows and a knowing look. "I was just waiting for her."

Ashley sneered in return, rolling her eyes. "Anyway," she looked back to me. "I'm so sorry."

"It's fine," I chuckled, crossing my arms over my chest. "As long as you guys are on time."

"Of course! We didn't want to miss tonight," Ashley grinned with bright eyes.

"It sounds like it's gonna be fun," Brooke smiled too.

I opened my mouth to agree, but was interrupted by my phone notifying me of a new text. I glanced down at it to see Dylan's name, along with him letting me know he was on his way to come get us.

"He's coming now," I told my friends. They were off in their own conversation though, so I doubt they even heard me. Typical of those two.

Fifteen minutes later, Mrs. Lockwood's car rolled up in front of house. The three of us left, me locking the front door behind us, and piled into the backseat.

"Hey guys," Dylan smiled from shotgun.

"Hi," we chorused, saying hello to his three friends in the third row of seats as well. I couldn't get a real good look at any of them due to the car being so dark, but we'd have all night to talk.

"So you girls like this place too?" Mrs. Lockwood asked us, talking about Level 3, I assumed.

"Oh yeah, we go there all the time," I spoke up for us.

"Well that's fun," she said in her usual chirpy tone. She glanced at Dylan beside her, and then at me through the rear-view mirror. "I love when Dylan makes new friends. And knowing you, Lindsay, your friends are probably just as charming and sweet."

"Mom," Dylan groaned, shrinking in his seat. We all giggled, watching him huff and cross his arms like a pouty little boy.

"What? You know I love to embarrass you," she reached over and ruffled his hair.

"Yeah, tell me about it," he muttered, making us all giggle again.

The ride wasn't much longer, probably about a half hour or so. She dropped us off at the front of the building and we were upstairs in no time.

We occupied a couch as Brooke, Ashley and I sat down together while Dylan and his friends stood close by, talking among each other for a couple minutes. I didn't want to bother them right away by being nosy or clingy, so when Dylan came over to me, I hardly noticed him. His voice was what took me by surprise.

"I'll get drinks, okay?" He murmured in my ear. I jerked my head so I came face to face with him, momentarily blinded by his cologne.

"Sure," I croaked when I finally found my voice.

The side of his mouth quirked up into a playful smirk, and then he disappeared.

My friends and I ended up dropping our gossip and started talking with Dylan's friends he brought with him. They seemed to be just like Dylan – friendly and talkative – so we got along great. We killed some time together while Dylan got the drinks, until he came strolling back with a handful.

"Ladies," he cooed, carefully handing each of us a drink.

I took the cold glass in my hand, fingers brushing against Dylan's just slightly enough to ignite a spark in my chest, and took a whiff of the concoction. Ashley was already sipping on hers and looked at me in approval.

A tiny, pink umbrella rested on the edge of the salted rim catching my attention for a second before I brought the glass to my lips and took a slow sip. Once I tried it, I couldn't stop – they tasted just like juice. I was pretty sure it was some kind of margarita, but I knew I liked it. A lot.

So that's probably why I drank four of them.

And by the time I downed all the drinks and danced with my friends until we felt like we were going to drop, I knew I was pretty hammered.

I plopped down on the couch we claimed with an exasperated sigh, already feeling the ache in my calves. Dylan slid next to me, resting his arm behind me while keeping his other hand on his lap.

His eyes were already on me when I turned my head to look at him. I felt like I was swimming in them. The vibrant blue that filled the iris in each eye gave me a feeling of comfort and peace – like nothing could go wrong when I looked into them.

Then something happened. A broken, almost forgotten memory made its way into my mind and forced my eyes to narrow in the slightest bit out of annoyance.

There was one person on this planet who could make their way into my mind no matter what I was doing, and I was sick and tired of it. The one person I couldn't stand anymore.

Chase and I would always stare into each others eyes, and it was like some weird thing we always did. It was our way of knowing that without words, we loved each other. And it was sweet and ours. No one else could take that away from us.

And that's what I loved so much about it. It was our thing and only ours.

So here was Dylan, looking at me like I was the only thing in his line of vision. And I was looking at him, thinking of my ex-boyfriend and knowing that no matter what I said or thought, Chase was always on my mind.

So I did the next best thing I could think of at that drunken point to get him off my mind, and leaned closer to Dylan. Then his voice disturbed my thoughts.

"Remember the first time I saw you here?" He raised an eyebrow, his voice low in my ear. I nodded my head at him slowly when I knew exactly what he was talking about. "And you were wearing that little blue dress."

I nodded again with a soft smile. "Yes, I remember that," I agreed.

"I couldn't take my eyes off of you. You were the most beautiful girl in the room, and all I could think about was coming over and talking to you. Even if it was just for thirty seconds. At least I would've done something to show you that I was interested," he said, and as he spoke, I felt chills dancing up my arms.

In my stupefied state, all I could come up with was an exceptionally lame answer.

"Really?"

"Really," he confirmed as a smirk danced across his lips.

It happened so quickly that I didn't realize what I was doing until his eyes moved. They darted down to my mouth, watching as I gently chewed on my bottom lip. I wasn't even doing it to be sexy – because let's be real, that wasn't like me at all – it was just a nervous habit of mine.

But I took it to my advantage, being as drunk as I was. All that was left to do was say the line that had been going through my head for days. Something that had been floating in the back of my thoughts, somewhere past all the ex-boyfriend nonsense and mental issues.

With a slightly shaky jaw, I opened my mouth and the words finally came out in a soft whisper.

"I really wanna kiss you."

He didn't really react. He just simply blinked and kept his eyes on mine. Then his tongue peaked out and went across his lips before he spoke up.

"So what's stopping you?" He said in the most seductive voice I'd ever heard.

I glanced down at his perfect, pink lips, and looked back and forth from one eye to the other to give myself a second to think.

"Nothing," I whispered.

I blinked. And then we were kissing.

And it didn't take long for us to get completely lost in each others lips.

It was like nobody else was around us or that we even cared. We were on our own time, on our own planet, where everything made sense.

Kissing him made sense.

It all seemed to come together and the puzzle was complete. His lips were the last piece that I was missing – to what big puzzle, I wasn't sure. But whatever it was, it was done.

We didn't break away for even a moment until I felt Ashley's hand on my shoulder what seemed like hours later. Dylan and I embarrassingly pulled away from each other, and she told me it was time to go. So we all left since it was nearly 3 o'clock in the morning, and I couldn't remember what happened after that.

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A/N - IT HAPPENED Y'ALL. THE LYLAN SHIP HAS SAILED. (Lylan? Idk if that's a good ship name for them but I'm gonna roll with it.)

Are we happy with the way things are going? Do you guys like Dylan? Is he gonna stick around for awhile or disappear? Any predictions?! AH there's so much to talk about.

Well, happy Friday! I hope you're doing swell and thanks for reading :) love ya lots.

Song: Kiss Me Kiss Me by 5SOS

Photo: SHHHOOOTTTSSSS

xoxo, sabbbycat