#06182024

TASHI DUNCAN WASN'T FORCING LENNON CADDEL TO PLAY TENNIS. At least not anymore. With Patrick and Art in their lives, getting Lennon to play had gotten a lot easier. Her two best friends and her boyfriend were so passionate about it that she found herself wanting to be passionate about it too. Lennon was so fascinated with Patrick that she would've done anything to relate to him, even if was pretend to enjoy playing tennis. But after a while she wasn't even pretending. She had stopped lying to her physical therapist and was finally on new medication, trying to gain control over the pain tennis was causing her. And it was working. She went to practice and matches with a smile on her face. Patrick and Art had pulled a few playful duos games out of her, which she looked forward to when he visited. She looked forward to playing tennis. She almost couldn't believe it. If the rest of the season were to go well, she planned on going pro in May. When she told Tashi that she had changed her mind, that she desperately wanted to go pro, she thought she was going to cry. The two of them, a professional duos team next summer. It was everything they had dreamed of. When they were ten years old, laying on their backs on Lennon's at home tennis court, pointing up at constellations, this is what they talked about. They had decided on their duos name when they were eight years old and it was finally going to happen for them. Sugar and Spice is what they had chosen all those years ago. It was cringy to them now, but they kept it. For old times sake. Five more months and the dreams they had shared at countless sleepovers would be a reality. Tashi would need to thank Patrick.

First semester went just as fast as it had came. Patrick had kept his promise to Lennon and was at almost every single match she played that fall. The season didn't actually start until January but he was in the stands at practice matches and rallies, cheering when she won. Which was every time. Patrick, Lennon, Tashi, and Art had become the most recognizable group. When the three Stanford attendees walked across campus together, people couldn't help but stare. All of them were so smart and talented and just so fucking attractive, they (Tashi) understood the eyes that followed them. They were the poster children for college student perfection. Tashi, a business major, had grabbed the attention of professors with the amazing questions she asked during lecture. Art and Lennon were both communications majors and shared a lot of the same classes, causing people to turn heads when they walked in together. They were always carrying both their tennis bag and a regular backpack, a smoothie from Stanford's café sweating in their hands. All of them, Patrick included, had laughed loudly in the student center and picnicked on the campus green. The Dream Team. That's what people had started to call them. And it was true. All of them felt like they were living a dream when they were together.

It was harder for Lennon and Patrick, though, no matter how much of dream they felt they were living. Patrick had asked Lennon to be his late one October night after one of her matches. Tashi had an exam early in the morning and had gone to bed, and so Lennon and Patrick had slipped out of her dorm building to sit on the wide open courtyard. Their posture mimicked what it was the first night that they had been together all those months ago. Lennon's arms were wrapped around her legs which were pulled up to her chest, head on her knee, staring at the side of his face. Patrick's legs were splayed out, arms behind him as he gazed up at the sky. Lennon was nervous just looking at him. He wasn't talking as much as he normally did and he was chewing on his bottom lip deep in thought. She found herself wanting to reach out and pull it from his mouth, offering her own lips for him to chew on instead.

"What's wrong?" She had muttered, one of her hands toying with and ripping up the grass beside her. 

He sighed and shook his head as she pulled him from his thoughts. "It's nothing," He mumbled and turned his head to look at her. She looks so pretty, he thought. The only light around was a lamp post a few feet away and the glow of the moon. She was a little sunburnt from her practices and her cheeks looked permanently rosy while the rest of her body was covered in a light tan. She was wearing his t-shirt, "Mark Rebellato Tennis Academy" plastered across the front. She was smiling at him softly and he could just melt into the grass.

"It's not nothing... You're gonna bite your lip until it bleeds." She had given in, bringing her thumb to pull at his bottom lip. "Pat, you gotta stop doing that." He relented and had let her pull his lip from in between his teeth. He had never been one to get flustered around anyone, much less a girl he thought was attractive. But Lennon's softness almost canceled out his hard, cocky demeanor. 

"I know." He locked eyes with her, his green ones looking deep into her brown. "I really like you, Lennon."

Her breath hitched and she had been fighting the urge to look away from his intense stare. She stuttered out a reply which made Patrick grin. He liked making her flustered. "I... uh... I like you too. A lot."

"A lot?" He had teased, which earned him an eye roll, a shove, and an order to 'Shut up!'  He laughed at her, trying to lighten the mood. "'M sorry, I didn't mean to ruin the moment. But I can't just go on like this. Having you bat your eyelashes at me and me have to act like I don't want you."

Her smile faded, something akin to relief taking over her face. He wanted her just like she wanted him. Not sexually, not yet at least, but the want to be close to him. To be his. "Y-you want me?"

He tskd and looked away, bewildered. "'Course I do. What you think I was coming to all your matches and spending all my hard earned money on gas because I just wanted to be your friend?" 

She smiled, now biting her lip to keep her from giggling. She shrugged. "Well I don't know... you do it for Art."

Patrick laughed and tipped his head back before turning back to her. "No, no I don't. I only go to Art's matches if he has one while I'm here to see you." He watched her intensely as she connected the dots he had presented her with. 

"Oh." That's all she said.

"Yeah, oh." He bumped her leg with his, tilting his head at her. He reaches up to brush a hair out of her face just like he did two months ago outside of her hotel room. "I'm going to kiss you. Is that ok?" 

Lennon looked at him, blinking slowly. She parted her lips and sucked in a shaky deep breath before dropping her legs to the ground, allowing his an easy path to her. "Please."

And then his lips were slotted against hers, both of his hands cupping her face. She leaned into his touch like she was dying of thirst and the only thing that could save her was the wetness of Patrick's mouth. Patrick kisses her like a starved man, he has to remind himself to chill out. He didn't want to scare her. He didn't want to fuck this up. He pulled back, albeit hesitantly, and rested his forehead against hers. Lennon had whined and chased his lips, desperately searching for more. He laughed breathlessly at her urgency. 

"Slow down, baby," He breathed as he brushed his thumbs across her cheeks. The pet name only made it harder for her, the need in her growing. But she didn't chase him again. He could tell her to follow him to the ends of the earth and she would've done it. No questions asked.

"I-I'm sorry." She frantically apologized. He looked so pretty like this. Lips swollen, eyes closed as he tried to come down from the high of kissing her. He was thinking the same thing about her. 

"Fuck", he swore under his breath, squeezing his eyes shut, "Don't apologize. Please don't apologize." He pulled back slightly with his hands still cupping her cheeks, keeping her at arms length.

Patrick just stared at her, taking in her beauty. His heart had been pounding in his chest when he asked her what he had been wanting to ask her for months. "Lennon," He started. He looked at her with the softest gaze he could muster. "Will you please be my girlfriend? I genuinely think I need it like I need water." He couldn't do it without making a joke. He likes hearing her laugh.

And she does. Lennon doesn't think she's ever said "Yes!" more enthusiastically in her life. 

The month before the tennis season started, Lennon and Tashi had an unspoken agreement that they deserved a break. It was winter break and they had been working so fucking hard during the semester. Both of the girls were on track to come out on top by the end of the season and they had both ended the semester on the presidential honor's list. Just the thought of going home and having to deal with their parents was enough to have them groaning. They brought this up to Art a week before break over their hundredth shared bowl of fries in the Stanford café. He had the perfect solution.

"Why don't we," He swallowed the fry in his mouth, dusting the salt off his fingers, "Why don't you just ask Patrick if you can stay at his parents' summer house? That's what I'm doing."

Lennon and Tashi shared a look, to which Tashi rolled her eyes with a smile. They knew that Patrick was wealthier than all of them, but it always made them giggle when it was brought up. The boy who stole all of his friends' clothes had more money than all of them combined. 

"Do you think he would let us?" Lennon asked while she twirled the straw of her drink in her fingers.

Art chuckled, brushing off her question. "Are you kidding? He's obsessed with you and he starts to go stir crazy if he doesn't see all of us together for a while."

Lennon blushed at the thought of Patrick being obsessed with her. She knew he was her boyfriend (which still made her giddy to think about) but still. Tashi smiled at Lennon’s blush and at Art's offer. 

"Lennon's parents don't care where she is as long as they know she's alive. And my parents let me go anywhere Lennon goes. So... we'll be there.

The four of them had Patrick's summer house all to themselves for an entire month. You would think that would be a disaster, but it was actually the most fun any of them had ever had. The pool was heated, a jacuzzi tucked away in the corner. The fucking floors and tennis court were heated. Every single day for a month they would wake up at noon, play a 2v2 match, drive Lennon's car to dinner (which Patrick paid for every time), and come back and watch horror movies until they were too tired to keep their eyes open. They each had their own room in the house but every night they would curl into each other on the huge couch, opting for the company of their best friends over the comfort of an actual bed. 

Many a pillow fight, wrestling match, and game of chicken was played in that house. It brought them closer together, individually and as a group. Even Tashi found herself laughing so hard she was crying at Patrick and Art's tennis academy stories. 

Lennon wanted to cry every time she caught a glimpse of Tashi laughing with Art or shoving Patrick when he beat her in a tennis match. She wasn't sad, quite the opposite actually. She was so overjoyed that it made her misty eyed. Maybe she had been wrong. Maybe Tashi wasn't the only one who could love her despite her insecurities and flaws. Maybe Tashi wasn't the only one could see her for all the she was and keep her around regardless. Maybe Art and Patrick could give that to her too.

On one of the rare afternoons Lennon and Patrick were alone in the living room, Tashi showering and Art napping in his bed, she confessed this to him. His hand was buried between her thighs, his mouth pressing soft kisses and bites to her neck, her head leaned back. She was sitting in his lap with her chest pressed to his, his hand moving between them. She was whining and whimpering and grinding her hips slowly into his touch. Her eyes were squeezed shut when she said it. She whispered it like she was sharing her most close kept secret.

"I think... fuck, I love you." 

Patrick's touch faltered and Lennon could feel his breath stutter with his mouth pressed to the column of her throat. The once regulated and calculated thrusts of his fingers became stuttered pushes and pulls, like she threw him off of his game. "Y-you think?" His voice sounded strained and he picked up the pace of his fingers, her confession making him want to please her even more. Which he didn't think was possible. 

"Uh huh," She nodded frantically, pulling Patrick's head up so that she could look him in the eye. Both of their cheeks were flushed and their lips were a tad bit swollen. Lennon's from biting them and Patrick's from the hungry way he had kissed her. His eyes were half-lidded while hers were wide with admiration. She cupped his face in her hands, which he understood. He pressed his lips to hers. This kiss was different than the ones the had been sharing over the course of the past few months. Instead of frantic and hungry kisses, teeth clashing and tongues rolling together, this one was softer. Like instead of saying her loved her too, he wanted to show her.

"A-ask me again... shit, Patrick... ask me la-ter."

His head falls to her shoulder, biting it softly. She let out a broken moan as she let go around his fingers, which Patrick covered with his own groan. The softness was rare from him and something about it made her even more sure that she loved him. She knew he wasn't going to say it back, that wasn't his style. Not yet at least. They had met each other less than six months ago. They had only been dating for two. She knew it was naive of her to say but she didn't care because she did love him. She loved him and the way he always knew what to say to make her laugh. She loved the way he let her play whatever music she wanted in his car even if it was what he called "whiny girl music." She loved his friendship with Art and the way they had pulled her and Tashi into their duo with open arms. She could tell him that she loved him over and over just for that.