Sweet Like Honey

4.

"You had dinner with Jonas last night?" Sawyer practically screamed through the phone. Lennen flinched slightly at the noise, but also wasn't really surprised, as this was the reaction she was expecting. "Are you two a thing now? What happened?" 

"We're not a thing. He has a girlfriend. Nothing really happened, anyways. We had been talking after soccer tryouts yesterday and lost track of time, then we went to dinner. That's all that happened." Lennen told Sawyer everything and this was something she would not be keeping from her. She knew she would have to tell Sawyer about her tiny crush on Jonas eventually, but for now, she was going to continue to keep it to herself, not wanting it to get out. She loved Sawyer to death, but somtimes she had trouble keeping things to herself. It was a possibilty that just in a few hours, the entire school could know about Lennen's crush and she didn't want to cause problems with Jonas or Summer, nor does she want all that attention on herself.  

"I'm texting Ellis and Margo and we are meeting at the cafe in fifteen minutes." It was hard to say no to Sawyer, so Lennen reluctantly agreed, not really wanting to go. She loved her friends, but they were all going to say something about her and Jonas, even though there was absolutely nothing going on between the two of them. They were hardly friends, just like Lennen told her dad yesterday. She doesn't know much about the guy, as their first conversation was only yesterday in APES. 

Lennen walked into Cibo e L'anima (translation: food and soul) Cafe, spotting her three friends in their usual booth. "Tell us everything." Lennen didn't even have the chance to get her normal coffee order before she was bombarded with questions about last night. 

"Will you guys relax? Nothing did or ever will happen between Jonas and I. We just had our first conversation yesterday, so that hardly makes us friends. Yes, he's a nice guy, but that means nothing. I don't know much about the guy, so I can't really form an opinion. I appreciate that you guys care about my non-existant love life, but really, I'm not exactly interested in anything right now. I'm swamped with school work and getting ready for college applications. I don't have the time for a relationship, so please stop bugging me about it." Lennen loved her friends dearly and appreciated everything they did for her, but her love life was something Lennen wasn't boisterous about. She didn't enjoy talking about it, and she's only had one boyfriend ever. Her love life wasn't something she made priority in her life. She had more important things to care about then worrying about whether or not she was going to appeal to a guy she will never see again after high school. 

"We're sorry, Lennen, but we just want you to be happy. My brother is one of Jonas's best friends, so he's over at my house a lot, and I've heard things that I probably wasn't supposed to hear. The five of them talk about girls a lot, and your name always gets brought up. They talk about you and Jonas like you have a future together. I don't hear the entire conversations, and maybe I misunderstand what they say, but I know you always come up." The girls looked at Margo, wondering why she was just now sharing this information with the group. "I don't know what's up with them, but I can ask Miles if you really want to know." 

"I don't want to know." The three looked at Lennen in bewilderment. How could she not want to know what they were talking about, especially since her name came up every time Jonas would come over. That had to mean something, and Lennen just wanted to be left in the dark. "It's probably nothing. If I ever, for some reason, want to know, then I will tell you. But for right now, I do not want to know." They left her alone, knowing not to push her anymore. Lennen was head strong and can go off when the wrong button is pushed.  

"I heard Dorian is having a party tonight. Do you guys want to go?" Ellis speaks up, wanting to change to subject as fast as possible. The four of them had always been drama free, and no one wanted that to change. They've enjoyed living simply, without having to deal with the drama that circulates their school.

"That sounds good to me," Sawyer says, Margo agreeing. They turned to look at Lennen, hoping she would come as well. Lennen went to a party every once in a while, when she needed to let off some steam. Being surrounded by her drunk classmates wasn't something she usually enjoyed. 

"Yeah, but I'm not going to be the DD," Lennen tells the group. The past few weeks had been extremely stressful and she needed to forget about it for a few hours. Drunk Lennen had been amusing to many people, as she's been told, and she'll only have to take their word for it. 

"I will. I have to go to church with my family tomorrow morning," Sawyer offers. Her parents would absolutely kill her if she showed up hungover to church. Her family was well respected at the church and in the community. Sawyer was a do-gooder, always trying to help out and take part in helping the community strive. "We have a few hours before the party starts, you guys up to do anything?"

"I have to go back and do homework." Lennen wasn't too thrilled about doing homework on a Saturday afternoon, but she was most likely going to want to sleep all of tomorrow. Today was her best bet to get everything done. She said goodbye to her friends and went back home. 

"So, are you up to anything tonight?" Lennen's mom, Joyce, asks during one of Lennen's break from doing her  AP Calculus homework. Lennen was an incredibly gifted student, being naturally smart. She excelled in every class she took, maintaining over a 4.0 GPA. She was the student parents always bragged about.

"I'm going out with girls later, but for now it's just me and my textbooks," Lennen responds. Lennen had more than a handful on her plate with her schedule this year. She had four AP classes, planning for Student Council, and had been writing weekly articles for the school newspaper. 

"Are you sure you aren't overworking yourself this year?" School had only been in session four months, but Joyce was already worried about her daughter. Joyce was never one to hold back her daughter, especially looking at her class schedules for the past four years, but she really wished her daughter would take a break from overworking herself. Just last year, Lennen had taken and passed AP Spanish, making her bilingual, while taking the North Beach's hardest class, AP Biology. 

"Mom, you know what my top college choices are and according to my counselor, I have a really good chance at getting in. If I keep up my GPA and get As in my classes this year, I could really go. You know how much these schools means to me, mom." It had been her dream school since her first visit at the age of 6. She worked hard every year, only recieving As in all her classes. 

"I know, sweetheart, but I'm just being a mom. I don't want you to work yourself too hard." Lennen loved that her mom was so caring and supportive, but Lennen knew what course work she could handle. Plus, her parents worked hard to send her to North Shore. North Shore was a prestigous private high school, about fourty miles south of LA, in Costa Mesa. She knows it's not cheap for her parents to send her and her brother to this school, but she knows it's all for educational purposes. 

"I appreciate it, mom, really. I need to get back to make sure my AP Calculus book isn't having fun without me." Joyce chuckles and watches her daughter make her way up the stairs, retreating back into her bedroom.