Page 73 of Next to Everything We Wanted

“We only kissed,” I reminded her.

“—and now you’ve written a full song by yourself?”

“I know!” I beamed as I led them down the hall. “I’ve been working on it all week and finally finished it this morning.” I opened the door to my room, where Gracelynn sat on my bed scrolling through her phone.

“Is it really true, Gracelynn?” Arielle asked her. “Is Sienna pulling a prank on us?”

“Like Sienna could pull off a prank,” Gracelynn said, brushing her dark bangs out of her eyes.

“Hey, I’m great at pranks,” I said. “You were all fooled when . . .” I racked my brain for when I’d pulled a prank on the girls during our years of friendship, but I came up dry. “I’ve got nothing.”

Gracelynn snorted. “See?”

“I’m so excited!” Arielle squealed as she took my sketchbook off my desk and handed it to me. “Sing it for us!”

“I will.” I took out my acoustic guitar from under my bed before sitting next to Gracelynn. “This is called ‘Spinning’.”

Arielle sat in my desk chair, and Raina sat on my carpet next to a napping Bailey.

I sang the first verse, the words coming naturally to me. Memories of my night with Gavin danced around in my mind. By the time I reached the chorus, I was transported to another world.

“The world stops

With your lips on mine

But then the clock strikes twelve

Am I out of time?

Because I don’t want this night to end

Kiss me again so we can pretend

That the world isn’t spinning

Because everything stops spinning

With your lips on mine.”

As I belted the words, I wasn’t worried about messing up or that the lyrics weren’t good. All I cared about was the best night of my life, the feeling of Gavin’s lips on mine, the way he opened up to me about his life.

How could he think that another girl could never love him? Because I was falling deep.

It took me a moment to realize that I’d finished the song, the girls clapping for me with big smiles on their faces. Blood rushed to my cheeks, and I bowed before putting my guitar away.

“It’s perfect, Sienna,” Raina said, her eyes shining with pride. “All of it.”

“Yes!” Arielle shot up from her chair to hug me. “Imagine how yourboywill react when he hears it.”

I gasped. “What—No! He can’t hear this!” The thought of performing the song for Gavin made me want to crawl into a hole.

Gracelynn blinked. “What boy? You never said that you were seeing someone.”

“Well, the song just did,” Raina said with a grin.

My cheeks warmed. “I-I was going to tell you about him. And I’mnotseeing him, we’re just hanging out.”

“And kissing,” Arielle said as she sat back down. “Gracelynn, you’ll never believe who it is.”