CHAPTER 7

Snuggled into Noah’s side that night, I wondered if he’d been right. Maybe we should just stay inside, right here, and not leave the room at all. Sure, dinner had been nice, and I was excited to see more of Boston … but right then, lying with my head on his chest and his arm round me, his fingers playing with the ends of my hair, I didn’t ever want to be anywhere else. It was perfect.

He nuzzled his nose against my forehead before kissing my cheek. ‘I missed you. You should visit more.’

‘Maybe you should visit more, if you miss me so much.’

‘You drive a hard bargain, Evans.’

‘You know what else I drive? Three thousand miles just to see you.’

Noah laughed. ‘Please. You had a great time driving three thousand miles. Even if you were kind of stinky by the end.’

I gave a cry of indignation and pushed at him. ‘Shut up! I was not! I practically bathed in deodorant on the way here.’ I hoped he didn’t see me blushing. I knew we should’ve found somewhere to take a shower before arriving.

‘I’m just glad you’re here,’ he told me, pulling me closer and tilting my chin up to kiss me properly. I curled in tighter to his side and parted my lips as the kiss deepened. I didn’t ever want to leave.

‘So,’ he said, when we finally broke apart, ‘are you and Lee really planning to go to Europe next year?’

I scoffed. ‘Hardly. You know what he’s like. We say a lot of stuff like that. Why? Were you hoping to come meet us at the Dali museum in Barcelona?’

Noah chuckled. ‘She likes art, okay? Levi likes cooking French pastries.’

‘He’s moved on to Italian desserts now,’ I said. Levi and his little sister had always baked, but ever since Levi had started watching The Great British Bake Off on Netflix he’d really thrown himself into it, exploring new recipes and methods and foods. I wasn’t a great cook, but I was more than happy to sit around talking to him while he baked and help him taste-test afterward.

‘No, I was just thinking,’ Noah said. ‘About us. Next year. When you’re in college, too. We’re gonna have to coordinate more. You know, plan trips home on the same weekend. Maybe meet halfway.’

‘I don’t even know where I’m going to college yet,’ I mumbled, fidgeting with the edge of the bedsheet.

‘Sure, but when you get an offer –’

‘If,’ I corrected him. The whole process of college applications had stressed me out to breaking point. I was excited to go to college, but the idea of graduating high school and maybe growing apart from the Flynn brothers filled me with apprehension. It kind of soured the whole college thing – more than a little.

‘When. When you get an offer and you pick a college, we’ll have to figure something out. I don’t think I can go this long without seeing you again. It’s been driving me crazy.’

I laughed. I loved it when he said things like that. Sometimes I worried I was too clingy, but then he’d say exactly what I was feeling and I’d stop worrying.

What did I have to worry about?

I hooked my leg over Noah’s and kissed him again.

We were perfect.

The next night, there was an open-mic comedy night at a coffee shop, complete with low lighting, slightly-too-loud music and beer bottles scattered on tables amid coffee cups and little plates of cake.

‘What kind of coffee shop sells beer?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know, but they didn’t card me,’ Lee said, setting down a beer in front of me, then another for him, one for Noah and a white wine for Amanda. ‘I guessed you weren’t a beer kind of girl.’

‘Only when it’s beer pong,’ Amanda said, taking her wine and gesturing at Noah with it. ‘Me and this guy are unbeatable.’

Lee laughed. ‘You’re gonna have to teach Elle a thing or two.’

‘Me? Please. You’re awful at it.’

‘Only when I’m drunk.’

‘Isn’t that kind of the point?’ Amanda asked, laughing. ‘You guys are gonna love tonight, I promise.’

‘Remind me how this works, exactly?’

Amanda explained it to me again. People signed up for fifteen-minute slots to do their stand-up comedy set. An MC (who was, she and Noah swore, a semiprofessional comedian and totally hilarious) ran the night, so you were guaranteed at least some laughs.

‘But the best part is the heckling,’ she told me, with a wicked grin. ‘Everyone gets heckled. They know that’s basically part of the deal when they sign up. And people really don’t hold their punches. Most of the time, the hecklers are funnier than the comedians.’

‘Isn’t that kind of awful? Don’t they find it really humiliating?’

‘Oh, no.’ She waved a hand. ‘They all expect it. Here, if you don’t get heckled you’re not doing it right.’

‘Just don’t heckle the MC,’ Noah told us.

‘He speaks from experience,’ Amanda confided, leaning across the table and grinning at us. ‘Made that mistake his first time here.’

‘Let’s not, huh?’ Noah gave her a sidelong glance, his mouth stretching into a smirk. I felt a familiar flare of jealousy as they shared a smile over some story I didn’t know. I took a sip of my beer, hoping I could swallow down the jealousy, too. I didn’t like it – not one bit – especially when I knew how stupid I was being. I was really starting to understand how Rachel felt around me and Lee sometimes.

It wasn’t long before the coffee shop had filled up. The lights dimmed and a spotlight shone on to the stage. The latest Taylor Swift song started playing, and a guy in a red bomber jacket ran out on stage. The crowd clapped and I joined in.

The MC had an afro, thick-rimmed glasses, a gap in his teeth and a winning smile. He was maybe in his twenties. His clothes were casual but stylish, and he swung his arms above his head, shouting, ‘Come on, you guys! Is that all you’ve got?’

Noah and Lee whooped from our table, and so did a couple more people.

‘Yeah, that’s more like it! All right, folks, I’m Jay, I’m your host for the night – for my sins.’ The applause and cheers died down and gave way to laughter. ‘And, boy, I hope you’ve all had a few stiff drinks, because we have got one helluva line up for you tonight.’

Jay’s bit lasted maybe five minutes. He had all of us eating out of the palm of his hand, everyone wheezing with laughter. He picked on a couple of people from the crowd to taunt, but they all took it in stride.

‘We got any newcomers tonight?’ he asked. A couple of people stuck their hands up nervously. I was one of them. Amanda shot to her feet then jabbed a finger at me and grabbed Lee’s wrist, hauling his arm into the air.

‘Right here we do!’

‘Amanda!’ I hissed.

Jay climbed off the stage and walked over to us with his microphone. ‘Howdy-doo, newbies. What’re your names?’ He stuck the microphone right in Lee’s face.

‘I’m Lee. That’s Elle.’

‘What’ve we got here? Double date?’ He pulled a sympathetic face at Amanda. ‘Oh, honey, what happened to the guy with the glasses you were with last time?’

‘He’s MC-ing tonight,’ she shot back.

A chorus of whooping filled the room, and my jaw dropped open as I looked at her.

She’d had all that stuff to tell us about how tonight would be and she forgot to mention possibly the most important part?

‘Hey, maybe you’ve at least bagged yourself a funny guy this time,’ he said, clapping Lee on the shoulder. ‘And what about you, with the space buns? This your hot date for the night?’ He gestured at Noah.

‘You betcha,’ I said.

‘And where are you from?’

‘California.’

‘Ooh, out-of-towners! Slumming it here on the East Coast. In that case, we’d better make sure we give them a good show tonight, huh, everyone?’

He winked at me and did a finger-gun signal at Lee that he somehow pulled off as totally cool and not at all lame, then he bounded back up on to the stage.

‘Now, we’ll be kicking things off tonight with recently divorced chemistry professor Dave.’ There was a chorus of ‘awwh’ at this, and Jay made a show of taking out his phone and peering over the top of his glasses at it. ‘Guess chemistry isn’t his strong suit after all, huh? Now, Dave is forty-five, has no kids, is a Sagittarius, five-ten, and – oh, nope, that’s his Bumble bio.’

While we were all still laughing, Jay summoned amateur comedian Dave on to the stage to a politely encouraging smattering of applause. Lee caught my eye from his seat next to Amanda. His cheeks were flushed and pink from laughing, a smile splitting across his face. I knew exactly what he was thinking: if this was what college life was going to be like, we were going to love it.

My heart sank. I looked back at the stage, barely listening as recent-divorcé and chemistry professor Dave stammered through the start of his set.

If this was what college life was going to be like, yeah, we’d love it … but would it be anything like this if we ended up at different colleges? Would Lee be the one making fabulous, flawless new friends like Noah had with Amanda? Would he even need me any more?

Stomach churning, I had the realization, which I hated, that I felt like I’d already lost him. Which was utterly ridiculous. I hated it as much as I hated feeling jealous of Amanda. I took another sip of my beer and tried to focus on the act on stage, but the feeling stuck with me.

Meanwhile, Dave’s act only got stronger the more he was heckled. His humor was self-deprecating to the point where most of us were cringing in our seats. One story had us all practically dying from second-hand embarrassment, but somehow it worked. By the time he left the stage, people were cheering.

‘What do you guys think?’ Amanda asked as Jay returned to introduce the next act (nineteen-year-old Hailey who had just returned from a gap year in Asia).

‘This is the best thing,’ Lee enthused.

‘It’s great,’ I agreed, but I sounded as half-hearted as I felt. I couldn’t shake the idea of Lee replacing me with some shiny new friend if we ended up at different colleges.

Noah’s arm was draped across the back of my chair and he leaned forward, arm coming up round my shoulders, to murmur, ‘Everything okay?’

Ugh, I was being so pathetic. I’d come all the way to Boston to have the best spring break ever with my best friend and my boyfriend and here I was moping over something that probably wouldn’t even happen.

I really needed to get hold of myself.

I turned my head to smile at him more sincerely. ‘Yeah. Everything’s great.’

He smiled back and kissed me briefly before we turned our attention back to the stage. We were just in time to catch Hailey’s first punchline, which fell completely flat and opened the floor to the hecklers.

Noah’s fingers drifted in light patterns at the back of my neck, sending a shiver down my spine. He leaned forward again to press a kiss just below my ear. Somehow I managed to forget how paranoid I’d been just a few minutes before, and I went back to enjoying the night.

‘She’s definitely flirting with him,’ I said.

Noah scoffed, leaning back in his chair and turning to me. ‘She’s not.’

‘She is! Look! Look at her touching her hair.’

‘So, she’s into him because she’s touching her hair?’

‘Well, yes – I mean – not – shut up!’ He started laughing at me and I swiped his arm.

It was three acts into the night and there was a break. Amanda had gone to join the too-long line for the restroom and Lee was back at the counter to grab more drinks … and a girl was flirting with him. She didn’t look much older than us, but she definitely struck me as a ‘college girl’. She had tattoos on her wrist and she was wearing a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a blue beanie over her short choppy hair. Which she kept fiddling with. As I watched, she put a hand on Lee’s shoulder and laughed at something he said. He’d turned back to the bar … bartender? Barista? Bar-someone, to put in his order. The girl looked visibly disappointed when he didn’t offer to get her a drink.

‘He’s completely clueless,’ Noah said, shaking his head. ‘Don’t ever let him break up with Rachel. He’ll never manage to date another girl.’

‘Should we go rescue him?’

Noah sighed, but he got up from the table. As he did, a man collided with him and slopped his coffee on to Noah’s shoes.

‘Hey, watch it,’ Noah grumbled.

‘Sorry, man. Didn’t see you there.’

I held my breath, watching Noah closely. I remembered when guys would knock into him at parties. Their shoulders would barge against each other, they’d square off, push at each other, and someone would throw a punch. Almost every time it would turn into a fight.

I glanced down at Noah’s hands, but they didn’t curl into fists like I expected. He didn’t drop his shoulders or clench his jaw or –

Noah raised his hand, but to pat the man’s shoulder. ‘It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.’

The guy walked off. Noah made to go up to the bar to see Lee, but I caught his elbow and tugged him back.

‘Hey. What was that?’

‘Hmm? Oh, it’s no big deal. It’s just coffee.’ He shook his foot.

‘No, I mean …’ I stood up, tilting my head back to look him in the eye better, unable to keep the frown off my face. I knew Noah had changed since going to college. He’d grown up a lot, but … I was so not used to this. ‘Any other time, you’d have hit that guy.’

Noah rolled his eyes before looking away from me. ‘Oh, come on, Elle. You’re exaggerating.’

‘Uh, do I need to list every party where Lee or I saw you get into a fight? You punched the garage wall once when you found out your mom accidentally threw away a new part for your motorcycle.’

‘I didn’t start those fights. I’ve told you. And, yeah, I was mad about the part because it cost, like, a hundred bucks.’ He shuffled his feet again. ‘It was just some coffee. I’m not about to punch some random dude at comedy night and get arrested for assault.’

I blinked at him.

‘Why are you looking at me like that?’

‘I just …’ I blew out a breath, shaking my head and running a hand over my hair. ‘You keep surprising me, that’s all.’

Now it was Noah’s turn to frown. He bit his lip. ‘Is that … good?’

I laid my hands against his chest. ‘It’s great. Just … different.’ I smiled at him. ‘Go on. You’d better go help Lee out.’

Still looking a little uncertain, Noah made his way over to Lee. He glanced back at me once.

He’d changed so much since going to college – in all these little ways that kept catching me off guard. He was still cocky and swaggering, and his confidence could almost border on arrogance, but the bad-boy reputation he’d built for himself in high school was long gone.

I’d always known Noah was a good guy. He’d looked out for me and Lee when we were freshmen and he always let us invite our friends to his parties. But every time I’d seen him since he’d gone to college …

Well, like I said: he kept surprising me. He just seemed so … grown-up.

I knew that was a good thing. He seemed more like himself now. Happier and more easygoing than he used to be. But … sometimes it scared me. What if he changed so much that he wasn’t my Noah any more? What if he became completely different to the Noah I fell in love with?

I watched him hook Lee into a headlock, ruffling his hair and laughing when Lee elbowed him after scrabbling out of the hold. They gathered up the drinks and made their way back to the table. As they drew closer I could hear Noah laying into Lee, teasing him about being so oblivious to the girl flirting with him at the bar. Lee grumbled and pulled faces.

‘Shelly, tell him,’ he pleaded with me.

‘Sorry, buddy. She was definitely into you.’

Lee pulled a face again, sucking on his teeth and sighing through his nose. He gave me a grave look. ‘Never let me screw things up with Rachel. I’ll never find another girlfriend ever again.’

Noah and I exchanged a glance and I bit back a grin. Noah winked at me and reached for his drink. I got a warm feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I reassured myself that no matter how much Noah changed at college, he’d always be my Noah.