CHAPTER 9

Our one night with Noah’s college friends turned into a day at a gallery with them, then another night at Shay’s.

Honestly, I didn’t hate it. After the initial intimidation (and irritation) wore off, I realized they were really easy to get on with, and a lot of fun. One of Noah’s buddies from football was a total movie buff, so we ended up talking a lot about a few I’d seen lately. Amanda’s friend she’d stayed with while Lee was here was even clumsier than me and incredibly funny. Apparently, she was a regular at coffee shop comedy nights.

I was scared I wouldn’t be able to keep up with what they talked about. I didn’t know why I was so scared about it; I had no problem talking to Amanda or Noah. But this felt … different somehow. I was relieved to find out that even when they talked about something in the news or to do with politics – or even just a funny viral video – I was part of the conversation. I had something to say. I had an opinion.

It made me excited for college in a way I hadn’t been yet.

But, admittedly, it was still frustrating to spend so much of my precious time with Noah around other people, too. So, just before Lee was due to come back, I was thrilled when Noah and I suddenly had an entire day to ourselves.

We spent the morning watching a movie.

Well. Okay. Maybe there wasn’t exactly a lot of watching the movie, and a lot more making out.

June called to check in when we were actually watching the movie, so while Noah answered the phone, I dragged myself out from under the comforter to go and take a shower. I shivered once I was out of bed. It was cold – something I was only noticing now I wasn’t covered in blankets and snuggled up next to Noah’s warm body.

I took some time putting on my makeup and picking out an outfit.

‘Don’t say you’re getting all dressed up for me,’ Noah practically purred from the bed, stretching out. ‘Why don’t you come cuddle?’

‘Nope. We’re going out.’

‘But it’s, like, forty degrees out.’

Yeesh.

I steeled myself, pursing my lips and squaring my shoulders as I met Noah’s eye, doing my best to look serious. ‘Nope. Lee gets back tomorrow evening so this is the only day I really have with you.’

I returned to the mirror to finish doing my eyeliner. Shoot. My eyes looked totally different. Ninety per cent of the time, I sucked at eyeliner. I’d been hoping today would fall into the ten per cent where by some miracle, it worked out.

I rooted through my bag for my makeup remover, telling Noah, ‘Let’s go out.’

He chuckled and threw his arm behind his head. ‘Where?’

‘Just … out. Anywhere. Let’s just go hang out.’

‘We could walk by the river?’

The hopeless romantic in me couldn’t stop the sudden burst of romance-novel-worthy images that sprang to mind. The two of us basking in the golden glow of a sunset, hand in hand and smiling as we walked along a river. In my mind, the Eiffel Tower was also in the background.

Not exactly Massachusetts. But still. It sounded so cute.

‘That sounds perfect.’

Noah obligingly climbed out of bed, stopping to kiss me before he went to take a shower.

I made two more attempts at my eyeliner. It got worse with each try, so by the time Noah was out of the shower, I’d just removed my third and final try. So much for the elevated even-cooler-girl look I was going for. (Amanda and her friends all wore perfect eyeliner. Maybe I could ask them to share their secrets with me.)

I was sitting on the bed pulling my boots on when Noah placed his hands either side of my hips and leaned over me, his lips finding mine. They were soft and light, but the kiss was firm. His body pressed against mine and I found myself lying back on the comforter.

‘Noah …’ I sighed, but suddenly I wasn’t rushing to get out of there and stop making out with him. Noah mumbled something back against my lips that I didn’t catch, and I didn’t bother asking him to repeat it. The kiss deepened and I trailed my fingers through the back of his hair.

‘Hey, watch it,’ he said, pulling away and patting his hair back down. ‘You’re the one who wanted to go out. I just did my hair specially.’

‘Please.’ I snorted. ‘You ran a comb through it.’

‘Exactly.’

I couldn’t even bring myself to care that my hair was now falling out of its bun where Noah had pressed me down on to the bed. His hands were warm on my skin. As familiar as his touch was, he still drove me completely crazy.

He took my hands in his and stood up, pulling me back into a sitting position.

‘Come on. It’s meant to rain later.’

I groaned. ‘Maybe we should just stay in after all.’

He chuckled. ‘Nah, come on. We’ve got all the rest of tonight to stay in together.’

I huffed, but I finished doing up my boots then grabbed my coat and scarf.

We spent the afternoon walking along the river. It wasn’t the Parisian sunset my mind had conjured up – there was a sharp breeze and the sky was gray and heavy with clouds – but it was stunning nonetheless. All those gorgeous old buildings, the river, the trees … and actually, the cold weather only seemed to add to the atmosphere. There weren’t a lot of people out, but more than I’d expected to see. None of them seemed quite as bundled up against the cold as I was.

We stopped at a cafe for lunch and grabbed sandwiches and drinks – hot chocolate for me and coffee for Noah. We split a muffin and I noticed that Noah gave me the bigger half.

‘I can’t believe you’re leaving the day after tomorrow,’ Noah sighed. ‘You really can’t stay longer?’

‘We have to get back. I haven’t done, like, any schoolwork or studying this whole trip. So I have that to look forward to. And my dad’s got a conference upstate, so I have to be on babysitting duty for Brad for two days, remember?’

‘Oh, yeah. I mean … couldn’t he stay with my parents? They wouldn’t mind.’

I shook my head. Sure, he could, and the Flynns would be happy to look after him, and Brad wouldn’t mind much, but …

Well, he was my kid brother. After Mom died and whenever Dad was at work, it had always been my responsibility to look after him. It suddenly hit me that if I did go away to college, maybe that wouldn’t be my responsibility anymore.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that.

Noah misread my silence and reached out to take my hand. ‘Hey. It’s okay. I’ll be home again before you know it. It’ll fly by. Trust me.’

I smiled, turning my hand in his to interlock our fingers. It wasn’t exactly the reassurance I wanted, but somehow it helped anyway.

After we left the cafe, Noah wrapped his arm round my waist. ‘You’ve been kind of quiet the last few days, you know. Everything okay?’

I didn’t really feel like talking about college and how much everything would change, but … Noah looked so concerned. His bright blue eyes focused on mine like they could see right through me and I caved just a little.

‘It’s just … weird, that’s all. Seeing you with all your new friends. Seeing you with friends, I guess.’

He chuckled. ‘You say that like I was a total loner at high school.’

‘Close friends,’ I corrected. ‘You’re just – you’re all grown-up, all of a sudden. It’s, like, every time I see you, I find something new that’s changed. At the comedy night I said you keep surprising me, and you do, and that’s not – it’s not a bad thing, Noah, it’s just that …’ I drew away from him slightly. I looked at my feet as I sucked in a breath. ‘I get worried that you’ll change and want to be with someone else, and that everything that makes us us will be gone.’

I dragged my eyes back to Noah’s face, only to see his features crumple. His eyebrows knitted together, his mouth twisted down on one side and his eyes were full of warmth. He reached out, and stroked my cheek with his thumb.

‘Elle, I swear, you have nothing to worry about. Nothing is going to change the way I feel about you. You broke up with me and I was three thousand miles away and I still couldn’t get you out of my mind. I love you. Nothing will change that.’

I couldn’t help sniffling, and I buried my face in his chest to give myself a second to blink away the threat of tears.

He was such a sweetheart under that tough exterior.

‘You look cute like this,’ I told him. I drew back and ran my hands over his shoulders. He was wearing a grey beanie and had a blue knitted scarf wrapped round his neck, tucked into his puffy black coat. His hands were buried in his pockets. I had my hands looped round his biceps. His cheeks were flushed pink from the cold, the tip of his nose turning red in the wind, and he’d tucked his chin into his neck in an effort to keep warm.

‘Like what?’ he asked, twisting his head to look down at me. His breath fogged up in front of his face.

‘I’ve never seen you all bundled up like this. It’s very cute.’

‘It’s cold,’ he mumbled. ‘Aren’t you cold?’

‘I’m freaking freezing,’ I told him. My toes had gone numb a while ago. These boots were cute, but maybe not winter-proof. I definitely wished I’d worn an extra pair of socks. ‘But it’s worth it. This is …’

I sighed wistfully, looking around. The weather was still bleak. The sky was gray and threatening rain and it was so darn cold. It was not exactly the sunny spring break we usually enjoyed back home.

‘It’s perfect,’ I told Noah.

And I meant it.

I’d done a crazy, sort of spontaneous road trip across the country with my best friend. I’d spent the week hanging out with Harvard students. We’d gone to postmodern art installations and cool bars and comedy nights in coffee shops. And now I was standing on the bank of a river basically risking frostbite with Noah’s arms wrapped round me and his lips scattering kisses across my cheeks and nose and finally – finally – finding my lips.

It really was the perfect spring break.