Same Time Next Year

Chapter 7 - Year 2

I knew my ears were right, though, when a minute later the back door of the beach house opened, and Noah walked outside.  I shouldn't have worried about how things would be between us, though, because it's Noah who practically runs to me as soon as he walks in the door, pulling me into a hug.  "Shell, you're here.  I was so worried you wouldn't be here,"  he said with his arms around me, squeezing me tight against him, his lips pressed into the top of my head. Before I can respond, I'm cut off when Noah crashes his lips to mine.

I think we were both having a hard time believing that we were finally together.  I'm not sure why we ever thought going a year without being together made any kind of sense. Finally, when we were both comfortable that we weren't imagining the other, we went inside to catch up. As I sat down next to Noah on the couch in the living room I asked him, "So, what do your parents think you're doing this weekend?"

Noah looked slightly guilty as he answered, putting his arm around my shoulders, "They don't even know I'm in LA.  I didn't say anything about flying back this weekend."

We were so naïve last year to think that no one would figure out that we were at the beach house together for the weekend. It took all of three days afterwards for Noah's family to figure it out. Lee went to supper with his folks and Noah one night when I had to work late and it didn't take much before it came up that I hadn't gone to Comic-Con with Lee. Once Lee dropped that news, June asked Noah why he hadn't mentioned seeing me at the beach house. I found out about the whole conversation when I got off work late that night, only to be interrogated by Lee for not telling him that I had seen Noah. I had gotten a couple texts from Noah during my shift but I was busy, plus we weren't supposed to be communicating, so I had ignored them. So, I had no idea what Noah had told his family, what my story was supposed to be. Luckily, when I stayed quiet, acting upset about the fact that I had seen Noah, Lee pretty much told me everything that was said. Apparently, Noah told them that we he was really surprised to see me when I got home from work but it was late, so we didn't talk much. He said he left first thing in the morning to visit some friends he played football with. Sounded like a plausible explanation to me and Lee seemed to believe it. I wondered if it would be enough to stop June from getting suspicious, though. She always seemed to keep a step ahead of us.

Noah continued, "I mentioned having plans with Chloe all weekend.  I told Chloe what we're doing, about last year and our plan for this year.  I hope that's okay.  I wasn't sure if we were supposed to be keeping it a secret."

I cuddled against Noah, responding, "No . . . no that's fine.  No reason to keep it a secret."

"Good, we didn't really talk about that and I just needed to tell someone about last year. Everything we talked through that weekend." Noah was playing with my hair as he talked. "For what it's worth, she thinks we're being daft."

"I'm not sure I disagree.  I obviously didn't tell Lee but Kami knows. I'm honestly not sure what Lee would think of it but I didn't want him to have to keep it from the rest of our families and I know we don't need all of them involved."

Noah

My stomach is in knots as I walk into the beach house, immediately looking around for Elle.  I flew in from Boston this afternoon, without telling anyone in my family that I was coming. I would never hear the end of it from my Mom if she knew I was in LA and didn't see her. I feel guilty but not enough to change my plans. I'm spending every minute I'm in town with Elle. I've been worrying for weeks that she won't be here, although I'm not sure why, I really don't think she would stand me up, regardless of what our "rules" are.  If you ask me, Elle has always been a little too worried about playing by the rules, ever since she and Lee made up those ridiculous friendship rules.

Elle has always been a rule follower, at least until it came to me. Once we started dating, she broke some rules at school, I'm sure she broke some of her Dad's rules, and at least a couple of her friendship rules with Lee. It didn't take long after our last weekend together for us to break the rules Elle had made up for this non-relationship we're in now either. I think both of us realized that we couldn't go a whole year without communicating with each other. The truth was, I wanted to be able to see her and talk to her and text her all the time. Once we started talking, I wanted to push back on the rule about only seeing each other once a year, but honestly, I'll take what I can get with Elle right now. I was worried she would run if I pushed too much on that one. If this is what makes her feel comfortable, this is what we'll do.

After we parted ways last year, I spent a lot of time frustrated with the outcome.  I didn't want to wait a whole year to be with Elle again. I was mad that she didn't think we could survive a "normal" relationship. Eventually, I realized that she didn't want to be with me any less than I wanted to be with her. Much like when I broke up with her, she's only trying to do what's best for the both of us. Neither one of us knows what the right answer is, we're just trying to do our best to make things work out in the end.

Once I finally got over being frustrated, I started to reach out to her, texting at first and eventually calling. We always got along great and after a bit Elle started calling and texting me also. She was never far from my mind. As much as I thought this was a crazy plan at first, I understand where Elle was coming from. As busy as we both were, I think it did help to not feel like we were in a relationship. To not feel like you always had to be there waiting for the next call, worrying about what the other person is doing. But in reality, I think it was only not a long distance relationship in name only. Even if we try not to define it, I know how we both really feel about each other.

When I don't find Elle inside the house, I go out back and release a breath I didn't even realize I was holding when I see her sitting there.  I lost my cool the moment I saw her and ran to her.  Once I had her in my arms, I planned to keep ahold of her for the rest of the weekend.  If this was the only time we could be together, I was going to make the most of it.  It's only been a few months since I last saw her, but I still find myself noticing all the ways she looks different, wondering what I've missed in her life these months apart. As we're sitting on the couch, I'm watching Elle's expression as she tells me what she had to go through with Lee to get out of going to Comic-Con with him and just thinking about how happy I am to be with her again. Coming into this weekend, I had been worried that things would seem a little awkward at first, that it would take some time for us to get back into the way we felt last year. I was a little shocked at how easy things felt between us. From the moment I walked out of the house and saw Elle, everything felt like this is something we do all the time. Like this is the way it is supposed to be.

A/N - The next few chapters will probably be coming a little slower than usual.  I'm trying to get back to publishing my other story - New Love - once a week, so I'm probably going to publish once every other week on this story for a bit. At least until I get through my busy time at work and have a little more time to devote to writing.  Thanks for reading and voting! Please continue to comment and let me know what you think of the story!