The Tortoise and His Sunrise | ✓

12. Misunderstanding

"Oh, I don't mean that part." I shook my head. "It's just that you looked like you fell off rather than jumped off."

He grinned. "The branch felt kind of flimsy. I didn't want to risk breaking it by launching off it. Don't worry, I can land safely."

Impressed, I stuck most of my popsicle into my mouth and patted him on the back with my newly freed hand.

"I know," I said, my words coming out slurred because of the popsicle. "You just proved it to me."

Chestnut remained in his arms, not struggling to jump down at all.

"She's really docile," Nolan said, looking down at him. "I was expecting her to scratch me."

We started walking out from the cluster of trees, with Nolan still carrying the cat in his arms.

"She really is! We have a lot of wandering cats here, but Chestnut is the neighborhood favorite. I heard Mr. Pierce used to give her a whole fish to snack on when she visited his garden."

When we got to the sidewalk, he gently put Chestnut down on the ground. I returned him his cup of ice.

"Chestnut," he repeated. "Cute name."

"Isn't it?" I said, squatting down to pet her. "Do you remember me, Chestnut? I used to feed you cat treats."

Chestnut sat still and let me pet her back.

"You bought cat treats to feed her?"

Nolan squatted down next to me.

"No, Ryan did. He gave me some so I could win the hearts of the passing cats. He could walk down the street and end up with five cats following him. He was like a cat whisperer or something."

Chestnut's eyes were closed as she enjoyed the gentle strokes I gave to her back. She was even more mellow than I remembered. In the past, she always took a couple of days to warm up to me again whenever I came back on school breaks. She was probably eight years old now.

"Was? What happened?"

"He got that telescope he wanted for his birthday."

Nolan grinned. "Alright, I can get behind a reason like that. I'd probably still find time to visit the cats though."

I beamed at him. "Of course you would."

"Wow, that was amazing!"

I looked up in surprise at the two girls who had just approached us, stepping off the street and onto the curb. I'd noticed a few other people walking on the other side of the street earlier, but they were too far away for me to really pay attention.

Whenever I came back home on break from Fairwood, I'd always interacted more with the elderly residents compared to children my age. I did get to know some peers around my age, but since we didn't go to the same schools and didn't see much of each other most of the year, they tended to stick more to their own established groups. However, these two girls didn't look familiar to me.

Anyway, they looked a few years younger than us so we probably wouldn't have spoken much even if we had seen each other around.

"We saw how you just saved Chestnut," the brown-haired girl said, addressing Nolan with a warm smile before turning it on me. "That was so kind of you!"

While I smiled back at her, he shrugged.

Chestnut, who evidently had her fill of pets, got up and padded over to the black-haired girl. She sat down at her feet and stared up at her.

"Oh, is she yours?" he asked, rising to his feet as well.

"No, she's our grandmother's," the black-haired girl said, bending down to pick Chestnut up. "We don't live here, but we come to visit every few months."

Chestnut didn't struggle, settling easily into her arms.

"Oh, you're Mrs. Vincent's granddaughter?" I asked.

"Me too," the brown-haired girl beside her said, draping her arm over the other girl's shoulders. "We're sisters. I'm Rebecca. She's Kate."

"I'm Chelsea," I said, before waving at Nolan, "and this is Nolan. I used to play with everyone's cats whenever I was home from school."

"Thanks so much for saving her," Kate said. "I think I've seen you around here the past few days, actually."

I stared in confusion when she elbowed Rebecca in a somewhat subtle motion.

While looking only at Nolan, Rebecca stuttered, "Uh, I was wondering, uh ..."

Kate nudged her a little more.

"You're like, really cute," she blurted out. "We're going to watch a movie tomorrow. Want to come with us?"

My jaw fell to the ground, and I couldn't pick it back up. She was bold.

I would never have dared to say that to Nolan when I first realized I liked him.

Okay, stop. That wasn't the point here. The point here was that she was hitting on him, and she was doing it right in front of me.

I was too shocked to even speak.

Stepping closer to me, Nolan slipped his arm around my waist.

"Sorry, I'm not interested," he said. "I already have a girlfriend."

The color drained from both of their faces as they turned to me.

"I'm so sorry!" Rebecca gasped, the most horrified expression coming onto her face. "We thought you were his sis—"

She stopped the second Kate gave her a look.

"Becks," Kate whispered sharply.

"Sorry!" she exclaimed again, giving us an apologetic glance.

"Sorry, we didn't know," Kate said, tugging her arm. "Come on, Becks, let's go. Sorry, we better get Chestnut back to our grandmother."

Pushing through the stone that was my face to smile at them, I said, "Sure, no problem."

They turned around and hurried off, but before they got out of earshot, I heard Kate whispering to Rebecca, sounding incredibly mortified, "What?"

"I shouldn't have—"

"I really thought she was his older sister—"

"Kill me now—"

Their voices faded away as the distance between us increased.

I gnawed on my lower lip.

The way Nolan's eyes followed them with a somber gaze told me that he'd heard them, too. That was a given since his hearing was so much better than mine.

We glanced at each other.

"Well, let's go," he said.

"Yeah," I said lightly. "The beach is waiting for us."

As we took the next couple of steps forward again, Nolan's arm slid off my waist and returned to his side. My fingers itched to reach out for his hand, but I clenched them and stuffed my hand into my pocket.

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AN: thanks for all your votes on the previous chapter, it means a lot to me <3 love you guys! have a great weekend!!