Cupidity (Sequel to Cupid's Daughter)

Chapter 6~ No Turning Back Now. Literally.

"Issy?!" Noah's voice rang across the field and I stood up from my spot on the bleachers to greet him.

"I thought I wasn't going to see you til' Friday!"

"Surprise!" I called out, lifting my hands in to the sky in celebration. Noah grinned and closed the few metres of distance between us to kiss me lightly, his hands pulling me into a hug.

I pulled away gently, wrinkling my nose. "You're all sweaty." I whined playfully, wiping my hands on his jersey.

Noah chuckled and kissed the tip of my nose. "Well sorry, Princess. Next time I'll make sure I don't sweat when playing sport."

I grinned. "Great, thanks. I'll make sure not to sweat either."

Noah scoffed, and then laughed soon after. "When do you ever sweat? I don't even think I've seen you exercise before."

I pretended to pout. "Actually I'm a pro at surfing. You just haven't seen me do it." I informed him matter-of-factly.

"Surfing?" Noah repeated doubtfully, shaking out his hair. It had grown longer over the course of the summer and the beginning of fall, and it curled around his ears adorably. At least, it usually did, but now it was slick with sweat from the helmet he'd been wearing.

I nodded. "Yep, I surf the web every day."

Noah opened his mouth, probably to give me some smart alec response, but a team member down on the field cut him off.

"Oi Noah! Team meeting at Ben's in twenty!" The stocky boy with rich coffee toned skin called out.

Noah nodded and gave a gesture of acknowledgment. "Kay!"

He turned to me with a sheepish smile, rubbing his tanned hand across the back of his neck. "I'm sorry Little Cupid. I'm happy that you're here, I am, it's just we have a game against the Buckeyes and if we don't win..." He trailed off and I stared down at my feet, trying not to let my disappointment show.

"Oh, that's okay. What time will you be done? We could hang out after? " I asked hopefully, and Noah's face lit up like my own personal sunshine.

"How about this; you go back to my dorm and watch a movie, and by the time it's over I'll be back." He suggested. "Does that sound like a plan?" He rested his palms on either side of my face, leaning down so we were the same height.

"Perfect." I agreed.

I watched Noah disappear with his team before I teetered back to his dorm at a leisurely pace, making sure to take in everything I passed so I would learn my way around more quickly.

I pushed open the door to Noah and Wren's room without even knocking, which turned out not to matter since Wren wasn't inside anyway. I cleared the bed enough to lay down and pulled Noah's laptop onto the blanket. I logged into his Netflix account (that's how you know it's real, folks, when you share Netflix passwords) and clicked on Spiderman. I tucked myself into Noah's cosy little bed and drifted off to sleep some time later, the stress of college and the internship finally catching up to me.

I didn't know what time it was when I woke up, but Spiderman had long since ended and one glance through the window told me it was dark outside. Noah wasn't back yet. Not knowing how long exactly I had been out, I decided to wait a while for Noah before bothering him. He was probably on his way over now.

Twenty minutes passed.

Then an hour.

An hour and fifteen.

Jumping to worst case scenario that he'd been kidnapped or broken a bone or something, I whipped out my phone to call him. There was a message from Ellie asking for all the details if anything interesting happened and a missed call from my dad. I immediately dialled Noah and waited as the line rung out. I called again. And again.

My mind went into overdrive, panicking about why he hadn't called me and if he was okay.

Maybe he just got caught up, I tried to reason with myself. But why wouldn't he call or text?

Eventually I stopped calling and placed my head in my hands. 'Catch up later' my ass.

It was almost 3am when Noah finally stumbled into his room, the scent of alcohol radiating from his entire body. He didn't even acknowledge me as he passed, instead flopping down onto the bed, his eyes already fluttering closed.

I sat in a stunned silence for a moment, unable to comprehend what was happening.

"Noah?" I asked, and he grunted in response. I scoffed quietly and shoved my phone into my pocket. "Are you going to tell me where you've been?"

Noah groaned and rolled onto his back, flinging an arm over his eyes as I flipped the light on to wake him up. "Huh?"

"I called you like fifty times! Where have you been? I was worried!" I asked him exasperatedly, hating how naggy I sounded. I was so close to stomping my foot that I had to focus on planting my feet to the ground.

No way was I resorting to six-year-old tactics.

Noah finally seemed to sense my annoyance and sat up in the bed, squinting under the harsh light. "Chill, Lizzie... I mean, Issy. My phone went Kaput. Went byebye." He mumbled, earning himself an eye roll from me. At least he was still slightly-coherent, I supposed.

"Okay well where were you? You said you'd be a few hours max."

Noah sighed and closed his eyes again. "I lost my time. Why are you s'mad?"

At this point I was fuming. "Why am I mad? I'm mad Noah because I came here to spend time with you and instead all I did was stay in your dorm while you were out getting drunk, and you didn't even call me!" My breathing was heavy as I yelled, not even caring that Noah was wincing and clutching his head.

"Well maybe you should've called to shee if I actly wanted you to come today!" He retorted loudly, pushing the sheets off him so he could attempt to stand.

I stared at him blankly before his words registered in my mind. And then I was mad. "Oh okay, so I'm not allowed to want to see my boyfriend without his permission, is that right?"

Noah sighed again, running a hand over his gorgeous, but tired looking, face. "S'not what I meant."

"Well what did you mean? Because it sounds to me like you're quite happy to see me on the weekends and just pretend you don't have a girlfriend the other five days of the week." I informed him expectantly, propping my hands on my hips.

"Issy that s'not what I said at all." He reasoned, but his argument lost its force when he had to stop halfway through and sit down again.

I took a deep, steadying breath and decided that fighting with a drunk boy was a lost cause.

"Noah, all I wanted was one phone call-- or a text! Just something to let me know that you were okay. If we can't even make time for one text, then I have no idea how this relationship is going to survive the next four years of us being apart."

And with that, I left.

And I didn't just leave Temple University.