You & Me

Chapter Six

We sober up in the fifteen minutes it takes Fay to reach us. She gets out of her silver car and shakes her head at us. I smile and Amory takes her in his arms. "Happy New Year sis," he whispers in her hair. Fay wraps her arms around him. "You too."

She turns to me and sighs. I shrug my shoulders and the corners of her mouth turn upward. And then she smiles. God, Fay Winthrop smiles at me and my heart explodes. Just like that, everything I tried to get her out of my system fails. Because when she smiles, she beams. Her eyes light up like I'm the most wonderful thing she's ever seen, and I can't look away. It's magical, and when her eyes meet mine and she shakes her head softly in amused disapproval, I can feel it as an arrow to the stomach and I love the pain.

Fay rolls her eyes and gestures to her car. I must be staring like an idiot, because whenever I see her I'm no longer in control. "Idiot," she whispers, and it's my new favorite word. Amory pushes me to the car and we take the backseat. Fay turns the ignition and adjusts the rearview mirror.

"How the mighty have fallen," she muses. She smirks and looks at us from the mirror.

"What's it like down there, huh? No longer on your high horses?"

Amory rolls his eyes. "Yes, we're drunk. Ha ha," he mocks, "but we really need to get going. Fay shrugs and readjusts the mirror again. "I know," she smiles, "I just really don't want to forget this."

It takes us five minutes to reach the address Noa gave us. Fay pulls up on the driveway and my eyes scour the lawn for any sign of Noa. The house is dimly lit and as I open the door I can hear the muffled music escaping through the windows. From a dark corner a slender figure jumps out of the shadow.

"Noa!" I sigh, hurrying towards her. Amory and Fay get out of the car too and follow me to where the girl is standing. She holds her arms around her body, her sleek hair covering most of her face. She shivers, stumbling forwards and into my arms. I embrace her tightly, her body freezing cold and her hair soaking wet. I have never regretted not having a jacket with me more. Her eyes are red and puffy and black lines drip down her face. "Noa," I whisper, "what happened?"

She swallows and presses her head against my chest. "God, you're freezing," I say.

Fay rushes past me and takes off her coat. "Here," she says softly, "let's get you in the car." She puts her coat on Noa's shoulders and Noa nods silently. Fay looks at me with questions in her eyes and I simply shrug. I wrap my arm around Noa's shoulder and walk her back to Fay's car. Amory opens the passenger side door for her and Noa silently lets herself fall onto the soft seat. I watch her and clench my jaws together. She looks so... helpless. The way she holds herself so tightly, like she's afraid to fall apart at any moment. I want to tell her she won't. That her skin is thick enough and her bones are strong enough. That I know she'll stay perfectly whole, no matter what happened tonight. But somehow I can't find the words and I blame the alcohol.

Fay turns on the heat and smiles softly at the girl next to her. Noa is still clenching her arms, looking down at her lap, shivering with Fay's coat hanging from her shoulders. "Hey," Fay whispers, "I'm Fay, I'm a friend of Kane's."

"I know," Noa's voice is soft and broken, but I can't help but smile. Of course Noa knows about Fay. Everyone at school knows who the new mystery girl is, and yet nobody really knows her at all.

"Noa," I try again, "what happened?"

Noa shrugs and lets out a sigh. "Katie happened," she says softly, "she pushed me into the pool."

"Oh," Fay says, "I'm sorry."

"Katie?" I ask. "But I thought she was your best friend?"

"Oh, so you do listen when I talk?" Noa scoffs. She shakes her head and sighs. "She was my best friend. And the night was perfect. Katie was dancing with Chris and I was talking to Mantell the entire night and I just –" Noa sighs again and looks out the window.

"I thought she liked Chris," she whispers and Fay smiles at us through the rearview mirror.

"But she liked Mantell?" Fay asks and Noa nods silently.

"And she saw you two together and decided that if she couldn't have Mantell, you couldn't either?"

Noa snorts. "Worse," she says, "she told everyone that I was a no-good prude behind my back, convinced Mantell that he needed a "real" woman and kissed him in front of me when the fireworks went off, and then when I confronted her about all of it she pushed me into the pool."

Fay sighs and pats Noa on her shoulder. "I'm really sorry," she whispers. Noa smiles, but I can still see her lips trembling. "The worst thing is that I really liked him," Noa looks down again, "sure what Katie did was stupid and it hurts, but I looked forward to tonight so much. I thought he liked me too. I thought tonight would be the night that I would have my first kiss."

Noa shakes her head and tries to smile again. "It's silly," she says, "but I'm sixteen and I've never been kissed. And now even Mantell rather kissed Katie than me... It just..."

"Sucks," Amory says, and Noa looks up in surprise, as if she forgot that he was in the car with us. "Yeah," she mumbles, "it sucks."

"Hey," Fay says, softly pinching Noa's shoulder, "you are beautiful and smart, and most important of all, you are true to yourself. It is very much ok not to have been kissed at sixteen! Don't be in such a hurry to grow up – life has a tendency to be more than you bargained for." She winks at Noa and turns her attention to the road again.

"That's easy for you to say," Noa mumbles, "you're like the most popular girl in school. All the boys want to kiss you." Noa looks at me from the rearview mirror and raises her eyebrows. "Like, really, all the boys."

I scowl at her and she turns around with a smile on her face. Glad my embarrassment can help her feel better, but Fay either didn't notice or chooses not to react to it.

"My sister is right," Amory says, "teenage boys are stupid when it comes to girls. I kissed two girls tonight. I don't know their names. I don't remember their faces. Now imagine if that was your first kiss... Just some horny teenage boy who won't even remember who you are the next day? Or worse, which one you were?"

Noa blinks a few times and looks down again. I sigh and shrug. "Yeah," I say, "I told a girl to get lost in the middle of a make out session tonight because I wasn't feeling it. I think we might have hooked up before but I can't remember. I still don't know her name. Trust me, you do not want your first kiss to be with an asshole like me."

Noa stares at me and shakes her head slowly. Fay suppresses a chuckle. "Classy, you two," she rolls her eyes, "at least you are very much aware of your own shortcomings."

Fay stops the car at the Diver resid– Winthrop. At the Winthrop residence. She turns to Noa and smiles softly. "Listen, Noa, I know this sucks. But I also know that it won't suck forever."

Noa looks up to her and shrugs. "I just don't know what to do," she says, and her voice is so tiny it breaks me.

"For now you and I are going to have a sleepover, and tomorrow we'll have icecream and chocolate for breakfast, and we'll watch The Notebook, and we'll make fun of stupid Katie and Mantell, and then I'll invite someone over who is actually qualified to give you advice on the matter, because I think me, my brother and Kane will just agree on burning their houses down, and I really don't want you to get in trouble."

Noa chuckles and Fay winks. "See, you'll get through this."

Noa nods slowly and mumbles a "thank you" before following Amory and Fay out of the car. I sigh and feel my heart thumping against my chest. It wants out. It wants to escape my ribcage and follow her inside, but I beg it to stay put. To wait in the car with me until Amory turns around and drives me home. The car door screeches open and Fay reaches for my arm. "You're invited too, silly," she says, but I pull my arm back and shake my head.

"I shouldn't," I sigh, clenching my jaws together. "I promised I'd stay away."

Her eyes widen and I see her lost for words. She looks hurt, or maybe that's just my brain wanting her to look hurt. I don't know. The world is still a bit blurry to me. I know it's supposed to spin and all, but my world is doing loopings right now.

"I'm not leaving you alone on fucking New Year's, Kane," she hisses, "you can start staying away from me tomorrow."