Are you mine?

Chapter 28

"Noah, what are you doing here? It's 7:30 in the morning." I say, trying to keep my voice down so as to not alert my parents. Though I guess his car honking already took care of that.

"Isn't it obvious? I'm driving you to school. Now are you coming down, or do I have to wait for you to let down your hair so I can climb up there?"

"You're insane," I say shaking my head and chuckling as I turn away from the window.

"You love it though." I hear him say. And I think I do.

I speed around my room going through a mental checklist. Backpack, keys, phone, wallet. Got it. I rush down the stairs and meet Noah out front. His hair is messy and fluffy in the sexiest way possible, he's wearing a black, short sleeve v-neck shirt, and matching black jeans.

"You ready?" he asks, opening the passenger door for me and I nod as I slip into the seat. He shuts the door after me and gets in the driver's seat, revving the engine to life and we're on our way.

As we drive through town, I look out the window lost in thought. That is until my stomach decides to make its own rendition of a whale's mating call. I cringe, embarrassed from the very obvious grumbling that just came from my insides, and I wrap my arms around my belly trying to muffle any other noise that might want to make a performance "Someone's hungry." Noah points out with a smile, cranking my embarrassment levels up by a thousand, "Did you have breakfast this morning?" he asks.

"Didn't really have the time," I confess.

"Say no more," he says, abruptly taking a left turn, making me hold on tightly to my seat.

He drives a couple of blocks down the road and then stops, parking the car outside Frenchy's in the lot. "Noah, you really don't have to..."

"No no, no complaining," he says holding up a finger to my mouth and interrupting me. "You haven't eaten, you're obviously hungry, and we're already here. So now you're going to tell me, how do you like your coffee?"

He delivers the question with the cutest dimpled smile, which makes it very hard for me to keep my brows furrowed at him. I appreciate what he's been doing for me the past few days, but I don't want him to feel like he has to do these kinds of things for me. He's still looking at me, expecting my answer, and with that damned charming smile plastered on his face. I sigh, giving up, knowing there's no use trying to resist him. "Iced," I say in a low, shy voice.

"Milk or black?" he asks.

"With milk" I mumble. "Oh, and with a ton of sugar. I like it sweet," I add.

"Be right back." he smiles as he gets out of the car.

I see him go in, and I turn the volume of the radio up, nervously drumming on my thighs with my hands as I wait for him. A few minutes later he comes back out with a light brown drink in a clear plastic cup in one hand, and a little paper bag in the other. He gets in the car handing me the coffee, and I peek inside the bag to see a big cinnamon roll.

"You're fucking unbelievable, you know that?" I ask, sighing and rolling my head back, annoyed at how sweet he is. "Thank you, but there's no need for you to keep doing me favors like this. I could've bought my own breakfast."

"Well, you better get used to it. I like doing nice things for you because when I do, I get to see that cute little smile of yours." the corners of his mouth quirk up and I shrink in my seat, "So like it or not, I'm going to keep doing them. Sorry." He shrugs, clearly not sorry at all. As I stare at him pulling out of the parking lot, I think. I do want to get used to this.

***

We finally arrive at school, and even though we took a detour, we still have a few minutes left to spare before class starts. Noah gets out of the car and circles around to open my door for me. "Such a gentleman," I say with a hand on my chest and he laughs.

I slip on my backpack staps, and as I'm about to start walking towards the main entrance, I feel Noah's hand holding onto mine and I turn to see him walking beside me. "Are you sure about this?" I ask looking down at his long, slim fingers laced with mine.

"Absolutely," he replies with a reassuring smile. I return it and, hand in hand, we walk inside the building.

As I expected, we receive quite a few stares. I see Mason talking to a few of the guys from the football team, leaning against the lockers. He stops mid-sentence and gives me a puzzled look, making the rest of the boys turn to look at us. I turn to Noah as he faces forward, not paying any attention to them, but brushing his thumb on the back of my hand reassuringly.

Right as I decide to rest my head on Noah's shoulder, I spot Tyler at the end of the hallway. My heart sinks down to my stomach when his eyes meet mine, and it shatters in a million pieces when his gaze travels down to Noah and I's intertwined hands. His mouth presses into a thin line and I see his shoulders rise and fall as he takes a deep breath in, nodding before looking away. I take a step towards him, but he closes his locker and is out of the building through the back door before I can get any closer. 

I'm about to run after him, but Noah holds me back, "Let him go." he says, taking me by the hand, "He needs some time to cool off," I stop and consider that he's right. If I run after him now I'll just make things worse, so my feet stay glued to the ground as a single tear runs down my cheek.

"Hey, it'll be okay," Noah says, turning my head to face him and using his thumb to wipe away my tear. He strokes my cheek soothingly and I instinctively wrap my arms around him, not caring about the fact that we're standing in a hallway crowded with people watching us. He holds me in a tight embrace, calming me down until I feel like I can keep the tears at bay and not break down in front of everyone. The bell rings, startling me and I pull back from Noah abruptly.

"Let me walk you to class," he says.

"Okay," I reply in a whisper and he takes my hand again as we walk towards my classroom. We stand outside the door, and he steps in front of me so I can face him.

"I'll see you after practice, okay? We can go back to my place and talk about this. Or not, if that's what you want."

"Alright," I say again looking down.

He leans in to give me a soft kiss on the cheek. "I'll see you later Mads," he says as he starts walking backwards and I wave at him with a sad smile. He then turns around and jogs down the hall to get to his own class.

I look inside the classroom to see my teacher has already started with the lesson. Great, I'm tired, I'm late, and I'm emotionally wrecked again. I take a deep breath as I step inside, hoping that this day doesn't get any worse.