"Do you have a little longer before I need to take you home? No one can see us here."
Elle's POV
Grinning at Noah, I nodded. I had a little more time before curfew, plus my Dad usually didn't get too upset if I was a little late anyway. Noah takes a seat next to me, pulling me onto his lap as he kisses me. In between kisses, we joke around a little about the party and I tease him for looking like he wanted to punch a few of the guys there, although honestly I was so proud of him for not getting in a fight with anyone tonight. I feel like the Noah of even a few weeks ago would have. We were laughing about Tuppen almost finding us when Noah's hand touched the side of my face and his expression turned serious. He leaned in and kissed me softly on the lips, then pulled back, looking at me again and said, "I love you, Sh. . . Elle." Wait, what? Noah Flynn did not just tell me he loves me. I'm frozen in shock and I swear he must be able to hear my heart beating. Before I can get too worked up, I remember how much Noah was drinking tonight. He's obviously drunk and there's no way he meant what he said, right? How am I supposed to respond? Luckily, I don't have to respond because a second later Noah crashes his lips back to mine and by the time we come up for air, the moment has passed.
My moment to respond to Noah's declaration may have passed, but my mind is in overdrive trying to figure out what he meant and Noah's kisses do nothing to stop the thoughts racing through my head. I think to myself, he must be drunk and was messing around. My mind continues on overdrive as we're kissing and I'm reminded of something that happened a few months ago, late one night when I was hanging out with Lee at his house. Lee and I were in the game room at the Flynn's playing Mario Kart, our favorite game, when Noah walked in after a party, flopping down on the couch to watch us play. That on its own was a little strange. Noah was usually holed up in his room when we were around and spent little time around us voluntarily. He was quiet while he was sitting there, I assumed he was wasted and it was just easier to make it to the game room than upstairs to his room before he passed out.
I won yet another race against Lee and he was not happy about it. "God, Elle, I can't believe you beat me again. How did you do that? I'm not playing that track against you anymore." Lee exclaims, throwing down his controller in frustration.
I rolled my eyes, more than accustomed to Lee's bad attitude when it comes to losing, as I responded, "Oh, come on Lee. This is the best level, it's not my fault you run off the course on that last turn every time."
Lee's already smiling back at me as he answers, "Whatever, next game I'm picking the course and I don't want to hear you complaining about it." Lee is quick to get upset when he loses, but it never takes him long to get over it. "Hey, I'm going to make some popcorn, you want some?"
"That's a dumb question, of course I want popcorn. Don't forget the Skittles too," I responded.
Lee glanced at me with a smirk before asking, "Noah, popcorn? Are you even still awake over there?"
At that point, Noah spoke for the first time since he walked into the game room. "I'm awake. No popcorn, I'm good."
"Okay, I'll be right back." As Lee gets to the doorway, he turns around and points at me. "And no getting Noah to race for me while I'm gone. He's bad enough sober, I'm not letting you get farther ahead in points." Lee points over to Noah and yells, "No drunk driving in Mario Kart!"
I giggle at Lee's comment and drop my controller as Lee leaves the room. Flopping myself on to the couch, I take a drink of my pop. As I finish my drink and set my pop back on the table, I notice Noah watching me, smirking.
"Shelly." Noah slurs from his corner of the couch.
Looking over at Noah for the first time since he came in, I asked "What is it Noah?" I usually tried to play it cool around Noah, so no one, especially him, would figure out I still have my crush on him. That's when I noticed his hands were swollen and and there was some blood in his knuckles. Typical Noah, he must have gotten into a fight at the party tonight. At this point, it was nothing unusual for Noah to get into a fight, so I didn't think much about it. I was smiling at him, trying to humor him in his drunken state. Also, trying to fake confidence in front of him, so he didn't see his affect on me when he addressed me.
"You're pretty, Shelly." Noah had dropped his smirk, but his eyes were locked on mine.
The smile fell from my face, I'm sure replaced with a look of confusion, all my confidence receding. Why is he messing with me? "What are you talking about Noah? I'm wearing Lee's old PE t-shirt and a pair of shorts. My hair's a mess from swimming all afternoon. I look like crap."
"I don't mean your hair or the clothes you're wearing, I mean you. You're pretty." His eyes continue to bore into mine and I'm surprised by how sincere he looks.
Sincere or not, I don't know what his game is. I roll my eyes and try to get back that fleeting confidence I felt a minute ago. "Whatever. Noah, what is your deal tonight?" He must be messing with me, now he's pissing me off.
Noah finally broke his gaze from mine, looking down at his injured hands, as he mumbled, "Well, Aaron thinks so too, I took care of him though." I had no idea what he was talking about until we got to school on Monday and heard that Noah had beaten the crap out of Aaron at the party. Afterwards, everyone said he seemed upset and was pounding beer after that and getting completely wasted. There were all kinds of rumors about what happened, most having to do with a girl they were fighting over.
I laughed nervously and said, "And I believe you've had too much to drink tonight."
It was rare to see Noah drunk, I don't think I had ever seen him like this before. Sure, I'd seen him buzzed plenty of times, coming home late from parties when Lee and I were hanging around, but never too drunk to where he didn't know what he was saying. I guess there's a first time for everything. Lee came back a minute later with popcorn and once we started another race, this time on the track Lee chose, Noah made his way upstairs without saying another word to either of us.
I had pretty much forgotten about that night soon after it happened. There was no way I believed that Noah Flynn thought I was pretty that night, just like I'm sure Noah Flynn is not in love with me now. Whatever is going on between us seems to be going great. I really like him and I know he likes me, but love, I'm not sure Noah's even made for that.
Noah's POV
"I love you, Sh. . . Elle." Did I just say that out loud? Shit! I didn't mean to say that, why did that pop out of my mouth? I guess I've been thinking about it for awhile now, since Elle and I got together. Until tonight, though, my thoughts have stayed safely in my head where I was trying to figure out what the hell they meant. I'm not even positive I know what love feels like, but I'm pretty sure it's too early to say the words out loud. Elle and I have only been dating for a few weeks, so it's definitely too early. But, I've known Shelly forever. Elle's eyes are wide and she's staring at me like I'm crazy, but she doesn't respond, she doesn't do anything but stare at me. That was definitely not the response I was expecting when I said those words for the first time, not just to Elle, but to anyone. Is this too soon? Who should be the first person to say it? How bad is it that I said it and she didn't say it back? Why don't I know anything about how this is all supposed to work? I panic and lean in to kiss her again. Maybe I can play this off like nothing happened. At least if I'm kissing her, I don't have to wait any longer for a response.
Elle and I have been making out for awhile, I've almost forgotten what I was trying to distract her from. Once I start to hear people leaving the party, I realize that we should probably get out of here. Not only to make sure Elle gets home on time, but also to make sure we aren't spotted by anyone from the party. I run my fingers through Elle's hair one more time and give her a kiss on the side of her forehead. "I think we better head out, are you ready?"
"No," she says as she snuggles in closer to my chest, "but you're right, we should get going."
We speed walk to my car, keeping along the bushes where it is darker, trying to get there before anyone else comes out of the house. As we jump into my car and I go to start the car, Elle stops me. "Wait, Noah, are you okay to drive? You were drinking a lot in there."
"Elle, I'm fine."
"Noah, I mean it. I'm not letting you drive me home drunk." Elle has her serious, bossy face on now. I brace myself for an argument.
"I'm not drunk. I did have a lot of beer while we were playing beer pong, when I was trying to keep you from having to drink."
Elle's seriousness fades away and she giggles. "I knew there was no way you were that bad at beer pong!"
I laughed and continued, "But, I didn't really drink much after that." Elle eyed me like she didn't believe me, so I went on, "I didn't! As soon as Chris said we were going to start playing that stupid game, I knew we were in trouble. Those jerks made that game up and the point is to get all the girls wasted. Everyone thought I was drinking rum and Coke, but I was just drinking straight Coke for that whole game. They always make girls drink a ton in that game, so I tried to keep you from having to drink so much."
Elle's eyes flashed her annoyance at me as she playfully hit me in the chest. "Noah! You know you're not always going to be around to protect me from everything."
I grabbed her hand from my chest and pulled her in for a kiss. "I know I'm not, but I am going to protect you when I am around. It's been hours since we played beer pong, I'm pretty much completely sober at this point, I have been since we left the party. Now, let me take you home before you're late for curfew."
Elle's POV
Waking up the morning after the party, except for a slight headache, I felt like everything was perfect after the night Noah and I had together. My head is still a little fuzzy from drinking last night, but I shot up in bed a second later, finally remembering Noah's admission while we were kissing after the party. He told me he loved me. Noah Flynn told me he loved me. At the time he said it, I thought he was wasted and chalked it up to him saying something he didn't mean since he had been drinking. But, when we talked about going home, he told me that he hadn't had nearly as much to drink as I thought he had. By then we were in a rush to get home by my curfew and figuring out where Noah was going to drop me off, so my Dad wouldn't see him and what Noah said didn't cross my mind again. I ended up getting home after curfew but not by much, so my Dad didn't even say anything to me.
Noah said he loved me last night and he wasn't drunk. Did he really mean it? I don't know why he would have said it if he didn't. And if he did, I didn't even say anything back, what must he think of me? I'll need to figure out what I should do about it now and I better figure it out fast because I woke up late this morning and now I only have an hour before our weekly Evans/Flynn family lunch. I've typically always enjoyed our weekly lunches, although I was really nervous about this week's. With our parent's schedules, we haven't been able to meet the last few weeks, so this is the first lunch since Noah and I started dating. As much as I'm looking forward to seeing Noah, I don't know how we're going to keep everyone in the dark about us. And now I also have to figure out how to act around Noah after what he told me last night.