"Hey, Shelly, I've been looking all over for you," I said, finally breaking our silent stare down, the relief evident in my voice. I stood next to Elle, nervously looking down at her.
As soon as I start talking, Elle looks away from me. Now she's looking down to watch her feet moving in the water, avoiding my gaze, when she responds, "I've been out here since I saw you with Kendra."
"That wasn't anything. I told her that I wasn't interested in her, that I'm with someone else."
Elle finally looked back up at me. "Really?" I nodded before making my way to sit next to her. "Noah, I'm sorry about everything. I was so worried you weren't going to talk to me again."
"I wasn't ready to talk before but I think we should now." Elle was leaning back with her hands on the ground behind her holding her up. Once I was sitting in the same position, I looked down at our hands, only inches from touching. I wanted to move my hand slightly closer so I could feel her touch. Being this close to Elle without being able to touch her was driving me crazy.
"You were right, we shouldn't have kept this lie up all this time. That's what I've been wanting to talk to you about."
"Really? Does that mean you're ready to tell Lee?"
"I'm not sure how ready I am but I agree that it's time. We need to tell him."
"Shell, I'm so happy to hear you say that."
"I don't want to pick Lee over you, I never could have done that. I feel horrible that I made you feel that way. I don't want to lose you, Noah."
"God, I've missed you." I closed the distance between us and had my arms around her and my lips on her in no time. There's probably more we should talk about but I don't care right now.
"I've missed you too, Noah, I love you." Elle told me in between kisses.
"I love you too, Shelly." We lost track of time as we made up, hidden in the dark, knowing that no one would be able to see us before we could hear them come out the door.
Eventually Elle pulled away from me and suggested that we probably should go back inside, since our friends would be looking for us. I was perfectly happy where we were and could care less if anyone was looking for me, but I stood up to follow her inside anyway. About that time, the door to the house opens, leaving a sliver of light in the backyard which grows as the door opens farther. Out of habit, Elle and I put distance between each other. Once the door is open all the way, Elle is standing in the light from the doorway, but I'm still in the shadows.
"Elle, we've been looking for you! I wondered where you went." An obviously drunk Lee walks outside, followed close behind by Rachel. He's not quite stumbling, but it's obvious that he's had plenty of alcohol tonight. Once Rachel closes the door behind them, we're all standing in the dark again.
"Lee!" Elle sounds as happy to see Lee as she always is.
"What are you doing out here?" As he walked closer, he realized Elle wasn't alone. "Noah?"
I nodded my head and answered, "Lee."
"What's going on guys?" Lee grinned but looked confused to see us alone together again. I wonder if he has any inkling of what we're about to tell him. He's walked in on us alone together enough now, I can't believe he doesn't have any idea about us. He's looking from me to Elle like he was trying to figure us out before focusing on Elle, like usual.
I stayed quiet, ready to hear Shelly give Lee the news that we were together. After all, we had just discussed it. I watch Elle suck in her breath, and glance at me, before walking towards Lee. "I needed a little air and some quiet, it was getting a little too crazy in there for me. Mr. Protective over there wanted to make sure no big bad boys came out to bother me. You know how Noah is." Rachel and I have both been quiet up to this point following the back and forth between Lee and Elle. Sometimes it's hard to get a word in with these two, although tonight I was mostly quiet because I didn't want to piss Lee off before we tell him about us. I left things up to Elle, expecting her to take the lead. I'm not sure why I was surprised when she didn't. She just told me that she was ready, but I knew deep down that she still didn't want to do anything to hurt her relationship with Lee.
Lee's confusion vanished as he laughed, "Yep, he likes to make sure the boys stay away from you."
"That he does." Elle shot me a worried look, knowing this was not the conversation I wanted to hear. I watch Rachel's head swivel from me to Elle to Lee. Rachel's eyebrows lift when she watches the expression on Elle's face towards me, but she doesn't say anything about it and I find that I don't care how obvious our feelings are anymore.
"Don't worry, Mr. Protective is out. I'm done." Mr. Protective came out as emphasized as it had been in my head when Elle said it. I had to get out of there before they all saw how devastated I feel. I shot one more glance at Elle before practically running back inside the house.
I heard Elle's yelled "Noah!" and Lee's laugh followed by a mumbled, "Elle, your free!" as I stormed back into the party. I didn't slow down to hear what either one of them had to say and didn't stop once I made it inside. Instead, walking right through the house and back out to my car. Elle must have followed me because I heard my given name one more time before I made it out of the house and there's only one person at the party who would have called me that. I must have lost her inside the house, though, because I didn't see her after I walked out the front door. I shot Jayden a text to let him know I was leaving early, knowing he wouldn't have a problem finding his own way home. Once I got into my car, I hit my steering wheel hard, yelling, "God damn it, Shelly!" before taking off, my tires squealing as I pulled away.
I'm so pissed off I end up driving aimlessly for awhile, until I finally made my way towards the Hollywood sign. I had always come here when I needed some time alone or somewhere to think. Once I sat down, though, I knew it had been a mistake coming here. Elle was already on my mind, but I felt like this place was contaminated with memories of her after the night we shared up here together. All I can think about is how amazing that night was and how much I feel like I've lost now. I'm so confused by the fact that Elle just told me that she wanted to tell Lee, then turned around and lied about me to his face again. I'm not getting anywhere here, even this place has been ruined now.
I give up and decide to head home. Not that my room will be much better, I see Elle all over it now also. With my parents gone tonight, maybe I'll stay in one of the guest rooms. The house is quiet when I get home. I hadn't expected Lee to be back yet. I stomped upstairs to my room, turned on the lights and jumped as Elle stood up from my bed running towards me.
Elle's words came out in a jumble, all in one breath. "Noah. Where have you been, you stormed off from the party so fast, I tried to catch you. Then I had to go back in and tell Lee that I needed to leave and find a ride home, which wasn't easy, since no one was in any shape to drive. By the time I got an Uber, I thought for sure you would be here and I was so worried when you weren't. I've been waiting here for you."
I just stared down at her in shock when she finally paused long enough to take a breath. I didn't say anything as she continued, slowing the speed of her words only slightly. "I know you're mad and you have every right to be. I told you that I was ready to tell Lee about us and I am, I just wasn't ready to do it five minutes later. And I really didn't want to try to talk to a drunk Lee about us. This conversation is going to be difficult enough, I don't want to do it without preparing and figuring out the best way to tell him first. And I definitely want to have him be coherent when I talk to him. Does that make sense? I'm sorry I had to lie again, but I swear, I don't want to keep doing it."
"God, I'm an idiot, it does make sense. I don't know why I expected things to change immediately after we talked. I'm sorry I took off so quickly, it just felt like every other time we talk about this where nothing ever changes afterwards." I pulled her in towards my chest, wrapping my arms around her, my chin finding its spot on top of her head.
Elle backed up just enough to look me in the eye as she responded, "Noah, I want to do whatever it takes to make this work between us. I'm not going to put this off any longer than I have to, but tonight was not the night. Will you help me figure out how best to tell him?"
I smiled down at Elle, feeling like I can relax for the first time in days. "Yeah, I can do that."
"Good."
I realize that I have no idea if we still have the place ourselves. "Are you here for the night? Is Lee coming home?"
"I told my Dad I was staying here tonight, but then I told Lee when I left early that I didn't feel like partying anymore and I was going home."
"So, does that mean you can stay here with me?"
"I'm yours for the night."
"I say we enjoy the night to ourselves and worry about figuring out how to tell Lee tomorrow."
"Noah, you are the one who's in the big hurry to tell him. Are you sure you want to wait to talk about this?"
I smirked at Elle as I responded, "I don't know a lot about being in a relationship but I'm pretty sure that make-up sex is a requirement after a fight and that was definitely the biggest fight we've ever had. I'm not sure what would happen to our relationship if we don't end our fight the right way, but I don't think I want to find out, do you?" Elle rolled her eyes at me but I could tell by her giggle that she liked my idea. "Besides, I'm sure Lee will be around tomorrow, he's always hanging around here."
"That's not really his fault, he does live here."
"Whatever. We will talk tomorrow and figure out the best way to tell him so he doesn't act like a dick about it. Okay?" With that squared away and without waiting for Elle's response, I bent down to kiss her before lifting her up and carrying her to my bed.
A/N – As I mentioned, I've been working on a new Elle and Noah story and have a good start on the first few chapters. Now, I'm trying to figure out how to publish. I feel like I still have quite a bit to go on this story and I don't really want to wait until this one is done to start the next one, but I also don't want to put this one on hold. I'm thinking about switching between the two stories, publishing a new chapter from each story every other week, so I'm still publishing once a week. Does that sound okay to you guys or will that be too long between chapters? I don't want to push myself to publish more than once a week because that's been working well for me. I'm thinking I'll wait until after the holidays to start posting the new story. Please let me know what you think!