"I think I'm in love."
Melissa sighed and threw herself on my bed, a far-away smile on her face. Good thing we'd managed to convince her parents to let her sleep over at my place tonight, because she was definitely drunk.
But not on alcohol, oh no. As Melissa had put it, she was drunk on love.
"You've said that already." I rolled my eyes, pulling out a pair of PJs and throwing them at her.
Melissa caught them like a professional baseball player, sitting back up and looking at me somberly.
"I mean it. It was love at first sight, but then when she bent down and kissed my hand before we left I knew she was the one." She sighed, stared at the back of her right hand, and then brought it to her lips to kiss it, before dreamily falling back on the bed.
"Alrighty, Juliet, maybe we could slow down with the L word," I said, chuckling at her.
In a way, I was glad she was finally into someone other than Lily. A part of me worried it would take college for her to finally let go of that love that wasn't meant to be. Turned out, all it needed was a college student.
That might be a problem in itself, considering Tara was going to be college-bound eventually, even if she did manage to come home early for the holidays. However, I wasn't about to rain on her parade and mention that. Melissa deserved at least one night of unrestrained happiness.
"And get off my bed with those dirty clothes. I gave you PJs for a reason," I said, attempting to roll her off the bed as she laughed.
"Sir, yes, Sir!" Melissa jumped off the bed and saluted me before she started changing.
This was going to be a long, sleepless night.
"What?" I snapped at Melissa when I saw her staring as we walked down to her car.
"Nothing, I didn't say anything." She raised her hands in the air in defense, but a smirk was more than clear on her face.
A smirk that made me almost turn around and go back home because I knew exactly what she was smirking about.
For the first time since getting them, I was going to school with my pastel pink headphones wrapped around my neck.
And a part of me was convinced that had been a huge mistake.
On the way to school, Melissa kept holding a monologue about everything that happened last night and how amazing Tara was, which was fine with me. My mind was too much of a mess to be able to actually participate in a conversation with more than a 'mhm' and 'aha'.
Noah Archer kissed me last night. And then I kissed Noah Archer. And then there was kissing that I couldn't even remember who had initiated until another crashing sound forced us to go back downstairs.
Needless to say, I was nervous about seeing him today.
How does one act after an intense make-out session with the guy you're supposed to have zero feelings for?
And why the heck had I thought wearing these headphones after yesterday was a good idea?
"You coming?" Melissa asked, an eyebrow raised as she bent down to stare at me through the open door.
Shit. I hadn't even realized we were there already.
Taking a deep breath, I got out of the car and walked toward the school, still zoning out. It was a matter of time before I saw Noah. Usually, he always managed to find me at my locker, or at the very least, I was pretty sure we had the next class together.
"You just gonna ignore me like that?"
I jumped up at the sound of his voice coming from where I least expected it. Leaning against the wall outside of the school was Noah Archer, casual smirk and raised eyebrow firmly in place.
"Uh, what... what are you doing here?" I mumbled, absolutely unprepared to see him yet. I didn't even get a chance to complete my breathing exercises.
Noah pushed off from the wall and walked to tower over me, head tilted. "Waiting for you. Thought that was obvious."
"Oh," I said dumbly, staring up at him with wide eyes.
He just laughed, brushed his palm along my cheek, and leaned down to press a kiss on my forehead. My temperature instantly increased.
"Morning, Fox."
"M-Morning, Archer," I countered.
"And good morning Baltimore, are you two love birds done?" Melissa exhaled loudly, holding open the front door and gesturing for us to go inside.
"Yup, sorry," I hurried through the open door, but before I could escape Noah took my hand in his.
"By the way, Tara said to tell you hi," Noah said, grinning at Melissa whose entire demeanor instantly changed, her cheeks going a deep pink.
"S-She did?" Melissa stuttered and I stared at her in shock. This girl never stuttered before in her life.
"Yup said she was, in her words 'too smitten' to ask for your number, so she wanted me to give you hers if you wanna hit her up or something." Noah scrolled through his phone and then handed it to Melissa, I'm assuming with his sister's contact open.
Melissa took the phone and with slightly shaking fingers typed and saved the number. She mumbled a thank you when she handed him the phone back, and then just floated away from us, staring at her screen in a daze.
"Love the headphones," Noah spoke up again and my eyes snapped back from my best friend to my boyfriend. "Glad you finally wore them to school."
"Oh, yeah, I don't know why, I just kind of... felt like it," I said, biting down on my lower lip. Was he going to read into this? Because I sure didn't think this through as much as I should have.
"Wanna switch for the day?"
"Uh, what?" I asked, sure I'd misheard him. There was no way he meant he wanted to wear my pink headphones.
"Come on. Switch with me," he repeated, taking his blue ones off his neck and shaking them slightly.
Was he serious?
Frowning, I carefully took my headphones from around my neck and extended them, a million questions in my eyes. I was pretty sure there was no way he would take them. Surely he was kidding.
Noah grabbed the pastel pink headphones, and threw them around his neck before taking his blue ones and putting them around mine.
"There. They look good on you." He grinned, clearly proud of his little headphone swap. "Plus, I think I'm really rocking this pink."
As if to highlight his words, he widened his eyes and did a little spin.
"Eh? Eh?" he said and wiggled his eyebrow.
I couldn't help it. I burst into laughter at his silliness and in a second he was laughing along with me.
"You do look good in pink," I said in between laughs, because it was true – he did. I'd already realized that when he wore that salmon hoodie.
"Thanks. Glad you think so," he said, leaning closer and closer and closer...
The bell rang and Noah let out a groan. "Want me to walk you to class?"
"No need, it's like 10 feet from my locker," I said, and gently pushed him in the opposite direction, toward his locker. "Just go, I'll see you next class."
For the rest of the day, curious glances followed me around school. At first, my paranoid mind thought someone had caught us making out yesterday and spread the word around school.
Of course, that wasn't even remotely the case.
They were staring at me because Noah Archer's signature blue headphones had found their way around my neck. And I had no doubt everyone had noticed the replacement pink ones that were around his.
I never should have switched with him. It was bad enough I came to school with the same headphones, but now that he'd given me his, it felt dangerously close to what an actual girlfriend and boyfriend might have done. And we were far from an actual couple. Right?
Letting out a sigh, I took off the headphones and placed them in my bag. A part of me felt guilty for doing that. Noah had been so excited the whole day, showing his new headphones off to his friends like they were some precious trophy. But he was used to the attention he got from everyone. It didn't phase him.
Me, on the other hand? I liked being just one in the crowd without having at least one pair of eyes following my every move.
I splashed some water on my face and stared into the bathroom mirror before closing my eyes. Only two more classes and then school would be over for the day. I got this.
The bathroom door opened and closed, but I was busy repeating my mantra a few more times to let it really sink in.
"We've been looking for you, Skyler."
My eyes flew open at the sound of my name, and I spun around to see who exactly had been looking for me and why.
Four girls stood there, at the entrance to the bathroom, staring directly at me.
This was it. My time had come. The classic teenage rom-com confrontation. Just as Melissa had predicted, I was being cornered by a bunch of angry girls in the bathroom.
I swallowed, my hands instantly balling into fists at my sides. How was this going to play out?
Was there going to be hair pulling? Or maybe these girls were more into scratching... Looking at their perfect nails though, I kind of felt like they wouldn't risk their manicure.
Would they try to submerge me in a toilet? Or was that too 13 Reasons Why for them?
Whatever their choice of punishment would be, I was ready, and I wasn't going to go down without a fight. If they thought they could intimidate me, they had another thing coming.
"We just wanted to tell you that–"
I wondered which cliche statement they were going to hit me with first.
Noah Archer isn't yours.
You should stay away from Noah Archer.
Noah Archer is out of your league.
"–we're here for you. If you need anyone to talk to after, that is." The girl in the front finished and smiled at me.
"Huh?" I said, my face stuck in a confused grimace.
"With Noah, we mean," the girl to her left clarified. "We all dated him, once upon a week. So we know how difficult this last week can be."
"Hey, don't go negative already, he could stay with her," the middle girl poked the one to the left with her elbow.
"Right, I'm so sorry! You do seem to have the best chance so far," the left girl giggled and beamed at me.
I blinked. And then blinked again a few more times.
"I'm sorry, what's happening right now?"
"Yeah, this wasn't exactly tactfully done." The girl on the right tossed a nasty look at the two that had spoken, let out a sigh and stepped forward, extending her hand. "I'm Eliza."
I shook her head, and the rest of them quickly followed with the introductions as well.
Lilah was the middle one, Mikayla the one to her right.
The last one that had been silent until then nodded at me and said, "You can call me Barb."
"Like the Stranger Things char–"
"Yup, exactly."
"Anyway," Eliza cleared her throat. "Like Mikayla said, we all used to date Noah. Ending things with him can feel kind of like getting off a high, so we just ended up talking to each other, being each other's support system..."
"There's a few more of us but we didn't want to overwhelm you," Mikayla said with an apologetic smile.
"And you're here to... what?" Even after they'd said all of that, I was still half expecting them to pounce on me.
"Offer support, like I said." Lilah said and the rest of them nodded. "Like if you need any, that is. To talk to someone or like, a shoulder to cry on, ya know, anything."
This couldn't be real. It went against every teenage flick I'd ever watched. The girl in the bathroom were supposed to threaten your life not offer to help you get through a breakup. There had to be more to their end goal.
"Why?" I asked, scepticism more than clear in my voice.
"We rise by lifting others." The one called Barb finally spoke and I frowned at her. "Supporting each other over a guy felt better than pulling each others hair over one."
"Yeah, no man is worth the sisterhood." Mikayla added and the rest nodded happily.
This was the Twilight Zone. I was stuck in some weird parallel universe, that was the only explanation. How could a bunch of girl that were in love with the same guy ever get along?
"And you're all... still in love with Noah?"
Their eyes went wide and then they started laughing and giggling as if I'd made some great joke instead of a logical deduction.
"Oh hell no." Barb was the first one to get over her fit. "We've all moved on. I have a girlfriend. Mikayla's trying to make it work with a childhood friend."
"Excuse me, I'm making it work. That boy doesn't have a chance." Mikayla countered and flipped her hair.
"I've had a boyfriend for the past... oh wow, it's been seven months now," Eliza said, her eyes glistening in obvious happiness.
"I'm single but I'm way over Noah. Being single is just right for me right now," Lilah added and shrugged.
I tilted, my confusion mounting. "Then why are you all..." I didn't even know how to express my current thoughts.
"Part of the Noah support group? We just became friends in the process. Plus, everyone's experience with Noah... It's like all of us learned something about ourselves in the process and sometimes it helps to talk about that stuff. No one else could really understand us and so when Lilah started the group chat one day one thing happened after another..." Eliza looked at the other girls with clear affection in her eyes and I felt a huge rock press on my heart.
"Anyway, the bell's about to ring but we just wanted you to know you're not alone in this, whatever happens." Mikayla moved forward, took my hands into hers and squeezed them once, offering a warm smile before letting go.
"See you, Skyler!" Eliza said, and the others echoed their goodbyes.
"Uh, bye." I muttered to the closing door.
Still reeling from what had just happened, I leaned against one of the sinks for balance. It would take me some time to process what had just happened, but one thing had become crystal clear.
These were the girls I had initially used as an excuse to wage war against Noah Archer.
Girl that didn't need or want my help. Girls that not only didn't have broken hearts, but seemed to have gotten out of dating him stronger for it.
All of the energy drained out of me when I realized how wrong my behavior had been. How toxic my train of thought, and justification for punishing an innocent guy, had been.
I had thought I was the hero of my story.
Turns out, I was the villain.
Hi loves! ❤️
And the next chapter is up! I've been waiting to get to all these chapters for like the entire book, so I'm very excited I get to finally share them with you.
What did you think of this one?
I knew I wanted to do a twist on the whole confronted by other girls thing. Sure, some girls can be witches with a capital B, but I found a lot of support in girls growing up as well, so I knew I wanted to include that part into the story, and do a slightly different twist on that familiar spin. ✨
I hope you liked it! ✨
I'm off to write the next chapter so that I can hopefully post it in a few hours. Wish me luck since it's already 8 PM for me and writing this too longer than expected, haha.
Stay strong stay safe! ❤️