When I open my eyes the next morning it's to a banging. I think it's Noah upstairs, maybe jumping rope in his living room, because I don't put it past him. I lay there a few more moments and I realize someone is knocking on my door. I groan and pull myself out of bed, wondering who is knocking on my door. Only two people know I'm living here, and I don't know why either of them would be bothering me this early on a Saturday.
When I open the door Noah is standing there, dressed for a workout. "Good morning," he chirps, obnoxiously awake for the hour, "get dressed."
"What? No, I'm going back to bed," I say, trying to shut the door in his face. He grabs the door and forces his way inside. I throw my hands up and a manner that suggests I don't care what he does and I go back and snuggle under the covers.
"Delaney, you can't sleep your life away," he tells me, sitting on the edge of the bed.
"Don't you have company to entertain?"
"Nope, sent her home last night."
"You are an asshole, you didn't even let her stay all night?"
"No one stays all night," Noah shrugs.
"Asshole," I reiterate.
"Yeah, yeah, get up and get dressed. I will buy you breakfast," he tells me before shutting my bedroom door behind him. I let out a groan and begrudgingly pull leggings and a long T-shirt. I shuffle out to the bathroom to brush my teeth and pull my hair into a ponytail.
"I can tell you put a lot of thought into your outfit," Noah smirks, eyeing my clothes.
"Fuck off," I retort throwing an orange at him.
He catches the orange out of the air and challenges me with his stare, peeling the fruit slowly and taking a slice in his mouth. He grins at me watching him, his dark eyes twinkling, before offering me a slice of the orange. My orange.
He makes me stand there while he finishes his orange, my orange, before beckoning me to follow him. He slides in his SUV and I have to climb up into it.
"Where are you taking me?" I ask him as I settle into the passenger seat.
"Kickboxing," he says simply before pulling out of the driveway. His hands tap in beat to the radio.
"I thought you were feeding me," I huff and turn the station.
"Later, and don't touch my radio," he looks sharply over at me and changes it back.
I'm unable to resist the urge to annoy him. I change the station again, not even looking to see what I've put it on and gospel music plays through the speaker.
"This is my favorite song," Noah tells me, belting out the chords to Amazing Grace.
"Stop, please," I tell him changing the radio again.
"There's no pleasing you is there?"
"Not when I'm with you," I gripe, folding my hands over my chest.
"I dunno, I've never left a woman unsatisfied," he grins mischievously and I am stunned into silence by his words. Why would he say that to me?
The ride to the gym is short, and before long we are pulling up. As soon as we step inside we are greeted by men and women grunting and breathing through their teeth, followed by dull thuds as they land punches on each other and on the heavy bags. A large man, shorter than Noah, but still taking up a lot of space makes his way over to us.
"Noah!" The man calls out and pulls Noah into a hug. "Who's this?"
"Dan, this is my friend Delaney, she has a lot of aggression she needs to work out," Noah explains to the man, winking at me. I have to fight an eyeroll.
I back hand his stomach and he lets out an oof, "when do I get to punch him?"
Dan laughs loudly and waves us over to a ring, he fits each of us with gloves and mouth guards. "Ok, Delaney, keep your hands by your face at all times, like this," Dan tells me and adjusts my stance. "This is orthodox, give me a one two with your left fist then right fist."
I tap the glove he's holding up to me just as he's said. "Great, now give me an uppercut, left then right," I do as he says, "good, release your heels when you throw your punches." I repeat the uppercuts and try to remember to move my feet with my hands.
"Let's try a roundhouse, put your feet together, get you weight centered and hinge your body at the waist. Kick with your shoelaces." I put my feet together and let my body fold over and I brought my leg in the air.
"Yes, perfect, try the other side," Dan coaxed. I did try the other side and it felt really good too.
"Alright, now give me some combinations. Right hook, left hook, double jab right hand and finish with a roundhouse."
Dan called out sequence after sequence until my lungs burns and sweat was running into my eyes. When he finally called for a water break, I pulled my long t-shirt off and used it to wipe off my face before downing half of my water bottle.
"You ready to go up against Noah?" Dan asks me gesturing to Noah who had been quietly doing moves off to the side.
"Hell yes," I replied, holding my gloves up to him.
"I'll go easy on you," Noah jeers, his reach and body weight nearly doubled mine. I didn't care, I was still going to enjoy hitting him.
Noah bounced on his feet lightly, pretending to take a shot but not actually taking a shot. I wasn't confident in hitting his face with a straight punch, so I went for a hook to his body. I landed it perfectly and he folded slightly to my blow, he stood back up looking impressed.
Noah and I set up again, him bouncing around and not actually taking shots at me. I got in close enough and got an uppercut on his jaw and when he doubled over again I got a solid hook to his cheek. Dan clapped loudly behind me, cheering me on.
Noah, unfortunately, was right. I really needed to get some aggression out.
Noah was finally taking me seriously and got a hook to my ribs, it was hard and it hurt but I could tell it wasn't full power. I got in two more shots to his body before I felt confident enough to kick him. Noah and I sparred for a few more minutes before Dan called the fight in my favor.
Noah and I sat on the floor chugging our water. I knew I would feel this tomorrow, and not in a good way. I was tired of Noah forcing me to work out.
"Dan, would you mind if we took a picture together and I wrote about this place?" I ask him screwing the top back on my water bottle. He asked what I was writing and I explained the blog to him and he was happy to pose with me.
"So, How was it?" Noah asks me when we get back in his car.
"I could definitely come back and kick your ass every week," I tell him while tucking my feet under me.
"I let you win," Noah rolls his eyes at me.
"Sure, now feed me." Noah lets out a breathy laugh and pulls the car out of the lot.
Noah pulls up to a small cafe and we get out. A waitress seats us at a small table next to the windows so we can watch the traffic drive by. It was cool inside and I wish I had put my t-shirt back on. Noah watches me intently while he drums his fingers on the table, almost as if it's a nervous habit.
"Why do you always do that?" I asks him, gesturing to his hands. He looks down at his fingers as if he hadn't noticed he was drumming.
"Why don't you?"
"What?"
"Why don't you drum your fingers on the table?" I roll my eyes at him as a guy came up to take our order.
"So are you ready to talk?" Noah asks, I whip my head around to look at him.
"Talk about what?" Surely he wasn't trying to ask about my break up.
"About why you are living in my basement," he shrugs as our coffee is sat in front of us.
"It's none of your business, stop asking about it," I snap at him. I grab my steaming coffee and take a large drink, burning my tongue in the process. How fucking dare he ask me about this, we're not even friends. I haven't even talked with Finn about this, what makes him think I would tell him. And why would he even care?
"Fine, Fine," Noah surrenders holding his hands in the air.
Our food is sat down in front of us a moment later and we eat quietly. Noah drives us back to the house and I disappear into the basement without another word to him. I didn't have much else to do so I powered up my lap top and set to writing my blog.
I smiled as I looked at the pictures Dan had taken of me and Noah sparring. I wouldn't admit it out loud but I was having fun on the adventures Noah was dragging me to. When I finished it was nearing 8pm. I looked at my phone to see I had missed a call from Finn.
"Hey, you called?"
"Yeah, I'm coming over."
"Okay, when will you be here?"
There was a knock on my door. I tossed my phone on the couch and ran up the stairs to greet Finn. He grinned and held up a bottle of Bulleit and I threw my hands around his neck.
"Let's make bad decisions," he smiles mischievously. I turn to head back down the stairs but he grabbed my arm. "It's nice outside, let's sit on the porch and invite Noah."
"Why do you hate me?" I groan but follow him anyway.
I take the bottle from Finn and sit down on the bottom step, pressing my back against the railing as I watch Finn disappear into Noah's house. The two of them return a moment later, but I haven't drank enough to want to deal with Noah yet.
"Can't get enough of me, eh?" I squint my eyes at him and stand up. I feel his large hand grab mine and pull me back into a seated position. Electricity dances under my skins and sinks low in my belly, I pull my hand back and shake the feeling away. "I'm kidding."
I sit back down with a huff, taking a drink of the bourbon and passing it to Finn. I watch the pair talk back and forth, laughing and joking and talking about music, lost in their own world. I liked to be a silent observer in conversations, so I sat back and listened to them, but I wasn't ready to join in the banter.
"Penny for your thoughts?" Noah asks, scooting closer to me when Finn ran in the house to go to the bathroom.
"Do you believe in Aliens?" I ask, staring up at the dark sky. There was too much light pollution, and you could only make out a few of the brighter stars in the sky.
"You don't do the small talk thing, huh?" He laughs and for a while I didn't think he was going to answer. "Sure, I do."
"What do you think they would be like?" I ask, taking a drink and handing the bottle back to him. "Do you think they're good or evil?"
"Are you really asking me about aliens right now?"
Noah takes a long drink, I watch as the hand tattooed on his throat ripples with him swallowing. As if it was ready to come off his skin and pluck the apple from the tree. The forbidden fruit. I swallow thickly as my gaze flitters to his mouth and up to find his eyes already watching me.
"Yes."
"I think there's probably both. We have good humans and bad humans, so why not aliens too?" He rubs his large hand across his mouth to collect the whiskey that escaped the bottle. "Do you believe in aliens, Delaney?"
"I'm annoyed that you think like me," I tell him and snatch the bottle back.
"You mean you want to be annoyed, but you aren't," he challenges, Noah was too close. His hot breath was sweet from the whiskey as it hit my face. I wanted to contradict what he was saying, my head was screaming for me to, but my body was suddenly very attuned to how close he was to me.
"Uhm, no, no I'm actually annoyed," I stammer, but the way his lips were turned up on one side suggests that he didn't believe me at all.
Noah's long fingers reached out to brush some of my hair out of my face, and trailed down to my neck. He was suddenly pulling my head to his. I tilted my face to his in anticipation just as the door to the house opened. Noah and I shot away from each other as Finn stumbled outside.
"I need to go to sleep," Finn slurs, walking past me to my basement apartment.
"I'm coming with you," I call after him and stand up. I feel Noah reach up and weave his fingers through mine. Desire, that I'm going to blame on the alcohol and being lonely, sits low in my stomach as his eye bore into mine. His expression is begging, but for what I don't know.
Headlights shine in the driveway, we have to drop each others hands to hold our arms up to block the light. Someone gets out of the car and I hear the crunch of their shoes as they make their way up to the house. It's a woman dressed head to toe in red and she's waving at Noah as she makes her way to us.
Noah curses under his breath, my gaze bounces from the girl to Noah and back to the girl again. An incredulous laugh falls from my lips as I shake my head at him and descend the steps. I was incredibly stupid to let some drunken attention from Noah get to me. This was the second girl that had been here in as many days.
"Delaney," Noah calls softly. I turn and look at him, expectantly. Red has reached us now and is watching the exchange tentatively.
"Yes, Noah?" I ask, sarcasm tainting my voice.
I watch his face fall, defeated, but not willing to go back on his booty call. I turn my back on him and leave him to lead Red into his house. I look over my shoulder a second before I open my door, my gaze briefly meets Noah's as he follows her inside.
So. Incredibly. Stupid.