You guys have been really good with the comments/vote lately, wow. keep it up!
Here's some Noah because this story has been lacking him and everyone needs a little break from all things Sam because he's in this way too much, haha
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The only contact I had with Noah for the next few days was to tell him that Sam was taking Ty and I to school and to say I was busy with homework whenever he wanted to hang out. I knew he was going to start getting suspicious soon, but I hoped by then it would be long enough for Emma to be off her period or whatever else is making her act like she has a knife stuck up her ass.
The only thing different about today was that I was going to go with Holly to help her pick out a dress. She originally asked her mom to come, but she ended up having to go on a business trip the day Holly was given leave from the hospital, so she asked me. I was happy to help her since this mainly courtesy of me for getting her to be able to go to the dance. I visited her since then, and she said that Aaron was excited about going.
Today when I walked in, she looked ecstatic. Her usually death pale face was flushed and her eyes shone in happiness. “Melody!” She grinned and wiggled out of the nurses grasp as soon as she pulled out the IV. The young teenager came and gave me a huge hug, her frail arms wrapping around my waist. “Thank you so much for coming!”
I laughed and patted her back. “It’s fine, Holl. I’m excited! Are you ready to go?”
She nodded, “We just have to wait for Noah to get here—“
“Wait, he’s coming?”
She nodded in confusion at my sudden panic. “Yeah… A family member has to be with me at all times. I figured it would be fine since you’re talking again. Am I missing something?”
I didn’t want to ruin her excitement so I put on a fake smile and patted her hat covered head. She didn’t like the baldness that her treatment provided her, so she wore hats almost every time she went out to avoid the weird looks as much as possible. People did still stare and talked, she obviously looked sick, but this lightened them. “Of course not,” I told her. “We’ll have a ton of fun.”
We waited for ten minutes until Noah came in, a bright smile on his face when he saw me. “Mel! You’re here!” He crossed over and gave me a hug. “I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages!”
I gave him a shaky laugh and Holly regarded me in confusion. Noah finally pulled away and turned to his sister. “You ready, Holls?”
Whatever she was thinking of me was now gone as her face lit up. “Yes!”
Noah signed Holly out at the front desk, promising to be back before visiting hours ended, and then we set to his car. Holly was in front, Noah driving, and I was huffing in back by myself. This whole ignoring Noah thing isn’t really working out today. He’ll probably tell Emma all about it too, and she’ll lash it out on me.
When Noah parked in front of the mall Holly practically jumped out. She yelled at us to hurry as she ran off to the mall by herself. Noah tried making eye contact with me but I ignored it and followed after his sister. Inside Holly was standing there with wide eyes, taking in all the stores. I was confused at first, but then I realized that it must’ve been months, if not years, since she’s been in a mall. Having going through mainly living in the hospital and forced inside at home, I suspect that she didn’t get out much.
“Where to first, Holly?” Noah asked, looking down at his little sister with a gaze that I’ve only seen him give her. It was filled with admiration, love, and hope. Hope that she’d get better. Hope for everyone because even though she’s drastically ill, she’s able to keep a happy face.
Holly pursed her lips and whipped her head back and forth looking for the right place to start. Finally she pointed to a place and ran off, leaving Noah and I behind, trying to catch up with her.
“She’s pretty excited,” Noah exclaimed to me with a wide grin as we entered and watched her dig through racks of dresses.
I only nodded and focused on Holly, trying with all my might to ignore my best friend. I didn’t want to the rumor being spread, even with Sam knowing the truth. Since then things have been… nice. In fact, it wasn’t awkward whatsoever with him knowing. He didn’t judge. When he spoke about his mom, it was only to point out things that she would do, or something like that. He never brought up me being involved with the accident. In more ways than one, telling him kind of made our friendship better.
I did take his and Malcolm’s advice though by staying away from Noah for a few days. I didn’t want him to freak out on Emma if I told him what she said to me, she’s jealous of me. It has happened to his other girlfriends before—none of them threatened me like her, but you know—and to be honest, if I were in her position I would feel invidious as well.
But I still hated the witch.
We moved through the mall with ease. Holly didn’t like any of the dresses she would try on but it was okay. It was early and we had a lot of time left before she was due back at the hospital.
At one point Holly was jumping around ahead of us, heading to another store, leaving Noah and I behind her.
“What’s stuck up your ass today, Mel?” Noah asked in a joking tone. “You’ve hardly said a word to me.”
To answer his question I just shrugged. It was a common gesture used by me, so I didn’t expect him to go into too much detail about it but he did.
“Come on now, you can talk to me you know. Is it Sammy-boy? Did you take another trip to hickey town?”
“No!” I objected and then turned red. Nothing of that sort even happened since that day in the rain. All the kisses we shared were in the heat of the moment and there haven’t been any passionate moments like that. I lowered my voice now, “We’re fine.”
“Is it the bet then?”
“No, Noah. Everything is fine.”
He nodded once to himself and was going to ask another question until up ahead Holly tripped over her own two feet. It was completely on accident, but every single person around rushed to help her.
An old woman grabbed her arm and hoisted her up. “Oh, you poor thing! Are you okay, sweetie?”
Holly huffed out and pulled her cap closer to her head so she could hide her obvious cancer baldness. “I’m fine, thanks.”
Another woman rubbed her back, “Are you sure? Do you want to go to sit down for a bit? Have some water?”
“I’m fine!” Holly wretched her body out of the reach of the two women. Noah stepped forward and wrapped a protective arm around his sister.
“She just fell, that’s all. It was an accident,” Noah told them with a warning tone in his voice.
The first woman looked at us. “We just wanted to make sure she was okay, especially with the… you know.”
Holly was fuming and pushed away from Noah and stalked through the women. Noah glared at the two ladies and ran to his sister. I looked at the siblings with a surprised look and apologized to them for the eruption—even though they were completely out of line—and followed after the Freely’s. I found Noah pounding on the ladies’ restroom door and he breathed out in relief when he saw me.
“Could you go in for me?” He looked hurt. I know he hated the looks and comments about Holly’s cancer just as much as she did so I nodded, going inside to find Holly in front of the mirror trying to arrange her hat so it covered every part of her head that was supposed to have hair.
“Holly…” I said slowly, not really knowing how to start. “Are you okay?”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, her voice thick with sarcasm. “I’m just dandy.”
“Holly, come on now…” I spoke softly. “They just don’t know how to act around you. They think every kid is super breakable—“
“Of course. But if they saw another normal person my age fall, would they freak out like they did with me? No. They see a cancer patient. That’s all they look at when people see me,” she sighed. “You wouldn’t understand because you’re gorgeous. You have no idea how much I want to look like you.”
“Just to point out, you’re the one with the date to the dance while don’t,” I bumped shoulders with her. “And come on, you’re a Freely. You have the best genes, just look at Noah. Who cares that you don’t have hair! It just saves you time in the morning. You get people to like you through your face and personality, Holly. I wish I were like you, to be honest. Everyone is fawning over you because of how you present yourself, cancer or not. You’re amazing. Just because people who don’t know you can’t oversee the leukemia part, it doesn’t mean you’re ugly or bad or anything, which you’re not.”
She gave me a small smile and lifted her head up. “Thanks Melody,” she wrapped her frail arms around my body. “You always know what to say. You do pep talks even better than Noah.”
“Hey!” We heard him yell from outside, signaling that he was listening in on the whole thing. I turned bright red and we exited the bathroom. Noah engulfed his sister in a hug and winked at me.
“Are you ready to search some more?” He asked her and she nodded eagerly. She, again, went ahead of us, leaving Noah and I alone.
We were quiet for awhile, following Holly around until he spoke to me. “Thanks for that,” he mumbled. “You really helped her. I hate when she goes into rants like that.”
I nodded once, understanding now about the rants after experiencing what Caleb said to me. “No problem. She’s like a sister to me.”
He was quiet before I saw a smirk spread across his face in the corner of my eye. “Did you mean what you said back there?”
“About what?”
“About me having great genes.” When I didn’t reply, he laughed. “You think I’m attractive.”
“I do not.”
“Oh come on, Mel. I know when you lie.”
“No you don’t.”
We followed Holly around the store as the conversation continued to consist of the same him saying something and me denying it. It wasn’t until he pulled me into the middle of a circular dress rack when I looked him in the eye, my pulse quickening.
“How are you doing with the bet?” he whispered, his eyes glittering.
I gulped. “Fine.”
“Are you almost done?”
“I don’t know.”
He scrunched his eyebrows together. “Are you shitting me?”
I shook my head furiously. “No. I know generally who I have to get and I mark them off, but I haven’t looked at the list to see exactly who.”
He smirked again. “Maybe you should look at that a look more closely once you get home.”His words confused me but I forgot the topic when his mouth drooped to a frown and he grabbed my wrist. “Why have you been avoiding me?”
I pursed my lips, “I’m not.”
“Come on, Mel. You’ve barely talked to me all day today and barely at school too. I thought we were cool again.”
“We are.”
“Then why aren’t you acting like it?”
He looked sad and I tried to avoid his piercing gaze with failure. I found myself looking at him more closely than I have before. You know when you’re around someone for so much but you’ve never really looked at them? Yeah, that’s me now.
I can see why Emma’s possessive over Noah. Hell, if I weren’t his best friend I’d be all over him like a starving dog and a hunk of meat. His angular jaw, brunette hair, and his naturally tan skin gave off the foreign/European vibe, though he wasn’t. Well, yeah, his family must’ve originated from someplace over there, but that wasn’t the point. Holly had the same features, only more feminine and still covered with baby fat because she wasn’t yet through with puberty. With Noah, he’s a man. Not a boy or not a kid, but a man. And that’s exactly why girls fawned over him…
Just like I was doing right now.
Shit. Stop it, Melody. That’s weird.
“It’s just…” I struggled to come up with an excuse, and when I thought of one, I lowered my voice, “You know… it’s shark week for me.”
He was confused for a moment before he burst out laughing at my way to say that I was on my period. “Oh, thank goodness. I thought you were mad at me for a moment!”
I forced a smile onto my face, “Never that, Noah.”
He grinned at me, showing off dimples that I hadn’t really noticed before, and let go of my wrist. That was good, because at the moment Holly poked her head through the dresses and eyed us.
“Can you two stop making out and help me?” She then looked at me. “Well, you help me. Noah doesn’t even know what color goes with black.”
Without waiting for a response, Holly pulled me away and to the dressing room as I watched her try on many, many dresses until she finally picked one that looked great. To be honest, I got kind of bored during it. It took me practically five minutes to pick mine out and that’s just because I don’t care about what I looked like during it, just as long as I was having fun and winning the bet.
Holly, on the other hand, wanted to look stunning, and with that dress she would. She and Aaron would be the cutest couple there.
After we bought her dress and dropped her back off at the hospital, Noah walked me to my sister’s car in the parking lot. We were quiet, only hearing the cars drive by or the occasional talking of people. I had managed to get one of the worst spots in the place, all the way in back.
“So,” Noah broke the silence. “Are you going to have a date for the dance?”
I sighed, “No, probably not. I’m going to get some guys checked off the list and if I had a date, they’d be put off and might not even want to.”
“Sammy boy isn’t going to ask you?”
I looked at him. “Why do you call him that? It’s a nickname for a twelve year old. And no. I don’t think he’s going to ask me considering how he knows what I have to do during it.”
Noah snorted and rolled his eyes. “Oh yeah. You don’t want him getting jealous because he’s in love with you.”
I gaped at him. “No he’s not!”
“Tell that to his boner.”
I turned bright red, “N-Nothing like that has happened yet!”
“You don’t know what he does alone behind closed doors—“
“Noah!”
“What?” he asked innocently, a playful grin rested on his lips.
“Be quiet!”
He held both of his hands up, “Hey. I’m just telling you the truth.” He did do the right thing and changed the conversation. “So what are you wearing to the dance?”
I looked at him from the corner of my eye. “I’m not telling you. It’s a masquerade, you have to find me yourself.”
He snorted and looked at me. “Come on, Mel. I can tell from you are from a mile away, and basically all I have to do is look at your eyes.” I looked at him in surprise. “What?”
“How could you do that?”
“Isn’t it obvious? You have really pretty eyes and they’re green mixed with a little light brown. No one here has them but you.”
I blinked once, twice, before I realized that he actually gave me a compliment instead of shameless mocking. I felt myself turning red under his gaze so I looked away, much to my surprise. Usually I was fine holding eye contact with Noah. “T-thanks, I guess.”
He didn’t say anything until we got into my car and I unlocked the door, jumping inside.
He cleared his throat and I looked at him in question. “Thanks again for everything with Holly.”
“It’s no problem, I come visit her without you all the time. I like spending time with her.”
“Still,” he pursed his lips. “It means a lot.” He lost the serious topic with a smirk appearing on his face. “But doing all that today won’t make me go easy on you for the bet. I’m still going to win, and you’re still going to go up there and sing in front of the whole school. You know don’t how easy it is for me to win.”
“Dream on, Freely,” I rolled my eyes and closed the door before he could say anything more.
I went home with a smile on my face. Even though I was supposed to be avoiding Noah, I did have an enjoyable time with the siblings today. I went back, thinking about what Noah said about the list. Maybe I should be going off of it more precisely.
So as soon as I got home I went up to my room and pulled out the list that Noah had made a few months ago. Some of the names were crossed out, but a lot of the ones who I had already kissed weren’t. I huffed out in frustration and started slashing out the boys who I had already gotten.
It might’ve been really easy to cheat if we didn’t live in such a small town. After I’d kiss someone, I’d tell Noah, and he’d ask around to see if it were true because everyone was in everyone’s business.
Once I had crossed all the names off the list, I went to put it back, but I saw another name I missed. I rested the paper of the lampshade of my turned on lamp as I crossed it out, but the light showed the other side of the paper with light writing on it.
Furrowing my eyebrows, I turned it around and saw a little note written in my one and only best friend’s handwriting:
The rules were that you had to kiss all the single guys in school at that moment we made the bet, remember that, Mel.
I froze when I read what was next. That’s exactly why he was so cocky, why he was so confident with his ability to win. He completely fooled me, and being the idiot I was, I hadn’t noticed when I approved of the list. The writing was so light that if you turned the paper around and didn’t study it, you wouldn’t have noticed.
The next two words were one name but also included on the list of guys who I had to kiss to win the bet.
Noah Freely.
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oooh, so it all comes out,
also, i've gotten some questions about the 'teams' in this. I'm not objecting to them or even saying my opinion, but this story isn't categorized as romance, haha. It's a best friend and a friends with benefits... both aren't very romantic!
But anyways, it's about the team names and what they should officially be! so this is what i've decided:
Sam + Melody = Samody
Noah + Melody = Meloah
Okay, thanks for reading! Have a good break if you're on it, or do well in school/work or whatever you all do :)