Halcyon; happy, carefree.
C H A P T E R T W E L V E
My legs gained energy so instantly that one minute I was watching Noah reaching for the door and the next minute I was in his way. "Hey Noah, what's up man?" I tried to sound and look as cool as possible by keeping one hand at the doorknob and the other at my waist.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Why are you being so weird?" the expression on his face was full of confusion.
Damn it; it's like he could see right through me!
"Um.. aren't you supposed to be at practice? Wha.. what are you doing here?" I stammered, removing the few loose strands of my hair which had fallen on my face.
"Yeah. Coach lemme go today, said I did well enough to get outta practice early. I haven't seen Scar all day. So, I thought I'd come to see how she is," he explained.
That stupid coach, he just had to let Noah go early today!
I thought of the best excuse I could come up with at that time, "You came at a wrong time. She's gone to her classmate's room to study." I had very little hopes of him believing in my pathetic excuse because it was a Friday night.
His eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. "You're telling me Scar went to study at seven in the evening on a Friday night?"
"Yes, that's what I'm telling ya," I played it cool.
"Oh, bullsh-"
Before he could object and find out what the hell was going on in the room, I cut him off by changing the topic. "Wanna come and catch a movie with us?"
"Who is 'us'?"
"Oh, me, Matt, Ally and Chase. Jordan has some work and Scar is studying as I already told you," I smiled big at him.
"Wait, Scar isn't coming for the movie?" He asked in disbelief. "Wow, this professor must've scared the shit outta her if she's letting him spoil her weekend eve," he scoffed. "But, no. I don't really feel like watchin' a movie tonight. So I'll just stay here and wait for Scar." Of course, he wouldn't wanna come with us.
Seriously, this guy really works people up. I knew I had to take him along to the movie because letting him be here was way too risky. Obviously. "Oh, you don't wanna come. Good, Matt's gonna be super pumped about this," I muttered, loud enough for him to hear.
"What did you just say?" Bull's eye. I smirked to myself and continued. "Yeah, well, when I told him we should ask you to come along for the movie, he said you'd ruin the evening by picking a fight with someone, and when Chase told us you've extra practice, he seemed very happy about it."
I'm sorry, Matt! I had to do this for Scar. And besides, it's not like he and Noah even remotely try to hide their dislike for each other.
"Fuck this shit. I'm coming along just to annoy that asshole," he snapped.
I already had a bad feeling about this, but well, I didn't really have any other choice. "Cool, you go ahead and meet them near the cafe. I just have to grab my cellphone."
He surprisingly walked ahead, and I opened the door to find Scar and Jordan standing behind the door. Turns out they heard our conversation and Scar mumbled a 'Thank you' to me. I quickly grabbed my phone and rushed out not to make it look suspicious.
I ran to catch up with Noah, and we walked silently to the cafe. Once, we reached there, and the three of them saw Noah, the look on Matt's face was murderous. I was trying to convey my apology with the expression of my face while Noah greeted Chase with a 'let's just touch our shoulders' hug and now had his eyes were set on Matt with a stupid yet very sexy smirk plastered right across his face.
"Why would you get him here?" Matt whispered in my ear as we made our way to the theatre.
I shushed him. "I had no choice. I'll explain later."
We reached the theatre in a few minutes, and Matt told me to come with him to get the tickets for the movie. I was about to walk along with him to the counter, and I heard Noah call me from behind. "Oh hey, precious! I completely totally forgot to tell you. Scar wanted me to show you this."
What? Scar asked him to show me something? "Show me what?"
"Ah, it's in my phone, come here!" Okay, this was very weird. I walked back to him with Matt following me.
"Oh Matt, you go along and get the tickets, precious will be right there," he gave Matt an innocent smile.
Matt looked at me, and I gave him a nod. He turned around and went ahead to get the tickets. Chase was snickering, and Noah's phone wasn't even unlocked. So, now I know what this is. I slapped Noah on the shoulder. "Noah, why would you do that to him? " This asshole purposely didn't let me go just to annoy Matt.
"Oh chill out, I'm just trying to have a lil fun with him," he assured me. Chase had his hand on Ally's shoulder, and she didn't seem to mind all this as well. Noah was enjoying this way too much.
Matt returned with our tickets and told us we have to go to Hall number four. His face didn't look disappointed at all when he came back with the tickets. I knew he had done something to get back at Noah. We found our seats, and I took the one in the corner because I loved corner seats. Matt told me to save a place next to me for him. But Noah came in before Matt and sat right next to me even though I told him not to.
"Dude, what the hell? She was saving that place for me!"
Noah kept his left foot on his right knee and looked up at Matt. "Oops, sorry, I already sat here man."
Matt groaned and sat next to Noah. Chase being on the other side of him and Ally followed. Not only did Noah sit on Matt's seat. He sat right between the two of us. The movie started, and none of us knew which one it was. Our heads turned to Matt as soon as the title of the film appeared. So this is what he had done.
"You brought tickets for an animated film? Are you that dumb or did just stop growing mentally after the age of six?" Chase whisper-shouted.
Matt raised his hands in surrender. "Well, it was either this or Bohemian Rhapsody. And come on, who doesn't love Disney movies?"
Oh boy, this wasn't good. Queen was Noah's favorite band ever, and Matt knew that. Noah looked ready to kill. "You chose Mary Poppins over Queen? Are you kidding me right now?" Noah exclaimed.
If it were 'This is us' instead of Bohemian Rhapsody, and somebody pulled this shit with me, I would react the same way.
"Well, I'm sorry that I don't find guys with weird hair attractive?" Matt scoffed.
Noah turned to look at me. "Why the hell are we even friends with this guy?" he said and shook his head and I just chuckled. Then he turned back to Matt. " I can't even look at you right now. You fuckin' idiot."
"Good, then don't look at me. Look at the screen cause the movie has already started," Matt turned his sight towards the screen.
I could hear Noah muttering profanities, and with the glare he was giving Matt, they were quite obviously directed towards him. I poked him on his shoulder and he shifted towards me. "I'm gonna sleep now. Wake me up when this is over, alright?"
"Wait, so you really don't like Disney movies?" I asked in shock.
"No, not when they're chosen over my favorite band." He took out his phone and started playing some random game on it. I poked his shoulder again, and he turned his face towards me. "What? Oh, the game? Yeah, I don't really feel that sleepy, so I decided to I've to pass the time one way or another," he shrugged.
"Noah, it's a cinema hall. Would you please?" I pointed my finger on his cell phone.
He groaned and kept it back in the inside pocket of his leather jacket. " But tonight's dinner is on you for bringing me to this."
Wow. I wasn't expecting that, but I wouldn't really mind sitting through a meal with him. "Okay, you got it. Now, shut up and let me watch this movie in peace."
He smirked, and I knew he was gonna annoy me throughout the whole movie.
After one hour the damn movie finally came to an end. But I had no clue what happened in it because I had Noah sitting next to me and calling me after every two seconds and it was either for 'Do you think I should get my new sneakers from Reebok or Adidas?' or 'What's the major difference between Pepsi and Coke?' Whatever it was, he didn't stop.
I sure did learn one thing from tonight, to never sit next to Noah Parker in a movie.
"So now tell me, was watching a Disney movie a bad decision?" Matt wriggled his eyebrows at us once we came out.
"See, I would argue with you, but I gotta save the energy to argue with my professor when she asks me for my report on Stock-option Backdating because I spend that time watching a woman wear a hat that's too big for her head," Noah deadpanned.
Matt gave him a look and said. "You have the whole freaking weekend."
"See that's the thing. Not all of us are jobless like you, Winston," Noah gave him the same look.
"Whatever, I'm outta here," Matt waved his hand and walked away without saying goodbye. I decided I'd call him up again and apologize for today. We asked Chase and Ally to join us for dinner.
"Thanks, man. But, Ally has to get up early tomorrow cause she's going to see her parents and I don't really feel like eating tonight. See you, yeah," he patted Noah on the shoulder.
"I'll see you on Monday, Syd," Ally hugged me, and Chase did the same after her.
We decided to go to the burger place that Scar took us to the other night. We reached there in about fifteen minutes, caught a table and ordered in two minutes because both of us were quite literally starving. We pounced on our burgers as soon as they arrived and I was halfway through my burger when my phone chose to ring. I took it out and found out my older brother was the caller.
"Hi Chris, how are you?" I spoke with glee.
"Hey little sis, I'm cool. You been sleeping alright?" he asked, and I could hear the music in his background fading away.
"Are you at a party?" I inquired.
"I live in a frat house. Every night there's a party going, Syd. You didn't answer my question," I knew I wasn't ready to live up to the solution of my problem and that's the exact reason I was afraid of calling Chris. His voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "I'm still waiting for an ans--"
"Stop taking my fries, Noah!" Chris got cut off by me because I was screaming at Noah for stealing my fries.
"Is it the same Noah who came to your rescue the other night?" Chris asked me, and I told him it was. Chris immediately got his 'older-brother' mode on. "Yeah, you've been hanging around with this guy a lot lately. Can I speak to him?"
"Chris, why do you want to talk to him?"
"Would you just give the phone? And I'm in a different state, I can't do anything to him if I wanted to," he reminded me. But I knew that Chris didn't need to be physically present to do something to Noah. I passed the phone to him anyway.
Noah gave me a weird look when I gave him my phone and told him that Chris wants to talk. I watched Noah's expression go from weird to funny to surprised to very surprised to extremely happy, and after that, he left the table and went on the side to talk.
I paid for our supper, and he shoved my phone back in my hand when we were out, walking back to the dorms. "What did Chris talk to you about?"
He ignored my question and asked me another one. "Can I ask you something?"
"No. Now, answer my question," I gave him a sardonic smile.
"No, I won't and also the Christopher Lewis is your brother?" he appeared shocked by that fact.
"I mean, considering the fact that we share the same parents and hence the same last name, yeah, he is my brother." I didn't understand why this was such a big deal to him.
He put his arm around my shoulder, and I raised my eyebrows at him. "What? I can't do that?" he said referring to his hand around my shoulder.
"Does the expression on my face look like you can?" I gave him a 'are you that dumb' look.
"No, but when have I ever acted according to someone's expression?" he said and gave me a smug smile.
"Yeah, I'm not just someone so," I removed his hand from my shoulder.
The moment I left his hand he kept it right back where it was; around my shoulder. "Yes, you're not just someone, precious, which is all the more reason to keep my hand over there," he gave me one of his beautiful smiles, and he knew as well as I did that he had me at that.
"So, how could you not tell me that your brother is the captain of the UCLA football team?" he turned his head towards me.
I was very aware of the position of his hand, and my mind was going all giddy about it for a reason I was yet to comprehend. I registered what he said and regained my composure.
"Oh you know, my first week here, you were too busy being a complete asshole then you were very mad about the fact that you were one player short on your team and then your makeout sessions with malibu barbie didn't seem to end, so amidst all of this," I rotated my index finger in the form of a whirlpool, "I completely forgot to tell you my brother's life story."
"Kissass," I heard him say.
"Why are you being such a fanboy anyway?" I chuckled.
"It was, I think, my first week here when I watched our team play against your brother's team. I wasn't a part of the team then but when I saw him play, I didn't even care we were losing, it's just," he stopped abruptly and exhaled, "He was amazing on the field. When I saw him play, I was awestruck. Never really had an obsession with anyone except Ronaldo. But Chris, wow," he turned to me and gave me a genuine smile.
If Noah loves Ronaldo, I knew that Chris liked Noah. It doesn't matter if it was just one phone call, I knew they'd get along well. "Yeah, he's been playing since he was six. Best player I've known. Even in high school, he was the captain, and he lost only two matches in his life. He taught me how to play FIFA, in fact, now I know it so well, the only person I can't beat is Chris," I chuckled at the memory of him teaching me how to play.
"And now, me," Noah told me.
I turned to look at him. "What? No way. I could definitely take you on."
He started laughing and then spoke between his laughs. "Like hell, you can. You might've learned from the pro, but you're forgetting I'm one too."
"Oh please, I've played with all of Chris' friends who were on the high school team and turns out I'm better at them at virtual football." I knew how to actually play football as well, I just wasn't as good as them, but Noah didn't need to know that.
"Yeah, well, his high school teammates weren't me."
"Doesn't matter, I can still beat you," I smirked at him.
I noticed that we reached the dorms and I had gotten Scar's text that Jay left for his apartment, so, I wasn't worried as things were taken care of.
"Oh yeah?" He moved to stand closer to me. His face was inches from mine. Inches. I could feel the natural minty scent emanating from him. "Why don't we find that out when you come over for movie night, precious?"
"Wow, and here I thought I always showed up uninvited," I responded, and he chuckled. "Besides, I don't think we can make it because your grams called us over to spend the day with her."
He appeared confused. "What? She didn't really tell me anything about it."
"Yeah, because she only called me and Scar," I gave him a warm smile and shifted my gaze towards the sky. The stars were scintillating in the dark atmosphere of the sky making the night as peaceful and beautiful as anything could ever be. "It's so beautiful up there," I spoke, amazed.
I felt his hand catch hold of mine; his thumb was moving back and forth across my knuckles. His head turned upwards to acknowledge the sky and then he looked at me again.
"Yeah, precious. Absolutely beautiful," he said. I was still looking at the sky, and I could see him looking at me from the corner of my eye. "Goodnight, precious," he chuckled, ruffled my hair and turned around to make his way back to his apartment.
No matter how cocky he may be, there was no denying that he was charming as hell.
That night, I finally slept peacefully with a serene smile on my face for the first time in several, several days.
Author's note:
Another chapter, done! Be expressive with what you think! Comment down below how you like the chapter and don't forget to tap the ⭐! Also, I LOVE THE BAND QUEEN! I do not hate them or anything; it was just a lil thing between Noah and Matt. So, don't come @ me for that!
He's the reason why I'm happy most of the time:
Stay happy!
All the love, F x.