Mellifluous; a sound that is sweet and smooth; pleasing to hear.
C H A P T E R T W E N T Y
As my feet worked against the ground in the chilly wind, all of my thoughts spiralled in my mind. Of course, most of those thoughts were of Noah. Lately, I seemed to get lost in thoughts of him. When I'm attending a class, my mind can think about a million things, but what the professor is teaching and when I think about his stupid smirk or his beautiful green eyes, my mind is so concentrated, it doesn't wander off even for a second.
Why the hell was all of this happening?
Wow, I'm thinking about him even while entering his building. I was going over for movie night. Weird how in the first two weeks, I hated movie night but now it's probably the happiest and chill day of my week. The 'ding' of the lift indicated that I had reached the floor on which their apartment resided. I was surprised when I saw that the door was already unlocked.
Scar and Jay went to get snacks, and they knew I was coming over, so they probably must've left it unlocked. I didn't know if Noah was home, but I certainly knew I wanted him to be. I entered the apartment only to be met with the most resonant voice. The pleasant sound filled my ears entirely and magnetically drew me to its source.
My eyes went wide to see Noah sitting on his bed. His fingers worked smoothly against the strings of the guitar resting on his lap. His eyes were closed, and his loud harmonic sound rang in the whole house. He looked so peaceful like singing was his solace.
I walked across an empty land
I knew the pathway like the back of my hand
I felt the earth beneath my feet
Sat by the river, and it made me complete
Oh, simple thing, where have you gone?
I'm getting old, and I need something to rely on
So tell me when you're gonna let me in..
He halted after that, and the lyrics of the next line were out of my mouth before I even knew it. "I'm getting tired, and I need somewhere to begin," I made a feeble attempt to sing.
He immediately spun around to look at me, and his fingers left the strings as his hand went to his chest to calm himself. "Fuck. How long have you been standing there? People have got to stop sneaking up on me."
"Well, I think by keeping your unlocked, you're asking people to do that."
"Ahh, Scar just left with Jordan so she must've left it open," he said, shaking his head.
"Also, YOU SING?!! Scar never told me that," I scrunched up my eyebrows wondering why.
His lips curved up to form a smirk. "So you talk to Scar about me, huh?"
I expired inaudible words of denial. "What? No, I don't!" He was still smirking at me. "Shut up, don't change the topic. The guitar and the piano weren't here the last time I came," I told him walking in near touching the piano slightly with my fingers.
"Yeah. I got it yesterday from the house," he cringed at the last word.
"You mean your house which is basically a fortress?"
"Yeah, that one," he sighed.
"How come I've never heard you sing before?"
"Well, that's because you're the first to know. Mom taught me the piano because she loved it and I studied guitar because it fascinated me, but singing was something that just came along," he smiled at the memory. "I completely stopped playing and singing after mom passed away but I don't know why I missed it a lot this past couple of days, so this is the first time I'm singing in eleven years," he said surprising me as well as himself.
He hadn't sung in eleven years?
"Christ. Eleven years? That's way too long," I said.
"Yeah, losing your mom makes you wanna give up the loveliest of things," I went still as he said that and didn't know how to respond so I kept quiet. "Anyway, don't tell anyone. Even Scar doesn't know, and I don't really want anyone to know right now," he requested.
"Shame. I just posted it on the official NYU website," I smiled smugly at him.
"Kissass."
I chuckled when he said that, and so did he. "Why'd you stop? Go on."
"I sing well, don't I?" he said, owning a proud look.
"It's bearable," he knew that was my way of agreeing with him.
"I'm not used to singing for an audience," he looked down sheepishly.
What? "There's no audience! It's just me," I chuckled, shocked that Noah wasn't confident about something.
"Yeah, I know but... wanna play FIFA till they get back?" he didn't complete his sentence and completely changed the topic. But he knew I was never gonna say no for FIFA.
I didn't push him and left it at that. We came out in the room and took out the controllers. I noticed that one of the normal black ones was replaced with an army green colored one and before I could put my hand on the beautiful device, Noah already snatched it. I squinted my eyes at him, and he just gave me a cheeky smile.
"By the way, I'm glad you convinced me to give Scar and Jay a chance. They're are disgustingly in love," he said. His tongue made its way out of his lips as his eyes were glued to the screen while making the next move. I quickly shifted my gaze from his face to the TV.
"Well, what can I say? I'm always right," I stated the obvious.
"But what happens when they break up?" he tilted his head to one side and raised an eyebrow.
I paused the game and kept the controller down. "Why are you so certain that they will break up?"
"Come on, precious; you can't be in a relationship with one single person for the rest of your life, that just wouldn't work!"
"No, you can't be in a relationship with one single person but that's what the rest of us want in life," I pointed it out to him.
He folded his legs and faced me. "What do you want? No flavor? No choices? Just one single person?"
"Um yeah, that's what normal people want, Noah!"
"That's crazy! Neither girls and definitely not boys have the will power to remain loyal to their significant other," he scoffed. His firm belief in this statement of his was why he didn't want to let Jay and Scar be together.
"Well, believe it or not, love works wonders," I shrugged my shoulders.
He laughed mockingly. "Oh please, love is so overrated. All it does is hurt you," he shook his head.
I stared at him in disbelief. "So you don't believe in love as well? You don't think it exists?"
"No, that's not what I'm saying. Of course, it exists. I just don't even wanna experience all that bullshit."
I pursed my lips at him. "Let's see if you say that after you fall in love."
"Why would anybody ever want to fall in love? It makes you attached to one person and then that one person who you think is your world either ends up cheating on you or our dear God takes them away," he spit out the words with utter discontent.
"You don't believe in God or love? What a killer bad boy cliche!" I responded.
He smiled at me with gritted teeth. "Don't. Don't say that. You know I've my reasons for denying it."
"You also have a ton of reasons to believe in both yet you choose to be pessimistic about it," I blew out an exasperated breath and kept my vision fixed on his face.
Just as he was about to respond, Scar entered the hall and came up to hug me. Noah quickly went over and closed the door to his room so as to no questions would arise about the instruments and went to the kitchen to keep the bags with Jay.
"Hi! Where have you been all day? I didn't see you at all," Scar excitedly spoke, still keeping me trapped in the hug.
"Oh! you know the usual, I was studying," I brought my hands up to the level of my cheeks and shrugged.
Scar shuddered at the word studying. "Come on, let's start the movie," she clapped her hands together and my her excitement disappeared once she realized it's their turn to pick a movie. Jay sat next to her on the floor as I sat on the couch.
Noah started the movie and came and sat next to me. I was a lil annoyed that we didn't get to complete our discussion and it was quite evident from the expression of his face that so was he. They chose Revenant and Scar paused the movie the minute it started.
"Seriously? This legend has movies like 'Titanic,' and you go ahead and choose this brutal, intense, no-love-at-all type movie?" A scowl etched Scar's face.
"Hey, put it back on! It's our turn to choose, and you've to watch! Plus, I love this movie!" Jay said, taking the remote from her.
"Oh please, all you both love is pissing me off with such movies," Scar said making a grumpy face. We all chuckled, and Jay pulled her closer and kissed her temple lightly.
All the three of us knew that what Scar just said was one hundred percent true.
The movie began, and everyone went quiet. I could feel Noah's burning gaze at me, but I didn't pay any heed to it and stared right the screen watching a movie I'd never choose to watch in a million years. I felt him shift closer to me, and our forearms touched, but I very successfully pretended that it didn't affect me at all and still kept my eyes glued to the skin even though all I wanted to do is talk to him.
After a few minutes, we paused the movie and got up for a quick break. Scar and I were in the kitchen making more popcorn. Jay and Noah were in a very intense discussion about some John Cena thing that I didn't bother finding out. The doorbell rang, and since the kitchen was closer to the door, I told Scar I would get it.
Guess who I found standing there?
"Abigail." More like bitchy barbie! My sub-conscious rolled her eyes and retorted.
Her face scrunched up in disgust at my sight. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing," I gave her a fake smile.
"And I would answer, but I don't talk to people like you," she pushed her hair back from one side and straightened her coat.
"Look--" I started but got cut off the next moment. "I'll handle this, Syd," Scar came and kept a hand on my shoulder, coming in front of me.
"She is here because all of us want her to be unlike you, so why don't you stop wasting our time and tell us why the hell are you here?" Scar questioned.
Barbie's lips curved into a wicked smile. "Noah and I had a wonderful time last night," as soon as she said that, my heart sat still. "And he wasn't picking any of my calls so I thought I'd come by and see for myself."
Why can't this girl take a hint for once?
"Woman, if he's not picking your call, it means he doesn't want anything to do with you!" Scar yelled in annoyance.
"No, I won't go until you call him," she huffed.
I wanted to punch her so bad at that moment. What the hell was wrong with her?
Scar and I went in to call Noah. "Hey, who is it on the door?" Noah said, munching on popcorn and laughing with Jay at some stupid video.
"Your girlfriend," I spat out and didn't bother looking at him.
He looked at me for a few moments and gulped then turned to Scar. "Can you please please handle her for me? Please? You can even choose the movie for the next three weeks," he pleaded.
"If she annoys you so much, why do you keep going back to her?" Noah shrugged his shoulders at Scar's question. She kept her hands at her hip, "No. That won't work. No shrugging, promise me you're never calling her here or going over to her place, and if you can't do that, I'll let her right in, and you both can have your own movie night," she spoke in one breath.
Noah let out a sigh. "Okay, yes, I promise. I won't go back to her." Even though it didn't make things any better at that moment, I was glad Scar made him do that. We already had too many problems spreading like fungus in our lives to worry about Barbie. Scar went ahead and opened the door wide, and all of us could see a little bit of her red short skirt as we were peeping out of the hall.
"Okay, listen here, you skank. None of us are interested in your STD's over here, especially Noah. So why don't you take these Louboutins away and bang someone else's door for attention?" Scar gave her a sweet smile, and all of us beamed in shock and happiness.
"You bitch, I thought you liked me!"
I facepalmed myself at her stupidity.
"How did she not notice the angry expression on Scar's face every time?" Jay whispered, equally annoyed at her idiocy.
"Yes and we all thought Snape was trynna kill Harry but hey! Guess what? Things aren't always what you think they are, okay? Now, bubyee, see you never!" Scar deadpanned and slammed the door on her face.
She came in and wiped the imaginary sweat off her forehead. Noah hugged her and thanked her for doing that. "Yes, yes, that's all okay. But remember your promise."
"You got it," Noah gave her a toothy smile.
We all took our places and resumed the movie. Noah increased the volume, and the sound blasted off the speakers. I felt someone touch my shoulder and there go the sparks! I didn't even have to think twice about who it was. Just the slightest touch from him and it felt like there was a fire that ignited sparks all over my body. I couldn't understand why and hated that. I wanted it to stop, but at the same time, I never wanted to stop the feeling that came along with it.
"What?" I scowled.
"I didn't choose to be pessimistic; you know that right? It's just how things in my life have been," he spoke softly, his lips unintentionally touching my ear once or twice as his words made their way to my head. Now I know why he increased the volume.
I closed my eyes, smiled and nodded at him and just like that; I wasn't mad at him anymore. Good Lord, this guy was good. Our faces were in very close proximity, and his eyes looked down at my lips which were slightly open exhaling the carbon dioxide nervously. My own eyes dipped down to look at his plump lips, and the next task was extremely tempting and considering the distance between us, very doable. His minty scent engulfed me and drew me even more in. One slight movement of my head and my lips would touch his soft cloudy ones.
I inhaled a sharp breath and moved back completely. Abigail's words 'Noah and I had a wonderful time last night' played in my head over and over again. Each and every time they replayed, I grew more deranged.
What the bloody hell was I just about to do?
Author's Note:
Hey guys! I'm sorry for being so late in updating! I've been very sick for the past few days, and my school seems to have a never-ending quota of exams!
I really really hope you like this chapter! Please don't forget to vote&comment; it's kinda my only source of happiness :)
Thank you for supporting this book till here. I love you all!
Stay safe and stay happy,
All the love, F x