Elle's POV
Almost a month has gone by since I saw Noah at the wedding. I had spent time with Lexi and Darren a few times since telling them everything about Noah. They know all about my Noah drama now, but Darren wasn't able to give me much more insight on what happened after our break-up. Not surprisingly, Noah never opened up to his guy friends about our relationship or much of anything very personal. I knew he had always kept his feelings pretty bottled up with most everyone else, except for me. Darren did feel the same way as Lexi, though, that Noah wouldn't have cheated on me or moved on so quickly like I thought he did after we ended things.
I flew back to LA the Saturday before Thanksgiving. I took some extra time off work, since I had a longer break from school and I was missing my family and Lee. Lee and I hung out on Saturday night. He was still my bestie and we were as close as always, but I hated living so far away from him. I was happy we had gotten through the weirdness in our relationship after I first moved to Chicago. We still didn't get to see each other as often as I would like, I still wanted to live next door to him, like we always planned when we were kids. But we talked in some form or another pretty much every day now and made plans to see each other whenever we could.
Sunday came and I was surprised when Dad said we would be having a family lunch. I knew the Flynns were going to Seattle for Thanksgiving to visit extended family this year, so I thought maybe we would skip out on all getting together. Lee had told me they were leaving early Monday morning. Dad said that they felt bad that they were missing Thanksgiving with us, so June had insisted that we still meet for lunch. I know I had told myself that I would talk to Noah this time, but I was nervous about seeing him again. I felt guilty for taking off on him after our night together without talking to him and I was confused after hearing about his conversation with Lee. I told myself I only had to get through this lunch, then he would be out of the city for the rest of the week.
Seeing everyone sitting here at our favorite restaurant made me think back to the weekly lunches from when I was younger. They were always happy occasions, of course we were also little kids and Lee and I had fun wherever we were, as long as we were together. We played a lot with Noah at that point too, so the three of us were always playing around during lunch. By the time Noah went to junior high, he was ignoring me and Lee most of the time, but Lee and I really didn't care. Lee and I still had fun on our own and spent a lot of our lunch time trying to annoy Noah. Lunches were difficult during the time when my Mom got sick and when she passed away. Our families still got together, but there was always this sadness hanging over us. I liked our get togethers once I was older and had a big crush on Noah because I got a chance to be around him every week. He was quiet at those, it wasn't cool for the bad boy to be hanging out with us younger kids and our parents, but I could still watch him and listen to him answer questions from the parents.
Then, there were the lunches during the couple months that Noah and I were dating in secret. Those could be enjoyable, but also frustrating. Both of us had a really hard time not showing how we felt about each other in front of everyone. I wanted to reach out and hold his hand when we were sitting so close. We had a tough time not just staring at each other the whole time or talking to each other too much. Sometimes we would figure out a way to sneak off at the same time or to end up sitting next to each other and touch hands or legs under the table, but we had to be so careful. We were so worried that someone would catch on and I wasn't ready for Lee to find out yet.
Once everyone knew we were dating everything was so much better. It was fun to be able to be ourselves and not have to hide anything. Sure, it took some members of our family longer than others to approve of our relationship – Lee and both of our Dads, mine especially. June and Brad were always on board with Noah and I being together. But once everyone was happy for us, I loved that our families were so close and we could spend this time all together. I missed these family get togethers a lot during the time my family lived in Chicago.
My phone vibrated and I looked down to see a text from Lee. Cell phone use had always been forbidden during meals with our families. When we first got our phones, we would be on them the whole time. Sometimes just texting each other back and forth. Mostly Lee and I, but Noah would get involved too. Mostly Noah only wanted to antagonize Lee, but sometimes we would tell jokes to each other or just talk through texts. It was like having our own secret language (something Lee and I had tried to do when we were 10 but never figured out enough to do more than annoy Noah with it), since the adults didn't know what we were talking about. I don't think the adults minded having us so quiet for once at the table, but when we kept ignoring them, they implemented the no phone rule. I moved my cell phone under the table and looked down.
Lee - Noah texted me and asked me to ask you to unblock him. What's the deal with that?
Elle – I already did. I had him blocked from the break-up for too long. I don't know why he's asking now.
Although, I did have an idea about why he was asking, but I hadn't mentioned seeing Noah at the wedding to Lee. Seconds later I heard the vibration again. I saw Noah's name pop up on my phone and looked over at him, he was looking at me with his smirk after hearing my phone notify me of his text.
Noah - Did you really finally unblock me?
Elle – I did it a couple weeks ago. I'm sorry about that, I shouldn't have done it in the first place.
Noah's phone dinged when I sent that text and his Dad shot him a look. Noah looked up and said sheepishly, "Sorry, work text. I'll take care of it and turn this off." My phone vibrated again and this time my Dad noticed me on my phone.
"What's going on with you kids today, you all know the rules, phones down please." My Dad gave me an irritated look. Definitely reminded me of getting in trouble at our lunches when I was a kid. I looked down at my phone one more time.
Noah - If I call you tonight, would you promise you'll answer?
"Sorry, dad. Friend emergency. I'm putting it down now." I looked over at Noah and made a slight nod of my head, hoping no one would notice and put two and two together after the texts back and forth. Noah's whole mood seemed to shift, and he was a lot more talkative the rest of the meal. Lee kept eyeing the two of us, like he was trying to figure out if something was going on.
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I was hanging out with Brad that night and playing video games, trying to make up for all our time apart, when my phone rang. Brad is almost 13 now and I'm trying to spend as much quality time with him as I can before he doesn't want to hang out with his big sister anymore. One of the best things about my time in Chicago was how close Brad and I were. I looked at my phone and saw it was Noah calling. I answered quickly and asked him to hang on for a second. I told Brad I was going to have to bail on him and headed up to my room.
I took a deep breath. "Hi! Sorry about that, Brad and I were playing video games."
"First, sorry for getting you in trouble for being on your phone at lunch today. I didn't want to talk at the table and get everyone else in our business." Very true, I'm sure our families would have a lot to say about our relationship issues. Everyone always seemed to have their own opinions about our relationship and were more than willing to share them. "Listen, Shelly, we need to talk. I don't know what happened in Chicago when you left, but can we talk? Not over the phone, though, can we meet in person? Would you meet me tomorrow night? For supper or later or anytime. . ." Noah trailed off.
"Aren't you guys leaving in the morning for Seattle?"
"Mom, Dad, and Lee are, but I'm not going on the trip, I'm staying here all week. I didn't want to take the time off work."
Why had no one told me that? No, this is fine, I can handle this, I told myself. We need to talk about this, a couple hours of talking with Noah and we can clear the air and maybe Christmas will be less awkward than our past few family gatherings.
"Okay, then. Do you want to meet at the Pier at 7? Maybe we can walk on the beach?" If we're walking next to each other, I wouldn't have to sit across from him at a table. I would have an easier time concentrating if I don't have to look directly at him or feel his eyes on me the whole time.
"Really?" I heard surprise in Noah's voice. "That would be great, I can't wait to see you! I mean, I think it will be good for us to talk through our issues."
He almost sounded excited. Was he just hoping to clear the air to make things easier with our families also, or was there something more? Wait, don't even go there. I am not going to get my hopes up that Noah wants something more. Is that even what I want? The thought of the possibility of getting back together with Noah both excites and terrifies me, but I won't let myself think of it as an option right now.
"I agree, I'll see you tomorrow night." No backing out now. I know both of us need to finally talk about this, we need to get some closure. But as much as I realize I'm looking forward to seeing Noah tomorrow night, I'm not looking forward to rehashing this painful subject.
A/N – Sorry to stop there, but I promise Noah and Elle will finally be talking to each other in the next chapter! Thank you so much for all of the comments and votes on this story! I'm really excited that the story is so close to 2K reads. I love to read all of the comments and it really does motivate me to write more. Please continue to vote if you like the story!