After cleaning up, Noah walked me home in a comfortable silence. When we reached my front door we hesitated. It felt strange, like neither one of us knew how to end the night. We were still friends even though that kiss was definitely more than friendly. My feelings were rapidly becoming stronger. I needed to force myself to get past this. He was my best friend and I wasn’t going to do anything to jeopardize that. I had to keep telling myself that nothing could ever happen between us. Besides, he didn’t think of me that way even though that kiss was amazing. Teenage boys would kiss almost any girl, they were so horny.
Finally, I broke the silence. “Well, goodnight. It sure was fun practicing with you. Brittani is a lucky girl.” My face immediately contorted and I regretted the words that came out of my mouth.
“Don’t bring her up, not now.” He looked back and forth from my lips to my eyes. “Thanks for tonight.”
He glanced away for a second, and then looked back at me as a sweet smile spread across his face. “Goodnight, Tweet.”
“Goodnight Noah.”
As I watched him back away and walk down the front steps, tears started to collect in my eyes. I suddenly had this empty feeling. I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t want these feelings. They were going to ruin everything.
Noah suddenly stopped at the bottom of the steps. “Tweet.” His voice was low and raspy.
“Yeah?” I tried to keep my voice steady.
“Tonight was amaz…,” he paused. “You’re amazing.”
“Noah…” I trailed off as I choked back a sob.
“I wish you believed it,” he said.
He left without saying another word.
Standing alone, watching him walk away, the only thought running through my mind was, I wished I believed it too, so I could be your girlfriend.
I was at my locker the Monday morning after my kiss with Noah. I hadn’t seen or talked to him since our practice on Friday night. His date with The Interloper was Saturday night. I had to work on a paper all day Sunday, so there really was no time to get together.
Plus, I wasn’t all that interested to find out how his date went. That’s a lie. I was a little interested. That’s a lie too. I was completely consumed by thoughts of his date the entire weekend.
I startled when he came up behind me and whispered in my ear. “Mornin, Tweet.”
“Good morning.”
“I’ve missed you. I called you all weekend. I saw your mom yesterday. She said you were busy working on a paper.” He leaned his shoulder against the lockers.
“English,” I said.
Just then one of Noah’s teammates, Brad Johnson, walked up, slapped Noah on the back, and said, “Hey Stewart, heard you had a great time this weekend. I just got out of class with Brit. She couldn’t stop singing your praises, dude. Way to go.” As Brad walked off, Noah turned to me and shrugged.
Two other teammates, Jeremy and Spencer, came up. Spencer playfully grabbed the back of Noah’s neck, and said, “Heard you had a hot date this weekend. How about that, just a freshman and already a player.” Noah looked back at me as the guys walked off.
Innocently, I asked, “Your big date was this past weekend?”
“Don’t do that.”
“Do what?”
“Play dumb. You’re no good at it, Tweet.”
“Well, it sounds like your first date was a success,” I said with just a tad bit of snarkiness in my voice.
“I would say my first date was perfect.”
I started shoving books around in my locker, not looking at him. I knew I was being ridiculous. I knew he had the date with her Saturday. As I banged things around, I could feel him smiling at me. The bastard.
“Uh…you about done beating up that innocent locker, Rocky?”
“Congratulations! I’m glad your first date was…”
“Perfect.” He was enjoying himself at my expense.
“Perfect,” I repeated, sounding pissed off. “Oh, did I tell you that I joined the school newspaper? You know, maybe I could write an article about having the perfect date and interview you and your perfect date since your date was so perfect.” My words got snippier the longer my sentence ran on.
“Do you have any idea how adorable you are right now?” I narrowed my eyes at him. “Those guys are talking about my second date.”
“You’ve already had a second date?”
“Saturday night.”
“Saturday night?” My anger and confusion were about to go through the roof. “I thought Saturday night was your first date.”
“Friday night was my first date.”
I scrunched up my eyebrows, not understanding what he was talking about. “But you were with me all Friday night.”
He leaned in so close our noses were almost touching. His voice was low. “You didn’t think I wanted Brittani to be my first date and kiss, did you? I’ve shared all my firsts with you.” His eyes scanned my face as a shy smile played across his full lips.
Maintaining eye contact, he pushed off of the lockers, turned and then sauntered down the hall without saying another word, leaving me dazed, confused, and breathless. That had to be the sweetest, and hottest, thing any guy had ever said to any girl.