“I’m a fan of this look,” Noah said. “How come you never wear it, Tori?”
I shook my head and handed him a glass of ice water.
He stared around at the dining room. “I bet family dinners are quite an event around here.”
I shook my head got some salad. “Maybe if they happened a little more often. My mom has luncheons and dinners she goes to all the time. For committees she serves on and stuff. First it was PTO for school when I was growing up, something for her to do, and now she organizes events for a bunch of non-profits.”
“And your dad?” Noah asked and took a bite of fried rice.
“He travels like all the time for his work. He’s usually here on the weekends, though.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything else.
“What about your mom?” I tried. “What does she do?”
He glanced at the girls and saw they were chatting and eating on the other side of the dining table, not paying us any attention.
“Random jobs. Fast food, that type of thing. Anything she can get—when she’s trying to get sober.”
I nodded, not exactly sure how to respond. “Oh.”
We ate in silence for a few minutes.
“And your dad?” I asked, trying to meet his eyes.
He shook his head. “He’s never been around. Not mine. And Emma’s was a real jerk. My mom left him early on. Back when we were living a few counties over. She had a friend who helped her get a good start here, but that ended badly pretty fast. The last time she stayed clean for more than a few months was a while ago. I was in middle school.”
I took another bite of food and thought about what he said. “I guess no one has it perfect, huh?”
He finally met my eyes. “No, I guess you’re right. You can’t have it all.”
Fourteen
Isabella and Emma fell asleep on the couch after watching Beauty and the Beast.
Noah carried Emma upstairs to Isabella’s room. Her bed was big enough for both of them.
I guided a sleepy Isabella behind him, urging her to the bathroom to brush her teeth. “Don’t forget to floss, sleepy head.”
She nodded, eyes still closed as she grabbed her toothbrush from the sink.
When I entered Isabella’s room, Emma was awake again. “Are we gonna go home? What about momma?”
Noah hugged her. “We’re gonna stay here, okay? It’s a sleepover. You’ve had fun, right?”
I walked toward them. “She can borrow some PJs from Isabella. She has a ton.” I sat on the bed next to them. “You want to take a quick shower before bed?”
She nodded and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
It was still pretty early, so each of the girls took a shower. Isabella headed to my mom’s shower while Emma took the hall bathroom.
When Emma came back into the room in her PJs, she gave me a hug. “Can we do this again? This was my first sleepover.”
I smiled and hugged her back. “Of course.”
After the girls were in bed for good, I headed for a warm shower myself. I threw on some yoga pants and an old t-shirt and checked myself in the mirror to make sure I had gotten all my makeup off. My hair hung damp well below my shoulders. It was weird that Noah would see me like this, but I didn’t really have a choice. He was staying the night after all.
I found Noah on the couch downstairs.
He stared at me, not bothering to hide it.
“What?” I asked bluntly. His obvious staring unsettled me. “I know I probably look hideous.”
Without hesitating, he said, “Actually, I think you look more beautiful than ever.”
I stood in front of him, speechless. The way he looked up at me told me he was being honest. There was no sign of a grin, no crinkles at his eyes. Suddenly, I was really aware of how fast my heart was beating.
Somehow, I sat down without falling over.
“And you have freckles,” he said, like he realized I was just a normal person after all.
My body relaxed, and I remembered to blink. “Yeah, so?”
“So isn’t your last name Rodriguez?”
“My dad’s Colombian. My mom’s white,” I replied. “I get the freckles from her.”
And my naturally tan skin from my dad, along with my dark brown hair.
“Who do you get your green eyes from?” Noah asked, his own baby blues meeting mine.
“My mom. My dad says I look just like her, except not blonde.” After a few seconds of silence, I asked, “Any other questions?”
There was a pause, and he opened his mouth slightly, like he wasn’t sure he should say what he was thinking. “Why do you wear all that stuff?”
I clenched my jaw and looked away. “What stuff?”
“The makeup, the fancy clothes. You don’t need it.” I could hardly hear his voice now.
I opened my mouth to come up with an answer but fell short.
“So what time do you usually go to bed?” he asked.
I shrugged, glad he had changed the subject. “Not too late if I have practice. Usually, I’m pretty exhausted, and if it’s just us, I go to bed. I don’t like watching TV by myself.”
He handed me the remote with a grin. “You don’t have that problem tonight. Besides, I’m a night owl. I like staying up watching something until I fall asleep. Re-runs are my favorite.”
I gave him a smirk of my own and turned on the TV. I picked one of my favorite movies.
He scoffed. “A Nicholas Sparks movie? Really? I did not peg you for a die-hard romantic.”
I pulled a warm blanket over my legs and gave him a wink. “Hot cowboy? How can I not love this movie?”
He rolled his eyes but settled into the couch. “This should get me nice and sleepy.”
But halfway into the movie, neither of us was very tired. He hardly blinked, and his constantly changing facial expressions told me he was loving this movie as much as me.
By the end, I could hardly keep my eyes open. I rested my head back and held the blanket to my chest, trying not to think about how close Noah was.
“Okay, that last scene was pretty cheesy, you have to admit.” He sounded really close.
Eyelids shut, I barely said, “Completely agree.”
“But the rest wasn’t half bad.”
I couldn’t muster the energy to say anything.
“Hey, you’re half asleep already. It’s only ten o’clock!” he said, nudging my head gently with his shoulder.
“It’s ten forty-five,” I said in self-defense, opening my eyes.
He was right there, just a few inches away with a grin on his face.
The moment was short, but at the same time, it felt like I had enough time to memorize the shape of his mouth, the arch of his brows, the way his hair fell over his forehead.
He broke the silence. “Exactly. It’s early,” he said, sitting back up and scrolling through the menu of TV shows and movie options on the flat screen. “Hey, you have HBO. Yeah, I’m not getting a wink of sleep tonight.”
I tried to laugh, but it came out as a snort, probably due to exhaustion. And the fact that I felt frazzled from how close he had been. “I’m not sure I am physically capable of dragging myself all the way to my room right now,” I said, reclining my seat all the way. My head was touching Noah’s shoulder, and the blanket over me was so warm I didn’t want to move.
I let my eyelids close, exhaling slowly. “Wake me up when it’s time for school,” I mumbled.
“Will do,” Noah said with a laugh. “You sure you don’t want to go to bed? I should probably go to bed too.”
But I pretended not to hear him and let myself drift off, glad I wasn’t alone tonight.
The buzzing from my phone woke me up the next morning. After several minutes of making my way back from a deep sleep, my eyelids fluttered open.
It was still pretty dark in the living room, which meant that it was early. Then I wondered why I was in the living room instead of my bedroom, until I remembered falling asleep
on the couch last night.
With Noah.
I bolted straight up and looked around me.
Noah snored softly beside me, sprawled out on the couch. His head had been next to mine, but each of our bodies had laid in the opposite direction. Unlike me, though, he didn’t have a blanket.
I laid it gently over him, and my phone started buzzing again. I found it under the couch. My mom’s face lit up the screen. The glare was too bright for five-thirty in the morning, but if my mom was out of town, she usually called to make sure we were up in time for school.
I padded upstairs, making sure Noah was still asleep as I did.
“Hello?” I said quietly, walking down the hallway.
“Tori, are you up yet?” my mom’s voice greeted me. She sounded out of breath. She was probably already on the treadmill of whatever hotel she was at. Working out every morning was her religion.
I peeked in on the girls and closed their door silently again. “Yeah, I’m up, Mom.” I made my way to my room and closed the door behind me.
“Good. I’ll be home in time for dinner. Your father has to travel straight to New York, but maybe we can go out somewhere nice tonight. How does that sound?”
“Isabella has her swim meet, Mom.” I stared back at my crazy hair in the long mirror just inside my room.
“That’s okay. She’ll probably be done by the time you’re done with practice. I can catch up on some work.”
“So you’re not going to her meet?” I asked. “I would go, but I can’t miss practice. Not this week.”
“That reminds me. We should squeeze in a hair appointment for you on Friday afternoon. Maybe nails too? The three of us can go.”
I ignored the fact that she had avoided my question. “Sure, Mom. Isabella will love that.”
“Great. Get ready for school, and I’ll see you tonight.”
We hung up, and I set my phone to some of my favorite workout music. Anything to wake me up. I yawned, part of me regretting the late night but another part of me smiling from the way Noah had sat glued to the Nicholas Sparks movie.
I woke up the girls a bit earlier than I usually got Isabella out of bed, but I was in a great mood. “You guys want to grab some breakfast?”
“Can I have an iced coffee?” Isabella asked.
I never let her have more than a sip or two from my cup, but today, I’d make an exception. “If you hurry and get ready,” I said.
Isabella jumped out of bed and ran toward the bathroom. “Come on! You can borrow some of my clothes,” Isabella called to Emma, who was only a couple steps behind her.
By the time I got downstairs, Noah was up too. The blanket now lay folded neatly on the couch next to him.
He looked up from his phone. “Good morning,” he said.
“Morning,” I said with a small smile as I headed toward him. “I thought we could get some breakfast on the way to drop off the girls. We should have plenty of time.”
He glanced away. “Oh, you don’t have to do that. You’ve done enough—”
“Nonsense,” I said, walking over to the kitchen table to get my stuff together. “What’s the fun in my parents giving me a credit card if I can’t use it?”
He smiled and shook his head.
Within a few minutes, we all piled into my car. “Isabella, you got your swim meet stuff?” I asked, looking at her in the rearview mirror.
She nodded. “Got it.”
Noah turned to Emma. “You got all your stuff, kiddo?”
“Yep.”
After breakfast, we dropped off the girls at school. They walked in hand in hand.
Then Noah got a shower and change of clothes at his house before running back out to my car again. Unlike yesterday, his driveway was empty this time.
I looked up from my phone as he got in and shut the door. “That was the fastest shower ever.” But his hair was wet.
“Thanks,” he said with a smile. “Fast showers are a talent of mine.”
I laughed and began the drive to school. “Um, okay,” I said. “Well, I’m glad Isabella will have an extra friendly face at school today.”
“Me too. Those two act like long-lost sisters or something,” he said.
“Isabella made me promise she’d get to hang out with Emma again,” I said, glancing at Noah as I kept my hands on the steering wheel.
Noah glanced at me. “Oh, I’m sure Emma would love that. She never gets to hang out with any of her friends after school.”
With their home situation, I could imagine why. But even so, it wasn’t fair. “I’m glad you guys got to come over yesterday,” I said. “It was fun.”
A smile replaced the serious expression on Noah’s face. “Me too. Nicholas Sparks, who would have thought?”
Fifteen
“Tori, are you listening?” Coach Davis’s voice broke through my thoughts of Noah sitting on my couch.
Noah Thomas sleeping on my couch.
I blinked twice and came back to Earth. “What? Sorry, Coach.”
Coach Davis came toward me. “Are you okay? You’re not coming down with something, are you?”
She looked torn between worrying that I was sick and making me run laps for not paying attention.
I gave her a quick smile. “No, I’m okay. I just—have a big test tomorrow. That I need to study for.”
Julie gasped. “Oh, man, I have a big test too. And a study guide due tomorrow.”
“Me too. For social studies, right?” Zoey said.
“I have a paper I need to finish,” Lindsay said.
Coach Davis glanced around the gym, and her features softened just a tad. She checked her watch. “Let’s run the routine one more time, and then we’ll call it quits for tonight.”
I exhaled, and right away, everyone’s spirits lifted.
“From the top!” Mia shouted.
Ten minutes later, we were walking out of the gym, thirty minutes earlier than the official end of practice.
Julie led the way to our cars. “Wow, that’s the second time she’s let us go home early.”
Mia chuckled. “Maybe becoming a grandmother again has turned her soft.”
I nodded. “I bet that’s it. I think she remembered she has a beating, feeling heart.”
Zoe spoke up. “And that we’re not robots.”
“I cannot wait to go to bed,” Julie said. “But I need to finish that study guide first.”
Zoey nodded. “We should totally do it together over FaceTime.”
They made homework plans, and I waved goodbye. My phone rang with an incoming call.
Expecting to see my mom’s name light up my screen, I was completely surprised to see Noah’s name instead.
I got into my car before pressing the green button on my screen to answer the call. “Hey,” I replied, surprised at the happy-sounding tone of my voice.
“Hey,” he said, sounding just as peppy. “Sorry to bother you.”
“It’s no bother,” I said.
“Oh, well, um, maybe it will be. See, it seems that my dorky little sister—” I heard a big “Hey!” in the background along with some muffled groans of pain before Noah came back on—“Sorry, I mean, my adorable little sister left her school agenda at your house. Probably in Isabella’s room. And she really needs it for her homework and stuff.”
“Oh,” I said, not sure why I felt disappointed all of a sudden. “Well, do you know what it looks like?”
“Um, well, I think it’s red? Or is it blue? If I see it, I’ll recognize it.”
An idea took hold of me. “I’m on my way home now. How about I just pick you up? You don’t live too far from here anyway. I can take you home after. I have to meet my mom and my sister in town for dinner anyway.”
“Uh, okay. See you in a few, then?”
I was at his house in no time, but the sun was quickly setting, and I’d be late for dinner if I didn’t hurry. I texted him, and he came out of his house, jogging all the way to my car. He climbed in. A large blue beanie c
overed most of his hair, and I couldn’t decide if I’d rather he take it off or not.
“Where’s Emma?” I asked.
“Getting ready for bed. My mom’s home... They should be fine,” he said. “This shouldn’t take long. Sorry you had to come all the way out here.”
“No problem,” I said. On the way to my house, I tried to find something to talk about. “Got a ton of homework tonight?”
He glanced my way. “Just that paper due in a couple weeks. I need to start on that.”
“The one that counts as a mid-term?” I asked. “Ugh, I need to finish the book. I forgot about it.”
He stared at me. “How do you forget to finish that book?”
I shrugged. “I’ve been really busy with cheer. And every other class and assignment.”
He shook his head. “You better text me when you finish it. I want to read your paper too.”
I scoffed. “Yeah, right. You are not reading my paper. I’m sure it’s not going to be very good. Anyway, how do you think Nicholas Sparks is lame, but not The Fault in Our Stars? Aren’t they both romance stories? That makes no sense.”
He faced me, his eyes intense. “No! If you’d finish the book, you’d realize that. And you can’t just compare John Green to Nicholas Sparks. John is on a whole different level. I’ve read some of his other stuff, and it’s awesome. It’s YA and way deeper than what Sparks calls literature.”
We stopped at a red light, and I held up my hands. “Okay, you are the biggest nerd I know,” I said, laughing.
He sat back, arms crossed with a smile on his face. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”
I gave him my best snarky look. “It wasn’t.”
“There it is,” Noah said, crossing Isabella’s room. A red and blue agenda peeked out from under her bed, with Emma’s name written in big, blocky letters across the top. “Yep, this is it.”
I followed him to the hallway, ready to make a crack at him for the navy-blue beanie he wore today, but the way he looked at me when he turned around made me forget what I was about to say.
#LoveToHateThatBoy (#BestFriendsForever Book 2) Page 9