by Sam Crescent
“This is really none of your business.”
“He’s not hurt you, or bullied you. I’m just trying to figure out what the problem is.”
“There is no problem.”
“Yeah, there is. You won’t give him the time of day.”
“You’re being unfair, Noah. He was a bully.”
“He’s trying, Kim. Give him a chance.”
Kim sighed. “I talk to him, Noah. I’m nice to him. You and Elsa have something special. Others, they don’t.”
Noah stared up at the ceiling before returning his gaze to her. “I tried.”
“Did he put you up to that?”
“No, he didn’t. Kurt, he’s an asshole, but he’s a good friend. I care about him.”
“That’s nice to know. I’m not going to hurt anyone, Noah. I’m just not going to fall for a guy I’ve spent most of my life being afraid of. I don’t expect you to see it from my side, but that’s it.”
Noah nodded. “You’re right. I’ve never been bullied before.”
Kim smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I’m going to go and see my mother.”
He watched her leave and wished he’d kept his mouth shut.
“She’s struggling to get over the name-calling and the bullying,” Elsa said, coming round the corner.
Noah saw how beautiful she looked in the prom dress that molded to every curve. “Hey,” he said. “You were stood there the whole time?”
“Not the whole time but I heard enough. She needs time.”
“I’m getting that.”
Elsa smiled. “What do you think?” She gave him a little twirl, and he grabbed her hand, pulling her close.
“You’re so beautiful. I want to take you home right now.”
“We can’t go home right away. We’ve got to enjoy this party.”
Noah groaned, pressing his face against her neck. “Fine, we’ll stay and dance for you.” He kissed her lips and took her out onto the dance-floor.
He noticed how she couldn’t stop smiling.
“What is it?” he asked.
“This is the first time I’ve been to a dance. I never go to them, and technically, this is my first date with you.”
“Come on, we’ve been on loads of dates.”
“Not really.”
Noah sighed. “Really?”
She nodded.
“Fine, you’re going to make me get all mushy. Elsa, I consider every single moment that I spend with you a date.”
“You do?”
“Yeah, I do. You’re smart, funny, beautiful, and you make my world complete. Every moment with you is special for me. I never thought it was possible to fall in love but when I’m with you, and when I’m away from you, you’re the only person I can think about.”
“You love me?”
“I’ve told you that I do plenty of times.”
Elsa reached up and kissed him. “You said you thought you were falling in love with me.”
“Oh, well, I know I’ve fallen in love with you. Can’t you see that, feel it when I’m around you?”
“I love you, too.”
He sank his fingers into her hair and locked his lips with hers. She opened her mouth, and he went on inside, taking possession of her lips. To him she was his world, and he wouldn’t change a thing. Noah had found her, and knew he’d discovered a real gem, and he wasn’t going to let her get away, not now, not ever.
Noah danced with Elsa in his arms, and couldn’t believe how lucky he was. When he spotted Kurt entering the country club, he and Elsa made their way toward the table where Kim sat.
“Hey, man,” Kurt said, shaking his hand. “Hey, Elsa, Kim.”
They all smiled at him, as did Kim. She wasn’t mean to Kurt. Kim just didn’t give him anything more than friendly interaction.
Sitting around the table, they all started talking about their futures.
“Are you both excited that you’re going to the same college?” Kim asked.
Noah took Elsa’s hand and nodded. “I wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else.”
“What about you, Kurt? What are you going to do?”
“At first I was just going to rely on football to live my dream. Since talking with this guy, I’ve decided to make sure that I’ve got a backup. I’m going to college that also has dramatic arts.”
“You’re an actor?” Kim asked.
“According to my parents I’m a bad one, but our careers’ professor seems to think I’ve got a flair for it. What about you? What are you going to do?”
“I’m going to art and design school.”
“That’s fantastic. You like drawing?”
“Pretty much. I like sculpting as well.”
Noah smiled as he watched the two start to hit it off. When Kurt asked Kim to dance, she accepted.
“Well, that is a little progress.”
“Kim’s not a bad person. He’s got a long way to go for her to trust him, if she ever does.”
“Come on, Elsa, let’s go and dance.”
The rest of the night, Noah romanced Elsa, dancing with her. They had a lovely dinner, and he hoped that he gave her a night to remember. It was what he wanted to do.
****
Christmas came and went with Noah and Elsa still together. They had defied the odds of their relationship. They were both accepted into the same college. Kurt and Kim had gotten into separate colleges. Elsa was right about them. Kim was friends with Kurt, but they hadn’t gotten further. He never gave up though, which was kind of sweet to watch.
Jessica and her friends left them alone. Sienna came to talk to them though. She was still dating Adam, so she’d made it work.
For Elsa it was still kind of surreal to be dating one of the most popular guys in school.
Her mother had backed off with her losing weight demands. Elsa still exercised with Noah. They’d done the before and after shot of her. Even though she hadn’t lost much weight, she had toned up her body, and she had lost a little weight, which was fun.
He’d kept to his promise about her identity remaining a secret.
Tomorrow was graduation, and soon their futures away from high school would start.
They both spent time at each other’s houses. They’d become one of those close couples that actually enjoyed spending time with each other. Now she stood in his room, talking with him.
“Can you believe at the start of the school year I didn’t know you at all, and now I know that you like the color green? It’s crazy.”
He laughed. “Yeah, you like the color blue, love chocolate ice-cream, and hate having your picture taken.”
“You still keep taking it, which drives me crazy.”
Noah was tapping away at the keyboard, and she walked over to him, tucking her hair behind her ear as she did.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
“I have worked on a little high school memory board, photography, thingy,” he said.
“Show me.”
He leaned out and tapped his thigh. “Take a seat.”
She lowered herself to his knee, and he clicked a button. Elsa frowned as the first picture was a group photo of them all in kindergarten.
“Oh my God, you still had that?”
“Yep, and I’ve got a lot more.”
Elsa watched as the photographs showed them growing up, different pictures of each of them, until after a few minutes they came to the shots they took together. The first were of her as he made her turn from side to side so he could get the shots for his paper.
“You must hate me,” she said.
“Not at all. I found it really hard to just take pictures of your body. I wanted the whole package.”
She kept on watching, and she saw as they’d changed it up, pulling funny faces at each other. Even now, she was so happy.
Noah wrapped his arms around her, kissing her shoulder.
“You’re so beautiful. Going to Bruce’s and seeing you was the best thing that had ever happened t
o me.”
“I was so scared to even enter that gym. I wished there was a magical cure to lose weight.”
“I’m pleased there wasn’t.”
There were more pictures of the two of them together, one at the Christmas country club prom and several at school while they’d been studying.
“Elsa, there’s something I want to ask you, and I don’t want you to freak out, or start panicking, okay?”
“Why start off with saying something like that?” she asked. “Now I’m nervous as hell.”
He chuckled. “I’m sorry. Try to forget all that I’ve just said.”
“That’s even harder to do.” She smiled. “What is it?”
“We’re going away to college, and I want to do something that will guarantee you stay mine. It’s also completely crazy, and I don’t even know if you’ll accept.” He held a small velvet box in front of her. “Elsa, will you marry me?”
She gasped. Not once had she even considered for a second that he’d propose marriage.
“You want to marry me?”
“I was going to ask you tomorrow at graduation, get down on one knee in front of the whole crowd, and then I realized you hated scenes, and people staring. This is it, me, here, putting my heart and my future on the line for you.”
“It’s not on the line.”
“I love you, Elsa. I know I want to spend the rest of my life with you. I want us to be the crazy teens that get married young, but I want to be the ones that prove everyone wrong. We are right together, we are good together.”
Elsa silenced him with a kiss. “Shut up, Noah. Yes.”
“Yes?”
“Yes, put the ring on.”
He pulled the ring out and slid it onto her finger. “Holy shit, we just got engaged.”
“We’re going to have to tell our parents.”
“They already know. I asked your father for your hand in marriage.”
“What did he say?” Elsa asked.
“I’m alive, and after some pretty hard grilling, he accepted that I was the right man for you.”
“People are going to think we’re pregnant.”
“I don’t care. I kind of like the thought of you being pregnant though.”
She chuckled. “Not right now.”
“No, we’ve got a future together, and I intend to enjoy every second of it,” Noah said, taking her lips in a possessive kiss, making her forget everything else but him.
Epilogue
Elsa and Noah got married before college, and they became known as the wedded couple. Neither of them strayed, and no one could tear them apart. Even their college peers made bets on how long they’d stay together.
Throughout the next ten years they defied all expectations, staying together and being happy with each other.
They both graduated college, Noah going on to be a physical therapist for sports injuries. Elsa changed her path and majored in law, much to her father’s happiness. After college, Elsa trained at different law firms, fulfilling the requirement to get experience away from her father. She took challenging cases, winning plenty and losing a few.
By the time they were both twenty-eight, Elsa was ready to settle down, so together they moved back to the childhood neighborhood.
They were moving into a modest three bedroom house. Elsa placed a box on the kitchen table and stared around at her space.
Noah came up behind her, wrapping his arms around her. “What are you thinking?”
“We’re back home, and we’re still together.”
“Did you know Mrs. Donald, our chemistry teacher, was in on the bet?”
Elsa laughed. “You’re kidding?”
“Nope.”
“What was her limit?” Elsa asked.
“She didn’t have a limit. She actually believed we’d be together for a long time.”
“How do you know all this?”
“I just bumped into her. She tried to give me the winnings from the bet, but I wouldn’t take it.”
“Winnings? How is that possible?”
“She was the only one to bet on a lifetime, and no one else had gone this high.”
“Wow, they really didn’t believe we were real, did they?”
“Nope.” He kissed her neck. “We proved them wrong.”
“I can divorce you now.”
“I doubt it. I’m the only one that does that thing with my tongue.”
She groaned, pressing her thighs together to stem the flow of arousal. “Stop.”
“Nope. We’ve got some time before Kurt and Kim arrive to help. How about we get started on filling up that nursery?”
Kim and Kurt were not together. Over the years, they had both stayed in touch with their friends, and even arranged to see each other as well. Kurt owned his own company and was making a name for himself in the business world. Kim was more modest, and grasped life as an artist. She was rather sensual in her art, which Elsa put down to her lack of satisfaction with life.
“Do you think they’ll ever get together?” Elsa asked.
“I don’t know. I’m hoping to get together now, with my wife.”
“You’ve got a one track, dirty mind,” she said.
“And you love it.”
“That I certainly do.”
****
Kim was shaking. She couldn’t believe this was happening. The studio that she worked for, and that she had a contract with, had gone bust. She didn’t have any money herself, and now she was standing in the studio, waiting for the businessman to arrive. Mr. Coal had wanted his asset to be present when the guy showed up.
She didn’t know why. Over the years she’d proven time and time again that she sucked at social situations. This wasn’t going to be any different.
The doors opened, and she froze. Kurt, the guy from high school who’d bullied her, was entering. He stared at her, and without looking away, spoke.
“Leave us, Mr. Coal.”
The boy from high school was gone, and in his place stood a man that Kim didn’t recognize.
“Hello, Kim, it has been a long time.”
“Hey, Kurt.”
“Let’s get down to business.”
The butterflies dancing in her stomach went crazy. Whatever was about to happen, Kim doubted she was going to like it, but what choice did she have? This was her livelihood, and now it was in Kurt’s hands.
The End
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Other Books by Sam Crescent:
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