Dating: On the Rebound

by Stephanie Street

  A sharp knock on my car window made me jump.

  It was Noah. Of course. He lifted his eyebrows and I knew I wasn’t getting out of this. I opened my door with a sigh. It was chilly and I was glad I’d worn a long sleeved tee under a hooded sweatshirt. I pulled the hood over my messy bun and scowled as I got out of my car.

  “I hate you.”

  Noah grinned. “So you keep saying.”

  “I mean it this time.”

  He didn’t respond, just latched onto my elbow, herding me toward the large, open door of the barn where we were going to assemble the float. I’d seen more than a dozen of my classmates walk into the building while working up the nerve to leave my car. They were all inside, gathered around a rough wooden table with several papers scattered across its surface.

  I recognized a couple of the guys from the basketball team, Grayson and Will, just like Noah had said. Both glanced up as we approached and scowled at Noah.

  I leaned into his side and whispered, “I’m not the only one hating on you right now.”

  Noah rolled his eyes and gently nudged me toward his friends who stood apart from the rest of the group.

  “Dude.” It was all Grayson said once we were close enough.

  “Yeah, man. How’d we get involved in this? We never do fall Homecoming.” Will crossed his arms over his chest, everything about his body language screamed ‘annoyed’.

  “Yeah, well I’ve never been on the planning committee before,” Noah said, not at all worried about the death glares coming from his friends.

  “What does that have to do with us,” Grayson asked, gesturing between himself and Will.

  “You guys are a bunch of big babies, you know that?” Noah growled. “You’re my best friends, that’s what it has to do with you.”

  Grayson and Will both grumbled some more, but then they were over it and Grayson turned to me.

  “What about you, sweet thing? How’d this jerk get you here?” Grayson was a ladies man and it was easy to see why. He was totally good looking and charming making him excellent research material for a romance author. I’d had my eye on him for a long time, watching the way he worked his magic on the girls at school. He was dangerous now, he’d be devastating as he got older. I almost wished I’d be around to watch it happen. Good thing I wasn’t affected by his brand of eye candy or I’d been lying in a heap at his feet.

  “The DeLorean idea was ours,” I admitted with a shrug. “We figured the least we could do was help out with putting it together.”

  Noah gave me the stink eye. “Oh, we figured, huh?”

  “Oh, shut it.” I elbowed his ridiculously flat stomach.

  “Well, I’m gonna tell you right now, I have absolutely no artistic ability whatsoever,” Will said, resting his elbow on Grayson’s shoulder.

  “That’s why we recruited the art students.” Noah pushed passed his friends and led the way to the rest of the group. “What do we have here?”

  Several heads lifted and Noah greeted everyone individually. I knew who most of them were, but hadn’t actually spoken to any of them. Of course, Noah acted like he was best friends with everyone. He just had that kind of personality. He was a natural people person.

  “Okay, everybody,” he called out and they all quieted down to listen to him. I kept myself at the back of the group and worked at not chewing off all of my fingernails. This was exactly the kind of environment I avoided even though the people in the barn weren’t necessarily ‘popular’ kids. It didn’t matter, bullies came in all shapes, sizes, and from all social statuses.

  “Maisy’s gonna help us with designing the car and I recruited Chad to instruct us on how to build this thing so it doesn’t roll off the flat bed in the middle of the parade. Everyone else, thanks for coming. I think this is going to turn out awesome.” Noah clapped his hands once. “Let’s get to work!”

  There was a flurry of movement as everyone began moving and talking at once. I was surprised at how organized Maisy and Chad were. Grayson told me later as we worked on stapling chicken wire around the wooden frame Chad and his crew had constructed that Chad volunteered the use of his family’s barn for float construction every year. Maisy was talented as well and I learned she was headed to a fancy art institute next year.

  We worked for six hours straight. At one point, someone ordered a bunch of pizzas and Chad’s mom brought out a cooler of soda and bottled water. Noah stuck close to my side and when he got pulled away, Grayson or Will were there to take his place, making me wonder if Noah had sic-ed them on me in case I tried to bail.

  I considered it.

  “I think we should do flaming skids coming from the back, don’t you?” Noah said at one point. “You know, like when the time machine takes off, it leaves burning rubber on the ground behind it?”

  We all stopped what we were doing to look at the back of the chicken wire and wood framed car. There was plenty of room on the flatbed to do what Noah suggested.

  “That would look so cool. How can we do it?” Will asked, walking around the trailer, assessing what we had to work with.

  “We could lay down boards and paint them orange,” Maisy said, her voice filled with excitement. “Then make flames out of red, orange, and yellow tissue paper.”

  Heads nodded as the vision of what that would look like began to form in our minds.

  “How about if we lay some Christmas lights down the middle of the boards so they are lit up under the tissue paper?” I suggested.

  “Yeah!” Will lifted a hand for a high five. I slapped it with a giggle.

  “Okay, that’s a plan.” Noah glanced at his phone. “It’s getting too late to do anything else today. I say we plan to meet again in a couple of days to do the paper mâché and work on the flames and then we should be able to paint the next time after that.”

  We all agreed and made a plan to meet on Wednesday and then again on Sunday afternoon to finish the float.

  We cleaned up our mess and prepared to leave. Noah and I put scraps of wood into a pile.

  “That wasn’t so bad, was it?” he asked.

  I shrugged. Noah knew about my past and why I avoided making friends. He’d stuck by me and I hated to admit, I not only enjoyed the security his presence provided, but I loved his company.

  “It was okay,” I hedged.

  He nudged me with his elbow. “Aw, come on, Tee, you can’t fool me. I saw you joking around with Will and Gray.” He glanced around to see who was listening before lowering his voice to say, “I even saw you smile a couple of times.”

  He waggled his eyebrows making it impossible to hold back the giggle in my throat. I playfully swatted his shoulder. “Oh, stop it.”

  Noah rubbed his shoulder, but he was grinning. “See? Not all humans are bad,” he teased, tossing the last piece of wood into the small pile and wiping the dust on his hands onto his jeans.

  I rolled my eyes. “I know that.” I probably sounded more defensive than I meant to.

  Noah frowned. “Hey. I was just joking around.” He put his arm around my shoulder. “I know-” he stumbled for the right words. He searched my eyes and settled for saying, “I know.”

  I nodded. He wasn’t being unkind.

  “Okay. We still on for making monster babies?” he asked, his eyes twinkling.

  “Yeah.”

  “Let’s hit it, then.”

  He grabbed my hand and didn’t let go as he made the rounds, firming up plans for the next meeting and saying goodbye. I fought the urge to pull my hand out of his. It just felt so good, I couldn’t deny myself his touch.

  Like I said, I was in so much trouble.

  17

  Tierney

  “I still can’t believe you’re going to the dance with Noah Jacobs.” Hannah was going to the dance with a group of her friends. They were all in my room getting ready. A thick fog of hair spray hung in the air, its scent mixed with six different perfumes threatened to knock me out.

  “Oh, my gosh. He is so hot,”
one of her friends said. Gemma or Jenna, I couldn’t remember her name.

  The fact that Noah was my date to the dance had been a hot topic for the last couple of hours.

  “We have to go because we were on the planning committee. It just made sense to go together.” I’d been reiterating this fact for days leading up to the dance ever since Hannah found out who I was going with. I seriously wished I hadn’t said anything to her until the moment arrived. At least I hadn’t told her about that kiss.

  I glanced at the time on my phone. We had to be there early, so Noah would be picking me up in just a few minutes. Taking a deep breath, I stood in front of the free-standing full-length mirror that filled one corner of my room.

  All in all, I was pleased with my appearance. I’d curled my dark hair into tight curls that bounced against my bare shoulder. I’d used a clip on one side decorated with sprigs of baby’s breath just like Lea Thompson’s in the first movie. I’d kept my makeup simple and wholesome. My shoes were simple as well, just a pink pump that matched my dress perfectly. I even had a white cardigan, thanks to my closet full of mom clothes, since the evening was supposed to be chilly.

  “Any reason is a good reason to be Noah’s date. Just sayin’,” another of Hannah’s friends said. They’d all stopped their own preparations to stare at me. I knew it wasn’t because of me, They were all just crushing on my date and probably wishing they were in my shoes. I was tempted to let one of them. I’d been a big ole ball of nerves all week. Going to the dance. Being Noah’s date. It was almost too much.

  “You look beautiful,” Hannah said, her smile taking up her whole face. She was so excited for me. I wanted to tell her to calm down. Noah and I were going to the dance as friends. Nothing more. But anytime I’d tried to tell her that, she’d shushed me and said nobody went anywhere with Noah as just friends.

  She was probably right.

  Turns out, Noah was pretty perfect and the massive crush I’d harbored all last year on the unattainable basketball star was developing into something much bigger. My feelings before were mostly based on superficial things. His good looks. His kind smile. Things I’d heard said about him in the halls at school. But now? Oh, now I knew first hand just how his amazing blue eyes glowed when something struck him funny. And that adorable smirk that turned up one side of his mouth when he was being a little too cocky yet self-deprecating at the same time. I knew how good his cologne smelled at the end of the day when it had been tempered by the natural scent that was just him.

  I’d spent enough time at his house working on our monster project to know how much he loved his parents and how torn up he was over his father’s illness, how hard he worked to take the pressure off his mom and keep her spirits up. I knew he truly was a perfectionist when it came to basketball on the court, but not when it came to balled up articles of clothing in his bedroom.

  The truth was I’d fallen for him. Fallen hard. It was stupid and I was bound to end up with a broken heart, but hard as I tried, I couldn’t seem to shake the need to see him every day. He called me. Late at night after his practice was over and we’d both finished our homework. For hours and hours we talked on the phone for weeks, our conversations delving much deeper than they ever did or could when we were at school.

  We talked about touchy topics like his schooling and if I would ever consider cheering again. Those usually ended in a stale mate, both of us realizing the other needed to just leave it be. Every night I went to bed to a text from him, one that he’d send almost immediately after we disconnected our call.

  He made me happy and I had to stop thinking about him like he was mine.

  Shaking myself, I smiled at my sister and her friends. “Thanks, you guys.”

  “Tierney! Noah’s here!” Mom yelled up the stairs.

  The chorus of girly squeals did nothing to calm my nerves. I put my hand to my stomach. “I’m gonna be sick.”

  Hannah’s eyes widened. “Not on my watch, you aren’t.” She grabbed hold of my shoulders and herded me out the door. Her friends followed and I realized we were going to have an audience. My breathing was shallow and my heart beat wildly in my chest. My palms were so sweaty I feared wiping them on my dress because I didn’t want to leave a mark.

  No, no, no. I couldn’t do this.

  Hannah must have realized how close I was to bolting because her grip tightened and she announced our presence from the top of the stairs. “Coming!” Not that she needed to, we must have sounded like a herd of elephants.

  My first reaction when my eyes landed on my date was jealousy. How could he appear so calm and cool when I swore molten lava ran through my veins? I got a good look at him when I reached the bottom of the stairs, my vision narrowing until he was all I saw. Noah Jacobs was my every dream come true. I never knew it really existed, that feeling people described in books and movies. My skin prickled and my heart felt funny. I could have been walking in quicksand and I wouldn’t have noticed because I felt like I was walking on air.

  Suddenly, I stood in front of Noah, my gaze held captive by his as his hands reached for mine. So slowly, I had a hard time catching on, Noah lifted my arms and spun me in a circle in front of him. He whistled low under his breath.

  “Wow. You look amazing.” I knew he meant it, too. His eyes glittered with appreciation and I was milliseconds away from throwing myself into his arms when I heard a collective sigh.

  “Awwww.” And the spell was broken.

  I put my hands up to my cheeks. The molten lava had reached them; they were on fire. A quick glance told me not only had my sister and her friends witnessed me gushing all over Noah, but so had my mom and Doug.

  I closed my eyes and inhaled a long, slow breath. I could do this. I had to.

  Noah squeezed my hand, forcing my eyes to open and focus on him. As if they had any other choice.

  “This is for you.” He held out a clear plastic box filled with raffia and a bright pink rose that was just dark enough not to clash with the pink of my dress. I took the box and opened it. The delicate scent reached my nose and I inhaled, bringing the flowers closer.

  “They’re beautiful.” I handed the corsage back so he could help me put it on my wrist.

  Noah smirked. “Mom helped me pick it out.”

  Noah’s admirers cooed again.

  “Let me get pictures before you leave.” Mom pressed Noah’s boutonnière into my hand which promptly began to tremble.

  This wasn’t the first time I’d had to pin a flower to my date’s lapel, but no other had affected me the way Noah did. He stood still as I stepped close. Taking a deep breath, I prayed for calm. Noah’s jacket smelled like dry cleaning and the fragrance he used everyday that had become so familiar to me.

  “Try not to stick me with that thing,” he teased, his eyes dancing as he tried to look down his nose at his chest.

  I scoffed. “I won’t.” It took me a couple of tries, but finally his flower was attached to his lapel and I hadn’t drawn any blood.

  “There,” I said, surveying my handiwork and straitening out his jacket just like I’d seen Mom do before she and Doug would leave for an evening out.

  It was several seconds before I realized what I was doing and froze, my hands laying flat over his chest. I felt his heart beating against my palm and thought maybe he wasn’t as cool as he appeared. My eyes met his.

  “Thanks,” he murmured, his eyes glowing with something I didn’t know how to define.

  I wanted to disappear into the floor.

  I glanced up and remembered our audience I’d forgotten for the second time. Mom’s phone was poised in front of her and I realized she’d been snapping pictures of the whole flower exchange. I didn’t think my cheeks could flame any hotter.

  I was wrong.

  “Um, okay, should we do pictures, Mom?” I asked, dropping my hands and stepping away so I wasn’t touching Noah anymore.

  Mom just grinned. “Nope, I think I got more than enough.”

  Oh, lord.
r />   I looked to Doug, who was looking at Noah with a stern expression. “Well, we should probably be going.” I gave Noah a gentle push, but he side-stepped me and held his hand out to Doug.

  “I’ll have her home?” he let the question dangle.

  I glanced at Doug. I knew him well enough to know he appreciated Noah’s gesture.

  “One o’clock,” Doug answered and shook Noah’s hand. I was proud of my date for knowing how to properly shake hands like a man.

  Noah nodded. “Yes, sir.” He glanced at my mom with that charming smile he wielded like a weapon. “It was nice to meet you, ma’am.”

  Mom smiled. “You guys have fun.”

  Ohmigosh. I had to get him out of there before he charmed them all. Grasping Noah’s hand, I pulled him toward the door. He stepped in front of me to open it and before I walked through, I glanced back at my mom.

  She fanned her face with her hand and winked before mouthing he’s so cute! I widened my eyes, trying to get her to stop. I glanced at Noah but he was facing his car, thank goodness! With a little wave to our audience, I followed him. Mom and Doug stood in the doorway as Noah helped me get into his car and stayed there until we drove away.

  “I am so sorry about that.” I pointed over my shoulder with my thumb.

  Noah just laughed. “Don’t worry. That was nothing.” He picked up my hand and rested them both in my lap. “I had to talk my mom out of making us stop by there after I picked you up, but you have to promise your mom will text her the pictures she took.”

  The casual touches had become so easy between I wasn’t even surprised he held my hand. “We can go there.” I hated the thought of his parents missing out on taking pictures. It was his senior year after all.