Noah

Noah

Visions of Roni and some of the wicked things Noah imagined her doing to him with a can of whipped cream, made for an extra-long shower the following morning. It was becoming increasingly harder for him to be around her and not let on what he was feeling. Though he wondered if he should even try. If she wasn’t so damn hard to read, maybe he’d know whether or not to hide it. She sent out more mixed signals than a baseball coach: one minute flirting outrageously and staring blatantly at his lips, then in the same breath, backing down and making an exit out of the room just as fast.

But it was just as well. Even though it’d be more than fun to have Roni underneath him, and admittedly in the beginning it’s all he thought about, the more he spent time with her and got to know her, the more he was afraid that wouldn’t be enough. If he ever did get that far with her, he’d want more, and she made it clear she wasn’t ready for anything like that. Losing the only family she’d ever known had to be hard. No telling how long it would take her to be ready. He had to shove the thought out of his mind and be thankful for what he did have—her friendship. For now, it’d have to do.

Roni had dropped him off at the gym that morning. With the rain letting up even if it was predicted to be only for a day, he’d finally be back on his bike.

Noah was spending a few hours at Gio’s today. He hated to admit it, but if he hadn’t already spoken to Gio that morning and agreed to come over, he would’ve gladly accompanied Roni to the park instead. She told him, after he’d gotten off the phone with Gio, that she was going to be there for a few hours, taking pictures—said it was something she used to do a lot until her mom got sick and only recently started doing it again. She even gave him a quick tour of her small darkroom. He got to see some of the photographs she’d taken over the years.

To his surprise, she had a lot more talent than she’d let on. But even more surprising was how he’d felt seeing the pictures she still kept of her and Derek’s names carved into a tree with a heart around it that appeared to have taken a lot of work. He wasn’t going to ask at first, but after seeing a couple more, the words had just flown out, and the contempt in his words had hardly been masked. ”Why do you still have these?”

Her answer was unsatisfactory to say the least. She shrugged, saying she almost never threw out any picture she took. Maybe she didn’t, but these pictures were displayed most prominently, and it literally turned his stomach. He’d been that close to asking her if she still had feelings for the dick. But he realized that was getting a little too personal. Most importantly, alarms had gone off when he glanced at the picture again and was inundated with a rage he’d never felt before. Certain that any more questioning would come out more like unjustifiable demands than a simple question, he’d excused himself and walked out of the dark room, confused as hell by his reaction.

Even now as he rode his bike, which usually calmed him, thinking about the damn pictures and wondering if she did still feel something for the douche had him involuntarily gripping the handlebars harder than he would normally.

He drove his bike all the way into the back of Gio’s driveway. As expected, Gio, Abel, Hector, and a few of Gio’s sisters were all out back as Gio worked on his bike. What he hadn’t expected was for Rita to still be there. Her eyes gleamed as he took his helmet off.

”You were missed last night.” She smiled teasingly. ”What kept you? Or should I say who kept you?” Get faster updates on n‌ovelceo.com.

Abel smirked but otherwise didn’t seem to know anything. Hector wasn’t even paying attention. He was too busy talking to Gio’s sisters. Noah glanced at Gio, whose expression gave nothing away, but Noah knew there was no way Gio would tell anyone his business. ”I just had other plans this year, but I’m here now to make up for it.”

”Ooh, sounds promising,” Rita said, walking up to his bike. ”I got a car this year—the Honda out front. Did you see it?”

Noah hadn’t noticed anything as he drove in. His mind had been so muddled the whole way there. All he could think of was Roni and Derek. ”No, I didn’t see it.” He stepped off his bike, hanging his helmet on the bike’s handlebars.