Kissing Booth: Another Take

Chapter 26

Elle's POV

Brad had brought me the popcorn I asked for but I wasn't allowed to eat it. It was being held ransom by my dad who sat on the living room couch with his arms crossed, motioning for me to sit down.

"Dad, I'm sorry," I immediately said. "Marco and Rachel took notes for the classes I missed. I was with Lee dropping off Noah and our friends at the airport. I swear it won't happen again. I'm so sorry," I rambled quickly. A smile came to his face shaking his head at my panic.

"Elle, relax," he said softly. "I was young too, it's not like you were off getting another tattoo or something instead of going to Calculus."

I smiled tightly. He was so pissed when I did that.

"So how was spring break?" he asked his eyebrows up expectantly.

I didn't know where to start. "It was great, spent a lot of time with Noah and his friends. Marco and Noah made up. They're all great. Did I mention Noah and I are back together by the way? Oh! And Rachel got into Brown and Lee applied out east after all," I tried to say all in one breath.

He shook his head about me, a small smile on his lips. "Back up what was that one thing?"

"Rachel got into Brown?" I asked.

"Before that."

"Noah and Marco made up?" I squeaked.

"Elle," he chastised. I frowned and sighed.

Before I could fess up and explain he spoke, "I think it's great you and Noah are trying things out the right way."

My head pulled back in surprise, sure that my double chin was also prominently in shock. "You do?"

He nodded seriously. "He called me you know. To tell me and to promise me he wouldn't hurt you."

My lips parted with a strangled, shaken scoff. "Noah? Called you?"

He nodded. "Yes. We had a good talk."

I made a noise with my lips feeling like I was in the twilight zone.

"You know, I met your mom in college," a sad smile on his face. Another surprise, my dad didn't talk about my mom so much. I knew they met in college but it was always my mom who had told me the story.

He faked being in a class because he saw her coming in as he was leaving. It took until halfway through the semester for him to confess to her that he wasn't actually in the class, and was studying a subject he had no interest in for the chance to talk to her. The rest was history... ironically enough the class was history too.

"I knew when I saw her I was in over my head. The day I met her dad I spilled his red wine over his shirt," he laughed, looking out to space past my head.

"But she was worth it," he pressed on. "And I wouldn't trade those two years of college together for anything. We had so much fun," he looked at me appraisingly. I opened my mouth but no words came out. Instead I walked over to him to hug him, he hugged me back but pulled away first.

"So have you decided?" He asked, "Where you're going to spend those next four years?"

I took a deep breath. "I did."

———

I plopped down on my bed that night exhausted. I had sat and talked with my dad for 3 hours about all my options and about the offer letters than came in.

However excited Noah was for all my letters and me, my dad was ten times more proud. My hard work in the 11th hour had paid off.

When I told him my choice I was sure he was going to question it, especially given the recent reunion with Noah, but he surprised me.

"I knew that's where your heart was from the beginning," he admitted, "Just the way you talked about the campus was like how you used to talk about your dreams as kid of being a dancer, or a painter, or a international spy." He laughed.

Then we had spent so much more time with me filling him on spring break, telling him about Noah's new friends and the coincidence with Jake. He told me about Brad and his baseball camp, about how Brad made friends so easily like my mom and me. I asked him more stories about my mom, and those were the best one ones that I would keep close to me. Those were for my memories and no one elses.

I looked at the clock it was 7pm, 10pm eastern. Noah must be exhausted from a day of travel so I didn't want to call him. Instead I opened up my laptop to give my response to Harvard about my visit. I didn't want to send in my acceptance yet, I wanted to do that with Noah.

Suddenly, a facetime notification popped up on my MacBook. I smiled at the name. Noah's face came on the screen, I could tell from the angle he was sitting in his bed, shirtless with his eyes looking drowsy.

"What did I say about calling me Elle?" He scolded, a smile on his face. I rolled my eyes smiling. "Sorry, I was talking with my dad this whole time."

He eyebrows went up. 3 hours is a long time to talk to a parent.

"How'd that go? Do you need to start growing out your hair so I can rescue you from your tower?" he laughed.

I gave him a look. "You should have told me you were calling him."

He looked surprised. "Ah, he told you."

I nodded biting my lip. "You didn't have to do that."

He shrugged. "You have bigger things to worry about other than telling your dad about your jerk boyfriend," he said. "Like how you're going to convince the coaches here to get you off the waitlist," he suggested.

I laughed. "Think bribes are off the table?" playing along.

He yawned. "No I don't think so."

"Noah, get some rest. You've got a big day tomorrow, introducing your teachers to 'beast mode' Noah!" I insisted.

"But I want to talk to you," he pouted but settled further onto his pillow anyways.

"We have our whole lives to talk," I swore.

He smiled at that notion.

"Go," I demanded.

"So bossy," he murmured.

I smirked. "You didn't mind that last night."

Through his state of exhaustion he still managed to groan. "Great now I'm going to have one of those dreams," He joked.

"I love you," he said with his last bit of energy.

"Love you too, goodnight," I replied and blew him a kiss, which he smiled at before I hung up.

I fell asleep that night with a huge smile on my face. Life was better than it had been in a long time.

———
AN: Sorry guys a bit of a short shorter chapter but I'll have another chapter up soon rather than later! I just have a plan for next chapter and this conversation with Elle and her dad needed to be a stand alone.

Side note, has anyone finished watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina? (CAOS) I just finished and am having some major PTSD with how it ended. I might end up rewriting that ending and starting a story here on WattPad. If anyone has any Nick Scratch/ Sabrina Spellman WattPad story suggestions let me know too!