A Love as Hard as This

Chapter 10

Noah's Perspective:

I walked into my house with Richelle at my side. Fortunately, nobody in my family was home tonight, so my little brother couldn't bug us. My mom was absolutely fine with Richelle staying the night, we've done it a lot of times before. Plus, she loves Richelle, she's like the daughter that my mother never had.

Richelle's dad wasn't as keen on sleepovers at our age, but my mom assured him that it would be fine. What's the worst that could happen?

I ran into the the kitchen after taking off my coat, and waited for Richelle to follow me before I picked up the phone to order pizza. I didn't want to waste any time.

Our movie nights were the best. We would order pizza first and she would make popcorn while I phoned. When our food was ready, we would set up sleeping bags and pillows in the living room, pick a movie, and watch it. We would stay up hours later than that, talking about the movie and life, and finally go to bed when both of us were exhausted. I loved these nights, when it was just me and her.

"Hawaiian, right?" I asked her. I don't even know why I bothered asking, but it's better to be sure.

"You know it." she replied, getting the popcorn kernels, butter, salt, and popcorn maker out of the cupboard. "Extra salt and butter?"

"Of course." I ordered the pizza while she proceeded to make the popcorn, and soon enough, the pizza was here and the popcorn was made.

We went up to my room and grabbed the spare sleeping bags from my closet. Richelle took the blue one that she always made sure she had, and I took the green one that I was always stuck with. She had a pillow that she used along with it, and I grabbed mine off of my bed.

Downstairs, we set up the sleeping bags and blankets around the TV, and Richelle took all of the pillows for herself and put them all around her, making some sort of fort.

"Is that completely necessary?" I asked her.

"Yep." she said as she added the final pillow to finish it off.

"Alright then." I said. I knew it was best never to argue with Richelle. "So what movie were we going to watch?"

"Well, we could watch.." She started naming off random movies while I remembered something.

"Wait! We said last time that since you picked the last movie, I would get to pick this one!"

Her face fell slightly. She knew that that meant we were watching a horror movie instead of a Rom-Com. And she hated horror movies. But she'd never show it.

"How about we watch IT?" I suggested.

"Uh—sure." she mumbled, getting comfortable in her mound of blankets and pillows while I grabbed the remote. I flicked it onto Recordings and picked out IT. I was so excited to watch it, I had been waiting for months.

We were halfway through the movie when, suddenly, Richelle shrieked. It was louder than any of the screams in the movie so I knew it wasn't part of it. I glanced over at her and she looked so scared.

I got up and moved over to her, intending to help her. Getting down to sir beside her, I whispered, "Richelle? You okay?"

"No.." she mumbled. I put my arm around her shoulders to make her feel better, but she shrugged it off, inching away from me in the process. We finished the whole movie in those positions.

By the time we'd finished, Richelle was shaking with fear. I asked, "Richelle? Do you want me to—"

"No." she said quickly. "Just turn off the lights and go to bed." Her voice quivered at the last part, so I knew that it wasn't really what she wanted, but I went and did it anyway.

I was nearly asleep when I heard a whimper and padding across the floor until the footsteps stopped beside my sleeping bag. "Noah?" she asked quietly, kneeling down.

"Yeah?" I mumbled. My voice was a little groggy from sleeping, but I was pretty sure she could understand.

"Can I—can I sleep here with you? I'm scared."

"Sure." I moved over and opened up the sleeping bag so that she could come in. She made her way beside me, entangling her legs with mine and nudging her face into the crook of my neck. She was shivering and her hand was cold when I touched it. "Richelle?" I asked, but she didn't answer. I took that to mean that she was already asleep.

When my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I stole a glance at her face. She looked so peaceful while she slept, younger too, without a care in the world. So much different to what she's like when she's awake.

I felt so much warmer when she was up against me. I loved having her here. I cherished this moment, because I knew it wouldn't last much longer. When she woke up, she wouldn't let her guard down like this.