Noel's POV
Olly stopped to talk to my dad about something. I decided to head inside knowing he would tell me why later. I sit down and Olly comes in a few minutes later. "Hey." I say. "Hey, how's your shoulder?" He asks. "It hurts still. I can't carry my back pack on my shoulder so I have to carry it in my hands. I'm just hoping people don't bully me too much." I say. "I won't let them. Oh and I have something for you." He says rummaging through his backpack. He pulls out a little box. Wrapped in happy birthday paper. "I know you and your sister aren't gonna celebrate your birthday till next week but I also know you hate attention so I decided to give you your present now." He says. "Olly. You know I don't like it when people buy me presents." I say. "I know but I didn't buy it. Unwrap it." He says. I unwrap the box and notice it's a jewelry box. I give him a glare. "I swear I didn't buy it. Open it." He says smiling. I open the box and find the coolest bracelet I've ever seen. It's made of a thick string and it has beads with numbers on them. There's also a loop that adjusts the tightness and at the end of the slack is a little black star with an N on it. "It's a bracelet that you can mess with when your anxiety kicks in." He says. I look at him confused. "How did you know that-" I start. "I've seen you when your anxiety starts going crazy. Usually if your wearing a jacket you start messing with the sleeves but I've also seen you messing with your arm when it happens. I thought whats something that could make things easier when that happens. I thought maybe something you can always wear with everything and I made this out of things I found around my house." He says. "Thanks Olly. I love it." I say. I put it on and smile. He hugs me then the bell rings. There were multiple times in class where I found myself either staring at the bracelet or fidgeting with it. Olly really knows me which is why I'm terrified of telling him how I feel.
After school Olly and I head to the Phoenix with Mia. We went to our usual meeting room to work on homework. After a while I was finishing the last of my German and I hear Olly getting frustrated. "Do you want help?" I ask. "Yea." He says. I walk over and look at his German work. "I can't get past number 4." He says. I move my stuff closer and look at my paper. "How do you say I eat?" I say trying to help him. "Ich esse." He says. "Okay so how do you say pork and rice?" I ask. "Schweinefleisch und Reis." He says. "Okay so how do you say I eat pork and rice?" I ask. "Ich esse Schweinefleisch und Reis." He says. "There you go." I say smiling. "Thanks I was overthinking it." He says. "I get it. I do that a lot." I say. We finish our homework and see if Matty needs us. When she says no we decide to head outside cause it's starting to get dark out and Olly and I like to sit and look at the stars together. We lay there for a while laughing then he looks at me. Suddenly he puts his hand in mine but I can't stop looking in his eyes. "Noel?" "Yea?" "I need to tell you something." He says sitting up and turning so he's facing me. "You know you can tell me anything." I say. "I like you..... as more than a friend." He says. I sit there for a second in shock. He starts to apologize. "I like you too..." I say so quietly I didn't think he heard me at first. "Really?" He says. I nod and smiles then hugs me. "So does this mean you'll be my girlfriend?" He asks me. "Yes." I say laughing a little. After we finally stopped hugging we went back inside. A few minutes later we were all headed home. I gave him a hug and said goodbye. The whole car ride home I was trying not to smile too much.
When we got home Mia pulls me aside. "Okay you were smiling the entire way home. What happened?" She asks. "I may or may not have a boyfriend." I say. "You and Olly finally told each other!" She whispers. I nod and she smiles at me. "Congrats Noel." She says. She hugs me and right as she does I notice she got a text from someone with the contact name Cass❤️. "Who's your boyfriend?" I ask. "What? What are you talking about?" She asks. "I'm not dumb you don't just put a heart behind a name titled 'Cass'. Who is he?" I ask. "Noel it's not really someone we like." She says looking at the floor. "It can't be that bad." I say. "It's Cassian." She says very quietly. "Cassian as in Murdoc's son?" I ask. She nods. "Okay so just cause his father was a bad person doesn't mean he is." I say. She just smiles. "If it was that simple I wouldn't have to hide it from Jack and Mac." She says. "They wouldn't be mad at you. Shocked maybe but not mad." I say. She looks at me and nods after a minute. "Thanks Noel." She says. "Anytime." I say. I head to the living room to say good night to everyone else before heading to bed. All of my siblings were already in bed so it was just mom, dad, Jack and I. Jack was headed downstairs as I was headed to the living room so he hugged me before going down. Mom was out on the back porch so I said good night to dad first who was working on some weird gadget thing in the living room. "Good night Noel." He says. "Good night Dad." I say walking out onto the deck. "Hey." Mom says hearing my footsteps. "I came to say good night." I say. "Are you gonna text your boyfriend good night before you go to bed?" She asks. I just look at her shocked. "I saw you two smiling then I heard you two saying you liked each other while I was carrying some stuff to one of the cars we were working on for future missions. I was the only one though so unless you told them no one else knows." She says smiling. I look down because I know I'm blushing hard. "Hey. It's nothing to be embarrassed about. Bozer and I have been saying you two were gonna be more than friends for a while. If he makes you happy then that makes us happy. Okay?" She says. I smile thinking about the conversation I had with Mia then I nod. "Goodnight Noel. I love you." She says hugging me. "Love you too mom." I say heading to bed. Once I lay down I open my messages and text Olly.
Me: Just thought I would let you know I'm headed to bed. Good night.
Olly: Good night Noel!
I smile and drift into a dream of Olly and I starting our lives together. He makes me happy and is one of the few things that calms me down when I'm stressed.
