Apartment 311

Ch | 81

Brooklyn Noelle Brankovich

Chapter Eighty-one: "Lights please"

Rick, Noah, and I finished playing a game of UNO at his house and came down from a fit of laughter.

Rick sat back in his chair, shuffling the cards for another round as Noah sat his beer bottle down and kissed my cheek.

I looked down at the table, smiling, and saw his empty bowl of chips. Knowing how much he eats, I offered to get him a refill.

"Want some more?" I asked, standing. Noah wet his lips at me and kept his eyes on my backside.

"Please?" he replied, his eyes closed.

I giggled faintly and looked to Rick. "Want anything, Rich?" I asked. It's his house, but since I was doing favors anyway.

Noah's father, grinning, said, "Naw, thanks though, Manhattan."

I turned and made long strides towards the kitchen. Once in there, I put the bowl down and wondered which upper cabinet housed the snacks.

A lucky guess was correct and I found the mother load.

Oh Rick and his sweet tooth, I thought. Or is this Emereigh's doing?

I sighed and internally debated which bag of chips Noah would want.

Shaking my head, I put the two bags on the counter and decided to just go back and ask him.

"Hey, Noah-" I closed my lips when I saw the men leaned in in a conversation.

Upon hearing my name, I took a step back and tried hiding.

"Yeah, Brooklyn?" Noah sat up.

I moved more to the left so they couldn't see me and yelled away from the wall to sound further away. "Uh, what kind of chips do you want?"

"Doesn't matter," he shouted back briefly.

When I peeked again, I saw he returned to the conversation with Rick. It looked pretty serious, and apparently about me. So I listened. Okay, I eavesdropped.

"-I just don't want to hurt her," Noah talked.

"You won't, don't think that way."

"You don't understand; it's not that easy."

"Why not? Tell me," said Rick.

There was a hesitation before Noah spoke again.

"It's inevitable," he sighed.

"I don't believe that. You love her, so how could you hurt her?"

It kind of hurt hearing Noah say he thought he'd hurt me. A part of me felt bad, I wanted to think maybe he's saying this because things are so good he can only see them going down from here. However, it seemed more like he's hiding something or holding back and I don't like that.
I'm a little crushed but because I didn't want to start an argument, I didn't speak on it to him.

Not wanting to hear anymore, I dropped a couple handfuls of Lays in a plastic container and slammed the cabinet shut.

"What were you guys talking about?" I asked the men.

Rick said nothing and looked at Noah. The way he looked at him, like he knew something I didn't and was waiting to see how Noah would react to me after their conversation.

Noah pulled me onto his lap and smiled. "Thanks," he said for the snack.