War of the heart || Marco Peña Fanfic (The Kissing Booth)

Prologue

"Sometimes friends are the only escape we have from ourselves."

~Atticus

~*~*~*~

Arabella stops, her heart in her throat, as she watches Noah and Elle face each other a few feet away from her. She wanted to give her little sister and her best friend some space to say goodbye to each other.

"Goodbye." Arabella hears her sister say through the chatter and movement happening around them in the airport.

Noah shakes his head and puts his bag down at his feet, "Come on, Shelly. Don't say it like that. I'll see you soon and you can come to visit. And we can make this work."

"Okay, stop. Don't say anything. I just want to be with you for a few seconds more."

Arabella doesn't listen to the rest of their conversation where she stood as she is filled with anger and disappointment. Noah shouldn't be going to Harvard alone. This wasn't the plan. This wasn't the dream. They were supposed to go to their dream school together; side by side, like they have been since they were born, since they took their first breaths.

Noah Flynn and Arabella Evans were born a day apart and were raised as if they were twins, much like their younger siblings because their moms were best friends and they too were as close as can be. So, the Flynns and the Evans' grew up together, had all of their firsts together: their first steps, the first time they spoke, the first time they broke a bone, the first time they went to school and so much more.

And seeing Noah going to college, one of his firsts, without her... she could barely conceive her feelings as it choked every fiber and pore in her body. How could she not be there for her best friend's first step into college, be with him as he makes friends, sit up with him when he does numerous assignments, complain about lecturers, and ditch classes, and...

But, then she thought about why he was going alon, why she had to be kept back a year in school, why she didn't graduate with him, and most importantly, she thought about why she did what she did that got them here and she looks at her healthy, happy and hopeful best friend. No matter how much it pained her to watch him go without her, at least he could go, and if it was her that was in his place, leaving him behind, it would have been inconceivable to her.

So, she knew, that although that it would hurt him to leave his girlfriend -her sister- it hurts him even more to leave his best friend behind. Hell, if she hadn't convinced him that year of the accident to not purposely fail to stay with her, then she knew that he would have gladly done it just to still be with her in the same grade. But she wasn't going to allow him to slow down his life just for her.

And, dammit, she was proud of him.

"Ari," Noah's eyes are soft as he looks at his best friend whose eyes were filled with tears.

Arabella barely took notice of when her sister parted from Noah's arms and stood beside her so that she could give Arabella and Noah some space.

When Noah opened his arms wide, Arabella didn't care if she was making a scene or if her plan of being strong for him failed as she threw herself into the familiar warmth that has always been there whenever she needed it, and even when she didn't, it would still be there waiting for her.

"Shh," Noah tightens his hold around Arabella's waist as she buries her face in the crook of his neck, her arms just as tight around his neck.

Noah didn't want to leave her here. He felt guilty for being the only one between the two of them leaving for Harvard when it should be both of them. But, he knew that Arabella would be disappointed in him if he didn't go and that was one thing he could never and would never be able to handle and that was his best friend's disappointment and unhappiness. Especially after the accident that cost her months of school and kept her away from him; an accident that should have been him if Arabella didn't push him out of the way.