Kissing Booth: Another Take

Chapter 45

AN: Hi Folks! I am sad to say we are nearing the end of this story. I was writing ahead a couple chapters and as I did so I realized things were just naturally coming to a close for the lives of these characters as we know it. 

It's not lost on me that this is all coming to a close as the final movie is coming out but it seems kind of fitting doesn't it? I'm still on the fence about writing a sequel but maybe if I'm left completely unsatisfied by the final movie I won't be able to help myself.

But until we get to that point ... please enjoy the chapters I have left for you all :)

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Lee

I've said it before and I'll say it again. I fucking hate change. I hate it more than Elle hates goodbyes. Elle used to watch multiple series over and over again but never the series' finales because she couldn't deal with having the say goodbye to the characters that she fell in love with. To this day, if she lands on the final season of Friends playing on TV, she'll immediately change the channel.

So her aversion to goodbyes was pretty extreme. Now take that and double it -- now you have the value on my aversion to change.

I don't know what started this. It could be the fact that I was a creature of habit. I have been wearing the same underwear brand since I was old enough to pick out my own underwear. I eat a turkey sandwich for lunch every Tuesday no matter where I am. On Thursdays it's pizza.

And when things in life started changing, like things inevitably do, there was always one person I could always count on to be a constant. That was Elle. I could always rely on our friendship to be that unwavering, easy relationship that always felt the same no matter how old we were.

At least, I thought so.

I was happy Elle and Noah were back together. I really was. This had nothing to do with the two of them being gross and googly eyed around everyone.

It had everything to do with this new world Elle was a part of that I knew nothing about. Elle might not be big on social media, but Jake, Chloe, and even Noah at times definitely were. Maybe if I had just stayed off of it I would've been able to better curb these feelings.

But I hadn't stayed off of it. Instead I had seen the posts and felt like an outsider looking in on the life of someone I thought I knew better than anyone else. Videos of dinners out that I was not a part of. Group pictures of wine toasts that I knew nothing about. Boomerangs of Elle and a blonde girl her size, I later came to know as Sabrina, also known on Instagram as McQueenofTheWorld, playing soccer. Selfies of Elle with Chloe and that same girl Sabrina. Actually, Sabrina became more and more frequent in appearances with Elle as the week went on. There were posts referencing something Elle saving the matriarchy that I had no understanding of, stories of Elle drinking and laughing at inside jokes I wasn't a part of.

Noah joined in on all of it, posting candid pictures of Elle doing things around Harvard that she hadn't called to tell me about. There was one picture of her that still bothered me every time I saw it on Noah's page. It was Elle in a pair of Harvard shorts laughing as Noah lifted her up off the ground. The two of them were looking at each other like there was no one else in the world, as usual, with the Harvard football stadium in the background. It wasn't the way they looked at each other that bothered me. It was the way the way she looked in the Harvard gear, with Harvard all around her.