The Dare

Chapter 32

It's seven in the evening and Ellie, Emma and I are sitting on the couch.
"And he asked me to come and I said I'd I go"

"God it sounds like he's in love with you" Ellie's says playing with the thread sticking out of her sweatpants. Ellie darts her eyes to me but stays quiet. Ellie was with me four years ago when this happened, she saw how much it affected me.
I turn to look at Emma and draw my eyebrows together, before shaking my head and taking a drink of my water.

"Really?" I say to Ellie as she told me she couldn't stay the night.
"I know I'm super bummed out about that but I'll stay the  tomorrow night  for the Christmas party"
I nod. My stomach starts to rumble and that's when I realise I haven't eaten since this morning when we went to the cafe.
I go the kitchen and look in the cupboards. I stare at the pastas and vegetables , contemplating but I can't be bothered to cook.
I return the living room after refilling my glass of water "Hey you guys want pizza or something? I'm starving"
"Oh yes please" Emma says lying back in the couch.
Ellie flicks her wrist upwards to look at her watch. "I have to get going" she stands up and walks over to put on her jacket and shoes before returning, hugging both of us goodbye.
"Ugh I can't wait for the Christmas party"
"Me too" Emma says while hugging her.

"I'll come over Friday afternoon yeah?" She says walking towards the door looking over her shoulder at us. I nod and smile, waving goodbye. Before pulling out my phone about to order pizza.

I hear her opening the door, there's silence for a second before I hear.
"Noah?"
I dart my head to the door and I watch it open again and Ellie's back pointing a thumb down the hallway looking confused.
"Noah" she mouthed.
I walk over to the door and look around the corner where I see Noah holding a big white paper bag. Is that food?

"What are you doing here?" I ask genuinely curious.
"I have spare food from the restaurant and I didn't want to throw it away."
He holds up the bag bc in front of him.
"You want some"
I take the bag off him
"Oh yes please. Come in" I say waving my free hand inside my apartment.
"Is Ethan here?" He asks a bit quietly in case he was.
I shake my head. I look over at Ellie who is watching his every move. She hasn't talked to Noah since me and Noah were together.
Emma hops up off the couch's and follows me into the kitchen. I put the bag full of food on the kitchen  bench and start to pull out the food.

I point over to Emma "Noah this is Emma my roommate, Emma this is Noah" they look over to each other and exchanged smiles, before turning back to the bag.
"Did you eat Noah?"
"Yeah" I could tell he was lying. I always knew when he was lying.
I shake my head and grab a box of spaghetti his favourite. His eyes flick up to mine and he smirks, before taking the spaghetti out of my hand.

"Alright I'm off" Ellie says walking towards the door waving goodbye. I walk to the door with her, hugging her again.
"Y/n you okay with Noah here?" She says holding my hands. I nod "Ellie I'll be okay" I say smiling.

The three of us are sitting at the table. I'm at the head with Emma to my right, and Noah at the other end.
"How did you find my apartment" I ask, while dumping my food out onto a plate.

"You told me you were on the fourth floor, so when I got to the fourth floor I starting knocking on all the doors, until Ellie saw me about to knock on my third door." He says twirling his pasta around his fork, meeting my eyes a few times when he was talking.
I nod.
At the corner of my eye I could see Emma raise her eyebrows while sticking a fork in her food.
"Thank you for the food Noah, we were literally about to order pizza"
He makes a disgusted face, he doesn't like pizza.
I start to laugh, and Emma starts to laugh into her knee that's pulled to her chest.
There's a silence for a while we here all you can hear is the forks banging on our plates.

Then we were back on the couch-  except Noah replaced Ellie-  and we talked about it the Christmas party and New York in general.
I told him how me and Ethan met, as he asked, but Emma turned to me a few times giving me "the eyes". Basically telling me I'm saying to much.

We're watching a movie now. I don't even know what this is but we ended up still talking. The movie slowly turned into a background noise. Emma stands up "I'm gonna have a shower then head to bed, I have an early class in the morning"

"Okay" I say smiling. As she disappears down the hallway where Noah can no longer see her, she turns around winking at me.
I'm on my side on the left of the couch and Noah's sitting on the other end. I didn't know how to start the conversation, I don't think he did either as he wasn't saying anything either. So we ended up watching the movie, until my eyes started to get heavy.

I slowly blink my eyes open as I realise I'm in someone's arms, buff and strong arms. I move my eyes up to look at his face and it's Noah. He's carrying me to my bedroom. I freeze. I don't know if I should tell him to put me down, or to say something so that he can put me down, but I'm already being laid in my bed. I quickly close my eyes as my face is now in front of his. He sits on the edge of the bed beside me and pulls the covers over me, before swiping away a strand of hair that came onto my face as he laid me down on the bed.
"Goodnight y/n"
He whispers , before feeling the mattress getting light again. I slightly open my eyes and he walks out my bedroom door, closing the door behind him.