Under the City Lights

Chapter Two

Noah's POV

Maybe I shouldn't have asked her so abruptly.

"I-I," She stuttered, pulling her blond hair out of it's bun so that it flowed down her shoulders. She combed her fingers through it multiple times before I spoke again.

"Never mind. Forget I said anything."

"No. I don't want to forget." She said, looking at me with her blue/green eyes I had gotten so lost in. Like the color water in coral reefs looks like from above. Just in her eyes. "I'll come and stay with you. I feel like I can trust you." A smile stretched out on her face. She reached back to the volume knob and fiddled with it until the sound of Ed Sheeran played throughout the car.

"You're strumming on my heart strings

Like you were in grade eight

I've never felt this way

I'll pick your feet up

Up off the ground

And never ever let you down."

She sang along with the radio, her voice blending in perfectly. She blushed as she realized I had been watching and listening to her as she sang. The flush on her cheeks had grown to a crimson red as she kept singing. I started to sing with her, trying not to overpower her sweet and innocent voice.

"You're really good."

"Yeah, so are you." She complimented me, as another song came on that neither of us seemed to recognize.

"Are you completely sure you want to come with me?" I asked her. She seemed like she thought it was no big deal. Coming with someone you've only known for a few hours to live with them? No big deal, right?

"Yeah. I'm sure." She said, nodding her head with a smile. "But why exactly, Noah Drew Bradford, did you stop and pick me up on the side of this road?" She asked, combing a fake, invisible mustache and quirking up her right eyebrow.

Just another one out of her gazillion different quirks I adored.

"Because I'm looking for an adventure," I chuckled, looking out to the darkness. "The only adventure I've ever witnessed was a drunk friend of mine getting a crappy marijuana leaf tattooed on his arm by an old woman with glaucoma."

"I would love to see that," She laughed along with me. "Are we gonna go or not, pretty boy?"

"Oh, so I'm the pretty one now?"

You have no idea how beautiful you are, do you?

"Yeah, you are. Now let's go to your 'boring' flat!" She cheered, cranking up the volume on the radio as I started up the car.

***

I stared at her as she slept, curled up in the seat with a spare blanket wrapped around her little body. I felt so nervous about welcoming her into my home, especially living with me. But it's the same for her too, I'm sure.

We were only a few minutes from my flat. Her quiet snores were cute and the little wiggles of her toes were so adorable.

She was just beautifully beautiful.

I couldn't help but take my eyes off the road for even just a second to look at her. How her cheeks tinted pink as she sleeped, how she mumbled inarticulately. When her blond hair would stick to her face and how her eyelashes would flutter involuntarily every five minutes or so.

"What have you gotten yourself into?" My conscience asked me as I drove up in front of the lot. I parked the Range Rover and stepped out of the car, walking over to Beverly's side. I opened her door and admired her, looking past the smudges of the makeup around her closed eyes, the consequence of not removing it before. Her legs were curled up against her chest, the outline of them visible through the fleece blanket.