NOAH

Chapter 1

A/N: Hello, kittens! Welcome to my new old book! Confused? NOAH is a book I wrote a couple of years ago, but it's new for Wattpad. I decided to post it here for two reasons: one - I feel guilty about not giving you new content, and two - maybe editing an old book will get me into writing again...

Enjoy the first three chapters! ❤

~ Dex ~

I'll be in town next week. Do you want to meet up?

I kept staring at the message on my phone even as my feet carried me home. Writing 'no' and blocking Julian's number should've been easy. It was something I should've done right after the bastard betrayed me and broke my heart. But it wasn't that simple to erase the two decades of history that we shared. First as friends, then as lovers.

I should've known better by now, but every time he texted me, I hesitated. I remembered how good it used to be... Before he'd decided that I wasn't the most important thing in his life and moved out of Plymson.

And against my better judgment, I usually typed 'yes' as a reply to his texts. And even in the cases when I'd managed a 'no', he'd show up at my doorstep and I'd look at that familiar warm smile, get lost into those familiar brown eyes, and...

I shook my head as I walked, still staring at the text. My finger hovered over the N on the keyboard. A horn blared, I felt a pull at the back of my jacket, my balance was ruined and I fell backward.

Pain lanced through me as my ass and hands collided with the concrete sidewalk. The first thing I noticed was the drumming of my heartbeat inside my head; the second was the labored breathing. I looked around me. A small crowd had gathered, some with their phones out and aimed at me, others murmuring to themselves, and some talking... What were they saying?

'Oh, my God!' and 'Are you guys alright?' seemed to be the most common phrases.

Guys... Guys?

Plural.

A hand landed on my shoulder and I turned my head to see its owner, my breath catching in my throat as a pair of genuinely worried green eyes searched my face for... What exactly?

"Are you alright?" The guy with the worried eyes asked.

Was I?

I felt... Confused.

I remembered Julian's message, I remembered the pain it brought me as if my heart was tearing again, then a horn and a new pain - not as strong, and this time not metaphorical.

"I think he is in shock." The voice belonged to a curly-haired woman this time. She crouched down; I was still sitting on the sidewalk and the green-eyed guy was kneeling next to me. Then she asked: "Do you remember what happened?"

I looked about.

Most of the crowd had dispersed and the few people lingering around barely glanced at us. My phone was a few feet away, screen down. My hands and my ass still hurt. My brain was still a mess.

"I... Fell?" I tried.

The woman shifted her gaze to the green-eyed guy and then back to me.

I attempted to reconstruct the scene: me walking towards the zebra crossing, not paying attention to anything but the text, the loud horn, the pull, the pain after falling.

"I was about to get run over," I spoke again, my voice low. "And then," I turned to the guy, "then you pulled me back to the sidewalk and we fell."

He exhaled, his slender frame relaxing and a tiny smile manifesting on a set of beautiful large lips. I gulped, my throat dry as I watched them part to say: