Short Stories

Overprotective

The bright sun was beaming down as a gentle breeze blew through the air, ruffling my hair a little. My best friend Noah and I were heading to Starbucks, strolling down the pavement since we had decided to walk there today instead of driving, wanting to enjoy the nice weather.

"So, are you going to be free to hangout later?" he asked me, turning his head to look at me for a moment.

"Well yes, but we're hanging out right now." I giggled extra quietly.

He shrugged. "I know. But I wanna hang out with you later too. All day if I can." he said, giving me a smile as I shook my head fondly, trying to hide the blush covering my cheeks. "Is someone blushing?" he shamelessly teased me as I playfully punched his shoulder.

"Stop it." I mumbled, noticing that we had now reached our destination.

Once we got inside of Starbucks, Noah suddenly grabbed my hand, pulling me a bit closer to him as I glanced up at him in confusion. "Stay close to me, ok?" he told me, only loud enough for me to hear.

"Why?" I questioned in confusion.

"I don't like the way those guys are looking at you." he commented, glaring over at a group of guys that were basically staring at me.

"You don't like the way they're looking at me?" I echoed back as a question. "That's a little overprotective, don't you think?" I lightly teased him, but it was true, I did think he was being overprotective. That was usual for him though, he had always been that way about me for some reason.

"I'm just looking out for your safety, Stella. Those guys don't have good intentions."

"You don't know that."

"I'm not taking any chances." he replied, causing me to just nod in agreement.

For someone who was only 22 years old, he sure did act like a mature parent all the time.

"You're so overprotective, Noah, geez. It's like you're my boyfriend or something." I joked. He let out a small laugh, pretending my comment didn't faze him, but his burning red cheeks said otherwise.

Later that week, I had gotten invited to go to a party that was happening that night at some guy's house. One of the girls who knew the host had told me about it, inviting me to go. I just accepted the invitation, since I wanted to be nice. Plus, there would supposedly be a lot of popular people there, which would give me major popularity by association. The only downside was that the party would be starting at midnight, going all the way until 5:00 the next morning. I was going to tell Noah about it, but with how overprotective he was, I was sure he wouldn't approve, so I figured he didn't need to know about it at all.

Eventually, I was standing in the living room, trying my best to convince my parents to let me go to the party. Even with me being 19 and technically an adult already, they were always overly concerned about my safety so there were still a few things that they didn't allow me to do, since I was still living with them, which is why I was asking for permission.

"Are you serious? But this party is a big deal! So many popular people are going to be there. You have to let me go." I desperately explained to them. As I had already expected, they were totally against the idea of me attending the late night party.

"Sorry, Stella, but our answer is still no. It's not a wise decision for you to be out alone at midnight, around all of those people you don't even know. You don't know anyone there, right?" my mom said.

"Well, no, not really.... But I'm 19! I can handle it." I countered.

"We just don't think it's safe, sweetheart." my dad chimed in as I sighed.