My Brothers Best Friend [18+]

Chapter Seventeen

Our conjoined hands lay over the gear stick, mine nestled underneath his like he's trying to hide it from the world. His thumb occasionally strokes over my own and I watch the bone tattooed down his finger move with the action. 

I overthink it. Don't I always? 

It's pitch black out as we make the drive home. Streetlamps look blurry in my peripherals when we pass by them, trees looming over the roads like shadows. There's a chill in the air that can be felt even in the comfort of Noah's heated seats. 

Quiet music plays through the speakers, Noah of course singing along quietly as usual. It's all incredibly familiar to me despite the short time that I've known Noah, and I'm fully aware that I'm beginning to make myself too comfortable around him, as he is me. I mean, we're practically holding hands right now.

Despite my thoughts, when his thumb strokes over mine once more, I curl mine up around his hand and stroke back. He doesn't look back at me but his lip upturns. 

"Thanks for dessert... and the movie." 

He breaks out in that killer smile at my words. 

Another hand squeeze, "anytime." 

It dawns on me all at once. My eyes widen, my breath hitches, and I scoot up in the seat so my back is straight. This is a date. It may be disguised as a 'friend date' but this is a date-date. A date that we are fast approaching the end of. 

I've never been on a date before. Boys didn't date me - I mean, they went out with me and took me home, but they never took me anywhere extravagant or offered to pay for my meal. A large McDonald's meal is the most extravagant thing I was ever offered in terms of a date, and it wasn't even the meal that I wanted at the time because I was going off burgers. (At one point in my adolescent life I believed I could be a devout vegetarian. I could not.) 

Noah even payed. For everything. I never thought to offer. 

And now we're holding hands and once again I am panicking at the way he makes me feel. I'm getting flutters I'm not used to - and not just between my legs. 

Another hand squeeze. 

We're pulling into the drive and he's shifting the gears down as we gently pull to a stop. Hand removed from mine, handbrake up, ignition turned off. 

We both remain seated. Slowly, his hand returns to my own. 

I glance at him but he doesn't look back at me, just continues staring at the living room window. The curtains are as closed as we left them, the house looking dead outside with not a sound to be heard but our soft breaths. 

"Okay," I breathe, because if I say something else I might say something he doesn't want to hear. He nods and releases me, both of us getting out of the car at the same time. 

He walks around the car and presses the central lock button, gesturing to the front door. 

I feel a smile shy cross my lips as I brush past him, his hand pressing gently to the small of my back leading me towards the house. 

"This has been really nice," I whisper. 

He grins and leans around me to put his key in the lock. 

"I'm serious," I press with my own grin, meeting his eye just as the key clicks into place. 

He meets my eye, arm still hovering over my shoulder to reach for the door, and sucks his bottom lip into his mouth. My smile vanishes as his does. 

The wind bites at my legs through the leggings. The bushes surrounding the driveway rustle with the passing breeze. Somewhere in the distance a car door slams and a man can be faintly heard having a disgruntled one-sided conversation. I feel hyper aware of every sound that surrounds us but at the same time my ears fill with water, and all I can hear is my own breath as Noah continues to give me a look I've seen before.