Remember Me

Nine

The words rang in my ears, making me dizzy, almost to the extent that I feel the need to pass out.

"What?" I shout. Way to be kind, Auden.

Noah grins. "Charming. No; for show."

"What?" I holler. Again.

"So, my, uh, my foster parents strive for me to be perfect. I was talking to them, and they said they're disappointed that I don't have a girlfriend to take with me and all of that. So, can I please take you to a family reunion over mid-term? I'll just tell everyone you're my girlfriend."

I breathe out a breath of pure relief. That would've been so awkward if he was being totally serious.

"I don't know, Noah." I shake my head. "What if I say no?"

Noah shrugs. "If you say no, I will be breeding eternal embarrassment on myself when I step in the door girlfriend-less."

"Then I'll definitely say no," I laugh. Imagine that. Noah, embarrassed. He is so cocky and arrogant, you can't imagine him embarrassed.

If there is ever an embarrassing moment pointed at Noah, he finds a way to make you the one being embarrassed.

Noah makes a puppy face at me. "Please, Auden. I seriously need this. Julie and Sven really are perfectionists and – relationships, in their eyes, make a human perfect."

I sigh again. Ever since I've met Noah, I've been sighing quite a lot. "Fine. Only if you promise not to kiss me."

Noah grins. "Please? I just can't get enough of that false brand chapstick of yours." He sarcastically whimpers.

"Ha ha ha." I grumble with a stone cold glare.

We journey back to the lift. "So, you're a foster kid?"

Noah breathes in, nodding. "Yeah. I've been jumping from home to home since I was five."

"They couldn't handle you?"

We step into the lift and press the button. "I guess not. Once a bad boy, always a bad boy, Auden."

I chuckle. We zoom up floor by floor. Suddenly, the lift starts to slow down, making a chugging noise. The lights turn off and we're left stranded in a non-moving lift.

"Oh no." I rant. "No no no no no no! This can't be happening. I bang on the electrics box sitting on the cool, shiny metallic wall of the lift.

Noah holds my shoulders. "Relax."

"Shut up, Noah." I jeer. "We are stuck in a lift at," I pause, checking the time on my phone. "half past nine in the night."

Noah chuckles. "Sassy too? Wow, Auden. You have a lot of secret sides to you."

I bang on the walls. "Nah, me?" I slide down the wall onto the cold ground. "I'm an open book; I am."

"I can see totally see that." Noah flops down beside me.

I go to my dial pad on my phone. No signal. Great.

We're going to rot here. I may have thought the night when I first met Noah was going to be my death.

I was wrong. This is the end of my journey. I sigh.

"Right, so what exactly do I have to do at this reunion thingy-ma-jiggy?" I ask whilst I bang the walls of the lift.

"Just dress up, have manners and look pretty." Noah informs me. "But you really have to get dressed up. Like, really dressed up."

"I so can do dressy!" I grin.

"Right..." Noah slowly nods.

I stick my tongue out and Noah.

"You seriously have an attitude problem," Noah states, shaking his head of brown hair.

"I don't have an attitude problem. You have a perception problem."

Noah laughs. "Whatever floats your boat, chick."

I click the emergency call button beside all of the floor buttons. Nothing.

Bravo, lift buttons. You had one job.

Suddenly, we jiggle, and I fall. Noah catches me, and I land in his arms like we were dancing a grand salsa or something.

"Thanks." I whisper. I breathe in a sharp intake of oxygen standing up. The lift begins to move again, going to our floor – as the button we clicked was lit up.

Eventually, we get to our dorm; B26.

Noah un-locks the door and we walk inside. "So," I say. "Are your parents posh or anything?"

Noah smirks. "Let's just say, on a scale of one to ten, they're twenty one."

"Why twenty-one, rather than twenty?"

Noah shrugs. "An extra point for the stables."

"Stables?" I shriek. "Okay, if they have stables – on a scale of one to ten, I seriously think it's a fifty."

Noah throws his head of brown hair back, and he laughs. "They named my pony Handy. Short for Handsome."

I reach out and ruffle Noah's hair. "Nah." I continue, grinning. "They should have called him Ugg. For Ugly." I laugh.

The award for the best joke ever goes to... anybody but Auden Baker.

"Ha-ha-ha." Noah flatly deadpans. "I'm dying from laughter."

I giggle, not saying anything as I walk down the hallway to my bedroom. I brush my teeth before hopping into my bed, switching off my lamp with the click of a switch.

Not long later, I drop into a deep, peaceful slumber.