New School, New Life

Chapter 11

Things with Noah are going well. We both hardly see each other thanks to our crazy schedules. We both have class every day and then sports practice, and Noah has early morning practice too. It's a lot. Sometimes I see him in passing at the athletic building, but not very much. You would think that for how much we are both there, that would be the one place we would see each other. It's been hard not seeing Noah much. I miss him, but I know this is what is best for both of us. Neither of us really has time for a relationship right now, but I guess that is what is making ours work so well. We both understand that neither of us has time for the other.

I still get texts from Noah. We haven't had time for phone calls which are virtually pointless since we live 3 floors apart, but texting we do very well. Texting is easy enough that we can do it while walking, between classes, or in the two minutes we have to change clothes before practice. Texting is simple and takes almost no time.

Trying to keep your relationship alive when you have literally no time is really hard. It takes a ton of understanding and a whole lot of commitment. If Noah and I weren't so dedicated to each other, we would have fallen apart by now. We try to go to each other's games, but don't always get to due to away games. One of us is usually out of town, leaving us with just a couple minutes together after the busses pull back in from our trip. I feel like I've become an airport girlfriend. I am always saying goodbye. Friday mornings are usually good, unless the team has to fly somewhere and then we either leave really early on Friday, or sometimes Thursday night. It really is a lot.

Right now, other than seeing Noah in passing a couple of times, I haven't seen him in 3 weeks. I can't even believe that we've gone that long. I can tell that Noah is getting frustrated with it. He's starting to get grouchy and snippy in his texts. I know he's not actually serious about quitting football in order to have more time with me, but he likes to throw that in every so often.

"Hello?" I say, answering my phone without even looking at it. I'm busy doing homework, and can definitely use a break.

"Hey Elle! How are you Honey? I haven't talked to you in forever."

"June! Hey, I'm so sorry we've been so busy over here with sports and school. I haven't talked to anyone other than Chloe unless it's been in a text."

"That is actually why I'm calling. I can't get a hold of Noah. Have you seen him? He's answering texts with one word answers but not my calls."

"I actually haven't seen him at all in about 3 weeks, other than a couple times in passing at the athletic building. It's almost 9pm, so he should be back in his room. Let me go find out."

"Oh Honey, you don't have to do that." June told me as I grabbed my keys and left my room.

"It's no problem at all. He just lives downstairs."

"I'm surprised you two don't see more of each other, but I guess it's good because it gives you plenty of space. It's good for you both right now. It will help build you into better people in the long run. Your relationship was always so intense, I think taking a break was smart. I'm sure that you will work out your differences and go back to each other stronger than you were before. Or maybe not. Maybe you will meet other people. You never know. You are both in college now and you have the entire world in front of you. You can do anything you want. I am so proud of you, Elle. You've become such a wonderful young woman. I still can't believe that all my babies are already in college. You all grew up much too quick for my liking."