Perfect Doesn't Last Forever

Chapter Nine

Perfect Doesn't Last Forever- Chapter 9

The rest of the trip was relaxing and just what I needed. I'd spent the past three years strung thin and stressed and I enjoyed being somewhere away from home without a single worry. We all spent the rest of the vacation skiing, snowboarding and partying; it was everything I thought my life would be, but like all good things, our retreat ended and it was time to fly back home. Noah and Hudson drove us over to Ella's apartment after we landed and we all hung out for a few hours before Noah and Hudson were summoned back home by their parents. Now it was just Ella and I, waiting until it was an appropriate time for me to get Hayley.

"Explain to me why you can't just get her now?" Ella yawned, curling up on her couch.

"It is too early. We were supposed to be driving back down and everyone knows it basically takes a day to get back. I can't get her until five-ish. If you want to sleep, go ahead. I'll just set an alarm or something so I can sleep too," I explained to her for the thousandth time. She still had yet to grasp the whole secrecy situation Noah and I had.

"No, it's okay, I don't want to have a weird sleep schedule." She shook her head and sat up attentively. "Tell me about what happened with Noah."

"What do you mean?" I asked her, feeling my face heat up at the memories from our trip.

"Oh my god, you dirty bird Britt. You totally did it with Noah," she smiled excitedly, suddenly no longer sleepy. "I can't believe you! You said you weren't ready!"

"I wasn't," I told her earnestly, trying to cool my face down. "It wasn't planned or anything. It sort of just happened." It was snowing that night and everyone was down in the basement. I was on the phone with my parents and when I hung up with them, Noah walked in and it was just spontaneous. It was what I wanted. It was better than my first time with Damien. It was sweet and he was gentle.

"Oh, Britt, you're glowing," Ella cooed, clapping her hands. "Tell me everything!"

"There's nothing to tell," I said simply, but she glared at me, knowing there was more to the story. "Two days ago, when you were with Hudson and everyone else was in the basement. We just, did it..."

"Ooh la la, Brittany! Did you guys use protection?" Ella asked seriously.

"Well, I told you, I wasn't planning on sleeping with Noah and he wasn't either, but I'm on the pill, so don't worry about it. I don't need another baby anytime soon, trust me," I assured her, mentally trying to remember if I remembered to take the pill every day for the past month. "But what about you? Did you and Hudson do it?"

"We actually did not," Ella told me proudly. "And it wasn't for lack of trying from either of us."

"What do you mean?" I asked her just as I heard my phone alert me of a text from somewhere.

"We both wanted to, but we agreed not to because he goes to school in Chicago. We didn't want anything serious," she explained. "We're going to hang out more over break before he has to go back and we'll see what happens."

"Wow Ella, I'm proud of you. You aren't jumping into things, even after you told me to just go for it with Noah," I said as I searched Ella's living room for my phone. "So you like Hudson a lot then?"

"Yeah I do," she admitted coyly, before retrieving my phone from the table behind her as it beeped again. "He said he likes me too, but he doesn't want me to get hurt; thus the non-relationship."