Truth or Dare

Chapter 9

I was walking to third period dreading running into Noah when someone else bumped into me.

“Sorry,” I heard a male voice say.

When I looked up I realized that Michael Matthews was staring at me. He was the star soccer player at our school. Soccer to my school was like football to small country towns. To most schools football players run it all, but in our town, soccer was like breathing…a necessity to make it out alive. Michael Matthews was our Walter Payton, and he had never spoken to me before.

“Um, it’s okay,” I said picking up my stuff quickly to get to English.

“No it’s not, I should have been watching where I was going,” he said looking at me again. “I was just thinking about our game this weekend.”

            “Oh yea, well…good luck with that.” I said before walking off. I liked soccer, but I was much more of a rugby girl myself. Plus, Noah and I had our presentation together, so if I knew him at all I knew he would be unprepared.

“Sorry I’m late Mr. Jack,” I rushed out as I looked around the classroom. To my surprise, or I guess no surprise at all, Noah was nowhere to be found.

“That’s okay Gabrielle,” Mr. Jack said and for some reason it felt weird to hear my full name come from somewhere other than Noah Pierces’ mouth. Sometimes even my own brain needed to be told to shut up when it thought things like that. “Noah has the flu, so he’ll be out today.”

I took my seat thinking about Noah and hoping that he was okay. At lunch Trey and Jamal sat with us since Trey is with Tori and Jamal has been spending a lot of time with Candice too. A.J. is a regular at our lunch table because I think Molly is basically married to him anyways. Seriously, they practically live together since Molly’s parents always travel and A.J. has hippie parents that are happy as long as he’s happy.

All in all it was a pretty boring day, and it felt weird for some reason. I kept feeling like there was something missing, but there wasn’t. I guess my head’s still a little messed up since Friday. The week passed in a blur without any time to really stop and do anything other than school work. Noah was out sick all week and I was really worried about him, since we have a project due and all.

Thursday night Tori was over as usual and we were catching up since she’s been spending so much time with Trey lately.

“He’s so amazing E. I feel so much more comfortable with him than almost anyone else, except you of course. And when he touches me I feel like I’m on fire. But what’s the best is that he doesn’t want to take it fast. I mean we’re almost to second base, but he already told me he’s not going to go too far until he knows he loves me. I don’t think I’ve ever met anyone as considerate and sweet as him, but that makes me melt by just holding my hand or kissing my neck softly.”

“It sounds like he really cares about you.” I was so happy for her because she deserved to feel like that. She’s the best person I know, and it was about time someone else noticed.

“You sound down, are you okay?”

“Yea, I don’t want to seem like a downer it’s just that Noah and I have that project. You know he’s been out sick all week and I’m really getting worried,” Tori raised her eyebrows at me. “Not like that, I’m just worried because of our project. Maybe I should check in on him, take him some soup, or do something.”

“I didn’t realize you cared so much,” she said smiling knowingly at me.

“Oh no, no, no, don’t give me that smile. It’s not like that at all, I just figure the faster he gets better the faster that we can turn in our project.” I said, but even I could hear the uncertainty in my answer. “Cuz if he doesn’t get back by Monday Mr. Jack told me I’m going to have to present by myself. It would be totally unfair!” I explained to her to show her that it wasn’t Noah Pierce I was worried about, it was my grade.