If Tomorrow Never Come

21. Who's Daniel Hawthorne?

I can officially say that yesterday was one of the best days of my life. The 'party' ended at around 4AM when everybody got tired and went home.

I wanted to help clean up then but Noah insisted that I go home and take some rest, so Adrian drove me back home. This morning Gran and Gramps made me pancakes for a late birthday breakfast.

After breakfast, I watched a little TV with them before I got sleepy and went back to my room, since I had like 4 hours of sleep last night.

I was woken up by the ringing sound of my phone. By the time I found my phone, the person who was calling it had already went to voicemail. It was 3.43PM.

2 Missed Calls from Adrian

1 Message from Nolan A.

"Hey Noel, I'm guessing that you're asleep and I just wanna tell you that I'm going to Minnesota now, for real." Adrian said with a chuckle in the voice mail. "Bye, see you next week."

I texted him, telling him to have fun and take care before opening Nolan's message.

Nolan A. : Hey, you up?

Me: Yeah, why?

I still feel a little awkward about our almost kiss last night but maybe I'm just overthinking it, it'll never happen obviously. I have Adrian and Nolan has Jazz.

I placed my phone on my bedside table and walked to the bathroom to shower. After I took a shower and blow-dried my hair, I went back to my bed and opened my phone.

Nolan A: Can you come to my house? I need some help babysitting Garrett. Jazz is busy taking care of a hung over Nat.

I thought abut it for a moment, I didn't have anything to do anyway so why not? No harm done anyway.

Me: Ok, be there in 10.

I changed into some jeans and a blueish gray sweater with my coat, since I was planning on walking to Nolan's house.

I jogged down stairs, seeing Gramps reading a novel on the couch.

"Hey Gramps, I'm going to Nolan's to help babysit." I said, he took off his reading glasses.

"Oh okay, I'll take you there, you're definitely not walking there in the cold." He said, standing up.

The trip to Nolan's took longer than it usually does, since the snow is starting to pile up, making Grandad to be very cautious and incredibly slow so that we won't slip.

"Bye, take care." Grandad said as I open the door. "Give me a call if you want me to pick me up."

"I will. You too," I said with a smile before walking to the front door. I rang the bell and a few seconds later Nolan opened the door wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants, a baby's cry blaring in the background.

He sighed. "Oh thank God you're here, Garrett can't stop crying, and I'm going mad."

I don't really have a lot of experience with babies, but I do know a couple of things so why not try helping Nolan? "Where is he?"

"C'mon." He said, ushering me in and closing the door.

We walked through the halls of his house and into the living room, where a bunch of toys are on the floor and Garrett crying in his crib.

I'm very surprised by the state of his house, a few hours ago it was a mess. Red cups littered everywhere and things here and there. But now it's like the party never happened.

"Did you feed him?" I asked, looking down at the crying baby.

"I did an hour ago, and I tried giving him a bottle of milk but he kept pushing it away and started crying again." He explained, running a hand through his hair.

"How about his diapers?"

"There's nothing on it, I checked. Twice." He answered. "I tried playing with him but he started crying and moving around like he's having a seizure. He's freaking me out."

"Hmm." I hummed whilst thinking why Garrett won't stop crying. Maybe he misses his parents?

Or maybe he's just tired?

When I was around 6 my mom used to babysit my baby cousin and whenever the baby cries, my mom would take him in her arms and sport of move him a little like that.

I picked up the baby, extra carefully, which is pretty hard since he's moving a lot. I slowly rock him side to side. At first he was still crying but after a few minutes, it started to calm down and soon enough, he fell asleep.

I put Garrett back in his crib, pulling up the covers slowly so I don't wake him. Nolan was still looking at me, clearly astonished, so was I.

"You're good at this." He said. "I should've asked you to come here hours ago." He chuckled.

"Luck, I guess." I shrugged.

"Wanna watch TV or something?"

"How about him?" I asked, pointing at a very cute sleeping Garrett.

"He'll be okay, we'll just watch TV in the office room."

We watched TV for a few hours, I was very interested by a movie while Nolan is occupied with a level of Candy Crush.

"Ah, shit." He cursed, putting his phone down. "I ran out of lives."

"I can donate you some." I said, not even bothering to look at him.

"You play?"

"Not anymore though." I said, handing him my phone. "Here, do it yourself."

I paid my attention back to the movie that was currently almost at it's end. "Hey, Noel." Nolan called.

"Yeah?" I said, still focused on the movie.

"Um, I don't mean to be nosy but this just popped out and..." He said, handing me my phone back. "Who's Daniel Hawthorne?"

I swear my heart stopped beating for a moment and I took my phone from Nolan's hand and read the message that he sent on facebook.

Daniel Hawthorne: Happy birthday, Noel. See you really soon, D.

The phone slipped from my hand.

See you really soon.

He's coming.

Before I can break into a full blown anxiety attack, Nolan's arms were wrapped around me, giving me a hug. I controlled my breathing and tried to calm myself down.

Think positive.

He's just trying to scare me.

He's not coming back.

He can't.

Moments later when I think I'll be okay, I pulled away.

"Are you okay?" Nolan asked me, clearly concerned.

"I guess."

He shifted in his seat. "Um, do you want to talk about it?"

I look up to him and I was suddenly filled with the feeling of comfort, as a matter of fact; I do want to talk about it. I want to tell him about what happened.

"Yeah, I do." I said, taking a deep breath. "So.."

~

Yay! I'm pretty pleased by this chapter! Cliffhanger, huh? dun dun dunnnnn

Stay tuned for the next chapter!

And fyi I've been obsessed with musical.ly! follow mine if you want haha its feliciarose

xoxo,
gossip girl

jk

xoxo,
felicia:p