Toothpaste Kisses

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Where the fuck was Noah?

Where the hell is he?

Where the bloody-Nora-freaking-Jones was he?

I had only one mother-fo-ing task – to distract Noah and keep him out of the dorm – but it wasn’t like I could do that if he wasn’t here. Like any normal night I had gone straight to dance and Noah had gone straight to football. But unlike any other night Max and the soccer team had gone straight to the dorm and were setting up for tonight.

Now after coming back home, showering and helping for ten minutes with the decorations I was waiting outside in the cold mid-November wind waiting for the bumder to appear. The only thing was; I had been waiting for twenty minutes for the football to appear on the horizon and they just… well they hadn’t.

‘Hey sexy, practice is over, come quick. Getting N to shower here – C x’

Scowling at Charlie’s stupid text I zipped up my coat and pushed myself into a run, crossing the road at appropriate places and all that shit until I got to the mud bath of a field. I made my way to the bleachers knowing that they would have to cross here to get to the exit. Five minutes later Noah appeared looking fresh from his shower.

“Noah!” I yelped and skipping down the steps I threw myself into his arms,

“Woah, what’s with the love?” he asked, laughing as he gave me a squeeze back.

“Not in a million years, Mate,” I said breathily. “Come on, we are going out,” I said cheerily.

“Where, why?” he asked with a ‘confused’ look. He would have pulled it off if his lips hadn’t tweaked into an excited smirk, because today Noah wasn’t just Noah. No, Noah Moore was known for this day, and this day only as Noah the eighteen year old birthday boy. Yeah, it was Noah’s birthday and I had the task of occupying him until seven – one and a half hours away – whilst the football team went to get his birthday cake and the rest of the lads made the dorm lounge a Noah-loving crib.

“We never do anything together,” I slipped my arm into his and linked it to my side. “Why don’t we, for once? Is there somewhere you have to be or something?” I asked hiding a smirk. We were doing that dorky thing of pretending we didn’t know it was his birthday. He had been grumpy all day, trying to drop hints whilst we were ‘oblivious’ to them all.

“Nope,” he grumbled and biting back a smile the two of us made our way out of the football field gates.

~~~

It was just over an hour later that anyone would have found me and Noah walking along a quiet Yankee street with a Starbuck’s coffee in both our hands, he had gone with straight Americano whilst I was my usual cappuccino girl.

“Yeah, anyway, as nice as this has been, Jodi,” Noah’s voice was dripping sarcasm as he downed the dregs of the coffee. He sighed heartily at the strongest part of the caffeine supplemented liquid slipped down his throat. “I need to call Danny, it’s a special day for her… it’s her birthday?” he tried and I nodded pretending that the fact Danny was his twin sister didn’t imply anything else, like it being his birthday.

“But… just a few more minutes, we can get another coffee… just a little while longer,” I tried my voice hitching to sound questioning. “Please!” I added pleadingly. “Just one eenie-weenie coffee,” I pulled out the puppy dog card and after a few seconds he gave a resigned sigh and placed a hand on the small of my back, leading me towards a small Starbuck’s shop that were only a few shops away.