Why We Fell in Love

Chapter Thirty Eight

"So... It's been eight days since you've last talked to Noah," Debra says. Currently, we're in my living room as I'm sitting upside down on my dad's arm chair. I miss him. "Abby, I know I'm your pretend therapist and you've progressed but sooner or later, you need to talk to Noah. You love him."

"But I don't want to lose him," I say.

"Sweetheart, your blood is flowing all to your head. Let's get serious here. I'm going to call Noah and tell him-"

"No!" I quickly say, sitting up straight. "I really can't talk to Noah right now. I don't want him to see me like this."

"See you like what?" Noah says, walking out from this hallway in my house. Great, he was eavesdropping. "See you without makeup? See you in your pajamas? See you go through your anxiety attacks? I was with you during one, don't you remember?"

Debra gets up from the couch and leaves as Noah sits where she was," Noah, it wasn't nice of you to eavesdrop."

He shakes his head," why didn't you just tell me your anxiety got worse? I would've understood."

"No you wouldn't Noah. I'm sorry but what girl gets anxious every time they're with their boyfriend?"

"... Every girl," he says as I roll my eyes. "You could've told me you were anxious about me leaving. I'm not going to leave you Abby, never again. I'm not going to California, I'm not going anywhere. I love you too much to do that."

"You say that now but-"

"But nothing Abby. You have to understand that I'm committed to us... And whatever we have. I don't care if you're anxious when you're around me, we can always improve on that but you don't have to. Please be with me," he says.

I sigh," why do you do this?" I ask as he stares blankly. "You can have any girl in this world and you choose the most anxious person ever. Why would you be with me after everything I've been through? Is it because you feel bad for me?"

"There it is... That's the question that was going to come out sooner or later," he sighs. "Abby, you might not see it but I was a completely different person before I met you. Here's the thing: I'm a lot healthier now that I'm not drinking or smoking-"

"And doing drugs," I add in.

"Exactly," he states. "Point is, you've changed me and I will forever love you because you've made me a better person. Anyways, I'm going to do the responsible thing and give you some time to... Take all this in. Give me a call whenever you want."

"Wait," I quickly say. "Are you mad at me? Because I really don't want you to be mad at me."

He smiles," I'm not mad at you. In case you didn't no, I love you. Very much. But I'm giving you time like you asked me for. So give me a call gorgeous."

Noah's POV

"So I'd really like a job here," I say to this huge boss dude.

"Kid, you graduated high school with a great GPA and you got numerous amounts of basketball scholarships and you want to work at Starbucks?" he asks as I nod. "You know we don't pay that much Mr Audi R8."

I shrug," I don't really care for the money. I just need to keep busy while my girlfriend... Or whatever she is gets herself together. I really do want to work here."

"Alright kid, you can start today. Clementine will be your boss for right now. Listen to her as she tells you how to make our coffee... And don't worry about spelling names correctly. Make a guess and move on," he explains as I nod. He goes into the back room and grabs me an apron and a sharpie. On it, he writes my name. "This is your temporary uniform. Ask Clem for your permanent one."

I nod as he makes his way out. Wow, didn't know it'd be that easy to get this job.

"Kid," a lady says from behind the counter. Blondie. Everyone's a blonde nowadays. "Your name?"

"Noah Evans. You must be Clementine," I say.

She gives me a pissed face," yeah, and that's also what my name tag says. Anyways, you're just gonna work the cashier today. Cup sizes are short, tall, grande, and venti. But some people come in saying small, medium, and large but who cares? It's a drink. They give you an order, you write it on the cup. Most people here order something with caramel, mocha, and sugar. Caramel is a C, mocha is a M, and sugar is S. Common sense. First wave starts in ten, blah blah blah. Have fun."

"Uh... Seems easy enough," I shrug.

She smirks," you're in charge of writing people's names. Some get pissed when you don't spell correctly."

"But big boss dude said-"

"He works in his office, not here. I've been working here for five years, people get pissed. Good luck."

"Geez, who peed in your cup this morning?" I say mostly to myself but I guess she overheard.

"Listen kid, I've been in a bad mood since my parents left and I got put into the foster system. I was going to be adopted but this family decided they didn't want to deal with my mess. And it fucking hurt because I met a boy in that family and I really liked him," she explains.

To think back, my mom and birth dad were happy at some point I guess. And I do remember them saying I was going to get a sister... If only I remembered her name... Wait.

"Clementine Jacobs?" I ask as she stares at me.

"Took you long enough," she laughs, giving me a hug. I laugh with her and hug her back... Tightly. "I knew who you were ever since you came in and started talking to Steve... Or in your words, big boss dude."

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry I forgot you," I say. "I've had so much stuff happen and I don't even know where to begin. It's been so long... We had so much fun together."

She smiles. God it was like when we were little. But a lot more prettier now. "I know your dad left your mom and that was the reason why they backed out. I'm sorry Noah. And I know about Jessica. I'm sorry about that too."

I sigh," I'm sorry we didn't adopt you. We were going to be such great friends."

"Like that time when you took me into your treehouse and told me I was the only girl who went up there," she says as I smile.

"Yeah and then a family of squirrels took over it," I laugh as she does too.

"You know, you don't have to start work today. I'll say you were running errands with me. How about we grab some brunch?" she asks.

I nod," yeah, that'd be excellent."

~

"Noah, you're such a romance," Clementine laughs as we're walking down the street. It's ten at night when I checked my watch. "Thank you so much for today. It was really nice catching up."

I smile," of course. Anytime Clem."

She smiles and we both end up in a hug," now that we got to see each other again, I'm finally happy. I meant what I said back at the shop. The part where I said I really like you," she says.

"Sure you liked me, I was going to be your brother."

"No," she says, taking my hand. "I really hoped your parents weren't going to adopt me because I knew in the future, I wanted us to be a thing. We were both young at the time so I didn't say anything but it's true. I prayed everyday if we were destined to be together, we'd find each other."

"Now that's sweet," I say as she chuckles. "But we're not destined to be with each other. I love-"

"A girl that's trying to get herself together," she says, mimicking what I said earlier. "Why don't you let her solve her own problems and you come hang out with me? Surely today was a good day."

"Yeah... Matter of fact, I had a great time today with taking long walks and visiting old toy stores. It was a lot of fun hanging with you. It was a nice trip down memory lane," I say.

"So?" she asks.

I shrug," I don't know about the dating part but I hope we'll hang out again. And soon."

"Whatever you want Noah. I really missed you."

I smile," I really missed you too."