Hey, Noah

o n e | The Beginning

o n e | The Beginning

Like every other day, he looked gorgeous.

Like every other day, I—with, of course, the rest of the girls in the room—gave him the usual cursory glance as he walked with a friend of his to the door of the class and bid him goodbye, before moving ahead to his classroom next door.

Like every other day, I turned back to Mrs. Samuels and whatever she was saying regarding English, immediately shutting out any thoughts of Noah Archer and just how good he always looked because I definitely had other priorities.

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It was a Thursday morning when it wasn't just any other day anymore.

The news that Noah's parents had been in a car crash last night (the accident which was talked about on television all morning) spread like wildfire around college grounds. It was hard to miss because it was honestly all anyone could talk about, which in itself was extremely annoying. I understood that he was a little popular around campus—okay, more like a whole lot—but instead of gossiping about someone who'd just lost his parents, the students at Redwood University really needed to get some hobbies.

"Did you know what happened?" I heard.

"I heard he lost it completely," a high-pitched voice responded. "Like, his dorm room door? I doubt his roommate did it. I heard Noah kicked it in last night."

"Well, can you blame him? I mean, his parents died."

"Yeah, I know. I'll just let him know that if he needs any comforting... I'm so here for him."

Oh my God, seriously?

I slammed my Psychology book close in my lap and braced to give the girls sitting a little distance behind my bench an earful, but a hand snaked across from the left and grabbed my wrist the second I shut my book.

I looked to my side at my best friend, Ella, who simply shook her head. I just sighed as she slowly loosened her hold on my wrist.

"Seriously, I don't get it," I murmured to her. "Someone's parents just died. How can people be so insensitive? Everyone's talking about it. Let me tell you something, I know more of all the possible rumors and speculation going on about Noah Archer in the face of his parents' accident than I do about today's Psych test and I've been trying to study out here for almost two hours now."

Ella gave me a wry smile as she held up her own book. "I joined you here about an hour ago, so yeah, I kind of know what you mean."

"I'm sorry," I said. "I'm just really stressed about this test."

She snorted. "Riley, what are you talking about? You stayed up all night to study for it! You'll ace that test, bitch."

I still had a topic to skim through before class, but I nodded anyway.

"Now me on the other hand..." Ella groaned.

I felt a smile curling at my lips in amusement before I caught how her eyes suddenly widened at something in the distance. Following her line of sight, I tried to find what she was looking at.

It was Noah.

Noah Archer was here.

"What?" Ella whispered to me. "That's Noah. Why is he here on campus? Shouldn't he be like, literally anywhere else?"