Bridge (ON HOLD)

one // introductions

O N E // I N T R O D U C T I O N S

"No, no, no, no!" I yelled, watching as the train pulled out of the station a few blocks away. "Great, this is just fantastic," I said to no one.

This had to be the worst possible situation ever. It was bad enough already that I had to take the train to the airport, but on top of that I just missed mine and the next one was coming in an hour. Not to mention it was about 99 degrees outside and I had no money for a cab.

Reaching into my pocket I also discovered my phone was at 10% charge. 

Fiddlesticks.

"Please pick up, please pick up," I prayed after dialing my mom's number and putting the phone up to my ear.

"Hello?" my mom's voice asked.

"Thank god, okay, so I missed the train and I need you to pick me up."

"Oh honey, I can't. I'm going into a meeting in 5 minutes. I'm sorry sweetie,"

"Wait what am I supposed to do then?! How am I going to get to the airport?"

"Call your friend, call your step-brother, I don't know. I've gotta run, good luck." she said and hung up.

Wow. So I was officially screwed, and now my phone was about to die. I knew my brother would be busy with whatever college kids have to deal with, my dad was on business in LA, and my only friends Max and Lola weren't back from their summer vacations yet.

Taking a deep breath I decided there was only one person I could possibly call, my ex.

- -- -

"Noelle, I thought you'd never call," Luke smirked, pulling his fancy car up next to me.

I rolled my eyes and got up to get in the car. "I didn't plan on calling you ever again but desperate times call for desperate measures," I said, climbing into the passenger seat.

"So where we headed to?" Luke asked.

"The airport,"

"Why? You going somewhere?"

"No, I'm picking someone up."

Luke looked over at me and raised an eyebrow, "Is it your boyfriend?" 

"Oh my gosh, it's not my boyfriend, I don't have a boyfriend anymore. And if it was, it would be none of your business."

Luke rolled his eyes.

"And why do you care anyways?" I asked harshly.

"I don't know, I just didn't think you would replace me that fast. We broke up at the end of the school year. That was only 3 months ago."

"Do I have to remind you that you broke up with me!"

"I did the right thing! I'm going to be a freshman in college next year. In a different state. And you're going to be a senior. It would never work, I was making it easier for us."

Tears welled up in my eyes. "We could have done something but obviously you didn't want to try and make us work anymore. You know what? It's fine. Just forget it."

"Noelle, don't do this."

"Do what?"

"Guilt me. We both know long distance almost never works,"

"I said, forget it. It's fine." 

The rest of the car ride was spent in an awkward silence. I didn't want to talk to Luke and he understood that. It still shocked me that he used the long distance card on me. So what if we would be far away from each other. We could have at least tried to make it work, but obviously that's not what he wanted. 

By the time we arrived at the airport I was half an hour late. Luke asked me if he should wait for me, but I told him it was okay, I could find my own way back home. 

I darted through the airport, grabbing the information the program had emailed my parents and I earlier about picking up our exchange student. Apparently his name was Charlie Donahue, he was 17 and a senior, like me. I scanned the rest of the page before finding his flight number and rushing to get to the right baggage claim.

Only a few people were still there and it was easy to determine who Charlie was based on the fact that the other people were a lot older than 17.

"Charlie?" I asked.

A boy with brown hair turned around and smiled at me before standing up and walking towards me. 

I swear to god, I died right then and there.

"Hey," he greeted me in a British accent that almost made me melt, "are you Noelle?"

"Yeah, hi. I'm so sorry for being late, my parents couldn't drive me here and I missed the train."

"No worries, it's all good. I'm sorry to hear you missed your train. How did you get here though?"

"Well, um, I had to call my ex-boyfriend," I said shyly.

"Oh, I see. So no boyfriend in the picture then?" Charlie smirked.

"Nope. Not at the moment."

"Good to know,"

I smiled at the charming boy standing in front of me. For some strange reason I had the feeling this was going to be a very fun year.

Song of the chapter: Go Outside by Cults

Vote, comment, drool over the picture of Charlie, and stay amazing.