The End Is Only the Beginning

08. Noelle

08. Noelle

Noelle and I stood in silence.

She held the picture of Aaron and I in her hand, not tearing her gaze away for even a second.

"It was Aaron, wasn't it?" Noelle's voice was emotionless.

"I can explain-,"

She held up the picture, turning it towards me. "Aaron was your summer-fling," she announced again, as if I hadn't realised myself. "Everything you just told me, it was about you and him," Noelle spoke. She placed the picture on my bedside table.

"Just let me explain."

"What about Lindy? She said that Aaron had been acting strange."

"She doesn't know."

"Of course, she doesn't know." Noelle ran a hand over her face. She took a deep breath. "You hooked up with her boyfriend, but sure, what's the point in telling her?" she spoke, gesturing wildly with her hands. Noelle sat down on Grayson's bed again, staring down at the pictures that were scattered on the floor.

"I didn't know that he had a girlfriend," I answered in my defence.

Aaron had never mentioned Lindy during the summer, how was I supposed to realise that he had a secret girlfriend waiting for him in New York?

"You're supposed to be her friend, Caleb," Noelle spoke, massaging her temples. "Surely she deserves to know that her boyfriend's a cheat."

I sat down on Grayson's bed beside her. "What happened between me and Aaron is over," I spoke, attempting to keep my voice calm; the fact that my heart was racing didn't help the situation very much. "We never thought that we'd see each other again," I continued, "so why would I ruin his and Lindy's relationship?"

"Because you're her friend, and newsflash Caleb, friends don't do shit like this!" Noelle was up from the bed, she dragged a hand through her blonde hair. "I'm telling her, Caleb. Even if you didn't know that Aaron had a girlfriend when you were sleeping with him you know now, and the fact that you haven't told Lindy makes you just as bad as him."

Noelle grabbed her book-bag and left my room. My mom had just walked through the front door when Noelle reached it, she didn't even acknowledge her and stormed out of the apartment; great.

-

Noelle hadn't answered any of the ten text messages that I had sent her in the last twenty minutes. She hadn't answered my phone calls either.

I had collected the spilled photos from the floor and stashed them away in their box again, returning it to it's spot on my bedside table as if they hadn't been the things to cause this chaos once again. Of course, it hadn't just been down to them; I mean none of this would have happened if Aaron had never decided to spend the summer with his cousins in Miami, or if I hadn't decided to talk to him on the beach that one day. Even if I had rejected his kiss I would have probably been on safe grounds.

My legs were crossed, and I was sat in the corner of my bed. Gunnar stood in the middle of my room, he pretty much took up the entire floor space, watching me. My mom knocked on my bedroom door, peeking into my room; although I usually didn't want to talk to her about my failed love-life, I was grateful.

"Your grandma Helen sent me the recipe for her infamous French Toast muffins, do you want to give me a hand?" she asked; that was mom-code for 'I noticed something was up, do you want to talk about it?'

My bed creaked as I got up from it. "Sounds fun."

             "What makes this recipe infamous?" I asked as I mixed cinnamon into my concoction.