The Kissing Booth - Chasing Noah

Chapter 7

A/N: This is the edited version of Chapter 17, 18, and 19.

...

It was always hard to say goodbye to Noah because every time he came home I fell in love with him a little more. We drove his bike to the airport. Thankfully, I could keep my emotions in check a little better each time he left. Noah apologized for snapping at me when I suggested visiting him at Harvard. He told me that when Lee and I got over whatever this was that we should come visit him together.

"You focus on school now. I want to know what you decide, okay?" he ordered. I laughed at how devoted he was to making sure I saw this through.

"Okay Noah," I giggled. He wrapped an arm around me, his luggage in the other and kissed my forehead.

"I love you Elle," he murmured.

"I love you too Noah," I whispered. And that was our goodbye. I was sad as I watched Noah go up the escalator once again, but I was happy that I could focus on my relationship with Lee now. I had every hope that we would be okay again. When Noah and I stopped at his house on our way to the airport, Lee had already left for school. His mom assured me that he seemed better today, but she was still worried that he was isolating himself. First he broke up with Rachel, and he literally told me to leave him alone, so he was definitely trying to distance himself from everyone. I could tell that Noah was upset that he didn't get to say goodbye to him before he left.

As I pulled into the school parking lot with Noah's bike, I could see the girls start to wander over. Everyone knew that this was Noah's bike, so I guess they assumed that it was him. These girls really were stupid if they couldn't see the obvious size difference. I could see their disappointment when I took off my helmet. I grabbed my bag from underneath the seat and made my way to third period. As I walked across the quad, Rachel jogged up beside me.

"Lee got in a fight this morning," she told me. I could tell that she was trying to act like she didn't care, but it was obvious she was just as worried about him as I was. I grabbed her arm and pulled her over to a bench in the shade.

"With who?" I asked. She just rolled her eyes.

"Tuppen. Who else?" she answered.

"What happened?" I sighed. Why couldn't he just react like a normal person going through grief; cry and not talk to anyone.

"Somehow the guys found out about his dad. They asked Lee how he was doing and he just started throwing punches," she cried. I took her hand and told her everything was going to be okay. But I was lying. Lee was going to turn into Noah; shiners every week, starting fights for no reason. Then I realized that he was going to think that I told Tuppen and the guys about his dad. It was actually something that I could see myself doing. If Lee wasn't going to talk to me, maybe he would talk to those guys. This was only going to push him further away. I sat with Rachel until the bell rang for third period, but there was no point in going. I was distracted all day. Usually I could just go to Lee and we could talk about what was bothering him, but now I was what was bothering him. Noah hadn't even been gone two hours and everything had already gone to shit. I decided to just go straight home after school. I was considering bringing Noah's bike back to his house, but I didn't want to risk running into Lee and setting him off. I was distracted all night. My dad could even tell something was on my mind.

"What's wrong Elle? You've been quiet since you got home," he asked. I was at the kitchen table looking up schools where I could major in educational studies. The minute I had walked in the door, Brad had grilled me about what Noah and I did the past two days, but I didn't really give him much. I was too worried about Lee.