The Secrets We Share

FOUR

Back into writing mode! :) And btw, I should've warned that as you have seen in the previous chapter, there is some swearing in this book. I'm sorry for those who are uncomfortable with this sort of thing, but hey these people are sixteen and it would be a miracle if they haven't ever said some swear words before, including whatever is going on in their heads :) Just skip over the bad language!

Dawn

Goddamn Noah Griffins, his stupid smirk and his stupid attitude. Why couldn't he just leave me be? Though I supposed it wasn't his fault that my brain kept on thinking about him whenever I had some spare time. 

I glared at his back as I walked home from high school right behind him. I'd never thought about where he would live- near me? Or somewhere far away? I took the train, but only a few stops were needed to get me to high school. 

Aria wasn't with me today- she had been picked up by her mum because... well, her mum sometimes wondered why she took so long in getting home. So did I. 

He nudged his friend Jason and they turned the corner. My path lay ahead of me, straight and unyielding, but Aria lived down that street and it wouldn't hurt to find out what the heck they were doing... it was called curiosity.

Curiosity killed the cat, my mind went. 

But satisfaction brought it back, I whispered in my head smugly. Aria had told me this way back in Year Eight, and I'd remembered it ever since. 

All I'm going to do, I continued to speak to my mind, is find out a little bit more about Noah... and follow him to see where he goes. Which is totally not stalker-ish by the way. And maybe talk to Aria on the way there. And this will satisfy my weird feelings for... not feelings. Thoughts. Weird thoughts on Noah. 

The path I walked on was neat, and swept clean from leaves. Was this street where Noah lived? The fences were pretty and white, the bushes trimmed and a dark, healthy green colour. I pulled out my earbuds and shoved one into my ear, connecting the cord to my phone. I glanced up occasionally as I scrolled through my songs, making sure they were still there, in front of me. 

I knew Aria's house was the large one, next to the house on the corner, number 29. It wasn't a big street, and I enjoyed staying over at her house, especially because everything was so peaceful. Whenever Aria and I wanted to stay together at my... parents' houses, she normally asked the time when I was over at my dad's. Mum probably wouldn't let her come over and do the things dad said we could do. Smart, but to be honest, sometimes we had to arrange activities together with mum, otherwise she probably wouldn't trust Aria and her parents as much, and therefore wouldn't let us have outings together. 

I was thinking about these things so intensely that I hadn't noticed something strange.

Silence. Suddenly, I realized that I could only hear my own footsteps. Shaking my head to clear my thoughts, I focused on the two people ahead- this was why I was here- so why was everything suddenly black?

"Mmmmphhh!"

"Holy shit!"

A scuffling noise. Then I smelt something that had a bit of a woody smell, and something else that got me inhaling the scent like a maniac- or someone drowning and who was gulping down their last breaths of air. What was I doing? My hands were reaching up to grasp something, to regain my balance, and I got something smooth, but there was a rough texture on top of it... fabric. 

I could feel something stirring in me, and I tried to focus on the... fabric in front of me. Fabric, huh. Wait. Fabric? Did that mean clothes? Did that mean I was stuffing my face into somebody's shirt?

Oh, god. I was so screwed.

I pulled back my face and promptly choked on air. 

I was in deep shit.

Noah stared at me, his expression caught between laughter and shock, not to mention confusion. My hands were on his chest, the fabric tangled in my hands, and I was basically pushing myself against him in order to smell that scent... that was his.

I was an idiot.

An idiotic idiot. 

An idiotically idiotic idiot. 

Was that even a word? Yes? Okay then. I was an idiotically idiotic idiot. It fitted.

"I'm sorry," I backed away from him with my hands slightly raised like I was a criminal and he was the cop. "I didn't see where I was walking. I didn't know you were in front of me and I was listening to music and I wasn't looking up-" Lies. And now I was spouting nonsense once again and acting like an idiotically idiotic idiot. Why was I always so crazy around him? Couldn't I act mature for once? 

Noah arranged his expressions into a smirk. "I'm sure that was an accident. Why would you be right behind me after all?" His voice, the tone- it made my emotions ten times more crazy. 

Defense was the key. "I'm sorry. I was heading to Aria's and I didn't see where I was going." I shoved my earphones out of sight and my hands started to fiddle. 

He raised an eyebrow. "Her place is three houses back." He raised a hand and pointed. 

Shit. I had been caught, and he knew it. 

He started towards me, slowly. He was the lion, and I was the deer. 

And I was desperate. 

"Where's Jason?"

Anything. I would say anything to buy myself some time to think my way around this. 

Noah paused. "He's at his house." He jerked his head at the house right to my left. Jason lived here? Right next to Aria? Well, not right next to, but they weren't that far away!

"Oh." What else could I say? 'That's wonderful, now can you go and leave me be?'

Noah kept on coming, closing the distance. "How did you know Jason was with me if you said you weren't looking up?"

What? Oh damn, he was observant. "I.. uh, saw two people in front of me when I turned down this street and since one of them turned out to be you, I assumed the other would be Jason because you're close friends, right?"

Noah smirked. He was now less than a metre away from me. 

It was time to ask him what the heck he was doing and get him to stay the hell away from me. 

"What are you doing?" My words came out small, and shy. Ugh. Like I was egging him on.

"Well, any smart person would know that all you want to do is-"

I raised an eyebrow and crossed my arms, cutting off his next words. "Yes?"

He grinned. "I'm sure that you knew what I was about to say. Anyways, it was nice meeting you. Another time, then." 

Two seconds later, he'd disappeared into Jason's house and I was left stranded in the middle of the path, frowning, the wind teasing my hair.