The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 17 (Noah)

Noah

"Gimme a text tomorrow, we can head to track tryouts together." Stefan says to me.

"I will, thanks." I tell him, just as I notice Jamie Hawkins approaching the bar from across the club.

I look around, she's not coming to talk to me, is she? No, her friend Jay is standing just up the bar from me. She's going to talk to him. Is she? I feel like she's aiming for me. And she looks... Absolutely stunning. This isn't good. Stop looking at her. Just ignore her.

"Oh, hey Stefan." She says with a smile as she stops in front of us. She knows Stefan, of course, he's from North Bridge too.

"Hey, Jamie. Looking good." Stefan says, openly looking her up and down.

"Fuck off, dude." She replies with a laugh. Stefan laughs too. Have they hooked up already or something? I don't get it.

"How's Erin? She's at NYU, right?" Stefan asks her.

"Yeah, she's loving New York so far. You miss her?" Jamie asks Stefan playfully.

"I'm gonna miss having her around for sure." Stefan says with a laugh. "Parties are gonna be boring without Erin Larson."

"You'll find someone else." Jamie says to him, before turning her attention to me. "Hello, Noah."

"Oh, you guys know each other?" Stefan says, looking between the two of us.

"We have a class together." I say flatly. She's smiling at me. I don't like this.

"Cool, well text me tomorrow Noah, I'll see you then. Later Jamie." And Stefan's gone, shit.

"How do you know Stefan?" Jamie asks me conversationally.

"He's in my Math class." I tell her, looking down at my drink on the bar. It's full, fuck, I can't talk to the bartender in an effort to stop talking to her.

"Ah, I see." She says, still smiling. "He fucked my friend Erin a couple of times, so."

I can't believe she talks like this. Girls talk that way? She actually said the word fucked and I barely know her and I can't ignore the weird feeling I got in the pit of my stomach when she said the word fucked and oh my god this is a disaster, I need to get away from her because I really wanna fuck her, but I can't.

"Awesome. She's at NYU?" Why the hell am I asking questions? Why am I engaging in conversation with this gorgeous girl that I would love to take home and fuck?

"Yeah, she moved into her dorm last week, I assume you're familiar with New York?" She raises an eyebrow and smiles at me.

"Yeah, I grew up there. So did Zach. He's dancing with your friend right now." I gesture over toward the dance floor and Jamie turns around to look. She laughs. She looks so fucking gorgeous when she laughs.

"Those two are certainly hitting it off, anyway." She says to me. "So, should I assume you haven't made a start on Pride and Prejudice yet?"

"I have actually." I say defensively. "I checked it out of the library earlier this week."

"Oh, good." She's still smiling. Stop being so fucking friendly. "We can start working on it when you're done."

"Sure." I say dismissively, before looking past her at Zach and John on the dancefloor. Where the fuck is Will!?

"Listen, Noah. I feel like we didn't exactly make a great first impression on each other. I wanna change that. Can I buy you another drink?" She looks down at the full glass of vodka in my hand. She doesn't care though. She wants a fresh start?