The Middle | ✔️

Chapter 51 (Noah)

Noah

I pick up my phone for the tenth time in the space of 5 minutes before slamming it back down onto the counter. I'm twitchy, and I'm jumpy, and I'm irritated. I don't like this, not one bit. I'm gonna go for a run soon.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Will asks, looking up at me from the TV. "You've been acting weird all day."

"I'm fine." I practically bark at him. He raises an eyebrow at me, and I sigh and rake both hands through my hair. Why is this annoying me so much?

"I'm going out for a run. Zach might show up." I snap at Will before hauling the door open and getting the hell out of my dorm.

She hasn't replied to my text, and I have no idea why. She skipped English Lit class yesterday, she was weird as shit when I ran into her outside Symposium, but I was with Will to be fair, so I'll let that one slide. But, what the hell happened? I can't wrap my head around it. Everything was fine, we were making out, she let me carry her up the stairs and lay her down on her bed... I honestly have no idea what went wrong. 

Okay, so she's probably feeling angry with herself for giving into the sexual pull between us again, but it's fine. I've been fine about it. There's no need for her to be ghosting me right now, and I know she's ghosting me because I checked. She opened my text like 5 minutes after I sent it, and she hasn't replied. Should I text her again? Am I above a double-text? Jesus Christ, why do I even care? What the hell is happening to me!?

I'm barely 10 feet down the street when I spot Zach. I slow down to a walk when I approach him. 

"Did you forget I was coming over?" He asks me, puzzled. 

"No, I'll be quick." I inform him. "Will's upstairs."

"Okay... Everything all right?" He asks, he can probably see the irritation on my face. He knows me far too well. 

"I'm fine, it's just..." I trail off, unsure what I was even about to say. 

"Kim told me Jamie drove to New York yesterday to visit her friend." Zach informs me, effectively seizing my full attention. She's in the City?! "That have anything to do with your frown lines?"

"What? Why would she drive to New York? Has she been there before? She didn't mention that on Sunday night." I can't make sense of this. 

"She didn't tell you when you were over there?" Zach smirks at me, "She knows you're a New Yorker, right? Weird that she didn't mention it... Unless..."

"What?" I snap at him. I already know where this is going, and I'm afraid he's right. 

"She drove to the City, spur of the moment, because she wanted to see her friend... After spending Sunday night with you." He raises his eyebrows at me and folds his arms across his chest. "Something happened again, didn't it?"

I link my hands together and place them on top of my head, slowly exhaling and looking up at the sky. What the hell is going on in Jamie's head right now? She didn't need to leave town to see her friend because of what happened (or almost happened) with me... did she?

"Hello? Earth to Noah?" Zach waves a hand in front of my face and I look at him. "What happened when you went over to her house? Did you finally fuck her?"

"No." I sigh and bring my hands down, running them over my face. "We almost did though. She told me she had homework though, pretty much kicked me out." 

Zach bursts out laughing and I roll my eyes at him. I wait for him to compose himself. 

"What the hell is this girl doing to you, dude?" He asks me through his laughter.