The Middle - Volume Two ✔️

Chapter 53 (Noah)

Noah

Zach's here with Kim, and John's here with Aubrey. And both of them neglected to tell me they were coming here on dates tonight. Even fucking Patrick is here with a date. What is this?

It's exactly what Aubrey just said it is. Date night. And I don't like it.

I don't like the word. Dating. I don't see the need to label what Jamie and I are doing like that. I told her I wanna be with her, and I do. So that's what I'm doing. Spending time with her. This isn't dating. It's two people who wanna spend time together, doing just that. I don't like Zach and John bringing their girlfriends around here, putting ideas like that into Jamie's head. She's been awesome since the Snow Ball, she hasn't asked me any annoying questions like are we dating now? She's just going with it, same as me. And I don't want anyone else interfereing in this. My friends need to leave.

"Noah, would you lighten the fuck up. We didn't know you guys would be here." Zach says, frowning at me. "The girls are all friends, just like us. Look, they're just talking. Don't get weird."

I look over at Jamie, Aubrey and Kim. They are not just talking. They're excitedly whispering to each other and smiling and looking over at us every now and again. They're talking about us. Their dates.

"It's not a big deal, man. You've taken a big step with Jamie. Don't overthink it. We'll get out of your hair as soon as we get snow cones." John assures me. Okay. Good. We're almost at the front of the line now.

"Kim wants strawberry." Zach says. "Aubrey wants lime, right?"

"I didn't ask her, but I'll get her lime. I know that's her favourite." John replies confidently.

"Right. And strawberry's Kim's. What about Jamie?" Zach asks me conversationally.

"Strawberry too, I guess." I reply. I got her those strawberry creme Hershey's, and she was happy with those.

"Cool." Zach gives me a smile.

"Ice cool." John says while snapping his fingers. He's trying to be funny and failing miserably.

"You're such a dork." Zach says to John with a laugh as I step up to the snow cart. I'm up.

"Two strawberry snow cones, please." I tell the guy behind the cart.

"One of those for Jamie?"

I turn my head to the side and see Patrick. He's smiling at me. Wow. Progress.

"Uh, yeah." I say, as I pay the guy and take my purchases from him. I step out of the way to let Zach and John order.

"Dude, give her this one." Patrick says, holding his own snow cone out to me. It's blue. Um...

"She hates strawberry flavouring. Blueberry's her favourite, here. Gimme that one." He insists, and he smiles at me encouragingly.

"Uh, okay, sure. Thanks." We exchange snow cones, and I notice Patrick's date looking up at him with a starstruck expression on her face. He is definitely gonna get laid later, which I assume was his motivation for taking this girl out in the first place. She is ridiculously hot. He knows how to pick them.

"That was so sweet, Patrick." She says to him, and she's practically swooning. He just shrugs his shoulders like no big deal.

"Enjoy the rest of your date." Patrick says to me, with something like a smirk forming around the corners of his lips. "Treat her good, I'll beat you up if you don't."

And with that, he turns back to his girl and they walk off. I look down at the snow cones in my hands and blink a couple times, composing myself before I head back over to the girls. Patrick was being deadly serious just now. This dating shit is fucking stressful.

I walk back over to the girls, wondering who would get the upper hand in a fight; a runner or a drummer. Jamie looks up at me, and the sight of her smiling at me reminds me why I'm putting myself through this crap. Because of her. Nothing else should matter. I need to shake off the past fifteen minutes.

"Aww you got me blueberry! Awesome. Thanks." She looks delighted as she takes her snow cone and begins eating it. Well, Patrick's snow cone.

"No problem. Let's get out of here." I say quickly, because Aubrey and Kim are grinning up at me too. I don't want anyone to start talking about how romantic this evening is again. We need to get away from them.

"Sure, I'll see you guys later." Jamie says to her friends, before I usher her away from them. Alone with her again, at last.

"You wanna go back to the dorms now? Or your place?" I ask her hopefully. Being out in public like this just isn't sitting right with me anymore. I want to put an end to it.

"We've barely been here half an hour?" She points out, and she sounds disappointed. Damn.

"I know, I just -" I draw a blank.

"You're not comfortable with this kinda thing, are you?" She asks.

We stop walking and I look down at her. We're standing not too far from the snow machine now. A bunch of little kids are playing beneath the snowfall, laughing and having fun. This isn't where I wanna be with Jamie. I wanna be alone with her. Preferably with much less clothes on.

"Not really." I admit. "I mean, it's fine. It's just... I want you all to myself, I guess."

She blushes and looks down at her feet, before looking back up at me through her thick eyelashes.

"I do too." She says, giving me a small smile. "I just thought this could be fun. I like the Winter Fayre, it's a cool vibe. We can leave if you want, though."

I feel bad now. She thought this would be fun. Talking to her and being with her is fun, but we could do that at home. We don't need to be here.

"Okay, how about we finish these -" I say, before biting into my snow cone. She laughs, because I'm acting like I'm in a rush to get through all of this flavoured ice. I am. "Then we grab a couple of those peanut lattes you keep raving about, then we fuck off?"

She laughs and rolls her eyes. "Toffee nut lattes! Not peanut! Seriously, man, how many times?!"

I shrug my shoulders and laugh. I like my coffee black, so I'm not as excited about these festive lattes as she is.

"Whatever. Plan?" I ask.

"Plan."

Thank god. I cannot wait to get out of here. And I cannot wait to get her out of her clothes again.

***

I spent the night at Jamie's house again. It's just easier - she doesn't like leaving Benji alone for too long, and I don't mind. We get more privacy at her place too. The last thing I wanted last night was more potential interference from Will and Maddie at my dorm. And now that Jamie's friends know we're...well, whatever we are (not dating), they won't just show up at her house out of the blue if she tells them not to, which she did last night.

Classes are over now, because finals are officially upon us. My first final exam - English Lit. So Jamie will be there too. We're gonna study separately (we wouldn't get much studying done sitting next to each other...) then go to the exam together. I'm training with the Track Team later, so I won't get to spend any more time with her. But that's fine. I don't want things between us to be too full on. Like I said, she hasn't questioned what's going on here, and I like that. I want it to stay that way, because the truth is, I don't know what I want. And I think she knows that. Do I want her to be my girlfriend? Officially? Honestly, no. I just know that I wanna be with her. And for now, I think that's enough. We have finals, then the holidays. She'll be here, and I'll be at home in New York. I'm glad, because I don't want her getting any ideas about us. Not just yet. Things between us are good the way they are - talking, making each other laugh, the sex - and I survived our first date at the Winter Fayre, so yeah. I'm happy with how things are going. I think she is too. We haven't talked about it, but I am fucking good with that. She knows I like her now, and that's all that should matter. We're just going with it for now, and that is absolutely fucking fine by me.