The Kissing Booth Why Now?

11. THE FIRST STEP *

I look at my mom and she says "I am glad." I watch her look at everyone and get this smug look on her face "June and I told you so." I watched Mathew and my dad laugh and nodded "yes, you did." She looks at me "so, you're a Senior now." I smile "yep Lee and I are Seniors and I have been accepted early into Harvard if I keep my grades up. I plan on going there so I can get a degree in law like you and June if I can get that soccer scholarship." She smiles at me and looks at Noah "so, how do you feel about your girl going to school all the way in Boston." He smirks "I love the idea." Lee laughs "well duh because she will be with you. Mary, Noah was accepted to Harvard last year. He is currently a Freshman." She looks at him "I am so proud of you Noah." She looks at my dad "I told you Maxwell that Noah was not going to stay the rebel you were afraid he would be for the rest of his life." He just nods his head and she smiles than all of sudden gasps "but shouldn't you be in school please tell me you didn't already flunk out." Noah laughs "no, Mary. The rents brought me home when you made your appearance at school. They knew that Shelly would need me and that I would not be happy not being here for her. I go back to school on Sunday."

I watch my mom look down "oh, well we will miss you." "What is wrong Mary?" "Well, I was hoping we would have a family dinner on Sunday, June but if Noah is leaving..." We all laugh and June shakes her head "he leaves after the dinner that is one rule we insist on if he comes home." "Oh, thank goodness." I start to jump up and down "what is it Shelly baby?" I look at the rents "let's go eat at The Lee's restaurant. I would love to see their reaction to mom walking in on Sunday." Lee snorts "oh, boy your Baldumng-I is going to freak." Mom shakes her head "you all still use those crazy nicknames." Dad laughs "yep, and Jiawei still flits with Elle to annoy Noah and Lee." "Yeah, he does but now he is dating a lovely girl named Tricia and she loves to joke that I am the only one he is allowed to flirt with. It is funny when Jiawei says that he wants to run away with me she just smiles and says ok I will run away with this tall drink of water here." Noah shakes his head "and that is when I tell them I don't think so that Shelly is all mine."

We slowly make our way to the game room after eating dinner when my mom looks at me "so, Elle when did you and Noah get together." I blush and I hear Lee snort. I shake my head and hide in Noah's chest and feel the vibrations from him laughing. Lee finally composes himself and begins to tell my mom the story.

"See Mary Elle and I have been the head of the dance committee since the start of our Junior year. Needless to say, when the annual fundraiser carnival came around I kept Elle busy so we ended up procrastinating so long all the good booths were taken and we were going crazy trying to figure out what we were going to do. It wasn't until one day Elle and I were scrolling through an internet search and saw a kissing booth that we both yelled kissing booth and turned in our idea. We were lucky not only did it get approved but we were able to get all our kissers lined up pretty quick. Now several girls begged Elle to get Noah to do the booth but he would have none of it. She even begged him to just show up to show his support but he refused. Little did we know he had changed his mind the night of the booth. Now mind you I had been teasing Elle ever since we started the idea of the booth because at this point she had never been kissed. So, to me, the idea of a girl that had never been kissed running a kissing booth was just too ironic.

Well, the night of the kissing booth happened and we had decided to have two girls and two guys sitting waiting to be kissed to make the line go faster. We never anticipated Noah showing up or the girl that he was supposed to kiss freak out so we didn't have a backup and I shoved Shelly on stage. Now granted at this time I didn't know it was Noah. The girl told me it was her ex so I wasn't going to make the poor girl kiss her ex and well I figured at least my bestie finally get's her first kiss. The next thing I know Shelly comes back and looks completely dazed and then she told me she kissed Noah. I wasn't too happy about it because of his reputation. I can't remember if you were still with us at the time it started but by this time he had a reputation as a player and I didn't want him hurting my bestie. Well anyway, I met a girl that night and left Shelly at the fair since she said she could get a ride home. Little did she know I told Noah and he volunteered to pick up Shelly." I shook my head "Well I guess I should take over here."

When I realized the girl freaked because of Noah I shook my head and mouthed seriously at her and she just shrugged her shoulders. Needless to say, I was nervous and started babbling and even told Noah he didn't have to kiss me. All he said was I didn't pay to talk to you I paid for a kiss and before I could say another word he kissed me. When our lips touched I felt like I was flying and I realized he was pulling me closer and I didn't want him to ever stop. When the kiss ended he just smirked told me good job and walked off. The girl that freaked came back and I switched places with her walking off in a daze. Like Lee said I told him and eventually he left me there that night. I was picking up trash after everyone left with those of us running booths when Noah showed up and told me that he was my ride. I asked if he had his motorcycle and he told me no so I went home with him. The ride was awkward and when we were close to the house he told me that Mathew had bought Brad a game and it was in the house if I minded stopping to pick it up and I told him no. While in the house I had the urge to kiss him again so I did. I then broke the kiss we talked about his supposed reputation and he reminded me he always came home on time and never had a girl in his room. He basically admitted the girls were all making up the stories." Noah pulled me closer "let me finish. I told her that I had feelings for her and I wouldn't play her. We ended up having a make-out session where she kept stopping me to make sure that she was not just some toy and well as you can tell I proved myself to her."

Lee snorted "well not till I busted you two kissing in school made you break up then once I realized it was all Shelly's idea to keep your relationship a secret and that she was ignoring you when you were trying to find out what was going on during the week you disappeared."  He looked at my mom  "he explained all of this to me with Shelly admitting her part.  I then let the two of them get back together.  All of this happened while at prom." Lee giggled "not to mention that you declared your undying love for Shelly and admitted to the whole school that you had hurt her and that you were trying to make it up to her and prove to me that you deserved my bestie."

My mom started laughing "Lee, why am I not surprised that you would be the one person other than Maxwell that would have a hard time with my Elle being with Noah. So, the story I heard about the resident bad boy and good girl of the school were you two?" I looked at my mom and knew the teachers had been talking "Yep." She shook her head "I can't believe the story I was told was about you two. Oh, and I did know of his reputation about being a player but I also knew it was all rumors since there were several times your mom and I would pick him up from a party and a girl would be hanging on him saying come on Flynn just have sex with me you don't have to be my boyfriend. Just to find out the next day that same girl claimed she slept with him." We all laughed "leave it to our mom's to know the truth." "you got that right Shells." Brad looked at us "uhm I kind of knew that Elle and Noah were dating behind Lee's back." We all looked at him I gulped "how?" "Well duh, Shellybellie there were times I would hear Noah at our house when I knew Lee wasn't even over since he would post pictures of him and his girlfriend Rachel." We all looked at Lee and Brad jumped up and ran to him wrapping his arms around Lee "I am so sorry Lee I forgot." He hugged Brad "it is ok little man."

My mom looked at all of us and I took a deep breath "Rachel and Lee broke up. Turns out after we took her to the beach house and she left to visit her family at some point she came back. Unfortunately, before she came back we took off to Texas so dad and Mathew could check out a new business they started, and needless to say because of mine and Lee's stupidity we had our phones taken away from us for texting while walking since we were almost hit by a car. During our time there Rachel's family moved and well Lee received a dear John letter. We had no idea what was going on since we didn't have our phones." I watched my mom shake her head "one of the days I came here to watch you guys I saw a car pull up and a girl get out to take down the address and climb back in crying. I heard her father say it's for the best you know your sister will not give up and eventually he would resent you since you will back your sister up even though you are hurting his best friend and brother." I shake my head "turns out Rachel's sister claimed Noah was the father of her baby and I knew that she was pregnant and still chased after him. After they found out the truth since it was kids from Buckner that encouraged her to lie to get me away from Noah her parents moved them across the country. Well mainly because they had already planned the move."

My mom shook her head "don't worry Lee you will find the right girl and if that girl was meant for you believe me you will meet again." Lee smiled "yeah, I hope so." It wasn't long before it was time for all of us to go home and get some sleep. My parents decided to wait a while and get to know each other again before mom moved back into the house. Even though they still feel love for each other there is a lot of time that has passed. They explained during the time apart things could have changed, since people change and until they know for sure they will love who they are at this point in time and my mom finds who she is now they are going to wait to be together.