Bittersweet // Complete

22.

"How was your date?" Nathan and River were ready to interrogate me as soon as I walked in.

"Why are you sad?" River added on assessing me carefully.

"I'm not sad, just tired," I lied, "I think I need to sleep."

Nathan let out a very audible gasp, "You had sex with him, didn't you?"

"That's why you're tired!" understanding dawned on River's face. I rolled my eyes, not in the mood to point out that I was only gone for about four hours, of which nearly two were spent in travelling to literally another town. Not bothering with an explanation, I rolled my eyes and walked past them, ready to put the day behind me.

"Wait, was it your first time? River called and Nathan followed up with his own line of questions, "Did it hurt? Did he make you cum?"

"Oh my god, shut up!" I slammed the door behind me.

"Well it doesn't seem like she had a good time," I heard them gossip through the door as I took off my dress, "Do you know who the guy was?"

Ugh.

I opened the door just to scream in their faces to leave me alone and shut it again harshly enough to make the hinges protest.

"Well, her underwear wasn't matching, so it was definitely not the sex." I heard Nathan's retreating voice, making me cringe. It wasn't that they had seen me in my underwear before, living together had it's pros and cons, but would it kill them to give me some privacy?

I grabbed my make up wipes, taking off the pretty perfect cat eye I had winged, and the red lipstick that was slightly smudged.

I didn't know why I was getting so particularly upset when I knew exactly what Noah was like. He was a Sterling, more than anything else, and when have the Sterlings cared about anything else except themselves? Certainly William Sterling did not give a rat's ass about his wife after they split, and then he kicked her aside as soon as he had Noah in his arms. William Sterling did not stop to care for a moment before he made a hard lobby against a green policy the governor of the state was trying to bring, only because he would have to pay 300,000 at most in additional taxes. William Sterling was a hard asshole, and the apple never fell too far from the tree.

So why was I trying to defend Noah in my head? Why was I muddled with memories of his lips on mine, and every single moment he made me believe there was something special here?

Snuggled up in my bed, I raised my phone to call Sophie when my eyes caught a waiting notification from Noah.

@noahsterling: I figured we need to talk about what happened. Meet me in the greenhouse at 4 tomorrow? (10.56pm)

@noahsterling: Goodnight princess (11.24pm)

Well this was confusing.

Calling Sophie seemed like an easier decision to make, so I dialled her number instead. It went straight to voicemail.

"Coucou you've reached Sophie who is currently drowning in assignments or in a pool of unwarranted male attention, so drop a message. Ciao."

When had she changed her message? And since when was she French or Italian? Daniel had uploaded a picture of some concert he was enjoying with Finn and some other girl, so I doubted he'd take my call either. Feeling incredibly hollow, I shut my phone off and turned away from it, squeezing my eyes shut and willing sleep to take me away.

"Whoa did you run out of concealer?" Sophie was first to question me when I dumped my belongings on the bench and settled in the noise of the cafeteria. This morning was not going well, and to say I was exhausted would be an understatement. I hadn't slept till when the sun had come up, nearly crying in exhaustion when the alarm rang forty minutes later. I would have considered skipping classes but there was an important quiz discussion in the first class so I powered through the fatigue, dumping an extra spoonful of coffee in my cup. When that didn't help in the least, I stole an energy drink from River's stash, drinking it in between stops while cycling to college, feeling my calves already drain out of energy. I fell asleep in between the apparently important discussion, even getting some drool over my notebook. Gross.

"I'm just fucking done," I groaned with my head buried in my hands. Eleanor pulled me in a hug, rubbing my back gently, and I leaned into her out of habit, until my brain rang an alarm bell in my head. The guilt of seeking comfort from her was so strong, that I had to pull away immediately.

"Is it the Legal Aspects project you're stressing over?" Sophie guessed when I wouldn't say anything. I shook my head, although that was pretty concerning too. It carried 60% of my grade, so I should have probably been more involved in it, but I hated that subject with a burning passion and the annoying professor with an awfully nasal voice was not helping.

"I've procrastinated enough on it to like, know already," A yawn interrupted me, "that I'm gonna fail that one. So I'll probably bury myself in the botany wing before the deadline gets closer. Great manure."

Eleanor smacked my shoulder, "You'll do great. Is there something you want help with? I can find someone to tutor you."

"You don't even know anyone in our course," Sophie pointed, making Eleanor narrow her eyes.

"Darling, it doesn't matter if I don't know everyone. Everyone knows me," she rolled her eyes, busy on her phone screen. Seconds later, she received a notification that she read out for us, "Okay, Kim Weber is available for tutoring, do you guys know her?"

"It's a him," I yawned again, "and he's a sleazebag." Sophie agreed.

"We'll find someone, don't worry." Eleanor pouted, before changing the subject, "Has anyone seen Noah today?"

"Dan said he doesn't have classes till noon so Noah would probably have the same schedule?" Sophie guessed.

"No, Noah had an extra credits class before Dan so he should be on campus." Eleanor shrugged, returning to her phone again. I swear you could not separate the girl from her device.

"By the way, I have an idea," Sophie called for our attention, "We're all getting bikini waxes."

"No," I protested at the same time that Eleanor squealed in excitement.

"Oh come on, don't be such a party pooper! You already ruined my pride party," Eleanor pouted, and Sophie joined in with those big puppy eyes they knew it was hard to resist.

"Well, your pride party was a flop because I'm not a lesbian, and I'm not looking forward to having a stranger near my genetalia with hot wax." I rolled my eyes.

"It barely feels like anything," El promised, "I'll pay for your nails if you come along."

I stared at my chipped nail paint. Some acrylics would be a good change. The idea was tempting, almost, until I realised that waxing my bikini area was not a good tradeoff for longer nails.

"No," I stood firm on my ground, "No wax for me. Can't we do something normal like bowling?"

"Oh, that's a good idea!" Sophie clapped her hand excitedly, and Eleanor couldn't hold back on her excitement either. We hadn't done something fun like this in forever, and I needed to get my mind off things.

"I'm inviting Dan and Finn too," Sophie was already texting, "I think Finn hates me too much for the total vomit fiasco."

"It's impossible to hate you, babe," Eleanor comforted her.

This would be a good way to keep me distract-

@noahsterling: See you at 4?

@briannabananas: Busy, sorry.

@noahsterling: You can't avoid talking to me forever?

Watch me, Noah. 

****

I don't know I was just excited for posting Chapter 23 and I had to get this done ASAP lol. Enjoy your weekend, I hope your skin glows, you're hydrated and you get your own Noah/Brianna some day :) 

Please don't forget to vote and comment, I really appreciate it!