Chapter Four Mia
Chapter Four
Mia
It took Mia the rest of the week to get over the full force of Noah’s real smile. Or the fact that he’d just casually given
her his number. Everything about him was so infuriating. His personality, his good looks . . . everything.
No one should be that hot, she thought as she followed Google’s directions to Ground Smoothie.
She shuddered. Debating him from all the way across the lecture hall was one thing, but being that close to Noah had been nerve-racking. Her legs had shaken the entire time. And she had barely been able to think straight.
Was this how people felt whenever they did VIP meet and greets with K-pop stars? But Noah wasn’t even an actual celebrity.
And he was more like an antihero protagonist of a K-drama than a member of BTS.
Thank God she’d taken notes to prepare for their conversation. Her mind would have gone blank otherwise.
The directions on her phone led her to C Dorm, but she couldn’t find any signs for Ground Smoothie. She made three laps around
the dorm before giving up.
Of course, Noah would tell her to meet him at some weird, fake location.
She thought about calling him, but she doubted he’d given her his real number. If he was that worried about sasaeng fans,
why would he give her his contact information so easily? This was probably all just one big prank.
She sighed and started to walk away.
“Hey, over here!”
Mia followed the sound of Noah’s voice. He stood in front of the very dorm she’d just walked past several times.
Tonight, Noah was wearing khaki shorts and a navy-blue tank, and Mia realized this was the first time she was seeing him wear
casual clothes in person. Sure, he’d been shirtless at the Alpha Tau party, and he wore all sorts of outfits in his videos,
but he normally wore only long-sleeved dress shirts and other relatively formal clothes to class.
Mia tried not to stare at his shoulders, zeroing in on his face instead.
“Ground Smoothie is in C Dorm?” she asked. “Why didn’t you just say that?”
“Well, it’s not. It just looks like it. Ground Smoothie was the original dining hall for all first years, before they built a bigger one between B and C. And hey, I offered to help.”
Mia frowned as they made their way to the other side of C Dorm.
This time, she could clearly see how what she’d assumed was part of C Dorm was an awkwardly shaped, separate structure with its own entrance and set of windows.
The buildings were so similarly painted that there was no way she could have ever distinguished between the two on her own.
She hated to admit it, but Noah was right. She could have used his help.
Noah walked to the door with the leisurely gait of someone who’d been down this same path countless times. A flash of envy
shot through Mia. She wished she had even an ounce of his self-assuredness, something she painfully lacked as a freshman who
still got lost around campus without—and sometimes even with—Google Maps.
I just got here a couple months ago, Mia reminded herself as she followed Noah. It’d be weird if I knew everything already.
Noah pulled open the heavy door, his arm muscles straining from the weight. This time, Mia couldn’t stop herself from staring.
Wow, Noah definitely worked out.
“Um,” he said. “Ladies first.”
It took Mia a couple seconds to realize that Noah was staring back at her.
Her brain short-circuited. She dropped her gaze, but not before Noah shot her a confused look.
Despite the name, Ground Smoothie turned out to be more of an artsy cafe than a dingy smoothie shack. Her eyes were still
adjusting to the dim light, so she couldn’t see much except for the brightly lit center stage, where a girl with lavender-colored
hair sang an acoustic guitar cover of a Taylor Swift song.
“Go find us somewhere to sit,” Noah said. “I’ll order our drinks.”
Mia frowned. “What? No, I can buy my own milkshake.”
This isn’t a date! she added in her head.
But Noah shook his head. “It’s more efficient this way. Just tell me what you want. Chocolate? Strawberry?”
“Coffee,” she answered without hesitation. “I want a coffee-flavored milkshake. If they have any.”
Back home in Bluebonnet, when Mia ordered coffee past a certain time of day, she’d without a doubt get a few bless your hearts and questions about her well-being from her mother, her sisters, and other concerned individuals.
Noah, however, just gave her a conspiratorial wink. Like he understood.
Mia’s heart fluttered. She tried to ignore it but then heat rose up in her cheeks. She rushed away before Noah could notice,
turning back around only when she was several feet away.
Thankfully, he wasn’t even looking at her. He was too busy ordering.
She sighed in relief and looked for somewhere to sit.
Aside from the stools that lined the coffee bar, the only other seating was beanbags that littered the floor around the stage.
After several minutes of tiptoeing around the already occupied ones, Mia finally found two large yellow beanbags on opposite
sides of the room.
She tried lifting one up. It didn’t budge.
“Hey, do you need help with that?” asked a nearby guy.
“Nope!” Mia said, in what she hoped was a cheery voice. “I got it!”
She put more force into it. The bag still didn’t move. With a growl of frustration, Mia put all her strength into lifting
but then lost her balance. Before she could even process what was happening, she tumbled onto the beanbag, flopping down belly-first
onto the plush fabric.
A few people gasped, while others laughed. The music stopped, and Mia looked up in horror to see that even the girl onstage
was staring at her, her mouth a wide O of silent, secondhand embarrassment.
But the worst part of it all was that Noah now stood behind her, their drinks in hand. His expression was unreadable.
She flinched back, expecting him to say something mean.
Noah wordlessly shifted the drink carrier to one hand and held the other out to her. When she grabbed onto him, he helped
her up.
Mia couldn’t help but notice how he moved so effortlessly, like she weighed nothing. Before she could be too amazed, though, Noah let go the second she was back on her feet, so suddenly that she almost lost her balance. With a look
of great discomfort, Noah flexed his hand, as if merely touching her had repulsed him.
“Here.” He handed her the drink carrier before gripping the beanbag on opposite sides.
Noah was in an awkward position, bent at his knees, so it really shouldn’t have been attractive. But Mia couldn’t stop staring
at him as he lifted the big beanbag up from the floor.
People around them whooped and hollered.
“Noah! Noah! Noah!” chanted a nearby boy.
A dashing grin flashed across Noah’s face, immediately covering up the awkward expression he had before. It was so fake that
Mia immediately wanted to leave. And she would have, too, if it weren’t for her friends.
When Mia had broached the idea of having Noah on the show, she’d expected mixed reactions. It wasn’t a shocker that Alex,
who unabashedly watched all of Noah’s videos, said yes. But Kallie didn’t even like guys, and Damien quite literally once
said, “Noah’s content gives me a headache.” And yet everyone had spammed the group chat with YES YES YES when she told them she was meeting up with him to discuss the show. They all agreed he was their best bet to save Campus Crush.
“Where should I put this beanbag?” Noah asked, bringing her back to the present.
Mia waved him over to where the other unoccupied beanbag was, and he set the first bag down in front of it.
Thankfully, by the time Mia and Noah had settled into their seats, the performer had resumed singing. Everyone was back to
doing whatever they were doing before.
She handed Noah’s drink—an iced Americano, no straw—to him.
And then they just sat there. Face-to-face.
Mia took a sip of her coffee milkshake and shifted uncomfortably, accidentally digging herself deeper into the beanbag. She’d felt nervous talking to him after class, but that didn’t compare to how on edge she felt now, outside the familiarity of the lecture hall.
When Noah had described Ground Smoothie, she was expecting more of a boba shop vibe. Some place they could still have a relatively
formal conversation. Instead, they were at this quasi-lounge area with live music and dim lighting. They were sitting on beanbags, their knees almost touching because of his stupidly long legs.
This was the closest she’d ever been to Noah. And unfortunately, even in the dim lighting, it was the perfect distance to
clearly make out his long, dark lashes and chiseled jawline. It was the perfect angle to see how the stage lights bounced
off his eyes, making them even more mesmerizing than they normally were when he stared at her in class.
This was the face that enchanted over a million people into following him on social media.
A chill went down Mia’s spine. She shivered.
Noah sat up, before relaxing back into his beanbag.
“Sorry,” he said, his eyes dipping down to her crossed arms. “I’d offer you my jacket if I were wearing one.”
Mia narrowed her eyes. “And why would you offer me your jacket?”
Noah frowned. “A habit of mine, I guess.”
“It’s a habit of yours to give just any girl your jacket?”
He shrugged. “When they’re cold, yes. It’s called being a gentleman.”
“More like being a flirt.”
Noah looked down at his smartwatch. “Let’s cut to the chase. I thought about it more, and I won’t be able to join the show
unless you make some changes.”
Mia blinked. Well, he hadn’t said no. “Like what?”
“First off, I can’t film during the semester. It’s too short notice and my schedule’s already full. I could probably do winter
break, though.”
Mia bristled. “And why should we change everything to fit your schedule?”
He took a sip of his coffee. “It’s not just me that’s busy, though. It’s the middle of the semester. A lot of people have
their commitments already laid out. Some probably even have their winter breaks planned.”