Chapter Fifteen Noah
Chapter Fifteen
Noah
At half past two, Noah was still awake. He’d tried sleeping several times, doing everything from flipping to any angle he
could turn his body without breaking his back to putting on the well-worn but miraculously still fuzzy blue socks that his
mother had given him before he first left for college three years ago. He even counted sheep to two hundred before accidentally
digging up repressed memories of a disturbing Icelandic lamb movie he’d watched a few years back.
Finally, Noah sat up. In the other bed, Matías was completely knocked out, snoring like a small airplane about to take flight.
Noah envied people who could sleep so soundly. Meanwhile Noah had trouble not only falling asleep but also staying unconscious
for eight hours.
He put on his coat and shoes and walked out into the hallway.
Snores—some quiet and others less so—came from behind the doors of the bedrooms he passed on his way to the stairs.
The dark wooden floors and red Persian rugs that had previously looked cozy during the day now looked downright creepy, and the wooden boards of the stairwell creaked under Noah’s feet.
It was chillier downstairs. Or at least, colder than he remembered it being. When he walked into the living room, the grizzly
bear statue’s eyes seemed to follow him as he lit the fireplace and sat on one of the turquoise lounge chairs.
Noah shuddered, promising himself to never watch obscure horror movies again. Or at least not ones with animal-headed people
like Lamb.
He’d just bundled up in a blanket by the fire when a rustling sound came from outside.
When he first heard of the Big Bear Lake area, Noah had been excited by the possibility of encountering a real-life bear.
Now he wasn’t so sure. Still, curiosity piqued, Noah went against his better judgment and slowly approached the sliding doors
leading out to the backyard.
He was almost at the doors when he heard a crash. Heart thudding in his chest, Noah raced back to the kitchen to grab the
biggest frying pan on the dish rack. He then gingerly slid the patio doors open, ready to swing at the first sign of fluffy
black ears.
Hesitantly, he called out, “Hello?”
Something rustled in the tall bushes. Noah squeezed his eyes shut and swung into the air.
“Hey, watch it!” said a familiar voice. “What the hell are you doing?”
Noah opened his eyes. Mia was crouched on the ground, her arms flung up above her head. She held a flashlight in one hand, and her cheeks were red from the cold.
Noah dropped the pan and tentatively held out a hand.
Mia glared at his palm for a few seconds before taking it.
“Sorry about that,” Noah said, pulling her up. “Thought you were a bear.”
“Uh, no. I’m way too small to be a bear.”
A grin slipped onto Noah’s lips. “Maybe a cub.”
Brushing the snow off her clothes with her gloved hands, Mia asked, “So, why are you still up?”
Noah shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. Obviously.”
Mia narrowed her eyes. “Sure, obviously.”
“How about you? You look like you’ve been out for a while.”
She shrugged. “Just taking a walk.”
Noah frowned in confusion. “This late? And why were you in the bushes?”
Mia made a face. “I tripped. And before that, I had some things I needed to do for the show, so I took care of that.”
Noah stared at Mia for a long moment, peering down at this enigma of a girl who took walks past two in the morning with nothing
but a flashlight and her pink puffer jacket to protect her from the wilderness. Back in class, he’d always thought Mia was
a little strange, but Mia out in the wild was fascinating.
“You do know there are black bears out in the woods, right?” Noah asked. “And coyotes, probably. You should bring bear spray next time.”
“There won’t be a next time,” Mia said, rather mysteriously.
She shifted her weight, and Noah was suddenly, acutely aware of how close they were to each other. She was a head shorter
than him, but she defiantly stood straight with her chin tilted up, like she was trying to make their height difference smaller.
His eyes lingered on her still-red cheeks before he made himself look away.
The dark, snow-covered forest around them was surreally serene, like they’d stepped into a separate plane of reality. Without
quite knowing why he did what he did, Noah sat at the firepit and lit the fire.
Fully expecting her to ignore him and go back inside, he gestured at Mia, inviting her over. To his surprise, she did, and
they sat next to each other in complete silence.
“So . . .” Noah said after a while. “What do you think of the show so far?”
Mia stiffened, immediately on guard. “What about it?” she asked sharply. “You know I can’t tell you much.”
“I know. But I’m not asking so I can get tips. I’m just trying to have a conversation. We don’t even have to talk about me.
I’m genuinely curious how the show has been for you.”
Mia opened her mouth and then closed it again, like she was trying to figure out what she could and couldn’t say.
“Well . . .” she said at last. “It’s been surprising so far.
Which, from what I’ve heard, isn’t necessarily a bad thing when it comes to reality TV.
But things are already a lot more dramatic than I thought they’d be.
And . . . tough, personally. Still fun, but overwhelming.
When we cast people, I thought I knew what would happen on the show.
But when we put everyone together, things didn’t go the way I thought they would, at all. ”
“Like what happened today with Bethany? And Caleb?”
Mia’s eyes widened. “Yeah! That was so stressful. I was spiraling the entire time.”
Silence fell between them again, until the only noise Noah could hear for miles was the crackling of the fire. It was a quiet
that unnerved him, especially after three years of living in a noisy fraternity house.
Trying to break apart the stillness, Noah asked, “Is there good Korean food in Texas?”
Mia scrunched up her face at the random question.
“Or even Korean food at all?” Noah added.
“It’s not as good as LA’s, but it’s pretty decent. The food wasn’t why I moved here.”
“Then why? Did you want to escape the cowboys?”
Mia rolled her eyes. “The only cowboys I ever hear of on a day-to-day basis are the football team. Yes, my family lives in
the middle of nowhere, and yes, some people do have horses, but the only time I see actual cowboys is at the state fair.”
“And you’ve lived your entire life there? Have you been to Korea?”
He’d asked the question out of sheer curiosity, but Mia bristled.
“Yeah, I have,” she said, not meeting his eyes. “We went to Seoul once when I was little. But I don’t really remember it.
I’m from a big family and traveling internationally is too expensive with so many people. My sisters and I . . . we’re pretty
Americanized. We can understand Korean but can’t speak much of it. And our family doesn’t celebrate any Korean holidays. The
only holiday my parents get really into is Christmas, to the point that we used to put on our own family Christmas plays when
we were younger.”
Noah’s eyebrows shot up. “Family Christmas plays? How many siblings do you have?”
“Four.”
“Jesus, five kids?” Belatedly realizing his reaction might have been rude, Noah added, “Is that normal in Texas?”
“Not at all, at least not in the part I’m from. My parents like to joke that they stubbornly kept trying for a son. To this
day, none of us are sure how true or false that statement is.”
“Stubborn, huh? Must run in the family.”
He expected Mia to glare at him and was caught off guard when she let out a genuine laugh. Her face lit up in a way Noah wasn’t
prepared for. The light, surprisingly cute sound was so different from her usual sarcastic laughs that his brain short-circuited
a little.
“I know,” Mia continued, oblivious to the way Noah’s heart now beat faster. “I’m self-aware. My parents and I both don’t know when
to give up.”
She giggled again, and this time, Noah laughed with her. He was still smiling when he asked, “So how did you end up in LA,
then? If not the cowboys . . . did you want to escape from your sisters?”
Mia frowned. “Not really. I mean, you’re on the right track, because I did want to escape someone. But it wasn’t my sisters. Or cowboys. My parents and I don’t agree on a lot of things.”
Now that sounded familiar. “Like what?” Noah asked.
“Well, my mom wanted me to stay in state for college, for one,” Mia replied. “Study something easy and get married to a rich
guy.”
Noah winced. “She sounds very traditional.”
“Yeah. My younger sisters are still in middle school and high school, but my mom is probably going to pressure them to find
husbands when they’re older, too. I wish she’d just trust us to figure out how we’re going to support ourselves.”
“How about your dad?” Noah asked. “Does he feel the same way?”
“My dad is more supportive, thankfully. But I can just tell by the anxiety in his eyes that he thinks I’m wasting my college scholarship by studying film.”
“So that’s why you try so hard in class.” The words came out of Noah’s mouth before he could stop them. “You’re trying to prove your parents wrong,” he quickly added, so Mia wouldn’t think he was being mean. “I’m guessing you’re the same way in all of your classes?”
Mia’s eyes widened in surprise. “Yeah, I am. But that’s only part of the reason. It’s also because of my sisters. My older
sister, Jeannette, stayed home for college. For me. For my parents. For everyone, really. And I love her so much. But I want
to set an example for my younger sisters, so they know it’s okay to dream bigger.”
Noah leaned back, slowly nodding as he thought about all those months he’d spent making fun of Mia for being such a try hard.
Guilt knotted his stomach as he thought of all the times he’d teased her. “I respect that,” he said. “Really.”
Mia blinked, as if she couldn’t believe what he’d just said. She stared deep into the fire for a long moment before asking,
“Hey, can I ask you something?”