Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
NOELLE: THEN
I t was junior year, and I made my way toward the concession stand at the rink, scanning the crowd, thinking maybe I’d found Nicholas among the people. The hockey game was over, and we won, thanks to my best friend.
For the next thirty minutes, I waited for him, but he was nowhere to be found.
Did he leave without me?
Before I could give it too much thought, I saw Nicholas from the corner of my eye. He stood by the cheerleaders, who paraded around him like always. Feeling tired, I decided to leave, and it wasn’t until I gazed up that I realized I was suddenly lost.
Through my daze, I must have taken a wrong turn in the woods somewhere. Grabbing my cell phone from my back pocket, I went to call my dad, but it was dead. Instantly, I began retracing my steps. The dim lighting didn’t help my disposition of trying to find my way back to the ice rink or home.
A snowmobile made its way in my direction .
They pulled up beside me, lifting their helmet in the air.
Nicholas smiled, nodding. “Come on.”
It started snowing on our heads.
Handing me the other helmet, he added, “Let’s go!”
I put on my helmet and hopped on the back of his mobile. He didn’t waver, hitting the accelerator at full throttle, tearing through the snow. It was hard to see a foot in front of us.
By the time I coaxed, “Nicholas…”
We were already skidding across the road.
NICHOLAS
I was able to react and grab her before we crashed into the snow. The momentum of my snowmobile while it spun out of control helped tug her into my chest.
BANG!
The side of my bike slammed into a huge pile of snow, throwing us onto it. Thankfully, my body was able to break her fall, and she landed right on my chest.
“Oomph!” I wailed as the wind was knocked out of me immediately.
“Nicholas!” she shouted, slowly sitting up off my torso. “Oh my God!”
I couldn’t find the words to speak, sucking in air that wasn’t available for the taking. After what felt like an eternity, I began breathing normally.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I rasped, trying to sit up.
“You’re not fine. You took a hard fall. Nicholas, you saved me. I landed right on you.”
“Noelle,” I sternly stated. “Just help me.”
“Fine,” she agreed.
Once I was upright, I called an Uber, and from the second she helped me onto her couch after he dropped us off at her house, I closed my eyes, breathing a sigh of relief. I was not sure how long I lay there when Noelle was suddenly handing me pain relievers in one hand and an ice pack in the other.
Thankfully, her dad was out of town.
Slowly, I sat up, groaning out in pain.
“Here.”
I took them.
“Are you really okay?”
“Mm-hmm.”
“Even if you weren’t okay, you wouldn’t tell me the truth, would you?”
“I don’t lie to you.”
“I find that hard to believe, but I’ll accept it for now.”
The look on her face was full of concern.
Confusion.
Longing.
Which made me question my resolve about how much I’d share with her at that moment.
Noelle
I changed into a hoodie and sweats. The uncomfortable silence hammered all around me, tearing into my insecurities about what was concerning him. Nicholas’s body was in the room with me, but his mind was somewhere else entirely.
He looked lost.
I’d never seen that look on his face before.
The quietness was deafening, stirring me to ask, “What’s wrong?” His eyes locked with mine as I sat in front of him on my bed.
He shrugged .
“Never mind, we don’t have to tal?—”
“I got in a fight with my parents before the game.”
“Can I ask what happened?”
He thought about it for a second. I didn’t think he’d reply.
“You know them, same ole, same ole. I’m just tired of not being good enough. They’re always trying to change me into someone I’m not. It doesn’t matter how many times I tell them I want to open my own construction business after we graduate, they don’t care.”
Chalk it up to hormones, or maybe it was me desperately wanting to connect with him. In that second, sitting in front of him, it felt like I was the first person he’d shared this with.
It seemed like he needed to get out whatever was weighing on him. His body shifted around as he abruptly looked deep into my eyes and searched for something I couldn’t place. The only thing I could see was a war raging in his stare. An internal battle was taking place of what was right and what was wrong.
The serious expression on his face captivated me which only added to the plaguing emotions that were wreaking havoc between us. I waited on pins and needles, hanging on his every word.
He didn’t make me wait too long, divulging, “I just want to be good enough for them.”
I didn’t move.
I was barely breathing.
Not wanting to distract him from sharing this with me.
“I can understand that.”
I stood.
He looked at me with curiosity. “What are you doing?”
“Come on.” Reaching for his arm, I placed it over my shoulders.
“Where are we going?”
“Just trust me, okay? I know what I’m doing.”
Slowly, we walked out to porch under the snow .
We stayed there under the snow, letting it wash away the sadness.
I kissed his hand. “I don’t like seeing you sad.”
He didn’t say a word. The stillness was nice. I felt him kiss the top of my head, and I smiled, aware that he was thanking me.
We stayed out there until it got to chilly, laughing it off.
However, our feelings for each other were now…
More than just under the mistletoe.