Bonus 3 Moments
I practically bounce in excitement as I hand my passport and boarding pass over to the flight attendant in front of me. She smiles, barely glances through them, and hands them back to me.
"Seat twenty three A. Enjoy the flight."
Noah's arm unwraps itself from my shoulders. He doesn't bounce with excitement - after I forced him awake at four in the morning to come to the airport three hours before our boarding time, he still hasn't quite recovered.
There's a takeout coffee cup in his hand, too hot to drink.
The flight attendant gives him the eye as he hands over his own documents, but he pays her no mind. His eyes don't even flicker over to her when she states his seat number.
"Twenty three B. See you on board."
"Uh huh," he mumbles, brushing past her desk and wrapping his arm around me once more. I don't expect him to glance back and he doesn't, just continues tiredly leading me down twisted hallways towards what I can only assume is the jetway.
"You know she was hitting on you?"
"She said about three words to me, you moron," he snorts, pulling me tighter into his side.
"Everyone fancies you."
"You always say that," he smiles lazily.
"Because it's true," I murmur.
He holds my hand as we board the plane and promptly falls asleep on my shoulder before they've even finished boarding. He sleeps the entire flight, as if he missed eight hours of sleep and not only three.
But it gives me time to think about how I'll explain this to mum and Paul.
Hi mum, I know you invited me to California on my own, but I brought my boyfriend.
...Oh yeah, by the way, I have a boyfriend.
We haven't told her yet. Life has just been too crazy, what with Matt's outbursts, moving out, moving back in, and mum always being on a different holiday.
She and Paul haven't even been in the country for the past month and a half.
And I want to tell her in person - see the look on her face when she see's that I actually managed to get Matt's housemate.
It's not like she doesn't already love him. She made her approval more than clear when she met him the day after Christmas - but I doubt she thought it would actually happen.
I am a little nervous she'll be upset though.
It has been almost two months now that Noah and I have been official, and my mother does call me every two or three days to ask for life updates.
This seems like the sort of thing I should've definitely mentioned, but, well - I couldn't quite believe that the dust had truly settled.
And it has. Settled.
Matt, once our biggest obstacle, now actually seems to be our biggest cheerleader. He managed to remove his head from his own ass long enough to realise that Noah is a gentleman, and there is literally no other man on the planet who would treat me so well.
Especially since, as the biggest player in the country, he's the biggest hypocrite there is.
Now he talks with us about our dates, asks about future plans, paves over awkward silences when he catches us making out. Dumping Skye really seemed to agree with him.
Though I do feel that he's gotten even worse with women. A new one every night, always blonde, always beautiful, always gone before I can even press 'go' on the coffee machine in the morning. I don't think he'll ever settle down.
I'm still worrying about him as I fall asleep, wondering if he'll be alright without us there for the week.
When I wake up we've landed and Noah is still asleep. I wake him and we walk groggily through security and over to baggage claim. He still keeps my body looped into his as we wait for our bags, and my heart is filled with love once more.
Always more love, from somewhere, each day. Always something else to adore about him.
We get a cab over to my mothers apartment, where she and Paul have been staying for the past two weeks. It's a short term rental and one they'll leave in a few weeks, to travel somewhere new, see something else. It's impossible to keep them in one place.
"How do you still look this good after a ten hour flight?" Noah murmurs in my ear in the cab, the driver separated from us by a closed plastic screen. His GPS is on loudspeaker, but the words are barely audible back here.
"You're ridiculous."
"You're hot," he retorts. "And I do believe I still owe you a few birthday presents, hm? Late birthday girl."
This trip was technically a present from my mother for my birthday - one that passed three days ago. But Noah is insistent that we celebrate it all week. He's been calling me 'late birthday girl' since the day after my actual birthday, which is incredibly sweet.
"What did you have in mind?" I ask.
His hand travels up my thigh and drops again.
I smile, shaking my head with a concealed laugh. His fingers thread through mine and are then pulled up to his mouth, each one kissed individually.
"Are you nervous about telling my mum about us?" I ask.
"Not really," he smiles, something coy deep beneath it. I crinkle my eyes, give him a confused look, but he shrugs. "She already likes me for you."
"How do you know that?"
"She told me. Before we were dating, on boxing day."
When Noah met my parents for the first time. When my mother whispered something in his ear right before he left the house, and he smiled over at me all secretive, just as he's doing now. I bump my shoulder against his.
"I can't believe you're just telling me this!"
His only response is a shrug. The drive is long - I touch up my make up while Noah plays a game on his phone, and we finally arrive just as the sun is at it's highest point.
The hotel they're staying in is grander than I expected, looks a little bit like an old castle, and has a general air of wealth around it. Luckily, Paul is covering our room. Noah grabs our bags, tips the driver, and we head inside.
I marvel at the chandelier in the lobby while he gives my name to the receptionist.
Noah tilts his head towards a door, now without bags, since he gave them to a worker behind the desk. I raise an eyebrow at him but follow.
"You're not even a little nervous?" I ask. "I didn't even tell them you were coming."
"Maybe you should be nervous."
"Why?" I ask, still following him down the corridor. He grins. "Why?" My voice drops an octave. "Noah..."
He pulls me through a set of double doors, into a very dark room which suddenly lights up. People jump up and out from every direction, hands in the air, yelling-
"Surprise!"
My mouth pops open.
My mum, Paul - Matt is here, Chelsea is here, my grandparents are here. My whole family, some of Noah's family-
"What the-"
"Language," Noah murmurs. "There are kids here."
"Did you plan this?" I turn to my parents, who are still laughing with everyone else in the room. "Did Noah help plan this?"
"Of course he did," my mum smiles. "Lovely boy, your Noah."
My Noah. Yes, I like that very much.
He squeezes my shoulders and kisses my cheek. Multiple people around us 'awww' and coo, but I'm still in shock.
"What's this for?" I ask, finally.
"Happy belated birthday." He says, almost against my ear. "Your parents have known about us the entire time, by the way."
All I can do is laugh and try not to lightheartedly tell him off for letting me freak out the whole way here.
·─────?? ??─────·
Noah's arms snake around my waist, his breath hot against my ear and his hard chest pressed entirely against my back. I look away from Chelsea at the bar and sink into his body.
"You look fucking edible," he murmurs, hand slipping down one of my exposed thighs slowly.
"Matt is right there," I whisper, as his hand travels further north, between my legs.
"He knows about us now."
I eye him and laugh.
"I don't think he wants to see you fuck me in a club, though."
"So you do want to fuck me right now?"
He's giving me that killer grin when I twist in his arms. I playfully shove him away but love it when he pulls me back into his chest and lifts one of my legs up gently. He walk backwards until we're pressed against a nearby wall.
"Noah," I mumble in protest, knowing Matt was at least near us - dancing with us until he found a girl who wanted to press her ass against him.
Noah kisses my neck, which I stretch out for his mouth.
"I'm pretty sure I saw a coat closet we could slip into," he speaks into my ear.
He's hard against me, hot and ready. We've only been here an hour or so, and Noah didn't even want to come tonight. Matt convinced us both it was a good idea, and somehow I'm sure that this whole idea was actually Chelsea's. She's very odd lately, wanting to drink and go to clubs all the time.
I crane my head back to check on Matt. He's dancing, pressing himself against a blonde girl. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Chelsea is harder to spot.
At first I worry she's run off somewhere. She's been drinking a lot lately and it's been difficult to get a read on her. Something is bothering her, I'm just not entirely sure what it is yet. But I plan to find out.
Noah, with his hand up my skirt, almost distracts me enough that I miss it.
"Wait," I say quickly, my eyes widening.
"What's up, angel?" Noah asks, immediately dropping his hands from my body as if he's done something wrong. I thread my fingers through his, let him know I'm not mad at him.
"Damien Mierro is talking to Chelsea at the bar."
Talking to her is playing it loose and heavy. Damien Mierro is still against Chelsea's back, his hand pressed over one of her own. His mouth is next to her ear and he's leaning closer by the second, like a predator assessing their prey.
I can't see her facial reaction, only her back, but her body is rigid enough that I know something is wrong.
"What the fuck?" Noah immediately spits, all horny thoughts forgotten. "Wait here."
"She's my friend, I'm not waiting," I declare. He rolls his eyes but smiles, letting me tug him along. Damien is already walking away from the bar as we approach, and to my surprise, Noah goes immediately after Damien instead of joining me with Chelsea.
"What was that?" I ask.
"What?" She mumbles, looking like a lost lamb suddenly.
I see the bags under her eyes then, the tiredness in every crease of her body. She blinks and it's gone, a smooth, smiling mask in its place. Tries to convince me it was nothing, that Damien was just hitting on her, but I know Chelsea better than that.
And I'm determined to find out what's been going on with her these past few weeks.
Authors Note: Shameless self promo. This is a scene from Witness (chapter twelve) Feel free to go read it in Chelsea's POV ;)