Chapter 14
Noa
T he underlying sense of nausea and drumming constantly taking place inside Noa’s head had become somewhat of a trend over the past few weeks in Freymoor.
But waking up now, in a stuffy hostel dorm with no air-con or drinkable water, had Noa questioning her life decisions.
Maybe partying every night while away was not the way to go if she wanted to get any sightseeing done over the next month.
Although, it would be a good way to drown out her dangerously sexy tag-along.
Had Alex always been this good looking? She would have noticed, surely.
God, she must still be drunk having thoughts like that, because who was she kidding?
She had always noticed. She’d just buried it under the guilt she carried for her brother.
Growing up, Ryan had it hard at school, and he’d struggled for years to make friends.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t the same charismatic person he is now, kids at school had just been cruel, and Ryan got the brunt of it.
Noa had been so happy for him when he met Alex and, over time, having that one person seemed to drown out the noise of all the rest for him.
And, one day, the bullies just stopped, likely getting bored once their words didn’t seem to have the same effect as they once had.
After that, Ryan’s confidence grew, and his friendship group with it, but Alex had always remained the one constant.
For years, Noa thought that was the reason she felt so drawn to Alex. Because she felt grateful for him. But she knew it was more than that, and the night they’d slept together had been an accumulation of years of dangerously toeing the line between friends and more.
Ryan had made a comment once whilst the three of them watched a movie. The main character had just fallen in love with his best friend’s sister, and Ryan hadn’t held back on his feelings about it.
‘There is definitely some rule somewhere in the best friend code that’s been broken here,’ he’d scoffed.
Alex didn’t say a word.
And that’s all Noa kept thinking about after they’d crossed that line, and why she had to be the one to make sure they didn’t take it any further.
To protect their friendship.
And protect it she had, because now her brother was sending his best friend across the world to babysit her, making it hard for her to forget that night ever happened .
‘Ughhhh,’ she groaned, pulling her small, lumpy pillow over her head. Her throbbing head.
Despite her longing to turn back time now, last night had been fun from what Noa remembered, and she could see herself becoming fast friends with the girls in her dorm.
She had to fight off a hoard of questions from a very perceptive Lola after she’d caught her and Alex in, granted, what did look like a compromising position.
Noa had assured her that it was all part of their master plan to watch Alex squirm.
And it had worked. Alex had likely been sent here to ‘protect’ Noa, or whatever else Ryan thought she needed, and she knew that didn’t include getting up close and flirty with her.
So, the prospect would likely be alarming to Alex if she pushed it.
She’d taken a gamble, and it had worked.
She’d seen so much swimming in his eyes when she had touched him—confusion, fear, desire.
Although, after being in such close proximity with him last night, she wasn’t sure that he had been the only one squirming.
Noa internally cringed as she thought back to the two of them alone in that dark corner of the bar, too many rum punches coursing through her veins and the thrill she had gotten from teasing him to see if she could get a rise out of him.
She thought she’d succeeded until she saw him visibly shut down, his nonchalant, fuckboy persona locking back into place.
It was just as well that at that point. Lola had bulldozed over and interrupted them.
Just like she interrupted Noa’s thoughts now, but Noa welcomed it.
It meant she couldn’t dwell on their weird encounter or overanalyse it for too long.
‘You look like you could use an energy drink or two,’ Lola pointed out in a tone that did not reflect that of someone who had sunk way too many drinks the night before .
‘Was it just me who went overboard last night or what? You look fresh as a daisy, and I don’t know whether to hate you for it or to hate myself.’
Lola laughed as she lunged forward, ripping Noa’s tattered bed sheet off of her. The movement felt, to Noa, like her brain bounced against her skull and she couldn’t help her wince.
‘I just hide it well. After seven months travelling, you learn two things: one, that alternating every drink with water is a must, and two, that rotting in dingy hostel dorms does nothing but make a hangover worse. Get your game face on, missus. We have plans for today if you remember and we have to get breakfast.’
Noa groaned overdramatically, which only made Lola laugh more, spurring her on as she bounced excitedly off her bed.
Lola headed toward the shared bathroom with her toiletries to get changed, pausing to turn around and wink in Noa’s direction, ‘You never know, maybe Mr McHotty will be down there after all.’
Noa plastered a confused look across her face.
‘Who?’
‘Alex, duh. Girl that man is fiiiiine . I think I got pregnant just from looking at him last night. You may have made it clear that you don’t want him, but who said I didn’t.’
She sauntered into the bathroom with a swing of her hips and Noa fell back onto the bed, trying to ignore the sinking feeling in her stomach that Lola’s words gave her. Lying there and closing her eyes, she let the darkness take her again.
Ryan:
Hey, have you landed?
Ok I know you’ve landed because Alex let me know you are both still in 1 piece. So maybe just ignoring me then?
I’ll take that as a yes. On a scale of one to that time I got drunk and vomited on mum’s new shoes and blamed it on you, how mad are you?
Noa:
More like that time you and Alex toilet-papered my college boyfriend’s new car (his pride and joy by the way) so he broke up with me just so he didn’t have to put up with you anymore. So yeah, not ready to talk yet.
Ryan:
Ok that’s worse. But he was a tool, and I definitely did you a favour.
Noa:
Seriously? That’s where you’re going with this?
Ryan:
Right, not the point. I get it. I’m sorry! If it helps, Mum and Tes have both been chewing my ear off about it since you left.
T hat put a smile on Noa’s face as she put her phone away, deciding to let Ryan stew in his own decisions a little longer. He could grovel for being such an overbearing ass.
Right now, though, she didn’t want to think about it.
She could barely think about putting one foot in front of the other as she dragged herself out of their room.
Her head had only just stopped spinning after last night’s escapades, and she was inwardly cursing herself as she shuffled along the corridor, groaning as she went.
After Noa fell back to sleep, Lola had practically hauled her out of bed and shoved her into the bathroom to get ready.
Now, the two of them were making their way into the hostel reception for breakfast. It may have been late morning, but it had felt like the early hours, and she knew that both the hangover and jet lag were kicking her ass.
As they approached a long sharing table where the girls from their dorm and a few other new friends from last night sat, Noa’s stomach let out a roar of protest and she flushed. Maybe it had been a good idea to come down here after all.
She inhaled her entire omelette faster than you could even say the word, then stepped out of the hostel, straight onto the busy streets of Bangkok.
Thea, Lola, and Hattie had all invited her to spend the day with them and she felt giddy at the thought of having made new friends so early in her trip.
Carly and Bridget were headed to the airport this morning, having completed their month of travelling.
It was a bittersweet feeling to have met such lovely people knowing she likely wouldn’t see them again.
They’d both been from the US, so exchanging social media accounts would likely be as far as their friendship bloomed.
Such was the life when travelling, she guessed. She should probably get used to it .
As Noa stood on the hostel doorstep, everything that surrounded her felt like an attack on her senses. She didn’t know what to focus on first. Her skin was damp with sweat from the permanent moisture that seemed to linger in the air in Bangkok. The humidity was stifling.
The streets were loud, bright, and busy. Shop signs blinked all around them, turning the street into a tapestry of colours that made the streets back in England look drab in comparison. It was overwhelming trying to take it all in and catalogue every detail. She didn’t want to miss a thing.
They rounded the side of the hostel, aiming for a side street that one of the breakfast servers had told them would lead to a tuk-tuk hire shop.
Despite the permanent blaring of horns, Noa almost jumped out her skin when a moped got too close for comfort and honked for her to move out of the way even though she was on the pavement.
Her hand flew to her chest like she could calm her racing heart, and she scowled in the direction that the driver went. Lola and Hattie both chuckled.
‘You’ll get used to it soon enough,’ Lola assured her.
‘What happened to right of way?’ Noa grunted, but she could see the humour in the situation.
She was such a tourist. Even having lived in a city as constantly on the go as London, she was clearly out of her depth and needed to readjust. She, suddenly, felt very grateful having these girls by her side to help her do so.
‘Ha. Non-existent. It’s dog-eat-dog out here,’ Hattie responded.
As if understanding the comedic value, a small shaggy-looking dog with pointy ears and big, sad eyes circled around her legs. Noa bent down to stroke it when a firm hand circled her bicep .
‘Don’t,’ a harsh, clipped voice bit out.
A familiar male voice.
She looked up slowly into eyes that reminded her of honey, but they didn’t ooze sweetness right now. They held a warning.
Alex looked the opposite of impressed, and Noa moved her gaze to where he held her in place, before tugging her arm out of his grip.
‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ she shot at him.
‘Stopping you from catching a not-so-nice bout of rabies it seems.’
His tone sounded bored now, and it only angered her more.
‘I don’t know if you need to get your ears checked or something, but I am pretty sure I told you I do not need you looking after me.’
‘Apparently, you do.’
Noa ignored the sniggers in the background from the girls, who were doing a dreadful job at hiding their smiles behind their hands.
She ignored that comment too, suddenly realising he had just materialised out of nowhere. Was he following her?
‘Where the hell did you even come from anyway?’ Irritation dripped from her words, and she rolled her eyes for good measure.
Alex just pointed his finger in the direction of the hostels bifold doors.
She tried to ignore how his navy T-shirt clung to his biceps as they flexed with the motion, black ink weaving itself along his skin and disappearing under his sleeve.
It hadn’t been there eight years ago, and she liked how manly they made him look.
However, she was mad, and if he caught her ogling him, she could kiss him taking her seriously goodbye.
They were on the street around the back of the hostel now, where the bar was located and, following where he pointed, Noa could see an empty chair and coffee cup on the bar.
Rolling her eyes, again, she said, ‘Well, looks like you saved me. You can tell Ryan your job is done, and you can go back over there now.’
Instead of dignifying her with a response, Alex just looked past her this time to the girls now just openly laughing and said, ‘Make sure she doesn’t pet any more strays, will you? A visit to a hospital is something I could do without.’
Then, he left.
She baulked, wide-eyed, at the spot on the floor where he’d just stood, realising this was how it was going to be.
And she didn’t like it one bit.