Chapter 17

Chapter Fourteen
I Can Make It Steamy In Here
I walked out of the bathroom connected to my room after taking a shower.
"What the fuck?!"
"Woah, sunshine." Noah laughed sheepishly as his cheeks tinged crimson. He covered his eyes with his hands.
"What the hell are you doing here?" I gritted the words irritably, holding the towel that was wrapped around my body tightly. With my terrible luck, I wouldn't be surprised if it fell.
"I thought we were hanging out." A grin danced on his lips but he kept his eyes covered. He was sitting on the edge of the my bed, his body facing me.
I exhaled sharply, frustrated. "Yes-because unfortunately you won't leave me alone. I left you downstairs for a reason, you know?"
Noah separated his fingers to take a peak at me. He grinned wider-showing his pearly white and perfect teeth when he saw me standing with my arms crossed over my chest, glaring at him.
"You know," he covered his eyes once again. "Normal people just change in their bathrooms, sunshine."
"Pardon me for thinking I could change in the comforts of my own room." I walked over, standing in front of him. "It was too steamy in there."
"I can make it steamy in here." Noah said suggestively, laughing as I pushed him back so he was now laying on my bed with his hands still covering his eyes.
"Hard pass, Ace."
"Hey," Noah said, causing me to stop as I had started to walk back to the bathroom. "How is your bathroom filled with steam when it's the size of a small house?"
"Screw off." I grumbled, slamming the door loudly behind me when I got back into the bathroom, just to be dramatic.
When I walked out of the bathroom, clothed this time, Noah was laying on my bed casually, looking at me with that weird look in his eyes that I could not peg.
"What?" I narrowed my eyes as I rang my hair out with a towel.
Noah shook his head, grinning, "Nothing."
"Can you tell me about you mom?"
I looked at him, dazed a bit but then collected myself and calmly asked, "Do you want to talk about your dad?"
Noah chuckled dryly as he continued watching me dry my hair with the towel, standing a few feet away from the bed. "No. That isn't exactly an ideal conversation topic."
I nodded firmly, "Then what makes you think I'd want to talk about my mother?"
Noah shrugged lightly, his head tilting as if saying 'touché'.
I sighed and ignored the look he was giving me. His eyes followed me as I left the towel on the bed stool and stepped into my shoe closet, pulled out a box- opening the lid a bit to make sure I wasn't grabbing the other box -and brought it over to the bed where Noah was.
He sat up when I sat on the bed, putting the box between us. "What is this?" He looked between me and the box, confused.
I shrugged lightly, "You always want to figure me out. Here's a glimpse into my life."
Noah looked at me skeptically, a bit uneasy beacuse he didn't understand why I was... letting my guard down a bit.
I rolled my eyes, "Don't worry, Ace, there's no clown that will pop out of the box and pie you in the face."
Noah laughed, returning to grinning lightly as he slowly opened the box. "What is all of this?" He asked softly as he picked up a few things.
I looked down at the box, a small smile playing on my lips, "This," I pointed to the picture in his hand that he was looking at. It was clear who it was of.
It was me, Charlie, my mom, and dad. We were a lot younger, I sat on my dad's shoulders, all of us laughing and smiling as we stood in the park. My mom was bent down so she was Charlie's height as Charlie had his arms wrapped around her neck, hugging her tightly.
"This is the last picture we have as an actual family. This was the last time I remember the four of us genuinely happy, together. This wasn't long before they started fighting and arguing and ending up getting divorced."
Noah looked up from the picture and looked at me, seeing me smile lightly down at the picture while I thought back to the memory.
I could tell from the look on his face that he was at loss for words. He was stunned at the words leaving my mouth along with why I was telling him this anyways.
I continued talking so he wouldn't have to say something since it was clear he didn't know what to say right now.
I reached into the box and took out a medal. I chuckled lightly as I held it in my hands, "Winning goal medal. We were 10 and I knew a part of Charlie was jealous because I got it and he didn't but Charlie didn't show it. He was always beyond supportive and bought me ice cream with his own allowance after the game."
Noah gently took the medal from my hand and looked at it, turning it around to see my name engraved in the medal.
"There's more soccer awards in my dad's office." I mumbled as I looked through the box and pulled out a beaded bracelet that said RAZZI on it, made with beads that had letters on them.
"Ezra and I made these when we were eight. He had one that said Tiff and I have this one that says Razzi. I kind of forced him to make one. He obviously didn't want to but I told him that he was my best friend so we needed to. He never wore it even though I wanted him to but it made sense because he was an eight year old boy and didn't want to get embarrassed or picked on at school. So, he never wore it until this one day these guys in my school started picking on me for always hanging out with the boys, saying no girls wanted to be my friend because I was weird. After that, Ezra wore the stupid girly bracelet every single day and yelled at those boys for me, saying they can buzz off because he was my best friend and that was all I needed and if they had a problem they had to deal with him first. Those boys never bothered me again." I laughed lightly, thinking to my very boyish cousin wearing a pink beaded bracelet.
The rest of the afternoon was spent with me and Noah going through the box as I told him random stories from my childhood - not the darker parts from when I convinced myself I was followed by a cloud of bad luck where I went.
It was later at night and Noah and I were laying on my bed and looking at the ceiling, our shoulders touching and hands intertwined as Noah gently rubbed circles with his thumb over the back of my hand.
"Okay but a zombie apocalypse - come on, that's the basic answer. If you think about how the world can realistically end, I don't think zombies are the answer."
I shook my head in disagreement, "It is very true, actually. There is a ton of scientific reasons that prove a zombie apocalypse could actually happen."
Noah scoffed in disbelief, "Yeah? Like what?"
"A number of things. Brain parasites, neurotoxins, real rage virus. It's all possible." I argued firmly.
"You're just saying things that have happened in movies." Noah retorted, his voice light and amused.
I shrugged my shoulders, "Doesn't matter. That doesn't stop it from becoming reality."
"Whatever," Noah mumbled. "There are many much more reasonable things that could end the world. It's more likely there would be an asteroid attack or a nuclear holocaust. Maybe global warming but even aliens are more likely than zombies."
I started laughing, "Yes, Noah, the world is going to end because Aliens will finally decide to take over."
Noah propped himself up on his elbow so he was looking down at me as I laid there laughing. Our hands were still intertwined as he smiled down at me while I laughed.
"What?" I asked between laughs.
He shook his head with a smile resting on his face, "Nothing," he exhaled.
And then it happened.
For the third fucking time, the third time, I was pulled into some trance where everything around me seemed to vanish.
I hadn't even realized I was holding my breath.
Noah face was hovering just a few inches above mine, subconsciously starting to lean further down. His eyes darted to my lips for a second before his eyes were locked on mine once again.
Our faces were now so close that I felt his lips gently brush over mine, being able to feel his breath on me.
And then...
Well,
"Tiff- woah, okay, awkward, my bad." Ezra muttered as he shut the door and instantly left my room just as quickly as he had opened the door.
Noah pushed himself off me and I shot up, sitting straight.
Noah rubbed the back of his neck and cleared his throat, looking at me expectingly because apparently I should say something first instead of him.
I stood up, awkwardly shifting on my feet. "It's late," I cleared my throat when my voice slightly cracked. "School tomorrow and all. I should probably... uh, get to bed soon."
Noah avoided my gaze as he nodded his head and picked his jacket up from my desk chair, "I'll... yeah, I should go. Bye," he headed to the door, stopped and debated turning around but then sighed and walked out.
A few minutes after he had left, Ezra stuck his head in my door, "Sorry, Tiff. Awkward, rig-"
I responded by chucking a pillow at his face.