The Missing Years - a kissing booth fan fiction

Cautious

Elle

I'm angry with Noah for acting like such a dick but at the same time I know that's how he covers up his hurt. I'm not entirely proud of the last thing I said to him either. Throwing the break up in his face wasn't exactly the mature way to handle things, but his attitude had really got to me by then. I'd gotten used to being one of the only people who wasn't subjected to Noah Flynn's hostile outer shell and it felt strange to be back at arm's length again.

My mood is not helped by the task at hand. I'm packing up my room to move into the dorms at school. When I'd lived at home during last semester, I felt like I'd missed out on some of the social scene on campus. So, when my friend Steph from the soccer team said her roommate was moving off campus, it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

To be honest, I was glad to be moving out of my house. Dad and Linda were getting pretty serious and she spent a lot of nights at our place now. Linda and got along really well, but I didn't need to have a front row seat to my dad's dating life, if you know what I mean. Plus, I was looking forward to a bit more privacy myself, even if it meant sharing a room with Steph.

So that's how I found myself standing in the middle of my bedroom at the end of summer, looking around me and wondering where to start. I'm contemplating beginning with the closet when I'm saved by the bell. Lee's face appeared on my laptop.

"Hey, miss me already?" I joked.

"Always. Is your room packed yet?"

"I was just getting to it."

"Elle....."

"I know! I was about to start with the closet."

"Cool. Fashion show."

"Lee, you can't possibly want to sit there while I try on clothes."

"Elle, you literally dragged me shopping every week since we were old enough to catch the bus to the mall by ourselves. I have been trained well. Plus, I have excellent fashion sense. You could do worse than my opinion."

"Ha! That's debatable. Have you checked your shirt collection lately?"

"Pfft. The ladies love it."

"Whatever."

And that's how I end up collapsing in laughter an hour or so later, having tried on most of the clothes in my wardrobe for Lee. He ended up making scorecards and anything a 7 or above was allowed to either go with me to college or stay in the wardrobe for holidays/special occasions. There was a giant reject pile on the floor, so I felt like I'd made some progress.

"Right, what else is left in that den of despair you call a wardrobe?"

"Um...not much really...." Truth is, it was now down to the really hard stuff. My prom dress, my school uniform from senior year, one of Noah's school shirts and his tie that I stole before he went to Harvard, Noah's football team shirt that he put me in that night I got wasted junior year, a couple of his hoodies....yeah, the hard stuff. I push all of that to the far end of the clothes rail out of sight for now, promising myself I'll come back to it later. Then I see it - the skirt. I grab it and hold it up to Lee, laughing.

"I guess I won't be needing these back up backups anymore, huh?"

"Not unless you need to fund your college tuition by swinging round a pole, no."