What would it take? - A Kissing Booth Fan Fiction

Eight

A/N: Okay, so I feel a little, tiny, bit of guilt for doing this first part to Noah, but I couldn't help myself... Did I go too far? Let me know what you think in the comments.

Noah

"What. The. Fuck?"

"Lee..."

"Don't 'Lee' me, you idiot!"

"Excellent," I say, flopping down in my desk chair, facing my brother where he's hovering just inside the door. "Good to see you're remaining impartial here."

Lee's fists ball at his sides, but he sucks his lips in, saying nothing for a moment as he stares up at the ceiling.

"Fine," he exhales, coming to lean against my bed. "I'll try to reserve judgement. But you better start talking."

Talking about this is honestly the last thing I want to do right now, but I know full well he won't leave until I do. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes as I exhale. "What do you want to know?"

"Why you broke up with Elle? That'd be a good start."

Opening my eyes, I fix Lee with a glare. "You can't break something that doesn't exist, Lee."

His eyebrows climb up his forehead in surprise. "So that's how you're playing this, huh? You're just gonna act like nothing ever happened between the two of you?"

"Well, barely anything did," I say, fighting to keep my voice flat. "So we hooked up," I shrug. "And now it's done. Nothing more to it than that."

"Please," Lee scoffs. "You can try and play this all cool if you want, but you're only lying to yourself. I know better, and so do you. Elle means more to you than just some random hookup. What I don't understand, is why'd you run?"

"She didn't tell you?" my surprise breaking through the thin veneer of disinterest I'd put up.

He shakes his head. "She just kept saying it was inevitable, that she knew you'd break up with her sooner or later. In between the bouts of crying, that is."

Lee's words pierce me like a knife, but I push aside the thought of Elle crying, focusing instead on the first part of what he'd said.

"Well, there you go. Like she said, it was inevitable. Better to be sooner rather than later."

"Noah!" he runs a hand through his hair, visibly frustrated. "Come on, man! What happened?"

"She didn't want to tell her dad about us, okay?! She said he'd be angry or disappointed that we were dating."

"Noah..." Lee says quietly. "What did you do?"

"I told her not to worry about it, that she didn't have to tell him anything, because there was nothing to tell. That things could just go back to the way they were."

"Fuck..." he exhales.

"And then I said, if she ever decided that it was worth risking her dad's disappointment, she could let me know. And that's it. The whole sad fucking story, alright?" I move to turn away in my chair, but Lee's voice stops me.

"For someone so smart, you really can be as dumb as a box of rocks, you know that?"

Clenching my jaw, I glare at him before responding. "Please, enlighten me."

"You could have done, literally a hundred other things in that situation!" Lee stands up and starts pacing, animated. "So, she was scared to tell her dad, who cares? That's normal. She's never had a boyfriend before, never had to tell Mike she's seeing someone. And then add on top of that the fact that it's you..." Lee stops as I glare at him again. "What I mean is, of course she was hesitant about it, she wanted to do it the right way, so it would go well... because she cares about you, dumbass."