The Kissing Booth: New Love

Alternate Chapter 30

Although things between Noah and I have felt pretty perfect this summer, my friendship with Lee has not been.  Lee has been spending most of his time with Rachel much of the summer.  I get it.  I want to spend a lot of my time with Noah, but I can't help but miss my bestie time.  Although I know Lee has pretty much gotten over being upset about me being in a relationship with his brother, things still felt off between us.   I realize I have been really emotional lately so maybe he had a reason to watch out for that but it almost seems like he's scared to be around me. We weren't silly together anymore.  It was like he was worried I would break if he acted to crazy or joked around with me.  I understand the whole me being pregnant thing is weird for him.  Hell, it still feels weird for me and I've been processing it for months now.  But that's why I need him now more than ever. 

Noah says that I shouldn't worry about Lee's issues and that we need to give him some time. We both know how much Lee hates change and watching my body change is a constant reminder of what's to come.  And that's what worries me.  These changes aren't going to just go away.  Eventually the changes with my pregnancy are going to lead to a new baby in my life and I'm afraid that's going to be a bigger change than Lee can handle.

And Lee isn't the only of our brothers that we've had to deal with due to the baby.  Before we left for the beach house this summer, my Dad convinced me that we needed to sit down with Brad and explain everything to him.  About the baby, and me and Noah moving in together.  Brad had been oblivious up to that point but we knew my stomach was going to be hard to hide as the summer went on and he thought we should explain it before he started asking questions. I made Noah come along for the talk because I knew how much Brad looked up to him. I figured that once we mentioned Noah's involvement, Brad was sure to have a million questions for him. Okay, so I also knew that if Noah was there it would totally deflect a lot of the focus off of me. Noah was far from excited for this and not happy with me for asking him to come with me.  I was just lucky that he had hardly had been able to tell me no about anything lately so I knew he would do it for me.

The whole conversation was beyond awkward.  We all sat down at the kitchen table.  Noah and I sitting next to each other and across from Dad and Brad.  Once we were seated, I looked at my Dad and he just stared back at me. At that point I realized he wasn't going to be the one to explain this to Brad, I was going to have to do the talking.  I looked at Noah, hoping maybe he would help me out, instead he reached a hand under the table, placing it on my knee with a little squeeze of encouragement.  I tried to start out with the basics.  "So Brad, you know that Noah and I are dating now."

Brad nodded his head, beaming in Noah's direction, "Yeah it's awesome that Noah is around all the time now!"

I continued, not really sure the best way to explain this.  "Yes, well we had been dating for awhile without telling anyone and we love each other very much."  I caught Noah's smile out of the corner of my eye and reached for his hand under the table. 

"Eww, I know and that's why you guys kiss all the time.  It's so gross."

I looked around for help from my Dad and Noah to get this back on track but they were just trying to keep straight faces after Brad's comment.  I tried to keep myself from rolling my eyes and went on.  "Anyway, because we love each other, we're going to be moving into an apartment together at the end of the summer so we can see each other all the time."

Brad appeared upset and I thought maybe he would admit that he would miss me taking care of him, but then he blurted, "Then Noah won't come over anymore?"

Noah finally jumped in and said, "We'll still come to the house and visit you and you can visit us too.  Maybe even stay over night sometimes."

"I've never gotten to have a sleepover with Noah before.  It's not fair that you do." Brad said as he glared at me.