Time skip to the Christmas holidays
"Lee, you spoke to Noah right? He hasn't changed his plans has he? He's still coming right?"
"Yes, no and yes. I spoke to him last night and he said his flight is due here in about an hour"
"Will you take me to the airport please?"
"Okay... But you owe me a burger"
"Deal" I roll my eyes. Lee is so predictable sometimes.
At the airport
I see Noah coming down the steps, smiling. But when he sees me, his smile disappears. In fact, when he's down, he completely ignores me.
"Hey little bro. Missed me?"
"With all of the girls at school hitting on me, I've not really had a chance to miss you. But Elle did"
He turns and looks at me as if he only just realised I was there.
"Oh hi Elle" he goes back to ignoring me after that.
"I'd better find my suitcase" he says.
"I'll come with you" I look at Lee and he knows that I need Noah alone.
"I'll wait outside" Lee says. I smile at him gratefully. Could I have a better best friend than Lee?
"Come on then Elle" he starts walking off and I have to run to catch up with him.
"Noah. Noah I'm so sorry okay. Please talk to me"
"Elle, you cheated on me. Do you really think I can forgive you for that?" he stops and stares at me. His beautiful eyes meet mine and I can see that he's hurt.
"I'm not asking you to forgive me. Just to listen"
"No Elle, you listen! You hurt me, and now you want me to forgive you and then you'll do it again! Why would I forgive you for that!" he practically shouts at me.
I feel my bottom lip trembling and I know I'm going to cry. I can't let Noah see me cry so I just run back to Lee who's waiting outside with the car.
"Lee" I cry.
"Elle don't worry. I'm here okay. It's fine"
On the ride back to the Flynn's house, it's completely silent.
"Um, Lee? Can you stop somewhere for me? I think I left Noah's bike there last time I was there" I've told him about mine and Noah's spot before so he knows where I mean. And he knows that Noah's bike is sitting in the driveway of his house.
"I'm assuming you want your bike back?" I say to Noah.
He says nothing, just gets out of the car.
We walk up to the top of the hill and Noah realises that I fooled him.
"I already told you I'm not going to forgive you"
"Lee told me he said he'd told you I had explained what happened to him so will you let me explain it to you?"
"Go ahead then" I never stop begging so he finally must be getting sick of it.
"Jake was hitting on me. I told him that if he carried on like that you'd be hitting his face and he said he wasn't scared of you. Then he said he'd prove it and before I could figure out what he meant, he kissed me. Noah, I never cheated on you. I never meant to hurt you. I love you Noah Flynn. Will you forgive me?"
He remains silent for a minute.
"Noah?"
He cups my face and kisses me softly.
"I love you too Shelly" he whispers.
I let out a little sob, relieved that he finally knows the truth and has forgiven me.
"Elle, when I called you a slut, it hurt me. I already knew I loved you and I hated hurting you"
I don't say anything, just bring myself closer to him. He wraps his arms around me and kisses me again.
"Elle, I should be honest with you. While I was at Harvard, I hooked up with another girl. But, before you say anything, let me say that she was nothing compared to you and I broke it off as soon as I saw clearly again"
"Noah... I think that if there's one thing I've learnt it's not to hurt someone you love and yourself. If I break up with you I'll be hurting both of us because there's nothing I want more than to be with you. So please, can we put the past behind us?"
"Yeah. But one question. How are we going to get back?"
"Oh Lee never left. He knew I didn't leave your bike here because it's sitting in the driveway of your house. And he knew we'd want to go home at some point"
We go down and get in the car, pretending we still hate each other. Lee glares at Noah when we get in.
"I'll kill you Noah" he says.
I can't help it. The expression on his face is priceless. I burst out laughing and Noah does too.
"What's so funny?" he says, confused.
"Lee, Noah's forgiven me and we're back together"
"Oh. Well now I'm going to kill you both" he leans in and tickles me.
"No! Lee stop! I can't breathe!" I say, trying to stop laughing.
Noah and I exchange a look and then we both lean in and tickle Lee.
"What... What did I do wrong!" he says laughing.
"This is revenge for tickling me!"
"For me, this is just fun"
"Please! Stop!" he begs.
I stop and Noah does the same.
We finally drive off to go back to their house and they drop me home along the way.
"Thanks for helping me Lee and for the lift" I hug him.
"And Noah. Thank you for forgiving me"
He leans in and kisses me. The feeling I get when he kisses me is the best feeling ever. I feel like I have butterflies flying around in my stomach and there's still a spark after all this time. God I love Noah Flynn. I don't know how I managed without him and his love.
