His Tiny Dancer [COMPLETED]

XXX

~Saturday February 5th~

Noah is interesting because - among many, many other things - not only does he always know when I'm lying, but he also never lies himself. He kept to his word. Five minutes later, he's knocking lightly on my front door. If I hadn't already been here I wouldn't have heard him knock, but I'm guessing he knew I'd be waiting here for him.

I didn't bother to change out of my pajamas. I'm not really in the mental state to care what I look like right now. When I open the door, the first thing I notice is that Noah didn't change out of his pajamas either. But the second thing I notice is Melody sitting on his hip, her head on his shoulder as she sleeps - also still in her pajamas.

"Why is she here, she should be sleeping?" I whisper with complete confusion as I open the door wider to let them in, then closing it behind them.

"I couldn't get a sitter or drop her off at a friend's house this late at night, so I just took her with me," Noah whispers back.

"Why couldn't you just leave her with your parents?" Noah sighs.

"That's what we're gonna talk about," he says, looking down at her to check that she's still sleeping. "Where can I put her?"

"Uhm, you can put her on my bed," I suggest. "This way," I say before walking up the stairs. He follows me into my room, and I watch from the doorway as he places her down onto my bed, pulling the covers over her and then turning off the light. The darkness has come back, and I wasn't ready for that. I walk backwards into the hallway where there is a light on, my arms crossed over my chest as I glance around my dark bedroom. I feel my heartbeat and breathing quicken slightly, and tears beginning to prick my eyes again. I blink furiously, the last thing I want to do is start crying again.

Then Noah is there. He closes the door behind him softly, shutting out the darkness without breaking his searching eyes away from mine. I know he can see right through me. I know he can see how scared and hurt I am. I don't try to hide it from him anymore. Before he even moves, my arms have uncrossed to accept the hug which I know is coming. He wraps his arms around my waist, pressing me completely against him. I rest both of my hands on his chest and bury my face into his sweatshirt. It smells like chocolate and mint, and like him.

I can't help but think about how comfortable Riley and Emma's hugs were, since I'm significantly taller than both of them. But now I'm the short one, and I realize just how badly I needed this. I can't always cling onto myself. Sometimes I need a different shoulder to cry on.

I don't realize that I'm crying again until Noah reacts. He shushes me gently, rubbing my back slowly with one hand and smoothing down my hair with the other. He pulls back slightly and I get scared that he's letting go already, when I'm not ready yet. I grip his sweatshirt in both of my fists to try to keep him here with me, but he doesn't pull completely away - only a little. Only just enough to be able to place a long, soft kiss on the top of my head. Immediately warmth floods across my body, starting at the top of my head where his lips are still pressed and rippling downward until my bare toes no longer feel cold on the hard floor. I realize that he's not leaving me and release his sweatshirt, feeling a little bad for overreacting. He stays, and only moves enough to place more long pecks across the top of my head.

When I finally stop shaking and each breath I take fills my lungs, he slowly lets me go. I look up into his eyes and am met with the deepest, most beautiful blue I have ever seen.

"Let's go downstairs. Where we can talk without waking her up," Noah whispers, his voice so quiet that I can barely hear it. I nod my head, reluctant to look away from him and feeling so much colder as soon as I take the first step forward. He follows me back down the stairs and into the living room. I turned on a lot of the lights when I first came down, so the room is already filled with a comforting orange glow. I sit on the couch, pressing back into the pillow and pulling my knees into my chest. Noah sits too, about a foot away from me. Here, but not too close.