Masked//Roman Reigns Love Story

24. Old Friend Part 2

Thursday, November 20, 2009
5:45p.m.

I tossed my cheer bag onto the wooden bench behind me before turning to face my rather uninspiring yellow locker. I hadn't found the time to jazz it up a bit and make it my own for the year like the rest of my team members had. Me joining was a last minute decision, and it showed in my constant lack of preparation.

I opened my locker and pulled out a hairbrush and black sweater. I decided against using the locker room showers, preferring the individual bathroom in my dorm room a lot better. At least I knew the water would be warm in there. I let my hair down from confinement and grabbed my brush from between my knees and softly began to brush my hair out. Once satisfied, I made a left part in my hair as best as I could without a comb and slipped my brush back into the locker.

The locker room door open and bang against the wall with a big thud. I didn't think much of it, assuming it was one of the girls and that left their phone or something like that. I was a bit taken off guard when I looked behind me and saw Noah standing there, his hands awkwardly tucked in the back pocket of his jeans.

"Noah... what're you doing here?"

"Lauren told me I'd find you in the locker room, said you're always one of the last to leave out," he answered calmly.

"You couldn't have waited for me outside or something? I could've been changing," I stammered.

He shrugged, taking about a few steps closer to me.

"You still didn't tell me why you're here. Need help with homework or something?" I wondered, closing my locker door.

I tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear before leaning back against the lockers. You'd think that I'd be used to seeing Noah around after living with him for a few years, but it'd be a lie for me to say I didn't feel weird around him. It wasn't like what I felt with Joe, but Noah and I had this weird, unspoken tension.

"You've been hanging out with Joe a lot lately. It's hard to get you alone for more than five minutes," he frowned.

"Well yeah, he is like my boyfriend."

"So it is official?"

I gave it thought, not really knowing what to say. We hadn't made it official or put a label on whatever we had going on, but we had both expressed how much we wanted to be with each other and that we wanted to be exclusive.

"Well no, but, we understand what we have and that's all that really matters," I smiled, proud of my answer.

That was the first time I'd verbally admitted how serious Joe and I were about each other. Rumors spread like wildfire around the campus and as soon as two kids spotted us on the field kissing, the entire school wanted to know about what we had going on. I kept quiet about things though, in fear that someone would try to ruin what we had. I felt that if I admitted I had feelings for Joe that it could be used against me in more ways than one.

Noah nodded his head and took a seat on the bench in front of me. I offered that we go outside and continue our conversation but he insisted that the locker room was fine. I was getting worried that someone was going to come waltzing in and see Noah and I together. Rumors were so easy to start and I didn't want to cause any problems with Joe.

"I feel like we don't talk as much as we used to," he said and for some reason, I was just starting to realize how red his eyes were.

They'd been drooping along his face it seemed like, almost as if they could fall off at any second. Noah could've just been tired though, it was like him to be tired. But I couldn't get over how red they were. I caught myself sighing and shaking my head. He'd was still doing it.