Noah's Love

Chapter 20: Three Wounded Hearts

Noah woke up with a pounding headache second day in a row. With a groan, he sat up straight, rubbing his eyes. He wondered what had happened as he dug his phone out of his jeans pocket.

The screen came alive with a sign that indicated that it was out of battery. Annoyed, he leaned over to the bedside table to plug it in. There, his eyes fell on the watch that let him know it was almost 10 in the morning.

At least it's Sunday, he thought, getting out of bed.

Tripping over a random pillow on the floor, he opened the bedroom door and walked out, stretching his arms and yawning loudly.

"What the hell..." His eyes widened & yawn stopped midway when he saw Rebecca asleep on his couch.

"Becca?" He walked closer to her, as if to make sure he wasn't imagining things.

She stirred a little, curling herself up even more.

He had so many questions as he walked back to the bedroom to get her a blanket. When he came back to the living room a minute later, she was already awake.

"Good morning," he greeted with a smile. "What are you doing here? And why did you sleep on the couch?"

"Noah, we need to talk." He noticed how tired she looked. She had bags under her eyes and didn't even attempt to smile as she sat up, adjusting her dress.

Her tone did nothing to stop his alarm. "What's up?" he asked as casually as he could, throwing the blanket on a nearby chair, earning a disapproving look from her. He was sure she was going to ask him to pick it up later.

"Do you remember what happened last night?" she started, sitting back on the couch, sighing uncomfortably from sleeping in a weird position.

"No..." he trailed off, taking a seat next to her. "What happened?"

Rebecca looked at him, deep in thought. "You and Claire went out to party. You had too much to drink and ultimately got in a fight..." she trailed off, trying to jog his memory.

"Ok," he said, dragging the word as he furrowed his brows, trying to remember the events. Shutting his eyes for a moment, he continued, "I recall going out with Claire, we danced, had a few drinks. But a fight? Why don't I remember that?" He looked genuinely baffled.

Rebecca frowned. "There was a man who said you yelled at Claire and he tried to help." Noah cringed when he heard that. "There was a cop that got involved. Then I showed up," she paused, gauging his reaction, "with Jordan to uh, help you guys out."

All the while, he shook his head, as if struggling to connect the dots. "Rebecca...this happened last night? I swear, all I remember was dancing and having a good time. I may have had more drinks than usual but..."

"You may be having a blackout," she said carefully. "How much did you have to drink?"

"I don't remember...a little more than I should have, I guess." Rubbing his forehead, he asked, "how big of a trouble did I cause? Is Claire ok? I don't know what I was thinking but, if I yelled at her, I feel horrible."

Rebecca's heart melted as Noah sat inches away, body tensed and face twisted in distress. "Hey," she moved closer and placed a hand on his. "Relax. It's ok if you don't remember. I mean, it's not ok. But, we can work with it. I can fill you in."

She was unsure if she should even bring up the other issue at hand. He seemed to be stressed out enough, having learned that he had no memory of most of the things from last night.

At the same time though, she didn't know how she could go a second longer without knowing how he felt and talking about her own feelings. Especially after the choice Jordan gave her.