The Leap Of Faith

Chapter 9

"I-I mean... I think you are very pretty and... You know, funny and-" Noah got cut off by Natalie.

"Riley, have you seen Leah? Hi, Noah!" She said approaching us and smiled towards him, who gave her a small smile and blushed bright red.

"U-um yeah. She's with Isaac."

"Who's Isaac?" Natalie said concerned.

"He's Noah's brother. And also they guy she was dancing with earlier." Realization came to her face and she grinned. Her expression was screaming for details,which she knew I would give once back in the safety of our room. "Let's just say, we may have to put up another five-dollar tin." She laughed and nodded in agreement while Noah just looked at us with a confused expression.

"Oh my God. I'll tell Jane." At the mention of her name, Natalie seemed to remember something. "Oh, speaking of Jane. She's falling asleep on the couches over there. I think it's time to go. Noah, " Natalie turned towards him and he looked at her as if waiting for a command. "can you promise me Leah's in good hands? Will your brother deliver her back to us in one piece?"

Noah laughed at her serious expression. "Yes, she's in good hands."

"Good. I'll go wake Jane up and then we can go." She left without another word.

"You know, she better be back in one piece, or else Jane's gonna castrate both you and Isaac." I leaned closer to him and he just gave a nervous laugh.

"Then I'll make sure she's delivered to her room safe and sound." Noah said and then his expression changed to one of embarrassment. "Riley, I'm sorry if I made things awkward. I just-"

"Noah, it's okay. I don't think you made things awkward. Do you?"

"Um, no. I don't." He shrugged and ran a hand through his hair, yet again. He's got to stop doing that. I can't think straight when he does that.

I smiled up at him and was about to say something else when Natalie came towards us, practically dragging a half asleep Jane.

"Okay, we're ready!" Natalie said and passed Jane's arm over her shoulders. "and she's really heavy. Let's go!"

"Um, yeah. Bye, Noah." I finally said and turned to follow Natalie, who was already walking towards the doors when I felt Noah tug at my elbow and made me turn around. He leaned down and I really, really thought he was going to kiss me, but then he gave me a little peck on my cheek. Stunned, I turned bright red and he leaned back with a smile on his lips.

"Good night, Riley." He winked back at me and I heard Natalie screaming my name, effectively making me snap out of it and I turned on my heel and started walking towards them.

The whole way back to our room I couldn't stop thinking about what had just happened. When we finally entered our room, we placed Jane on on the sofa and Natalie walked to the kitchenette and filled a glass with water and gave it to Jane, just as she turned to me, rubbing the sleep off her eyes.

"She's got that stupid look since we left the party." She pointed towards me and Natalie gave a little laugh.

"In fact, she does, doesn't she?" Natalie agreed with her. "I wonder if a certain someone had to do anything with it." She suggested and I immediately tried to defend myself. "Don't even try to deny it! Tell us everything."

"There's nothing to tell." I said but they both gave me a look that said 'and we're Vin Diesel and The Rock'. "Really!"

"Oh please tell me I won the bet!" Natalie sighed and looked longingly at the tin that was still on the coffee table.