The Space Between Us

15 - Noah's POV part 2

Sunday 26th April

There was brightness coming through the curtains. It was right in Noah's face trying to blind him through his closed eyelids. He grabbed the thin cream blanket covering half his naked body and pulled it up to cover his eyes making his legs feel the bare chill in the air. His body was like a radiator though, so he welcomed the coolness.

He had knocked out late last night around 2am, he couldn't remember. There was a show playing in the background on Netflix; The Last Kingdom. His sleep was refreshing though, no dreams, he didn't wake up in between except once or twice which was fairly good in his opinion.

Noah slowly opened his eyes under the blanket to adjust to the light before removing the blanket and half sat up. He grabbed his phone from the side table, taking the charger off and looking at the messages. He had some from his mates Matt but no good morning messages from Afia. It was 12.43pm, guess she kept her word about letting him message first because she was usually up by now.

He heard his inner voice tut at him distastefully, 'look at you knowing when she wakes up'. Ugh he didn't want to think about this already, he laid in bed scrolling through his apps catching up with the latest stuff and then went to make some breakfast.

Throughout the entire day, he kept himself busy doing his usual routine. Chilling, eating with family, they even had a BBQ since it was due to rain next week which meant the good weather was finally coming to an end. He was subconsciously assessing himself to see if he missed Afia or not to figure out if he genuinely liked talking to her or was just a source of entertainment for now.

He had random thoughts floating about his head which left as quickly as they had entered.

'I wonder what craziness she dreamt about last night.'

'Was I in her dream again?'

'She didn't reply to the messages before the serious conversation happened.'

'Is she thinking about me or is she already back on Bumble?'

Noah swatted all those thoughts away and by the time evening struck, he was finding the guts to message her. He knew that he had to message her something today, he said he would but for that he needed to figure out what he wanted.

She gave him control. It was his choice.

'Do i want to keep talking to her as usual? Or should we talk less? Maybe we should just wait until lockdown is over like she said and meet then. But if we do that, whatever we have built between us so far might disappear and make it awkward when we meet up because it kind of ended it. Would she still want to meet me if we stopped? Is she worth continuing this for?'

He didn't feel in control with those feelings roaming inside his head trying to figure themselves out. He went on their Whatsapp conversation, she wasn't online which he was grateful for. There was the long message she sent last night which he read but ignored.

Afia: I just wanted to say one more thing, it's a new situation so we both know that and it might confuse us but there's no set amount of how much people should like each other before they meet up, emotions don't work like that. It could be more or less, life is about experiences so this could become an amazing thing or just crash and burn. But either way, I don't regret it and I enjoyed it, so whatever the outcome it was still great. Don't be scared to take risks because people don't get far playing it safe anyway. That's all I wanted to say, take care, rest up and don't let your mind fuck with you too much. No need to reply to this

It kind of felt like a final message, positive but with a sense of end to it concluding what had become of their situation over the time they had gotten to know each other. He didn't regret it either.

It was 7.24pm. 'Had she been waiting long for him to message or did she not care?'

He was going to go with what he wanted deep down and typed his message.

Noah: Hey so just wanna say sorry about last night, I think I was just scared of how I'm feeling towards you and how quickly it had gotten to that stage, I'm sorry if I hurt your feelings at all, how's your day been? x

The moment he hit send, she was online.

'Shit that was quick' he felt his hands get a little clammy with nerves unsure of what her reaction would be. She responded in the next minute.

Afia: Hey it's okay, did you have a think of what you want to do? My day was normal, did some writing, watched a movie. Yours?

Noah: Yes I want to just keep it as it was, I'm happy with how it's going. I just got a bit conscious of it going too fast. Nice nice what movie? Just been with my family mainly

Afia: I know you probably won't do this but I'm going to ask anyway, you sure you won't get scared again down the line and just cut it off leading me on? I know it's not easy, and it's scary because you want to protect your emotions, so I understand where you were coming from

Noah: I'm not going to lead you on, I do genuinely like you so I wouldn't do that

Afia: I'll take your word for it then, we can put it behind us and not be serious. We don't need any negative vibes

The conversation flowed naturally after that. "Thank fuck!" he said aloud, the worry of any awkwardness gone. He wasn't going to stick to any negative vibes as she called them. He remembered what she had said in one of the messages, 'don't be scared to take risks'. Well that is what he was going to do now.