I Hope Life Is Beautiful

3

The following nights, Noah stayed up with the screen of his phone as the only light source in his room. They had been texting back and forth, talking about their meeting back at the outdoor cinema and hundreds of other things. He got to know her and she got to know him, every night after that. They often forgot the time and stayed up until around 4am, when either one of them realized what time it was and decided to go to sleep. It was weird to him how they could keep on talking to each other, without even having to think about a question to ask or a subject to bring up. They connected in some kind of way he couldn't put into words, but it made him feel something he hadn't felt in a long time.

When she finally asked him to come over that Friday, he told her yes. He pulled his 1969 Ford Mustang out of the garage and drove off to the other side of town. With the sun at the edge of the horizon and the soft summer breeze blowing through the open windows of his car, he travelled to her place.

Her house was, just like she said, at the intersection between the two cultural areas. As soon as Noah got out of his car, it was Little Italy on his left and China Town on his right. The building she lived in, seemed to be serving as a border; it was the no man's land between the foreign areas of the town they knew as Stone River.

After the doorbell rang, it didn't take her long to answer it. In a matter of seconds, he saw her rush down the stairs to open the door for him. With her hair all messed up and a smile that was halfway disturbed by her catching her breath, she led him inside. Their apartment was at the fourth floor. Marked with an old but bright, yellow color and metal numbers spelling '307', he let his eyes set on the door she walked towards to. Once inside, he set foot in the hallway, from where he could look into the living room of their home. It was much smaller than he imagined it to be. Although he knew this was the neighbourhood that was known to house the working class, he had never been into one of their homes until now.

He walked behind her, following her to the living room. The furniture and decoration were simple, but he could tell everything had been around for quite some time. Some pieces were broken or damaged, others were just collecting dust or simply fragile. If his father was here, he would've surely made it clear to Noah that he didn't belong here. But he didn't care.

"You want something to drink?" She walked up to the fridge, opening it up to lift a bottle of beer not long after. Refusing it would seem weird, partly why he eventually decided to take one beer before switching to soda. After all, he had to drive back and wasn't planning on getting behind the wheel while drunk.

With a grin, he grabbed the bottle out of her hand. "Thanks." She got herself a glass of white wine, before they both took a seat on the couch and took a first sip of their drink.

He could tell her eyes drifted off his after a while. It was like he could feel them burn on his skin, a feeling that made him even more curious about what she was looking at. So he turned towards her, to find out it were his tattoos she was staring at. He didn;t have many. Enough to stand out compared to his light caramel-brown skin whenever he wore a t-shirt, but not that many to cover both of his arms entirely.

"I didn't know you had any tattoos." Cassidy had a look on her face he could only describe as surprised, while she glanced at the couple black and grey colored works of art.

Astonished about her thoughts, he felt the corners of his lips rise in a slight smile. "Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"That, stranger, depends."

She started laughing not long after, probably because of the confusion that was written on his face when he heard her comment. What was that supposed to mean?

"I'm sorry," she managed to tell him during her laughter. "But it's just a bad boy thing, you know?" Something he didn't really get either. Did he really come across as a bad boy to her? Just the thought of that already sounded funny to him.

"Is that what I am to you?" he asked her, a little amused. The answer to it, he didn't get right away. But her face told him the entire story. She did think he was one, didn't she?

"I mean, you do got the leather jacket, the dark clothes, the tattoos and the American muscle car." She shrugged her shoulders, keeping a close eye on him as he looked down at his clothes. He didn't even know that was a thing, but it looked like he had something to proof to her now. A stereotype to get out of her head. It was a challenge to him and one he would accept without a doubt.

Her parents returned home about half an hour after midnight. They had still been sitting on the couch at the time, chatting and watching some scenes of the movie in between. Noah couldn't remember if he had seen them in town before or not, but that didn't mean he didn't introduce himself. Politely, he told them his name and shook their hands. Her father came across as pleased to see him or so did his happy mood make him seem. Her mom, on the other hand, just introduced herself before silently disappearing into the hallway. There was no smile to be seen on her face or even a hint of hospitality, something that made him worry he had acted rude somehow. A thought he couldn't let go for the rest of the night, no matter how much he tried to do so.

Outside of the apartment building, Cassidy had told him she didn't really like outsiders. A reason Noah didn't really believed but took it from her anyway, and decided to just forget about it. She had no reason to lie about it, right? – he thought, as she gave him a hug goodbye and his cheek rested comfortably against the side of her head. 

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Hi! And welcome back to another chapter

I hope you enjoyed this one :D

If you did, please leave a comment or a vote down below, that would make my day <3

And what do you think: is Noah the bad boy type? Or is he not the guy Cassidy thinks he is?

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