Teaching Noah | √

023

"SO, HOW DID it go yesterday?" Mom asked me the following morning, and I assumed she was referring to my lessons with Noah.

"Uh, it was— we didn't have actual lessons."

"I'm aware," she admitted. "Noah told me you've been doing well in your lessons, and that you deserved to at least have a day off from all the work."

My face lit up in a smile, "Really?"

"Yep,"  she nodded and made her way to where I sat on the high stool, engulfing me in a hug, "It's really bad that I don't tell you this enough, but I'm insanely proud of you, baby," she pressed a kiss to my forehead. "You're a really smart girl. I know those teachers of yours were only trying to frustrate me by making me think you didn't know what you were doing in school."

I chuckled, "Yeah, I don't miss those teachers— except Mrs. Cole. She was really good to me."

"We should send her something one of these days."

"We should," I nodded, agreeing with her.
I darted to the pantry and took out a box of cereal, stopping by the refrigerator to grab a carton of milk.

"So, where did you and Noah go?"

"A theme park," grinning maniacally and just as I remembered it, I gave my Mom the details of the day before.

"Honey, isn't that great?" Mom's eyes gleamed with joy. "You finally stepped out of your comfort zone." She started to walk to the pantry, "But that was very thoughtful of Noah. He's such a sweet and charming boy."

She wasn't wrong. Noah was charming. Literally everything about him was charming. He looked charming. The way he spoke was charming. How his mind worked was charming. When he wasn't being a subtle jerk, he was charming. Heck, if he wasn't charming in the first place, I wouldn't have had that silly crush I had on him for the first month of him tutoring me. But I couldn't see past the surface, and the most I knew about him was the fact that he was strongly against anything that had to do with love, which was an indication that he wouldn't have given a damn about some silly crush a girl had on him back then.

It was at that moment I remembered that I was meeting up with Camden this evening. We had both been texting last night, but feeling tired from all the rides I'd been on that evening, I fell asleep. It was only when I woke up that I saw he had asked if we could meet up this evening.

'How about hell to the yeah?' I had almost typed back, but in excitement, I replied that I would love to. I didn't know what we were meeting up for, but we could sit in silence and I would be okay with it. Just as long as I was where he was.

That sounded very cheesy, but it was true.

My gaze averted to Mom who walked out of the pantry, two recipe books in hand. It was the same time Coco ran into the kitchen, barking and leaping around. She was soon lying on her back with her tongue out as she wiggled around.

"What's with her?" Mom eyed Coco.

"Nothing," I smiled. "She's just happy."

Just like how I felt at the moment.

❀

Later in the day, I appeared on Camden's doorstep in shorts and a plain black T-Shirt. I rang the doorbell, pushing a few strands of hair away from my face. I was about to push the button for the third time when the door swung open, but it wasn't Camden standing in front of me; it was his mom, so I was caught off guard a little.

Her eyes went wide in recognition, "Hi dear!"

"Good evening," I passed her a polite smile.

"You're from next door, aren't you?" her voice was silvery, making me feel like this wasn't just the second time we were meeting. "Please remind me what your name is."