The Kissing Booth: Unavoidable

Chapter 8 - Back to the Real World

Noah's POV

I threw myself back into work when I got back to LA.  Pushing myself into my studies and now work or work-outs has been my way of keeping my mind off Elle for the past couple years.  I do know by now that I'm not actually getting over her, just working myself to death so I don't have time to think about her.  I think about calling Darren to see what I can find out from Lexi, since they seem to be such good friends now, but realize that they're in Hawaii this week for their honeymoon.  I hate to admit it, but the best person to talk to about Elle is Lee, this talk is probably long overdue.  I do have to be careful, though, I don't want to tell him about last weekend if Elle hasn't said anything to him.  We don't talk often, so I had to come up with an excuse to call him.  Our parents 25th wedding anniversary is coming up next year and Lee and I have talked a couple times about what we should do for them.  I call him with a few ideas for the folks, then slip in a few questions about Elle.

"Hey, it was good to see you Labor Day weekend.  Did you have a good time hanging out with Elle and her boyfriend?"

"Boyfriend, you mean Aaron?"

"Yeah, the guy she brought to lunch with her.  Is he the same guy she was dating last year at Thanksgiving?"

Lee started laughing.  "No, she had an actual boyfriend last year, but they broke up.  She's not dating Aaron."

"Oh, I just figured when she brought him to a family thing that he was her boyfriend."

"Are you jealous, Noah?"

"No, I was just curious."

"Believe me, he and Elle aren't dating, she's not his type!"  He sounds sure of himself but I can't think of what type of guy wouldn't be interested in Elle.

"How do you know she's not his type?"  Sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get anything out of Lee.  He almost sounds like he's enjoying this.

"The first time I visited Elle in Chicago and met Aaron, he left early with a guy he met at the bar we were at.  In fact, he's dating a really nice guy named Josh right now.  Elle says he won't stop talking about this guy."

"What, are you serious?"  So, Aaron's not the problem.  At least that takes one thing off the list of why Elle snuck out last weekend.

"Yes!  What's bringing all of this up now, that was like a month ago?"

"Nothing, I was just wondering about it and thought I would ask while we were talking.  No big deal.  She really doesn't have a boyfriend?"

"Dude, no, Elle's not dating anyone.  You have avoided all talks of Elle for the last two years.  What's going on now?  Do you still have feelings for Elle?  I know you guys had a rough break-up and I wasn't around much for either of you then and we haven't been close the last couple years. . ."

I interrupted him, I didn't want to get into a heart to heart with Lee right now.  "I've been thinking of Elle, since we saw each other at lunch, no big deal."  I'm sure Lee would have said something if Elle talked to him about last weekend.  If she didn't say anything to him about it, I sure wasn't going to tell him and I decided it was time to change the subject.

So, if Elle didn't sneak out because she had a boyfriend, why did she do it?  Is she still upset with me about the break-up?  I really wish we could have kept our hands off each other long enough to talk through our issues.  There are only a few more weeks until Thanksgiving, so hopefully I'll have a chance to talk with Elle then.  If not, I'm going to have to resort to calling on Lexi and Darren to see if they can help me figure out what is going on.  I'm not giving up this time as easily as I did two years ago.