The Kissing Booth: Unavoidable

Chapter 10 - We Meet Again

Elle's POV

I spent the next day going through some things in my room. I had moved a lot of my stuff to my apartment but thought I would look through what I had left. Dad put everything into storage while they were in Chicago and had recently gotten it out. Dad was at work and Brad was at school and I needed to do something keep me busy and to take my mind off seeing Noah tonight.

That night, I told my Dad I was going to meet some friends from high school at the pier. That wasn't a lie. Noah is a friend from high school, right? I saw him waiting for me at the spot we had agreed on. He looked nervous. Good. I felt like I was about to puke, so it's only fair if he feels something too. He turned and smiled as he saw me walking his way.

"Elle! Hi, I'm so glad you came."

"Hi, Noah."

"Do you want to walk down the beach and we can talk?" He got up from where he had been waiting and I started walking next to him. It was a beautiful evening, but a little cool, so the beach wasn't very crowded. We walked for a few minutes without talking. Then, Noah stopped and turned towards me and started talking in a hurry. "Shelly, what happened to you the morning after the wedding? I woke up and you were gone."

"I'm sorry, Noah. I shouldn't have been such a coward. I just couldn't face you. But I've been doing a lot of thinking about this and I'm ready now." Noah started to say something, but I cut him off. "Let me get through this." I started walking again, so we wouldn't be standing face to face. "You know I had a lot of insecurities about us that first year you were at Harvard and I was still here. I got over a lot of that during the time we had together in Boston, but it all pretty much came back to me when we broke-up. So, when I saw you at the wedding, I was so nervous. You know I ended up drinking way too much, thinking that would help me get through the night. But you surprised me by wanting to talk and then everything else happened. By the time I woke up in the morning, though, I was so hungover, and my brain was fuzzy trying to think through what you had said before we stopped talking. I started to worry that you were just wanting to hook up with someone, like before we were together and I had assumed after, and I would be the easiest catch because you know that I'm hopeless when it comes to you. I couldn't face you again saying that you didn't want anything more to do with me, so I took off."

Noah stopped walking when I stopped talking and turned to look at me again with a sad look in his eyes. "You thought I just wanted a one-night stand and you were the easiest target?"

"That thought ran through my mind that morning, but like I said, I wasn't thinking very clearly. I've been thinking a lot about it since and I wish I would have stayed and talked to you. I've also been talking with Lexi about everything. She has given me another perspective, since she was around you after the break-up."

"I'm glad it has helped to talk to Lexi. I think we need to back things up and talk about the break-up, if that was what made you leave after the wedding. Once I saw you, that was my whole plan at the wedding, to talk about the break-up. I thought if we could figure out how our relationship blew up the moment I talked about taking a break that we could figure out how to move forward. Then, once we got to my hotel room, that went out the window. That's why I asked you to meet me here, instead of at my apartment." Noah looked over at me with a smirk. "I think we have better luck getting through this conversation if we're not near a bed." I know he's joking, trying to break the ice a little. But, it's probably accurate, the physical part of our relationship was never our problem.

Noah took a deep breath and started walking again. "This was not what I wanted to happen when I started talking about taking a break from our relationship. I did not want to hurt you like I did. I was trying to stop all the arguments, stress, and hurting we had been causing each other since you left Boston." I tried to interrupt Noah, but he kept talking.