Dating: On the Rebound

by Stephanie Street

  I shook my head. “I shouldn’t have told you. I just-” My eyes filled again as I lifted his arm between us. The scratch marks Trina had left on his skin had all but faded. “This isn’t okay, Noah.”

  He nodded as if seeing the marks for the first time. “You’re right.”

  We sat in silence for a long moment as I let myself rest against him. I was spent. And his fingers running through the length of my hair was comforting.

  “Is that why you don’t want to go to the dance? Because of what happened?”

  I nodded. It was why I dressed the way I did. Why I hid the way I did. Why getting involved with Noah was such a bad idea. I shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be doing this. I needed some distance.

  Without warning I scrambled back into the passenger’s seat feeling all kinds of awkward. I thought I would tell him about my past as a way to maybe be with him, but instead it felt like I’d just reinforced all the reasons I shouldn’t. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have unloaded like that.”

  He must have sensed how close I was to jumping out of his car, because he reached for my hands. “I’m glad you did. Really glad.”

  I tried to relax in the seat, but it wasn’t easy. Every part of me screamed that it needed protection, that the walls I’d let down needed to be rebuilt. Now. But Noah wasn’t having anything to do with that.

  “Tierney, I can’t even imagine what that must have been like for you. You are the strongest girl I know. I don’t blame you for not wanting to go to the dance.” His thumb brushed my knuckles over and over. “How about we go together?”

  My eyes snapped to his. “What?”

  “Come on. It’s the best solution, isn’t it? We both have to go, let’s go together.”

  I searched his face to see if he was joking, but I could tell by the look in his eye he was serious. Why would he want to go with me?

  I wasn’t under any delusions that Noah liked me. I mean, we kissed and it was the best kiss ever, but that was just a moment of weakness, right? Noah was just looking for a distraction and after meeting his family, I understood. I didn’t even blame him. But he could have no idea how that kiss affected me if he was asking me to go to the dance with him.

  “I don’t know,” my voice trailed off. “Don’t you want to go with someone else?”

  Noah shrugged. “Who? I’m not dating anybody. You aren’t dating anybody.” His eyes got big. “You aren’t, are you?

  I gave him a look. “Who would I be dating?”

  A weird expression crossed his face before it smoothed out. “How should I know? But that just proves my point that we should go. Then you don’t have to worry, because I know your past and how hard it will be. And you will save me from Trina.”

  Everything he said made sense. And if I was being honest, if I had to go to the dance, going with Noah sounded amazing.

  “Okay.”

  Noah’s eyes widened for a second before a huge smile split his face. “Yeah?”

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  “Yes!” he yelled in the small car and threw his arms around me for another hug. Gah, I could get used to that. Noah’s arms were the best.

  “Friends, Noah. Friends,” I murmured through lips smashed against his shoulder.

  He pulled back. “Friends. You got it.” His mouth said one thing, but the glint in his eye said a whole other. “I promise I won’t let anything happen to you, Tierney. It’ll be fun.”

  I sighed, shaking my head. “I thought you said you were hungry?”

  Noah glanced at the clock on the dash and cursed. “I have to get back to practice. Drive thru?” he asked, his expression hopeful.

  “Sure. I just want a shake.”

  Noah put his car in reverse and pulled into the drive thru lane. He ordered a shake for me and a double burger with fries for himself. He paid and handed me the shake and the bag filled with his food before pulling away and heading back toward the school.

  I sipped my shake while he drove and thought about everything that had just happened. Had I really opened up to Noah that way? Told him everything I’d been hiding for so long?

  Noah pulled into the student lot and parked beside my car.

  “We have this habit of getting distracted from talking about the stuff we’re supposed to,” I said as I got my things together to get out of his car.

  Noah shrugged. “I don’t mind. I think we needed to talk about all of that, don’t you?”

  “Maybe.”

  We both got out of the car. Noah carried his take out to the back to get his gym bag out of the trunk.

  “Sorry you didn’t get to eat your food.” Awkward. Things felt so weird between us now.

  “Oh, I’m gonna eat it. Don’t you worry.” He tossed his bag across one shoulder and stepped closer to me. “Do I get a hug, friend?”

  I rolled my eyes, but couldn’t stop my smile. That was invitation enough for him and the next thing I knew my face was pressed to his shoulder again. This was fast becoming a thing with us and I didn’t know how to feel about that.

  Okay, that was a lie. I totally loved it. I loved everything about Noah, especially him holding me. Now, if I could only convince my heart and mind to get it together and put the fear of the past behind me.

  But I wasn’t there yet.

  “Thank you, Noah,” I murmured against his shirt.

  His arms tightened and he held me a moment longer before releasing me. He opened my car door and waited until I was seated.

  “I’ll talk to you later.”

  16

  Tierney

  And talk he did. That night after I closed my laptop and crawled into bed happy with the progress I’d made on my story, my phone rang.

  It was Noah.

  We talked for hours. He told me about practice and the guys on the team. We talked about his friend, Drew, the new guy from the first day of school.

  “He’s an amazing basketball player. Better than any of us,” he said. I could hear him spinning his basketball on his finger, his hand slapping against the ball. It made me smile to picture him laying back on his red blanket in his messy room, talking to me on the phone.

  “And he won’t play on the team? Why would he do that?” I asked. That didn’t seem right at all and totally went against everything I knew about athletes.

  Noah sighed. I could hear the frustration in his voice. “I have no idea. It doesn’t make sense to me. And it isn’t like he doesn’t play all the time. He picks up games if we aren’t around. I heard from some guys that play at the Y that he will go in there and shoot the ball over and over and over. Thousands of shots from every position on the court.”

  “Wow.” That was some serious dedication for a guy that didn’t want to play organized ball. “What about college? If he’s that good, couldn’t he go pro?”

  “That’s what I’m saying. He’s so good. I think he could get drafted out of high school. I’m not even joking. But whenever we say anything about it, he gets all mad. It doesn’t make sense.”

  “Man. That’s crazy.” We both pondered how nuts the guy was for a few seconds. “And you said he’s got a thing for Piper?”

  Noah chuckled. “Yeah, Luke was pissed about it, too.”

  “Really? Why?” Drew seemed kind of perfect for Piper. I’d noticed them flirting in biology before. He carried her bag sometimes and when she wasn’t feeling well one day he’d asked Mr. McGowan to take her down to the nurse. Despite the piercings and tattoos, he seemed like a really good guy.

  “Well, I guess Drew made out with Piper a few times but didn’t want to date her and Luke got mad about that.” Noah’s tone changed and I could tell he’d been reluctant to share that with me. I thought about our kiss.

  Would Noah do that? If I hadn’t shut him down about us kissing again, would he have wanted a relationship or not?

  Goodness. Thinking about kissing Noah was one thing, being his girlfriend, though? Whew. Forget butterflies in my stomach, I got butterflies in my whole body.

>   “I suppose that might make her brother upset.”

  “Yeah, I get it. I just don’t want do deal with their drama on top of everything, you know?”

  I did know. “Speaking of everything, how’s your dad?”

  “Tired. Weak.”

  “I’m sorry, Noah.” And I really was sorry. Noah’s dad was a wonderful man.

  “Yeah, me too,” he sighed. “It’s just I thought I’d have time, you know, to talk about things with him. Now, I’m not so sure. And it’s hard because he’s so sick. He’s kind of fixated on this Notre Dame thing and scholarships and-” he broke off mid-sentence. “It just sucks.”

  I heard a frustration in his voice that was unfamiliar. The only time I ever heard it was when he talked about college and not letting his dad down. It made me wonder. We sat there in silence for just a moment, him thinking about whatever he was thinking and me working up the courage to ask him the question I’d been dying to ask.

  “Do you even want to go to Notre Dame?” I held my breath once the words were out, praying he wouldn’t be mad and hoping he’d tell me the truth.

  Noah sighed so deep it made a funny sound through the phone. “I don’t know. I thought I did. He’s been talking about it since I was a little kid. The very first outfit my parents ever put me in had a Notre Dame logo on it. We’ve rooted for them for football and basketball, taken tours of the campus. Dad’s involved in all their alumni activities.”

  I wondered if he could hear the resentment in his own voice. He sighed again and I waited, hoping he’d say more. He was there for me. I wanted to be there for him.

  “And it’s not that I don’t love the school. I do. I just don’t know how much I want to be a lawyer.”

  “Have you told him that?” I asked softly.

  I heard him shifting around on the other end of the phone and pictured him sitting on the edge of his bed, his head in his hand like he did when he was stressed about something. I’d been in his room enough to know his bed probably wasn’t made and there was at least one pile of dirty laundry on the floor.

  “How am I supposed to tell him that? Especially now. Hey, Dad, I know you’re really sick, why don’t I rip your heart out.”

  I knew he was being sarcastic, but he was also being honest. He was in a really sucky situation. He was right, now was not the time to drop the I-don’t-want-to-go-to-Notre-Dame bomb.

  “Well, what would you do, then? If you had a choice.”

  It was quiet again on the other end for a long time, probably while he debated how much he was willing to admit to me.

  “Truthfully? I’d probably stay here and go to IUPUI.” IUPUI was short for Indiana University and Purdue University at Indianapolis. It was about forty-five minutes from where we lived and was a really good school where students could get a degree from either top university without moving to West Lafayette or Bloomington.

  “Really? What would you study?” His answer kind of puzzled me. Noah was an excellent student. I’d heard he was one of the top in our class. I figured he’d want to go to a more prestigious school. Not that IUPUI wasn’t a good school. It was.

  “Um,” he hedged.

  “You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” But I was insanely curious and hoped he would.

  “No, it’s just, uh,” he coughed a little. “Okay, so Coach Tillman talked to me last year. He’s the high school coach for basketball.”

  “Right.” I knew that already.

  “Yeah, anyway, he talked to me about my prospects for playing ball at the collegiate level. I didn’t pay too much attention at the time because the plan was Notre Dame and I’m not good enough to play there. Not even close.”

  “Hmm.” I wondered if that was true? Noah was good at everything he did.

  “I’m not good enough, Tierney. And I don’t really care, although, I’d play if I could. Anyway, last year Coach Tillman approached me about playing D2 ball. My basketball skills are decent, but my grades are amazing. I could go to a good school and play ball if I went somewhere like IUPUI. ”

  “Really? Wow, that would be cool. Wouldn’t it?” He still hadn’t told me what he’d study.

  Noah sighed and I could hear the weight of his world sitting on his shoulders. “Yeah, it would be awesome. But Notre Dame isn’t a Division 2 school. And, jeez, it isn’t even worth thinking about. I’m not going to do that. My dad wants me to go to Notre Dame and become a lawyer. That’s what I’m going to do. I just need to forget all about medical school and stick with the plan. That’s it.”

  “Medical school? Wow.” Noah would be an amazing doctor. “Noah, you would make a great doctor.”

  He was quiet for a moment. “Thanks. But I’m not going to do it.”

  “Your dad loves you. Maybe you should talk to him about it.”

  “I appreciate it, but I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do. I just need to face reality. And reality is Notre Dame.”

  I knew it wasn’t a good idea to keep pushing the issue. Noah was dealing with a lot. I wanted to be a good friend, not someone who pushed him to do something he wasn’t ready to do.

  We talked for a few more minutes before Noah said goodbye and we hung up. I was just drifting off to sleep when my phone dinged. It was Noah.

  Night, Tierney.

  Night, Noah.

  How was it that associating with one person could change another person’s life so dramatically? I could count on one hand the number of social interactions I’d had last year and most of those were in the first week of school. My leave-me-alone vibes had done a great job discouraging anyone else who had ideas about befriending the new girl. I didn’t care. I had my books, my writing, and Hannah. I was good.

  That all changed the moment Noah came on the scene.

  It didn’t matter that we didn’t hang out at school. It didn’t matter that he still sat with his basketball buddies at lunch while I hid in the darkest corner eating my lunch while reading on the Kindle app on my phone. It didn’t matter that Noah didn’t walk me to my locker or hang out with me between classes. The fact that he knew my name, meant everyone wanted to know everything about me.

  And now we were going to Homecoming together.

  The truth was, I wanted to strangle him. How dare he ruin the perfect life I’d groomed for myself, flying under the radar? There was no flying under the radar when you were friends with Noah. He was the exact opposite of invisible. Everyone knew who he was, everyone wanted to be his friend, every girl wanted to be his girlfriend.

  I hadn’t told anyone about the dance, not even Hannah. It was bad enough getting weird why is he even talking to you looks from girls I didn’t know, I couldn’t imagine what those girls would say if they knew I was going to one of the biggest dances of the year with one of the most popular guys in our school.

  It gave me an anxiety attack just thinking about it.

  The dance was only a couple of weeks away now. We’d met with our decorating committee a few days prior. All the decorations and refreshments had been ordered. Everything was in place that needed to be.

  “So, what are you going to wear to the dance?” he asked one night as we talked on the phone. Since the day I’d confided in him about my past, he’d been calling me every night. I’d never been so glad to have my own room. I shuddered to think what Hannah would say if she knew how much Noah and I talked throughout the day.

  “I was thinking about dressing up as Lorraine, you know, from the dance scene in the movie. What do you think?” I hoped he agreed because I’d already found a dress and ordered it.

  “That sounds awesome. What about me? What should I wear?”

  His question made me giggle. “How about you dress up like George McFly? The dad.”

  “You don’t want me to dress up as Marty?” Noah asked with a laugh. Marty was the character who went back in time. Lorraine and George were Marty’s parents, but of course they don’t know he will one day be their son. Initially, Marty goes to the dance as Lorraine’s date, bu
t he only does it so he can get his parents together so they will fall in love.

  “No way.” I didn’t like the idea of being my date’s mom.

  “George it is, then.” He readily agreed. “How did he dress for the dance? Do you remember?”

  “No, but I just looked it up. Let’s see. He’s wearing a white jacket with black pants.” Noah’s hair was just long enough I though he could slick it over just like Crispin Glover in the movie. I told him and he said he’d do it.

  “Cool. I’m kind of excited now. It’ll be fun to see how everyone dresses.”

  “Yeah. That will be fun.” And it would be. The rest of the Homecoming committee had been excited about the idea to do Back to the Future and Noah had somehow orchestrated everything so that the seniors were making a DeLorean float for the parade.

  We’d be spending the bulk of the evening making sure things were running properly and I could only hope everyone assumed we were only there together because of our responsibilities and once the dance was over I would disappear back into obscurity where I belonged. This whole thing was bringing back memories I’d rather not think about ever again.

  “So, are you going to come to help with the float tomorrow?” he asked.

  “Ugh. You are so persistent. Isn’t it enough that we’ve planned this whole thing? Can’t we let someone else be in charge of the float?” He was really pushing me beyond my limits, reinforcing the thoughts I’d had of strangling him.

  “Come on. It’ll be fun. You can come over after and we’ll finish our monsters.”

  “Noah,” I started to say.

  “I’ll stick by you the whole time. I even roped Grayson and Will into helping, too.”

  “Begging doesn’t become you.”

  He laughed. “See you tomorrow,” he said and hung up before I could say anything in return.

  The jerk.

  What am I doing? I asked myself for the millionth time that morning and it was only eight. On a Saturday. I was going to kill Noah.

  Noah’s idea for the float was a paper mâché replica of the DeLorean, the car Dr. Brown turns into a time machine in the movie. I wasn’t there, but apparently when Noah made the suggestion, the class officers and other powers that be in the senior class loved the idea. We lived in a farming community so it wasn’t difficult to come up with rolls of chicken wire, donated newspapers, and an empty barn to work in. We even had a flat bed truck lined up and someone to drive it down Main Street the afternoon before the football game.