This chapter is dedicated to my friend Nydaria who has been reading this story, and many of my other stories, and letting me know how much she wants to kill me for making her wait for Koah to happen.

Epilogue

“So how are things with Noah?” Marissa asked me casually as we sat in her bedroom. Chloe was resting across one half of the bed while Marissa, Dana, Elizabeth, and I were huddled on the floor. 

“Great- three months strong,” I nodded slowly as I smiled at my lap.

“But?” Dana anticipated. I sighed, fiddling with my hands on my lap.

“It’s nothing really big, but he’s not as affectionate as I would like,” I muttered simply.

“What do you mean?” Elizabeth asked. Of course she wouldn’t know. Floyd showers her in kisses and hugs. Noah is more reserved, I guess.

“I mean, we kiss and hug when we see each other and when we part ways, but it’s always anticipated. He never just does it sporadically, you know?” I shrugged.

“Why don’t you kiss him sporadically?” Chloe piped as she shoved her phone in her pocket.

“I do, but it’s not the same, you know?” I responded.

“You know, Eric had a problem like that. But it was the opposite- he’d kiss me too much. He was a fan of PDA,” Marissa explained. “Together, we made some rules about when it’s appropriate and when it’s not.”

“Yeah, but I can’t exactly demand Noah to kiss me four times a day at random.” I rolled my eyes.

“You can always—,” Elizabeth was cut off by the door swinging open.

“Haven’t you people ever heard of closing a gosh darn door?” Floyd barged in.

“The door was closed!” Elizabeth retorted.

“I know, but we heard practically everything you guys just said,” Floyd explained.

My eyes widened and I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. “We?” I repeated.

“We, as in Noah and me,” he assured me with a nod and a smirk.

“Everything?” I piped.

“Everything,” he nodded as he grinned at me. When he saw the worry on my face, he chuckled. “Oh boy, oh boy, Noah doesn’t kiss me twenty seven times a day!”

Elizabeth got up to hit Floyd but he immediately shut the door, laughing wildly as he escaped down the hallway towards Noah’s room. “Oh, my gosh,” I groaned as I rested my face in my hands.

“That’s embarrassing,” Chloe muttered before sitting up. “I’m glad I’m not you. Anyway, I have to go. I have a date with Brett and I cannot be late again.”

“Brett?” Marissa asked. “Brett with the terrible hair cut?”

“Bowl Cut Brett?” Dana asked.

“2009 Bieber Brett?” Elizabeth inquired from beside me.

“He shaved it off, okay?” Chloe rolled her eyes before she left the room, making sure to shut the door on her way out.

“Well, at least Noah knows about your problem now,” Marissa shrugged, earning a glare from me.

“Yeah, but now he probably thinks I come to you guys to complain about him!” I frowned.

“I come here to complain about Floyd,” Elizabeth shrugged with a smirk on her lips. She stared at the door, anticipating her boyfriend’s arrival. “He farts…a lot. We were watching Transformers and I tried to kiss him but he pushed me away and told me that no one can come between him and Shia. He tried to make Piglet, his ferret, attack me twice.”

I was holding back my laughter, as was Dana, while Marissa didn’t even try. Next thing you know, Floyd comes running into the room. “Piglet attacks who he wants to attack! I only put his food in your hair because you fell asleep on my couch!”

He went to run away but decided he had more to say. “And Taco Bell does that to me, okay? I can’t help it!”

“We didn’t even have Taco Bell that one time!” Elizabeth exclaimed as he ran out of the room.

<<>><<>>

“See you guys later!” Marissa and I said from the porch as Dana, Floyd, and Elizabeth left the house. The three of them waved at us as they got into their cars. Floyd opened the door for Elizabeth before slamming it shut when she reached it. He cackled as he made his way to the driver’s side door while she grumpily opened the door for herself.

Marissa closed the door and grinned at me. “Now, you go and have your little guitar lesson. I’m going to call Eric.”

“Tell him I said hello,” I muttered as I nervously made my way up the stairs. She dropped on the couch and took her phone out. I reached Noah’s door and knocked quietly, hoping he fell asleep so I can go home and avoid the awkward conversation ahead. He opened the door and, barely a second later, Lukas popped his head from his study down the hall.

“Leave the door open!” he called, making things ten times more awkward.

“We will!” I sheepishly called back, internally cringing. Noah ushered me into the room, leaving the door open just a crack.

“Actually open the door, Noah!” Lukas called. Noah groaned and opened the door halfway. “Nope, I want the doorknob touching the wall!”

Noah opened the door all the way and glanced out at Lukas. “Better?”

“Yes, thank you. And leave it like that!” he responded. My face was burning red. Lukas told me before that it’s not me he doesn’t trust, but it’s his son. Personally, I feel like it’s me he shouldn’t trust. Noah’s very gentlemanly- as you can see by the way he doesn’t kiss me as often as I would like. He kisses me when it’s appropriate- when we first see each other at the beginning of the day and when we leave- never any ‘I just felt like kissing you’ kisses.

At least Lukas isn’t as blunt as Ethel, though. Last time, she would constantly walk by the room and Noah, being the sassy guy he is, asked her to stop so we can have some privacy, to which she responded -and I quote- “Privacy leads to pregnancy”. I obviously excused myself from that situation and went home where I died of embarrassment. Noah apologized several times for that, saying that he can’t control the witch’s actions.

My guitar was resting against Noah’s bed, where I left it earlier. I walked over to grab it, praying that Noah doesn’t bring up what he heard me saying until I’m about to leave, but no, Noah isn’t like that. “So?”

“So?” I repeated, keeping my back facing Noah. Why did I have to go and say that when Noah was in the house? I could’ve told the girls over the phone, or at my house, or not at all.

“About—,” he began but I quickly cut him off with my rambling.

“I’m sorry about what I said in Marissa’s room. I meant it, yeah, but I should’ve brought it up to you personally, or at least dropped hints. I’m sorry, I feel terrible about it,” I apologized, taking in a large breath to start again but he placed his finger on my mouth. Kissing me would’ve shut me up.

“It’s fine,” he told me.

“So you’re not mad?” I asked him, speaking against his finger.

“No,” he answered with a grin, removing his hand from my face.

“Great,” I sighed, resting my head on his chest.

“Why didn’t you just tell me?” he inquired.

“I can’t exactly bring it up in conversation, right? I’d sound demanding and…weird. ‘Kiss me more’ isn’t exactly a conversation starter, is it?” I muttered as I retracted from him, looking up. “But I’m fine. You’re fine. We’re fine.”

He looked at me in amusement before nodding. “Okay.”

“You’re sure you’re not mad?” I asked him cautiously.

“There’s nothing to be mad about, Kennedy,” he convinced me.

I nodded my head before lifting up my guitar.

<<>><<>>

“I’ll be right back,” Noah told me as he got up from his bed. I sat there with my guitar in my lap. I saw a folder on his bedside table and I felt the urge to look through it. I mean, it can’t be from school- we got out two weeks ago. I reached over and grabbed it, paging through it curiously. I recognized the drawing pad he had had during gym on Mondays sitting in the folder, along with a few sketches tucked in a pocket on the side.

Cautiously, I began looking through the drawing pad. Drawings of people- most of them were of a woman. I recognized her as Noah’s mom. I recognized another sketch of the picture he showed me, the one where his mother had him in her arms. I cooed quietly, looking at the intricate detailing of the picture. Why is he so good at everything? I’m terrible at anything that involves running, being social, and pictures. I can’t take a good picture of myself or someone else, yet this boy is great at it.

“Do you like them?” Noah asked as he dropped on the bed, sitting a few feet away from me. I glanced up at him, red faced.

“Uh, sorry. I shouldn’t have looked at them- invasion of privacy, sorry,” I told him as I hastily shut the folder.

“No, its fine, I was going to show you them anyway,” he told me with a shrug as he reached across and opened the folder.

I continued to look at them as he sat beside me, staring at me. As I flipped through the pages, I noticed a change in the drawings. “Is this Lukas?” I asked him.

“Yeah, that was him before his haircut. That’s just a rough draft, though- I gave him the final draft for his birthday,” he explained. Of course Lukas would want a picture of himself for his birthday- he loves looking in the mirror.

I nodded as I continued to flip through the pages. Once I reached the middle, the dates on the drawings became more spaced out. Before, there were barely three day gaps and now, it’s basically two week gaps between each picture. “You stopped drawing as much. Why?”

“You started sitting next to be during gym and you’d distract me,” he shrugged.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” I muttered quietly.

“No, it’s fine. Honestly, talking to you was better than finishing a picture of a bird,” he shrugged.

“You didn’t talk to me much in the beginning. And when you did, you’d complain about my presence,” I laughed.

“If I didn’t want to be near you, I would’ve gotten up and moved,” he told me.

“So you liked my presence?” I asked, turning to glance at him.

“No,” he sarcastically responded, shrugging. “I hated it- still do. I just asked you to be my girlfriend because I didn’t have anything better to do.”

I nudged him in the side. “Please, I made every other move. I kissed you first; I told you how I felt; the only thing you did was ask me to be your girlfriend,” I scoffed.

“The only reason you kissed me was because you were dared to,” he responded with an eye roll.

“I could’ve backed out of it but I didn’t,” I retorted as I continued to flip through the pages. I was coming upon his more recent drawings. "I was only supposed to kiss your cheek, too."

“Then why didn’t you?” he inquired.

“Because I liked you,” I replied. I continued to flip through the pages, smiling when I saw a drawing of Dakota. In the corner was a printed picture of him, held down by a paper clip. I’m guessing that’s what he was basing the picture off of.

I flipped the page again and furrowed my eyebrows. I grabbed the picture from the corner, removing the paper clip quickly. I looked at it and groaned. “Really? You’re drawing this? I look horrible!”

It was a picture Marissa took of us. I looked absolutely terrible. My hair was a mess and I had a stupid sundress on. It was my first official date with Noah and I made the mistake of letting Marissa help me get ready at her house. Marissa kept yanking my hair whenever I moved so, obviously, I would yelp. Eventually, Noah came in to see what was going on. I looked terrible- half of my hair was a mess while the other half was neatly straightened. Marissa told him to hold the straightening iron while she went to go grab something from the bathroom. She actually grabbed the camera from Noah’s room and took a picture of us standing there like idiots. I threatened Noah that if he didn’t delete it, I’d punch him in the face and he agreed that he would.

“You look cute,” he shrugged as he looked at the picture over my shoulder.

“I do not! My hair is a mess! And I don’t have any makeup on!” I told him. I’ve made things clear with Noah that I will not take a picture unless I have makeup on- only because pictures are forever and they could be held against you. I’d rather have someone commenting on my eyeliner than the huge zit forming on my forehead.

“I think you look perfect,” he told me.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re just saying that so I won’t punch you in the face.”

“No I’m not!” he responded. “I think you look better without makeup, to be honest.”

“You’re just saying that because it takes me awhile to put on makeup,” I retorted.

“No, when you don’t wear makeup, I don’t have to worry about hugging you and your face coming off on my shirt,” he told me with a cheesy smile. “Or kissing you and tasting your foundation.”

“You’re an idiot,” I told him, chuckling.

“You’re the idiot. Isn’t makeup the entire reason why you became friends with my sister? And because you didn’t drink?” he asked. I simply nodded.

“Yeah. I couldn’t do makeup and she could. She drank and I didn’t,” I shrugged. “We both had something that the other could use and we figured that we could help each other out.”

“How’d you guys meet, anyway?” he asked me curiously.

“She was in the bathroom crying because of you and I was taking off my makeup,” I shrugged.

“What a great first impression you had of me,” he muttered.

“I didn’t let it affect me too much,” I simply shrugged. “But I realized that you were a jerk a while after I actually met you.”

“How’d you come to that conclusion?” he inquired with a smirk.

“Well, for one- you’d glare at me like you wanted to kill me,” I muttered.

“Yeah, well, I don’t want to kill you anymore,” he joked.

“I can’t say the same,” I smiled at him, holding up the picture of us in my hand before pinning it back to the page. I closed the folder and put it back on his bedside table. He was silent as he stared at me and I decided to ask him a question that’s been bugging me lately. “How’s therapy going?”

He shrugged. “Good, there isn’t much to talk about anymore, though. I’ve accepted my mother’s death. I miss her, but I can’t bring her back. And as far as my life goes, it’s pretty good. I mean, aside from you, everything’s great.”

I glared at him, pushing him over. He laughed and got up, smiling at me. “I was kidding, Kennedy.”

“I know,” I smirked. “What about your medicine?”

“They’re both working well, definitely better than my last prescriptions,” he told me with a smile. “I’m okay, Kennedy.”

“Are you sure?” I asked him curiously.

“Never better,” he replied, grinning at me. “Are you okay?”

“I’m great. Spencer graduated so I won’t have to deal with my small fear of him. Ronnie promised to leave me alone. I have a group of friends. I have Dakota. Things are a lot better with my mom. And I have you,” I told him with a smile.

He moved closer and pressed his lips to my forehead. “I’m glad,” he whispered. I sat curled up beside him for a moment before he sighed and looked at me. “Now how about I teach you something on the guitar?”

“Okay,” I nodded.

Twenty minutes later, I was learning how to play Stacy’s Mom on the guitar. I was strumming slowly, trying to get the notes right. Noah was watching me, correcting me when I made mistakes. “Was that good?” I asked him curiously when I managed to get through the notes that I was having trouble with.

He was staring at me with a smile on his face. He leaned over and caught me off guard, kissing me. His hand was on my neck as he tilted his head and I suppressed the urge to grin. It took me a few seconds to kiss him back, but I did with a smile on my face.

He pulled away, looking from my lips to my eyes curiously. Our foreheads were touching as the sound of labored breathing reached my ears. I looked at him, staring into his beautiful blue eyes which were staring right back into mine. “Better?”

“Definitely.”