Chapter 3

Noah

"How was dinner?" Aunt Josie called as I walked into the house.

"Fine." I mumbled, tossing my bag down.

"Lewis is in bed already so try and be quiet when you get ready." Uncle Ryan told me as he walked towards the living room. "We're heading to bed now."

"Got it." I nodded, still standing in the front hall as he turned the television off.

"You alright?" Aunt Josie asked with a frown, grabbing her book and glass of water from the table next to the couch.

"Yeah." I whispered, pushing my hair back. "Yeah I'm alright." I mumbled, turning to the hallway to the back of the house.

I went right to the bathroom and turned on the water as hot as it would go.

Not only was I sweaty and gross because of practice after school, but I needed the burning water on my skin to shock me out of the state of numbness I was feeling.

It's been almost two years since everything went down with Harper.

I think about her every day. I'm reminded of her everywhere I go with everything I see.

I hear her laugh, think I see her hair in a crowd of people, and every time that it's not her, my stomach sinks and I feel like I'm moving away again.

And now she's here and her dad is my coach. No wonder he thought he recognized the tattoo on my ribs, he must've been thinking about her. I think about her every time I see that damn piece of ink on my torso.

It was stupid to get a tattoo with her when we were only fifteen. But we found some guy who didn't card you and we were young and in love and stupid.

We thought we'd be together forever. Then we thought we'd never see each other again.

And now here we were.

In the same town after all this time.

I shampooed my hair twice because I was so distracted thinking about her, and could barely get my pajamas on straight because everything about her was consuming my mind.

She looked good. Like really really good.

If I thought she was hot when she was fifteen, I don't even know how to describe her now.

I pulled on some sweatpants and pushed my hair back from my forehead, letting it dry naturally tonight.

I set my phone down with the charger against the wall and laid back against the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

The amount of nights I'd laid awake, wondering where she was, how she was doing.

And now she was in the same place as me.

A smile crossed my face when I thought about tomorrow.

I'd start a nonchalant conversation. Everyone would just be thinking I'm talking to the new girl.

But to her it would be so much more. To us it would be monumental.

Would it be anything like the first time we met?

Freshman year when I moved to her school.

I was the new kid then but she's the new kid now.

~*~*~

"Mr. Keller, thank you for joining us." The biology teacher said as I got to class late.

"I'm sorry. I got lost." I said quietly, trying so hard to talk carefully enough that my voice wouldn't crack.

"Well take a seat." She told me with a scolding look.

I looked around the room at the many open seats and the many curious eyes staring at me.

"Second row back, next to Harper Lawrence." The teacher instructed me.

The girl whose name had just been called sat up straighter, her eyes widening.

She leaned over to whisper to her friend urgently.

"Jasey, Harper, keep it quiet." The teacher told them.

I nervously sat down next to her, freaking out about what this cute girl could be saying.

I knew I didn't have the best style but she couldn't be judging my clothes...

My cheeks burned pink as I sat down next to her.

"Hi." Harper held out her hand.

I nervously shook it, forcing myself to look up at her eyes.

Both of us froze for a minute when we made eye contact.

"I'm Harper." She said quietly.

"Noah." I replied, scanning her face but ending up looking back at her beautiful eyes.

"Nice to meet you." Her face lit up, dimples appearing on her cheeks.

As she dropped my hand, she immediately turned to whisper to her friend Jasey again.

I wasn't self conscious at all this time.

My heart was beating fast and my hands were tingly but I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face.

I glanced at her again, only to see that she was looking at me.

With a giggle she looked away and reached for her pencil to act busy.

Little did I know what that meeting would bring us in the future...

~*~*~

"Noah!" Someone yelled before there was a thud against my window.

I sat up straight, my heart pounding.

Was she here?

I waited to listen for the three consecutive stones throne at the window, our secret signal, but it never came.

"Keller get your ass up!" Whoever it was outside of my window said again.

I swore under my breath, fixing my sweatpants before stumbling over to the window.

"What the fuck, Roy?" I hissed, lifting the window open.

"First away game tomorrow, buddy." Roy said with a grin. "Come on, the guys are in the truck."

"Mick brought his dad's truck for this?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Hell yeah. Listen, it's like twenty minutes to Beverland High, we'll have you back in like an hour." Roy told me. "Put some clothes on and lets go."

"I can't get in trouble... My aunt and uncle will think it's because..." I trailed off, knowing that sooner or later word would get out to my family that Harper and I were somehow at the same school again.

"I don't give a shit about your family shit right now. We're going to paint the rock and we're going to do it now." Roy told me. "I will climb in and force you out of this damn window, understood?"

I glared at him for a minute before grabbing a shirt from the ground and stepping into some old shoes.

"I'm so not up for this tonight." I shook my head.

"What, fantasizing about coach's daughter too much?" Roy smirked as I climbed out of the window. "I saw the way you looked at her, all hot and shit."

"Fuck off, you don't know what you're talking about." I hissed, giving his shoulder a solid shove as I ran towards the truck.

I jumped into the passenger seat, letting Roy get in the back with the other people from the team that they'd pulled out of bed.

"This is such a bad idea." I shook my head, pushing back my hair that was still sort of wet.

"So let's have a serious chat for a minute." Roy pushed his head through the back window of the truck.

Mick jumped slightly, nearly swerving off of the road.

All the guys in the back started yelling at him and Mick's neck turned red with embarrassment.

"Tell them to shut the hell up." Mick muttered.

"Listen guys, I think we gotta make a rule to the team." Roy said seriously.

"About?" Mick questioned, glancing back at Roy.

"The sexy biker chick who happens to be Coach's kid." Roy sighed. "Nobody can get caught with her, because if they do coach will have a fit. Listen, I heard him talking to some of the other coaches about her."

"What was he saying?" Mick frowned.

"Listen she's been through some pretty tough shit. She got into it with this guy and that ended disastrously, he was trash anyways, but she's been on the decline for like two years now. Her mom kicked her out like a week ago, that's why she's coming to live with her dad." Roy said.

I felt my stomach twist.

Julia kicked Harper out? What could she have done that was worse than getting pregnant?

"Besides, it would be kinda nice to save her for one of us." Roy added, inserting his usual perverted state of mind.

"Nobody dates her." I shook my head. "You guys have been hearing your rumors too but I heard she's in a relationship." I lied.

"Okay no I heard that one too. She was like, engaged to someone or something shit like that. Really white trash if you ask me but-"

"Why don't you shut your pie hole before I shut it for you." I said harshly, spinning around to face him. "Stop the truck."

"What the fuck?" Roy's eyes widened.

"Mick stop the fucking truck." I hissed, unbuckling my seatbelt.

Mick slammed on the brakes and I got out of the truck, slamming the door shut behind me.

"Where the hell are you going?" Roy yelled after me.

"Away from you losers! You can't make fun of someone for decisions they've made in the past! What if all of that was out of her control?!" I yelled. "What if she got stuck with some shit parents who shipped her off to another relative? What if the condom broke and she made a mistake?"

Roy's face paled as he realized where I was going with this.

"You can't be okay with the shit I've done and then criticize someone you don't even know for shit that's probably not as worse. You know nothing about that girl because we only met her tonight. I lived through the rumors that this damn school spreads and it's not fair." I said harshly, turning away from the truck.

"You're like three miles away from home, surely you're not walking?" Roy yelled after me.

"I'll find a way! Fuck off!" I yelled, flipping him off behind my back.

It was freezing outside and I was wearing thin sweatpants and a t-shirt but I was determined not to go back to them.

Twenty minutes later, I was about halfway home when a roar of a bike started at the end of the street.

I swore under my breath.

This was the perfect time for me to get jumped.

A guy alone in the middle of the night with nowhere to go.

The bike stopped next to me and my heart jumped into my chest as I tried walking fast.

"What the bloody hell are you doing?" A familiar voice asked.

I froze, spinning around.

Harper pulled her helmet off, raising her eyebrows at me.

"It's the middle of the night what are you doing?" I frowned, my arms still crossed to give myself warmth.

"You're the one walking in your pajamas. Are you sleep walking again? I thought you fixed that." Harper sighed, smoothing down her hair.

"I was with the guys but they threw me out because I yelled at them for judging people."

"Judging me?" Harper guessed.

I shrugged. "They don't know what they're talking about."

"What are they saying?" Harper asked, her face growing nervous.

I winced. "Harper..." I sighed.

"Noah dammit tell me what people are saying about me."

"They just don't know you, okay? You're coach's mysterious daughter who showed up on a bike, supposedly has gang tattoos, and just... Okay it's ridiculous stuff." I shook my head. "Don't dwell on it, Harper."

Harper crossed her arms, giving me a look.

"I'm pissed at you, by the way." She told me.

I raised my eyebrows.

"Excuse you?"

"I thought you moved to another region. I didn't realize you were thirty five minutes away." Harper said seriously. "You could've come to see me."

I let out a sigh.

"Your mother would've skinned me alive." I shook my head. "Harper, I didn't think you'd want to see me."

"Well you're right." Harper shrugged, putting her helmet back on my head. "Because what kind of girl would want her boyfriend there when her mother was completely turning her life upside down and ripping away the two things she cared most about."

That one stung.

I felt my stomach twist as Harper kicked up the stand on her bike.

"Have fun being all buddy buddy with my dad, don't bring me into your life again." Harper said over the roar of her bike. "For all intensive purposes, you're just a captain on my dad's football team. We don't know each other."

Harper drove off and I felt even colder than I did before.

I was left alone as I continued to walk back to my house, a pit in my stomach.

Over the past two years, I imagined what it would be like when we saw each other again.

That was nothing like it.

I felt sick as I climbed back into my room and rolled into bed.

All I could do was pray that we didn't have any classes tomorrow.