The sound of an unknown and distracting beat was keeping me up at night.

I checked the time for the tenth time tonight, on the small clock that hung on the wall just above the main door.

3:47 A.M.

It was definitely a song, some sort of alternative type of beat. Whatever it was, it was keeping me up for three hours now.

Doesn't this guy ever sleep?

Ever since my new roomie - Noah - woke up from surgery, my sweet, peaceful life, alone in my room came to an end.

First of all, after the hospital staff dropped him off the three stooges that were here earlier came back to check up on his friend. They took pictures, videos and blurted jokes before leaving for good. Then, when he woke up the nurses were in the room to check on him before his mother (I assumed) dropped by to see him as well. And when I finally thought I was getting some peaceful sleep, he puts his headphones on top of his dark head of hair, with the volume on the max.

And then he never stopped. Never. Only when he went to the bathroom. And thank God this room had separate bathrooms.

The night wasn't peaceful, as I kept tossing and turning, trying to find a way to get some rest while the sound of the beat blasted through his headphones. The day wasn't proving to be any better, but I kept myself entertained with some shows, only being interrupted by the nurses who came in to change the meds, or the doctors who came in to check on my roommate.

"Hey yo!"

The cheery voice of my best friend echoed through the room and I looked up from the screen of my laptop to see him.

"Kyle!" A sense of happiness and sadness overtook me altogether. God, I'll never get used to not being able to hug the ones I love whenever I'm hospitalized.

"How are you today?"

"Better than yesterday. I got my blood drawn today."

"So that means I get to hug you till your bones break tomorrow?" I could tell he was smirking behind his mask just by the way that he asked that.

"I sure hope so!" I said with confidence in my voice, truly meaning it.

When my eyes wandered to meet Kyle's, I noticed that he was staring at the boy laying on the bed next to mine.

"Hi!" Kyle said, waving his hand in front of the guy.

Noah slid his headphones to the back of his head, the sound of the guitars still audible to everyone else in the room, and flashed Kyle a smile.

"Hey, how are you?"

Seems pretty nice for a guy who hasn't said a word to the person he's sharing his hospital room with.

"I'm Kyle, nice to meet you."

"Right back at ya. I'm Noah."

I interrupted the two and reached my hand out to Noah's.

"Well, since we're all introducing ourselves here, I'm Zoey. Not that you seem to care at all." I said, my bitterness unfiltered.

I couldn't help but notice Noah pausing whatever music it was that he was listening to, before his hand wrapped around mine and shook it firmly, flashing me a cheeky grin.

"How do you know that? Up until now you didn't even know my name."

Oh, he was challenging me. Poor guy, doesn't have a clue who he's picking a challenge with.

"You've been here for the past twenty four hours and didn't even bother to say hi to me, I know that much about yourself."

His witty remark came in fast, like a bullet fired from a gun.

"It's 2020, girls can take the first step now, barbie doll."

Excuse me?!

"What did you just call me?" I asked in shock and bewilderment, my voice barely audible, coming out as a whisper.

"Okay, let's take a little break here. You guys got all the time in the world to keep this up and I only have one hour with my best friend."

Noah eyed me while he put his headphones back on top of his black curls and pressed play on the screen of his phone, before leaning his head back on the pillow.

I got up from my bed and pulled the curtain in between our beds furiously, earning myself some privacy.

Kyle gave me a questioning look and took a seat next to my bed.

"What's the deal with you two?"

"There's no deal." I said with a shrug of my shoulders. "He's rude."

"He seemed pretty nice to me." Kyle crossed one leg on top of the other. "Hot too."

I shot him a killer glare, wanting him to stop and thankfully he got the hint and changed the subject. "Anyway, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing much. I've been catching up on a few shows."

"You mean you've been rewatching Gossip Girl for the one hundreth time?" He asked, sarcasm and irony noticeable.

He knew me so well.

I closed my eyes in defeat before sighing. "Busted."

Kyle chuckled lightly and smiled at me.

Kyle Pearson has been my best friend ever since first grade. We met on presentation day at school when we were both six years old and we became inseparable from that day onward. He wanted to play with the board game I used to bring with me everywhere I went and I wanted to play with his Nintendo. Two hours later we were glued to the hip for life and our parents were setting up a playdate for the following weekend.

Kyle was the kind of boy that every girl was chasing after, but honestly who could blame them? With blonde hair, blue eyes and a killer smile, he was their kryptonite. If we actually had feelings for each other, we'd be a pretty good match. But that wasn't the case.

He's always been there for me, he's seen me at my best and my worst, he's seen me fall during our PE class, rode the ambulance with me and stayed by my side until my parents arrived, he cheered for me on every single swimming competition I was competing in and went shopping with me whenever I had a meltdown and needed a little retail therapy.

I was there for him too, during all the monumental phases of our very short life. I was the first person he came out to as bissexual, I went to all the school plays he starred in, I even helped him practice for the big day and learned his lines with him.

Fast forward ten years and we're still as close as we've always been.

"So, has the doctor dropped by today?"

"No!" I whined. "I overheard the nurses say the lab is short of staff, they were called to help out with an emergency in Seattle. I won't get my results back for probably a day or two. That means another day in this hellhole."

"Come on, it's not that bad. At least you're not all by yourself now." He stated, nodding towards the other occupant of this room.

"It's almost as if I was." I retorted. "This guy has his headphones on all the damn time. This was literally the first time he ever spoke to me." I opened my eyes wide, which I always do whenever I try to prove a point. "And besides being just plain rude, the sound of his stupid music won't let me sleep at night!"

Kyle rolled his eyes to the back of his head and let his body relax against the back of the chair. "Has Harper been here today?"

Because of my condition, once I was old enough to learn about it and learn the consequences, I was never too hopeful to get to live, or at least not this long. Borrowed time is all I've ever been given, and looking back now, I'm sort of sad and angry to have created such a special bond with Kyle and Harper. I feel bad for them and for my parents because I know I'll cause them heartbreak when I die. Which can basically happen anytime. That's no way to be friends with someone.

However, the life I am grateful to get to live would not even be half as fun as it is without them in it.

"Harper was here yesterday. She's probably gonna be here anytime soon." I hinted, showing him a small smirk dancing on my lips.

"Stop it. It's not going to happen."

Kyle and Harper had a little thing going on in the past. Three years ago, I tried to pair them together and it worked for a week. That's what you get for forcing two people to be together, I guess. When they broke up, they remained amicable and to this day they still talk to each other a lot, and not just when I'm around, they have a great and genuine friendship going on between them.

"Hey, guess what?"

"What?" I asked while I took a spoonful of the green jello they served for lunch to my mouth.

"I got a C on my biology test!" His eyebrows arched in his forehead as he shared the news with me, surprised to achieve such a high note for the class he hated the most.

I chuckled before wiping my mouth with a napkin. "Congratulations!" I said with a wide smile on my face.

"Thank you." He faked a bow and chuckled. "I'm also officially in the theatre club this year again."

"Please, you're basically an honorary member of that club, don't tell me that was a surprise to you."

"It wasn't." He said with a cocky smile after giving it some thought. "But it feels good to have the news officially delivered to you."

Kyle has always been a theatre kid, and he was convinced that acting was what he was born to do. Not that I disagree, I just think that he should work harder for it instead of relying only on his talent. There are a lot of talented actors and actresses that never make it. But I guess that's one of the things that make Kylie, Kyle. He's lazy and laid back, probably way too much for his own good.

A knock on the door made us turn both our heads towards the entrance.

"Hey!"

With a grey and white look that I could see through the thin fabric of the disposable blue gown, my cousin Harper waltzed into the room and sat on the extra seat next to Kyle, but not before waving at my roommate for the next couple of days.

I leaned back a little in my seat to peek through the gap between the curtain and the wall.

"Hi, I'm Zoey's cousin." She said with her usual warm smile behind her mask, eyeing the boy that slid the headphones off his head again.

"I'm Noah, nice to meet you." I heard him say.

"You too."

When he covered his ears with the round speakers again and Harper knew he was out of earshot, she opened her mouth in shock at me.

"Wow!"

I went back to my position before he could see me peeking.

"What?"

"He's so-"

"Hot?" Kyle completed her sentence.

"Yes!" She said in agreement, her eyes open wide in shock and a cheeky grin on her pink lips.

"Oh, come on you guys." I rolled my eyes and groaned in annoyance. The last thing I needed now was for my two best friends to drool over the most annoying and rude guy I've ever met and that I happened to share my room with.

"I think I know him." She said, still glancing at him from the side. "And you might know him too, Zoe."

He did look a little familiar when he finally faced me after a day without relating to me on any level. But I couldn't tell where I knew him from.

I furrowed my eyebrows and shot her a questioning look. "From where?"

"I've seen him at the school's swimming competitions."

"I haven't. And trust me, I wish I could have seen that guy in a speedo." Kyle said before eyeing him again.

Despite the lack of manners and the arrogance, his looks were not that unpleasant.

"I don't even wanna hear the rest of it." I said waving my hand in front of me, signaling them to stop talking.

"But Harper's right, I think he's from our school." Kyle said, losing himself in his memories. "I think I remember seeing him at the cafeteria with a small group."

"Oh those must be the three stooges that were in here yesterday asking for him." I said, connecting the dots and realizing that Harper and Kyle were probably right.

The school has two swimming teams of each age genre, meaning there's a female and male team for juniors, advanced and seniors.

I was a year away from making it to the seniors, which was probably his team, but it was very likely that I had never seen him before. Or that I just hadn't noticed him.

When it comes to the parties and meet ups that the swimming teams organize and go to, I was never a part of those. I never liked it for two reasons: one, I didn't plan on making friends, and two, drunk teenagers aren't really my type of people.

"Hm..." I hummed as I thought about what my cousin had said. "You're probably mistaking him for someone else."

She probably wasn't but this conversation had to end somehow.

She didn't look too convinced with my words, but instead of fighting me on this, she shrugged her shoulders and leaned back on the chair. "Yeah, probably."

* * *

author's note: second chapter is here and boy oh boy do i love this one! this is noah and zoey's first interaction and i truly loved writing this chapter, i hope you liked reading it too 🤍

if you did then please help a girl out and vote and comment and add the story to your reading list so you won't miss out on any updates! also follow me on ig (missmarswrites) for more TBOTE related content!

also if you haven't read "the missing gem" (my baby!) please do, i just finished it and the epilogue is out!

p.s.: new cover cause well, i'm the most indecisive person you'll ever meet lol

xoxo, mars