Dawn

It was only when I was lying in bed later that night still hyped from the kiss that I realised he'd said 'screw this'. 

Screw what? Screw the fact that he'd waited too long for this? Or was there some inner voice inside him saying 'don'tkissherdon'tkissherdon'tkissher' and he'd kissed me anyway?

I contemplated this for about five seconds, then went back to bouncing on my bed and unable to get the smile off my face and go to sleep. 

Of course, I eventually drifted off.

*

The sun was high in the sky by the time I reached school. I hoped I would be able to spot Noah soon- we'd set the big tree near the hall as our meeting place.

I wove my way through a group of people chatting while eating food that made my mouth water, was bumped by an old lady's shopping bag, and eventually was rammed into a pole by a string of loud girls, one of which was gesturing wildly and smacked my head into the aforementioned pole.

Sighing loudly, I rubbed my forehead and walked towards the tree, which was now in view, as well as Noah, who was leaning against the tree and looking over the crowd for me. When our eyes met, his eyes seemed to light up and he pushed off the tree trunk and hurried forwards, dodging people. 

"Hey," he finally said as soon as he passed the last couple of people that had separated us. 

"Hi," I returned, feeling a tinge of red creeping up my neck as I remembered last night. He seemed to realize this too, so he looked around a touch nervously and said, "D'you want to check out the Trash & Treasure stall... or some food stalls?"

"I don't mind," I replied, glancing over to the cupcake stall, which had a long line of people- which put me off. It was also the only one I was thinking to waste my money on.  But with the amount of people hanging around it, I wanted to wait a little while first.

He agreed silently, taking my hand and leading me through throngs of loud people as we reached the Trash & Treasure stall, which was set up in the gym. "So," he said quietly as we walked through the doors, "Is there anything in particular that you want to look at?"

"Books," I replied instantly, laughing. "You?"

"Um, I don't know. There normally isn't much to look at, really."

Nudging his shoulder jokingly and feeling a thrill travelling up my spine, I felt a shiver of excitement go through me. 

"Are you cold?" Noah asked instantly, already taking off his jacket. 

"Oh no, I'm, uh, good," I said, feeling a surge of gratitude that he noticed and cared.

We walked towards the book section, past the jewellery, which looked like it needed some investigating, and I jumped when I recognized some famous books. 

"I might be a while," I told Noah, my eye on those books and the people also looking through them. "Just wait a little bit; is that okay?"

"Yeah, go ahead." He smirked at my passion for books so I smacked his arm.

I turned excitedly to the books and told my arms to be ready for the heavy weight. 

For ten minutes, while I looked through the books for damage, heaved them into my arms, and brought them to the desk for payment, I didn't quite know what Noah was doing- I just knew that he was hanging around the back where the jewellery was at. He was probably waiting for me to come check it out.

"Hey,"I said breathlessly when I reached his side. "I might be a little slow today because I've got all these books to carry now," I added, smiling ruefully. "What are you looking at here?"

"Waiting for you," he replied, smirking. "Anything you like?"

I turned to look at the sparkling bracelets and necklaces. "Um..." I bent closer and sifted through some cheap quality necklaces, some small bangles, and sighed. "It's all pretty fake to me."

"What else would you expect?" Noah laughed. "This is why people threw them out."

"Yeah, but sometimes you come across some stuff that a really silly person threw out that's actually amazing," I argued, placing a bead necklace aside and a few rings with plastic gems on them.

Something twinkled up from underneath all the falseness. Something that seemed real.

I pushed more crap jewellery aside with excited fingers and pulled out a bracelet.

"See," I stated, "this is why I go rooting around in fake jewellery."

With black and clear white stones set into three flowers and diamonds on petals, not to mention the shiny gold chain sitting in my palm, I turned the price tag over. "Ten dollars?" I squawked. 

"How has anyone not taken that yet?" Noah exclaimed. "It looks new, not to mention extremely good quality."

"Well, it has been sitting at the bottom of all this crap, so..." My eyes fell on the price tag again. Although the price was definitely lower than the original one when the bracelet was first sold, ten dollars could be used to buy a lot of cupcakes. 

"Maybe it's too expensive for me," I decided, placing it back down, a little sad. "I mean, I could probably put my money to better use, and I've already bought all those books..."

My eyes connected with Noah, who was still looking down at the bracelet as if in deep thought. I looked too- it looked forlorn now- something that I didn't want, or couldn't have. 

"C'mon, let's go," I nudged Noah and started to walk towards the doors, lugging my books with me. "The line for the cupcake stall is really short so we'll be able to eat something now."

When there was no response, I frowned and looked to my side- but Noah wasn't there. What? When had he left me? I turned back around and let my eyes dart around the gym- he wasn't near the book collection, or the jewellery section. My eyes landed on the bracelet I had put back on top of the jewellery- or should I say space where the bracelet used to be. Goddamn it; someone had already taken the bracelet. I felt something inside me clench in annoyance- yes, I had barely known that bracelet for a minute but I already felt like I should've bought it-

Focus. I was meant to be looking for Noah, not some stupid bracelet.

I was about to pull out my phone and call him when he appeared next to me with something clenched in his fist. "Sorry for worrying you," he muttered, looking awkward.

"Where did you go?" I said, confused. "You just disappeared and then popped up out of nowhere..."

"I, um, decided that if you weren't going to buy the bracelet that you liked, I would buy it for you..."

I gasped as he took my hand gently and placed the bracelet into my palm. "You actually got it for me?" Inside, I was jumping and screaming and already thinking for the best way to tell Kat and Aria, but outwardly, I was grinning and thanking Noah endlessly, admiring the way the bracelet twinkled in the light. 

"It's okay," he kept on repeating while I hugged him. "It's just a bracelet." 

I didn't think he would get it if I said 'but you gave it to me!' so I just took him by the hand and promised to buy him a cupcake. 

*

"Did you even eat lunch?" Noah watched me stuff another cupcake into my mouth and I nodded as he grabbed the wrapper, scrunched it up, and lobbed it straight into the bin. 

"Nice," I said when I was done chewing. He chuckled. "Anything else you wanna do while we're here?"

"Not really," I replied. I felt fine just sitting opposite him, watching him eat while the fair continued to bustle around us. I felt like we were in our own little world, maybe in a bubble- we could still see what was going on around us but we weren't connected to the outside world. 

I propped my head onto my left hand and continued to watch him finish off his slice of cake- so that was why I probably didn't hear Kat come up behind me and scream, "I found you!"

I jerked up and hit my head on Kat's chin, who squawked and moved around to sit next to me. "Hi there," she said quickly to Noah, who was now paying attention to us. 

"I decided to come and stalk you!" she said excitedly, ignoring the way Noah's eyebrows were rising. "Aria said that she was one hundred percent sure something was gonna happen between you two, especially since you guys were by yourselves, so she told me that I better not miss all the drama."

Rolling my eyes, I stated, "Well, your stalking skills are rather obvious, if I do say so myself."

She punched my shoulder and ignored my comment, choosing instead to say, "Where did you get the bracelet from?" She picked up my wrist and inspected the piece of jewellery.

"The Trash & Treasure stall... Noah got it for me."

"Ooohhh," she replied, smiling slyly. "Did-"

"No, you are not going to question my love life," I said loudly. "One cupid, a.k.a. Aria, is enough, and I do not need two." Seriously, what was up with my crazy friends?

"But-"

"I don't care if Aria needs to know," I continued slowly, as if explaining what one plus one meant to a toddler. "She can find out for herself."

"I had orders from Aria-"

"And those orders can stay in your mouth, thank you very much," I deadpanned. "Now, would you like me to buy you a cupcake so you can stop annoying us?"

"A cupcake?" she mumbled, clearly surprised by the change of topic.

"Yes, a cupcake, Kat. A cupcake is a small cake designed to serve one person, which may be baked in a small thin paper or aluminum cup-"

"I know what a cupcake is, Dawn."

"Oh, I'm sorry," I smiled sweetly. "I didn't know."

Grumbling to herself, she said, "I shall begin to observe this interesting relationship from a distance," and moved two tables down, all the while shooting me death glares, which I returned.

"Oh, so what we have between us is 'an interesting relationship that should be observed from a distance' is it?" Noah laughed, and grabbed my hand. "Let's lose ourselves in the crowd," he added, bending his head down and whispering it into my ear. I watched him straighten and look meaningfully at Kat, and I grinned. 

"Game on, Kat."