Page 14 of Two Weeks to Fall in Love

Two Weeks to Science the Love

Getting ready for a date wasn’t easy.

Getting ready for a date when you had a tsunami of different emotions about it was even harder.

Once I had my casual makeup on point, I needed a deadly but didn’t try too hard kind of outfit.

I ended up on a call with Melissa, trying to twirl my body enough to show all angles in the confines of my room.

“Yup, that’s the one, girl,” she stated with confidence, as I awkwardly spun around in my black jeans and tight black wide-sleeved, off-the-shoulder top.

“You look effortlessly sexy but also casual, like a, ‘Oh, hello, fancy meeting you here, I’m just doing some late-night grocery shopping after a busy day’ kind of thing,” she gushed.

“I would never wear this to the grocery store,” I mumbled, searching my table for a pin to close the gap in my shirt.

“Wait, Sky, wait! You’re seventeen, girl.

Live a little! You look amazeballs. I swear!

” Melissa’s face consumed the camera as if she was willing me to see the sincerity in her eyes, and in a weird way, it worked.

I still didn’t feel entirely comfortable in this outfit, but you could never feel comfortable when you were at war, right?

Just as I was thinking that I’d seen a small flurry of curly hair burst onto the screen in the background, screaming something unintelligible, Melissa pressed the Mute button on her laptop and turned to talk to the mini carbon copy of her, a deep frown settling on her face as she spoke.

She turned on her microphone again and exhaled in frustration.

“Ugh, Tally is being a pest so I have to go now, but don’t you dare change out of that outfit, you hear me?”

Before I even had the chance to nod, she hung up.

I stared in the mirror for the last time before resigning myself to this outfit.

My favorite leather jacket was the final piece. Comfortable or not, it was go time. With one last glance at the mirror, I left my room and made my way down the stairs.

I was pretty sure it wasn’t exactly typical practice to show up on your first official date with a bag that had your boyfriend’s sweatpants and shirt stuffed into them. But we weren’t dating typically , so this was fine.

“Where are you going all dressed up?” The sound of Mom’s voice calling from the living room as I passed it scared the crap out of me.

I turned around, my mind working in overdrive. There was a look in her eyes, one that told me she had a creeping suspicion about exactly why I’d dressed up. A suspicion I didn’t want to confirm. After all, in two weeks things would be back to normal. There was no need to upset the status quo.

“I’m meeting Mel for a movie and pizza,” I lied, ignoring the vine of guilt that wrapped around my heart. Sometimes lies were necessary. “Gotta run if we want to catch the movie. Bye, Mom,” I added, and quickly kissed her cheek.

“Don’t forget your curfew,” was the last thing I heard before I closed the front door behind me and exhaled a sigh of relief.

Noah pulled up at my house right on time. He was supposed to be the prince in the shining fancy car, after all. I just had to make sure I wouldn’t fall for his game. I speed walked to the car, opened the door, and sat down with a sigh. Then I finally turned to face my date.

His eyes were wide and his lips kept closing and opening like he was a fish out of water. Well , well , well . Finally, it was my time to smirk.

“Hi to you, too, Noah,” I said, trying to appear casual despite the huge grin on my face.

“Uh, yeah, hi.” He shook his head as if leaving a trance before his lips curved into a bright grin. “Sorry, I guess I’ve never saw you in an out-of-school outfit before. You look beautiful.” His throat bobbed as he let out an awkward chuckle. “I mean, you always look—”

I raised my hand to stop him and chuckled. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just give me that shovel before you dig a hole that’s way too deep.”

His eyebrows lifted before he laughed, and he looked at me with such warmth I almost felt guilty. I knew my plan was to make him like me, but at the same time I wanted to create a persona. Someone he could fall in love with. Someone who wasn’t me .

The fact that he was laughing at my jokes, that he was complimenting my outfit—it all just made this whole thing seem too real.

He started the car and I relaxed into the seat, trying to get my thoughts under control.

*

After about forty-five minutes of driving, Noah pulled up to what looked like a clearing on top of a cliff, sparsely surrounded by trees.

“Why do you always seem to take me to some secluded area?” I asked as I studied him. “You’re not exactly convincing me that you’re not a murderer.”

Noah just chuckled. “O ye of little faith. You have your friends finder app, so you’re safe, right?”

“You bet. And that’s just one of my backup plans,” I muttered, shaking a finger at him in warning.

Noah chuckled, nodding as he bit down on his lower lip in a way that made it seem way too delicious.

No, snap out of it.

He leaned toward me, and for one frozen second I was convinced he would try to kiss me. My hands rose defensively in front of me. Just as I was about to ask him what he thought he was doing, he turned and reached into the back seat and grabbed a bag.

My face flushed a dangerous red at how wrong I’d read that moment. It didn’t help that when he leaned back into his seat with the bag, there was a knowing smirk on his face, as if he’d guessed exactly what had gone through my mind just seconds ago.

“Come on, let’s go.” Noah opened his door and went to stand in front of the hood, waiting for me.

Taking a few calming breaths, I opened my door, eager for the night air. His hand was reached out toward me, and I grasped it automatically.

As we walked, it occurred to me that I was like the dog in Pavlov’s experiment, conditioned to do exactly what Noah wanted me to do.

“So, you said you would tell me on our date,” I said, mainly to distract myself from my previous realization.

“Tell you what?” He tilted his head to the side as he looked at me.

“Why you agreed to date me even though you knew—uh, suspected—I didn’t like you,” I said, narrowing my eyes at him suspiciously. There had to be some insidious reason for that decision.

Noah let out a dark chuckle, then ran a hand across his face and looked up at the sky. After a few moments he let out a breath and looked at me.

“You might judge me for this, but I wanna be honest with you.”

“I mean, honesty would be preferable, yes.” I let out a small chuckle before clearing my throat.

“I accepted because you didn’t like me,” he stated matter-of-factly, like it was the most normal thing.

I stopped in place, bringing him to a halt as well. “Okay, what kind of weird reverse psychology is that?” I demanded.

“Wait, let me explain,” Noah said, and then let out a deep sigh. He took a few moments, as if organizing his thoughts before speaking again. “You know that feeling when you can tell people aren’t being themselves with you? Like fake laughter, fake interests, fake conversation?”

“I mean, yeah, I guess most times you can tell when someone isn’t acting like themselves, but what does that have to do with anything?” I asked, tilting my head to the side in confusion.

“Well, that’s kind of been the majority of my dating experience this year.

It makes it really hard to get to know someone when they’re giving you the answers they think you want to hear and laughing at jokes they don’t actually find funny.

Recently, everything started feeling so staged.

It’s becoming hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t.

” He let out a deep sigh and ran his hand through his hair, his face crumpling a bit, as if he was exhausted.

This answer made him seem even more like an enigma. If he didn’t think this two-week dating thing was actually going anywhere, why the hell was he even doing it?

He continued, “Even though I’m never single, it still kind of feels like I’m always alone, you know?”

“Noah, I—” I started, but before I could even think of how to really respond, he leaned closer to me, eyes bright with silent wonder.

“So, you asked me out and I thought, hey, she absolutely doesn’t like me . Figured if you don’t like me, you won’t feel the need to pretend to be someone I’d like.” His usual smirk returned. Then he squeezed my hand and started walking again, his eyes focusing forward.

“It made me want to get to know you, and maybe, since you don’t give a fuck, you might actually let me do that.

Maybe, in the end, you can get to know me too.

” He didn’t look at me, almost like he was embarrassed by this confession, but the glow of hope on his face was undeniable, even from his profile.

Instant regret surged through me. Here I was, planning a fake personality he could fall for in my head, and there he was, looking so excited about the fact that I’d be the first girl he was sure wasn’t fake with him.

Noah stopped near the edge of the cliff and dropped the bag that had been slung over his shoulder on the ground next to him before turning to face me.

He grinned and nodded in the direction we’d just been walking in.

I glanced beyond the edge of the cliff and a breath caught in my throat when I saw the sparkling lights of the huge city beneath.

What made the view even better was how dark it was where we stood.

Dark enough that if you looked straight up you could see the stars in the sky, along with the glistening lights of the urban jungle underneath us.

“So, did that answer satisfy you?” I heard his soothing voice next to me and swallowed hard.

No, it confused the shit out of me .

“Yeah,” I muttered, heat slowly crawling up my neck, mind still reeling from the view and the confession from the mysterious boy next to me.

There was no way I could be fake with him and avoid the avalanche of guilt threatening to bury me. This plan of mine was quickly backfiring.