Page 23 of Two Weeks to Fall in Love

Two Weeks to Detox the Boy

Nothing felt quite as good as sleeping in on the weekend, even though the sun kept rudely peeking through the hole in my window curtains—a hole that was perfectly positioned to shine directly into my eyes.

I put the phone back down, jumped out of bed, and picked out a pair of comfy sweatpants and an oversized shirt, fully determined to spend the rest of the day bonding with the couch. Picking out a new romance book, I made my way downstairs.

By the time I rolled into the kitchen, my mom was already prepping lunch.

“Hey, sleepyhead, I was just about to come check on you.” Mom spoke softly, frying some ground beef in a pan.

“Mm-hm, I’m up,” I muttered absentmindedly, hovering around her in the way I knew she hated. “What’s for lunch?”

My mom made a shoo ing gesture with her hand as she went to grab a few spices. “Lasagna. But it’s gonna be dinner if you don’t get out of my kitchen.”

Chuckling, I raised my hands in defeat and took a few steps back. “You got it, chef.”

She rolled her eyes at me, lips twitching with quiet amusement as she hummed and stirred. I grabbed a banana and headed to the living room.

“If you have plans with Mel again, remember we have family time with your dad at five.” Mom stopped me before I could slip from the kitchen.

Every time Dad went on his business trips, we’d schedule family time over FaceTime.

We’d still catch up during the week through shorter calls, but on the weekend we’d try to eat dinner together, even when we were apart.

My parents were disgustingly cute sometimes.

A slight pang of guilt flashed through me.

I’d been keeping my dating Noah from her mainly because I didn’t want to explain this whole mess to her.

When it started it felt like I’d only lie to her a little and then the two weeks would go by and everything would be fine.

It no longer seemed quite as simple as that.

But how did you tell your mom you had a boyfriend but only for two weeks and make it make sense?

Thus, my bestie served as the best excuse for now.

I was about to tell Mom that I had no plans today, but then realized that I couldn’t exactly be sure of that. After all, Noah loved to spring random dates on me. A small wave of excitement passed through me at the possibility of seeing him later on.

“Don’t worry, I remember,” I said, smiling as I moved to the living room.

I settled onto the couch and flipped open my book. After finishing the first two chapters, I felt my mind drift to a particular not-so-fictional boy.

Where would today’s date be? What wild situation would he put us through next? What new things would I learn about him? Unable to settle down, I reached for my phone and realized I’d forgotten it back in my bedroom. Shit . Tossing the book on the couch, I rushed back to my room.

I snatched my phone from the bedside table and my stomach instantly dropped when I saw that there was no text message. I had gotten used to Noah taking the initiative, and that wasn’t like me. It was time to take the lead myself.

I flipped open the screen and typed Good morning .

Then I deleted it. And tried about five more iterations of the phrase before I decided I would just skip the hello altogether.

Sky : soooo should I expect some random date today

Sky : to like your personal amusement park or smthing?

Noah : good morning to you too

Noah : the park is closed today sadly

Sky : wait, you actually have an amusement park???

Noah : no, of course not

Noah : I was kidding

Sky : oh . . . ha-ha?

Noah : *laughing emoji*

Noah : and no date today, I’m busy

Noah : talk later

Sky : okay . . .

As soon as I sent the message my curiosity started burning through me, and almost against my will, my fingers typed out another message.

Sky : busy with what?

I stared at the message for a few seconds, then the sound of yelling made me jump.

“Skyler! Get your butt down here and help me set the table.”

Sighing, I stuffed my phone in my pocket and went back downstairs.

*

Read .

He’d left me on Read .

More than four hours later and there was no reply. Just when I’d convinced myself that I had probably been wrong about him and there was a chance that he was a genuinely nice guy. Obviously, I wasn’t going to message him again, but a part of me was burning to do exactly that.

I was in a haze for the rest of the day. And Dad definitely caught onto that when I stayed quiet through most of dinner.

“What’s wrong, pumpkin?” he asked, moving his face closer to the screen, as if he would see me better that way.

“Nothing, I’m just distracted,” I said, but by the way Mom’s eyebrow rose I knew I wasn’t going to get away with just that. “Thinking of an old friend who started talking to me again,” I added. Sorry, Jake, you’re my random excuse of the day .

“ Friend or something more?” Mom gave me a knowing look while Dad let out a disgruntled noise.

“Just a friend, Mom,” I said quickly, even though he wasn’t even that at this point.

“Speaking of old friends,” Dad began, eager to change the subject as soon as it steered into boy territory, “I ran into Dave during a business lunch. Turns out he moved to New York recently for some job.”

“Ugh, Dave,” my mom said, and accompanied that with the biggest eye roll. “How is Dave doing?” I wouldn’t have touched that question with a stick if I was my dad. It sounded laced with poison.

My dad, being quite the risk-taker with his life, just grinned.

“Who’s Dave?” I asked.

“Your dad’s best friend from college.”

“And the only person your mom hated more than she hated me,” Dad continued, chuckling to himself.

Interesting . I’d only ever seen my parents as being madly in love.

Ever since Mom started staying at home with me during his business trips, I could tell it was taking a toll on them both.

That they missed each other, and that that had caused arguments over silly things.

I’d tried telling Mom I was old enough to stay home by myself, but she wouldn’t hear of it.

According to her, the only reason she’d felt comfortable leaving was because I had such a tight bond with Grandma.

Now that she was gone, leaving me alone was out of the question.

It was part of the reason I was looking forward to going somewhere out of state for college.

“I didn’t hate you, I just thought you were an idiot.” Mom shrugged and Dad narrowed his eyes at her in that playful way that made me want to get away as soon as possible.

I grimaced and rolled my eyes. “All righty, that’s my cue to leave. Have a good rest of the night, Dad.”

“You, too, pumpkin. Just a few more days and I’ll be home.”

As soon as I stepped away from the table, my mind drifted to the person who was, currently, my idiot. I took my phone out. Still nothing.

Whatever. I had plans anyway. Plans with Netflix and any rom-com available on their platform. It was time to research . I was going to study romance and prove to Noah I could be an excellent teacher on love. As soon as I learned more about it.

Two movies later, my phone was still very much lacking a new text from him. I was becoming frustrated.

I hated feeling this way. No matter how many romance movies I distracted myself with, my eyes kept checking my phone screen.

It was after midnight when I realized, with deep-rooted horror, that Noah Archer had me wrapped around his finger.

This whole time, he’d been leading. I’d been following, just like those lovesick girls he dated every two weeks. He’d managed to get me under his weird spell without me even realizing it.

And there was no way I was going to let that happen anymore. This space from him was enlightening. Tomorrow, even if he texted back, I wouldn’t reply. Two could play this game.

This weekend would be my Noah detox, and I’d get my head—and heart—back in order.