Page 24 of Two Weeks to Fall in Love

Two Weeks to Change the Melody

I wasn’t going to reply. I promised myself that I wasn’t. No siree . Made a solemn oath that I was going to leave that man on Read today.

And yet, when I woke up and saw three text messages from Noah, I fumbled my phone and dropped it directly on my face.

“Ouch,” I whined, rubbing my nose as I sat up, finally unlocking the screen.

The first message was from last night, after I’d already fallen asleep, and the remaining two were from this morning.

Noah : hey, sorry I didn’t get back to you. it was a long day. sweet dreams

Noah : mooorning, gorgeous! hope you slept well

Noah : you free for a date today?

My heart did an uncomfortable little squeeze, and without even thinking I started typing out a response.

And then deleted it before I could press Send.

Nope . I wasn’t going to reply. Yesterday was my wake-up call. I realized that I had acted to his desires way too much the past few days. It was time I changed up the melody.

Jumping out of bed with renewed energy, I hummed to myself as I picked out my comfy outfit of the day. Turns out, I didn’t even need coffee. Being the Petty Queen and leaving Noah on Read gave me enough energy to start the day on the right note.

I sat down at my desk and flipped open a notebook I used to write out some ideas and thoughts. It wasn’t exactly a journal, more like a random collection of whatever I felt like writing down. Today, that random something was going to be Noah.

I had to figure out where it had all gone wrong. So, I started simple. I wrote down two columns, one titled Goals and the other Execution .

And then everything came pouring out.

Goal: Exposing Noah as a cruel heartbreaker who plays with girls’ emotions

Execution: Lacking evidence that he’s actually set out to hurt anyone

Goal: Finding out what kind of alien witchcraft mind mojo he uses on girls

Execution: No proof of any supernatural activity, girls just like him for him

Goal: Make him fall in love with me and break his heart so he gets a taste of his own medicine

Execution: Failing big-time

Goal: Learn what makes him so damn irresistible to every girl in school

Execution: Increasingly afraid figuring that out will end with me being one of those girls

Goal: Teach him what love is (?)

Execution: Would be nice if I actually had the answers to that

The farther down the list I went, the more my nice mood from the morning took a dive. I smacked my head on the desk and groaned. No wonder things were a mess right now.

All of my goals sounded more like what a ten-year-old would write in their diary. It was slowly dawning on me that I’d gone into this without any concrete goals.

And now I was in this mess. Lost. Confused. Unsure of what I was even doing anymore. With both of my best friends telling me to just let go of my anger and enjoy my time with him, as limited as it was. But how do I do that? How do people just let go?

A knock from my door made me raise my head and turn just in time to see my mom walk in, her lips parting in surprise when she saw me sitting at the desk.

“Oh, I thought you were still asleep,” she said, seeming almost disappointed that she couldn’t scold me.

“Nope, I’m awake. Very awake.”

Mom shot me a skeptical glance before chuckling. “All right, Ms. Very Awake. You didn’t want any breakfast?”

“I’m not that hungry,” I lied. I’d just gotten carried away and had forgotten about my stomach until she’d asked the question. Now that I was thinking about it, I was practically starving. “I’ll come get some cereal.”

“Okay, baby, but don’t eat too much. Lunch is in two hours.”

I nodded and smiled back at her, before she turned around and left my room with the door open. A clear sign that she wanted me to get the cereal now .

Sighing, I stood up and was about to leave when my phone chimed.

Noah : hmm is this payback for ghosting yesterday?

Noah : I said I was sorry :(

My fingers twitched again, the desire to reply flaring up to the surface again. Good thing I was going to keep my hands busy by shoveling cereal into my mouth.

I left my phone face down on the desk and went downstairs.

*

Somehow, I managed to avoid checking my phone for the next few hours. Determined to finish my romance book today, I sprawled on the couch after lunch. My mom said she had some errands to run and would be back in time to make dinner.

I was almost at the end of the book when my mom came back and stared at me in surprise.

“Sky, you haven’t moved since I left?”

“Uh, no?” I answered, confused as to why that was a problem.

“It’s 5:20, sweetie. Maybe you should check on your homework.” Mom raised an eyebrow at me and tapped on her Apple Watch.

My eyes widened. Shit . I had no idea it was that late already.

“Uh, right, I’ll go check.”

As I made my way up the stairs, my heart started pounding a little harder in excitement.

I’d done it. I’d managed to make it the whole afternoon without replying to Noah.

I burst through my door and grabbed my phone and sat on my bed.

Four new messages. Chuckling, I unlocked my phone and started reading:

Noah : are you pouting?

Noah : kinda wanna see your pouting face

Noah : I’m sure it’s cute

My smile slightly faded at the last message, sent an hour and thirty-five minutes ago:

Noah : you know, if you keep ignoring me I might just have to show up at your house and apologize in person

I snorted. There was no way he’d do that. It was just an empty threat to get me to reply to him. As much as I hated to admit it, he really knew how to get a reaction out of me.

He had to be bluffing. There was absolutely no way he’d come to my house. I sighed in relief, nodding to myself. I was going to wait another hour and reply to him and tell him he should never play poker because his bluffing needed some serious wor—

The doorbell rang.

I jumped up instantly.

There was no way that was him. Probably just another door-to-door salesman. Those still existed, right?

There. Was. No. Way. Or was there? This was Noah Archer, after all. The guy who always did unexpected things.

Shit, if it was him, I needed to get to the door before my mom did, and I was wasting precious time.

Stumbling over my own feet, I almost ran into my bedroom door with my face. Oh my god, I heard my mom on the move as I left my room. She was close.

Almost tumbling down the stairs, I grabbed hold of the handrail to achieve some sort of balance.

But it was too late. My mom’s hand was on the door. I didn’t even have time to utter a desperate No! before it swung open to reveal a tall mass of shaggy brown hair and blue eyes.

“Hi, Mrs. Fox. Is Skyler home?” An overly familiar voice made my heart drop.

My mom, hearing my heavy breathing at her back, turned around, an amused expression on her face. I quickly made my way to the door and stood just a few inches in front of her so that I could glare at him without her seeing.

“Yes, I’m here. Why are you here?” I said through gritted teeth, my eyes beaming rage.

“Oh, I was in the neighborhood and thought I’d stop by and see if you wanted to hang out,” he said, his eyes gleaming with playful charm.

“That is what phones are for.”

“Oh, mine actually died. I was hoping I could charge it here,” he replied, waving a black screen in my face.

“So,” my mom interrupted, “are you going to introduce us, Sky?”

While I was trying to figure out how I was going to explain this, Noah jumped right in.

“My apologies, that was rude of me. I’m Noah Archer, I’m Skyler’s boyfriend.”

No. No. No! God, please, no. Tell me he did not just say that to my mother. Maybe I just imagined it.

“Her boyfriend ?”

My mom’s words made it so painfully clear that I had not imagined this. I gasped loudly. I looked between Noah and my mom a few times, before frantically nodding.

“Yup, that is correct, he is a boy who is my friend ,” I explained robotically, trying to find a way out of this nightmare.

“Um, that’s not exactly what I meant— ouch .” I stepped on his foot to shut him up.

“Well, it’s nice to meet your boy friend ,” she said. Oh god , the look she gave me made it crystal clear that we were going to be having a long talk once he left. “Would you like to stay for dinner, Noah?”

“No,” I said.

“Yes,” Noah said at the same time.

I glared at him. He grinned.

“I’d love to stay for dinner, Mrs. Fox.”

“Oh, I’m not that old, please call me Serena.” Mom smiled and opened the door wider for him. “Come in, dear.”

“Thank you so much, Serena,” he said, and walked into the house, throwing me a wink as he passed by.

This was happening. This was actually happening . Noah Archer was in my house. Noah Archer was going to have dinner with me and my mom.

And Noah Archer was, most definitely, going to give me a damn heart attack by the end of this day.