Page 31 of Two Weeks to Fall in Love

Two Weeks to Hear the Story

I’d never been broken up with before. Not unless I counted that one time in first grade when my pretend husband from kindergarten decided to sit with another girl on the bus.

Focusing on breakup clothes and hairstyles wasn’t really what I should have been doing.

I knew that. Even so, it was the only thing I could focus on without that uncomfortable clenching sensation taking over my chest.

In the end, I put on my favorite sneakers, a pair of blue jeans, and a striped purple sweater.

It wasn’t that cold outside and I already felt myself stress sweating, so I opted out of a jacket.

My mom had gone out with some friends for dinner, so I took the twenty dollars she’d left for pizza from the table, just in case.

I was out the door before Noah was set to arrive, unease making me bounce from foot to foot. Standing around inside was just making me more anxious than I already was, but now that I was out here, waiting for him so eagerly wasn’t making me feel any better either.

Just as I was about to retreat back into the house, I saw the now familiar sight of his car approaching from down the street.

Noah was early too.

My heart started hammering in my chest. Swallowing hard and clenching my fists at my sides, I made my way down to the street, where his car slowed to a halt.

Opening the car door took longer than usual because my fingers slipped from the handle two times before I finally managed to grab hold of it.

“Hey,” Noah said as soon as I settled inside.

“Hi,” I said, and glanced at him.

His hands were clenched around the wheel, eyes focused ahead, and I couldn’t help but notice how good he looked in a plain white tee. The easy charm he always wore was completely absent, though.

When he started driving, I chewed on my lip and turned to look out of the window. The silence in the car seemed to slow down time. It was strange sitting in the seat I’d just started getting used to and not saying anything.

When he turned down a road surrounded by trees on the side, he didn’t joke about not driving me somewhere remote to murder me. I didn’t warn him about my friends finder app being on.

The silence stretched between us like we were two strangers sitting next to each other. I discreetly rubbed my chest, trying to alleviate the painful feeling blossoming there.

He parked the car at a spot I was vaguely familiar with. An area overlooking the town where people often went when they wanted some privacy. Only in those cases the privacy was needed for something completely opposite from a breakup.

Seconds ticked away. I looked at him, and his face still stared straight ahead, hands clutching the wheel as if it was a safety blanket.

Odd . Considering how many times he’d broken up with people this year, one would think he was an expert at it.

“Um.”

“I—”

We both spoke at the same time. Noah finally looked at me, a flicker of something unreadable crossing his face before he averted his gaze.

“Go ahead,” he said.

“You first,” I said at the same time.

We looked at each other and laughed. Clearly I wasn’t the only one feeling awkward. That made me feel a fragment better. Then his face got serious, and the anxious feeling in my belly returned.

“I’ll go first, then. There’s something I have to say,” he muttered, glancing everywhere but at me.

This was it. I braced myself for his next words. Lump in my throat. Heavy feeling in my chest.

“I wanted to”— break up with you —“apologize.”

Say what?

My mouth opened but no words came out. Noah looked at me, scratched the back of his neck, and sighed.

“I’m sorry for how I acted and what I said. It was kind of an asshole moment, I’m not proud of it. Especially after what you probably went through with that . . . with Jacob. You didn’t need that from me. So, yeah, I’m sorry.”

I blinked several times. This was nothing like what I’d expected him to say.

“I, um, I’m sorry, too, I shouldn’t have brought the whole love dilemma into our argument,” I stammered, and bit down on my bottom lip. “Wait, does that mean you didn’t bring me here to break up?”

“What? Break up? No, of course not.” Noah angled his head, frowning.“Why would I break up with you?”

The relief that flooded me was entirely unexpected. It was like the knot in my throat had untied and I was able to take a real breath for the first time since our fight.

I wasn’t about to be the first girl he broke up with after only one week, and it was hard to ignore how happy I was about it.

“Uh, I don’t know, I—why are we here, then? Did you just want to apologize?”

Honestly, that could have just been said in a text message or over a call instead of making me have several mini heart attacks.

“No. I wanted to tell you something else.” He rubbed his hand down his face. “Do you mind if we go outside, get some air?”

“Not at all.”

I opened the car door and stepped outside, walking to the front of the car and leaning against the hood. Noah pulled on his leather jacket as he joined me, hands stuffed in his pockets. He let out a sigh and threw a glance at me before he spoke again.

“The whole thing with Jacob is getting out of hand, so I thought you deserved to know the truth of why he hates me so much. I haven’t really told this to anyone before, so I just hope . . .”

It seemed like speaking was hard for him, and for a second I considered telling him he didn’t have to say anything. But knowing how much it had taken for him to get to this point of wanting to share with me, I couldn’t bring myself to dismiss his effort.

“I won’t ask you not to hate me when you hear this. I just . . . I hope you won’t. But I’ll understand if you do. Jacob certainly does,” he stammered, running one hand through his hair before placing it on the hood of the car.

His arm shook lightly, and his tone, coupled with the obvious nerves racking his body, made me reach out and take his hand in mine.

He looked up at me, sad eyes full of hope, and I offered him a gentle nod. “I won’t hate you. Trust me, I tried, but it seems like you’re unhateable.”

Noah’s lips curled on the side a little, but the movement didn’t alter the somber mask that covered his face. His fingers entwined with mine and I gave him a little squeeze of encouragement.

“How well do you know Jacob and his family?” he asked.

“Not that well. I just know his parents divorced and he lives with his dad.”

Noah nodded, “Yeah. Back in middle school, me and Jake were best friends. I know, hard to believe, right?” A wry curve tugged at his lips when he saw my shocked expression.

“We were best friends for years. So close our families would even hang out together.

Playdates, barbecues, we even took a weekend trip to Disneyland once.

“But that all changed a little over three years ago when Jake’s dad came back early from a business trip and found his wife in bed with my dad.”

I wished I was better at controlling my reactions, because the gasp that I let out made his head drop lower.

“Yeah, I know. His parents got a divorce after that. I think his mom expected my dad would get a divorce, too, and the two of them would be together, but that’s not what my dad planned at all.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this wasn’t the first time my dad had cheated on my mom.

She knew about it and looked the other way.

” The horror and sadness in his voice broke my heart.

I couldn’t even imagine how going through that must have been for him. My parents were away from each other occasionally, but the thought that one of them might cheat seemed incomprehensible. And yet, that was exactly what had happened to him.

“My dad was never serious about Jacob’s mom.

I confronted him about it once, he said she was convenient.

” Noah let out a strangled laugh and shook his head.

“He didn’t care that his convenience ruined a marriage.

And not just that. Jacob’s mom did not take my dad’s reaction well.

She lost her husband and the guy she was in love with at the same time.

I don’t know all the details, but I know she started drinking a lot, and last I heard she ended up in rehab. ”

Oh no. I didn’t want to feel bad for Jake; after all, there was no excuse for his behavior. But I felt horrible that this had happened to him and his mom. This wasn’t something any kid should go through. No one deserved this.

“I asked my mom later why she kept forgiving him and all she told me was that she loved him. She wanted to believe they could go back to how things were. I tried to persuade my mom to leave him, that she deserved better, and I think I was even getting through to her, but surprise, more bad shit happened and leaving wasn’t that easy anymore.

” Noah inhaled deeply, as if he’d stopped breathing while he’d been telling the story.

I was silent for a second, processing everything, and then I frowned. “Wait, but that doesn’t explain why Jake hates you? You had nothing to do with any of that. Neither of you did.”

Noah shook his head, looking up at the sky. “That’s not true for him. If we’d never been friends, he wouldn’t have lost his family. If he’d never met me, he’d have a functioning family instead of a broken home. Besides, it doesn’t help that I look so much like my dad.”

“But that’s irrational.” As soon as that left my lips, I knew it was a dumb thing to say. People rarely behaved rationally when they were hurt. “Did you try talking to Jacob, explaining it to him?”

“Yeah. But you saw how well that went. He hates me. He thinks I’m the same as my dad. He wants me to feel the same kind of loss he felt because of me.” Noah lifted a shoulder, as if he was used to what he was saying and it didn’t bother him one bit. But the darkness on his face told me differently.

“This wasn’t your fault. And you’re not your dad,” I said, even though I probably had no right to make that kind of statement. I didn’t know his dad, and I barely even knew him. Yet it still felt like the right thing to say. It felt true .

“You don’t know that. My dad loved my mom, too, once. Then he changed. And the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.”

“That’s the stupidest saying ever,” I said, suddenly overwhelmed with anger.

Noah looked at me, eyes wide in surprise.

“Humans aren’t apples. We don’t fall from trees.

We make choices, we shape our lives, we decide who we are.

You don’t have to become anything other than who you want to be.

You’re not your dad. You’re Noah Archer. Nothing less, nothing more.”

Noah just stared at me for a few moments. He took a deep breath as his eyes stared deep into mine, searching. I didn’t know what he was looking for but I hoped he found it in the determined strength of my gaze. After a few seconds, he let out a deep breath and shook his head in disbelief.

“You don’t hate me?” he asked.

Damn . The amount of guilt he must have felt over everything had to be overwhelming if he thought people would hate him for this.

“Of course not. There’s nothing in what you said that’s even remotely your fault. Plus, I told you already, you’re unhateable.”

His lips quirked up, his lower lip slightly shaking with his quick intakes of breath. And then he pushed off the car, grabbed hold of my arms, and pulled me in.

Before my brain could even catch up with what he was doing, he wrapped his strong arms around my waist and held me as close as he could.

I felt his body shaking lightly, and instinctively I wrapped my arms around him and placed one hand on his nape and the other on his back.

As I rubbed his nape gently with my thumb he buried his face into the side of my neck.

My heart was hammering so much I was sure he would hear it, but at that moment I didn’t even care. It was clear he needed comfort. The guilt he had been feeling must have been an overwhelming burden to bear.

I hugged him tighter, hoping I could transfer how desperately he needed to know he’d done nothing wrong through the warmth of our bodies. His dad’s actions were not his.

We stood there, frozen in a warm embrace for what felt like several minutes. And then he moved his head slightly, just enough to whisper into my ear and send a shiver down my back.

“Thank you, Skyler. For everything.”