Rest of the week went by and Saturday evening was here. I was in my living room, lying on the couch and scrolling through social media. I was done with my school assignments and had nothing better to do than waste my time on internet.
Gabriel was in backyard playing with mud and stones. He had started speaking to me in one or two words, but he was still not talking to me like before. He really missed that Gorrie person, huh?
Mom was doing extra shift at her work and wasn't home. She worked hard to provide for us.
I looked up to her for that. I wanted to help too by doing part-time jobs and bringing in some money, but Mom refused. She wanted me to look after Gabriel and focus on school. She told me once that knowing Gab is taken care of by me is more helpful to her than any minimum wage job I might work. Maybe it added more to the reason why I felt so responsible for my little brother, other than loving his bratty-self to bits.
But I had decided once I got admission in college I was going to look for part-time jobs and take the load off her by covering some of my living expenses. As for now, all I could do was work hard in school to score a scholarship in decent university.
Maybe I should study right now, instead of scrolling through Instagram.
The thought had just entered my mind when my cell phone chimed with an incoming message.
My heart sped seeing it was from Noah.
"Guess what?"
"What?" I texted back, smiling like a creep.
"I am missing you :)" My heart skipped a beat. That scowling Prince sent me a smiley.
"Tell you what..."
"What?"
"I am missing you too."
"Then that settles it, I am coming to your house."
"What?!" My eyes wandered to take in my tornado-stricken house and I immediately sat up. "You're not serious, right. Right?"
I waited for more than a minute and there was no reply.
"Noah?"
Still no reply.
He already knew where my home was and it wouldn't take more than 20 minutes for him to show up here if he was driving his Ferrari. Oh lord!
My phone pinged and I saw a message from him.
"Sorry, I went to change. I am not kidding. I want to see you. I am getting inside my car. I am coming for you Martin ;)"
My cheeks flamed. Noah Sylvan was coming for me.
I scrambled off my couch to make my house presentable, or at least not like a hurricane just passed over it. After cleaning I called Gab and he waddled in covered in dirt and grass.
"Noah is coming," I told him and his eyes brightened. He was still very impressed with him and it made me a little jealous, considering how he was not even speaking to me. "Clean yourself up."
He nodded and rushed to upstairs. Seeing him I realized I wasn't dressed well either. I was in my old cardigan and faded pajamas. I ran to my room and changed into leggings and woolen yellow sweater.
I was fixing my hair when the doorbell rang. He was here. I took a deep breath to calm my racing heart before running downstairs. Was I making a big deal out of it? Hell yeah. But I couldn't help myself. I wanted to look good for him.
I skidded to a halt at the last step seeing Noah standing at the front door with Gabriel. His emerald eyes met my brown ones and I was once again reminded how much of a sucker I was for him. Every time I looked at him I was enamored. He was dressed in grey cardigan with white shirt underneath and dark slim-fit jeans. Of course he looked drool-worthy, however now after spending almost a week with him I was realizing it wasn't just how good-looking he was that attracted me to him. There was something more at play and I wasn't powerful enough to resist it.
"I expected to see you in fluffy pajamas and kitty top," he said, his eyes skimming down my figure.
"I have no kitty tops," I replied unable to keep a grin off my face, "though you would catch me in my worn-out pj's if you barged in few minutes earlier."
"Dang it, I should've driven faster," he joked and I chuckled.
"She looks the same," Gabriel chimed, pouting, "there's nothing to see."
Noah grinned and picked him up like he weighed nothing. "You're already getting protective of your sister. I like it."
Gabriel didn't say anything and kept pouting. Yes, he was still angry with me.
"Come on in," I said, "or you'll both catch cold."
Noah closed the door behind him and carried Gabriel to the couch. "Where's your mother?" He asked.
"At work," I replied, walking to our attached kitchen. Mom already liked Noah so she wasn't going to make a fuss about him being in our home.
I didn't feel as conscious as before having Noah at my small house. In fact it felt nice seeing him making himself comfortable. "So I have popcorn, oatmeal raisin cookies and pretzels. What do you want?" I asked him.
"How about all of it?" He said with a cheeky smile.
"Why don't you just empty my fridge?" I chuckled, putting popcorn in oven and then taking out Pretzels from cupboard. "You guys can start a movie or something."
As I turned around to empty the packet in plate I jumped finding him right in front of me. "You scared me."
He smiled. He was doing that a lot. Smiling. From afar, you'd expect this man was all about frowns and scowls. Maybe he was, but not with me. I had never felt this bright before too.
"Let me help," he said and took the packet out of my hand. His fingers brushed mine and sparks went through my body. "They look tasty. I might just take a bite now." He had a loose grip on my hand and a mischievous glint in his eyes.
"Well, you have to wait till we start the movie." I pulled my hand away. "Patience."
"I'm not a very patient guy, but I guess I can do that for... Gabriel." He threw a glance at my little brother who was busy with TV. "Maybe when he's not around then I can have all the treat to myself."
I blushed, hard. This guy!
The microwave beeped making me tear my eyes away from his mesmerizing greens. "I bet you have better and lots of snacks in your house, you don't need to ravish our food." I transferred popcorn in a bowl as he slid pretzels out of the packet to the plate.
"Don't play dumb Martin. You know it's not your food that I want to ravish."
I blushed harder. Our flirty jibes were getting more and more intense as the days passed by and sometimes it was hard to keep up and not melt into a mushy red mess.
"I put the Ironman on. Hurry up!" Gabriel called from the couch.
I gathered other snacks and we all settled on the couch. I had left a free space between me and Noah for Gabriel but he made a show of walking away and sitting on the other side of Noah. What a brat! I shouldn't have made those oatmeal cookies for him.
Noah raised his brows at me. I sulked and shook my head. "Let's start the movie." He opened his arms and pulled us both into him by our shoulders.
I tried to pay attention to the movie and not how wonderful it was to be enveloped in his arms and surrounded by his comforting scent. I felt his fingers playing with my curls and I leaned further into him. It had started to become a habit.
Gabriel and I didn't say a word to each other and kept yapping at Noah. He kept the bowl of popcorn in his lap for both of us.
"What's going on between you and Gabriel?" Noah whispered in my ear when we were almost through one-third of the movie.
"He's being an ungrateful brat," I replied, not bothering to keep my voice down.
"You're the brat!" Gabriel said from the other side.
"Look who just started talking," I taunted, moving away from Noah to glare at him. "And who are you calling brat?! I'm not the one who ran away from school to wander around in the woods."
"I had to because you weren't taking me."
"And look what happened?! Where that got us?!" All the anger of last days was bubbling out. I saved this brat's ass and I was the one getting silent treatment.
"If Gorrie was there then we'd be safe. You scared him away." Gabriel glared back.
"Wow Gabriel, such a good friend you have who turns tail and run at seeing your sister. I thought you were smarter than this. Did you forget about all the times I told you not to get close with strangers? Your Gorrie is the strangest of strangers." I wasn't sure if he was even human.
"He's not a stranger, he's my friend!" My brother barked. "And he's very better than you."
That hurt. Some no-face vanishing guy was better than me.
"Who's Gorrie?" Noah asked, ending our stare down. He had been silent through our fight but his sharp eyes told he was listening everything carefully. I regretted letting my tongue slip about Gorrie.
*******
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