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Iris
"I am so done," I say, completing my lemonade.
"'ha 'un?" Noah says, eating the second candy apple.
Two facts about Noah Radcliffe, I notice today.
One: He eats but he eats a lot when he is anxious. I do not know what he is anxious about but the guy can eat every-freaking-thing that is eatable and will still be hungry. I have a whole new respect for him now.
Two, the irritating fact: He talks while eating and you can't understand anything. And I don't like it at all. It reminds me of the guy I went on a date with and it is not funny. I literally am cringing at every word coming out of Noah's mouth while he eats.
In conclusion, he puts Caleb and Michael's food inhalation to shame.
Finally, Noah completes his eating. "I think we've eaten almost everything here."
I look at him with a blank face. "Nope. We didn't. You did."
"You have eaten too, Bella," He states, trying to defend himself.
"Yeah." I start counting with my fingers. "I had onion rings, deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried burgers, dumplings, curly fries, pizza, funnel cakes, chocolate cupcakes, donuts, and lemonade."
Before he can interrupt with his any snarky comment, I continue, "You had onion rings, deep-fried Twinkies, deep-fried burgers, curly fries, pizza, tacos, chili cheese hot dog, bacon-wrapped turkey legs, calzones, candy apples, funnel cakes, and chocolate donuts; pretty much everything that makes diet freaks faint."
He shrugs. "I was hungry."
"You don't say." I stare at him, gesturing at him. "Where is the 'Diet is necessary' guy?"
He gives me his infamous blank face. "Sometimes, it is okay to have a cheat day."
"Okay, really respect for your love of food and all but can you not taâ"
He burps. Loudly.
Noah gives me an apologetic smile but I have already started to laughâmore like guffaw.
"Ohâoh my goodnessâthaâyouâdamn, you just burped! Did someone record it?" I laugh, ignoring the fact that we are attracting lovesick couples around us.
"Why wouldâ?"
"Adi would have absolutely adored it. Oh my god!"
Noah huffs out, frowning, but I still don't stop laughing.
"Hey, man! I can do better than that," A man calls out, grinning.
Noah gives me a look as if he knows what will happen. I cool down myself, glancing at the man. The guy taking a swig of his coke and two seconds later, he burps louder than Noah.
I grin, giving a thumbs-up, and Noah gives him an impressed look but seems like someone didn't.
Oops?
"You are an asshole! I am breaking up with you!" The man's girlfriend throws a whole can of soda on him and, gathering up her things and going away, she flips the bird at him.
The man lets out a sigh of relief and looks at us, getting up. "Thanks, dude, for the idea. You have no idea how much money she has cost me."
As he went away, Noah and I look at each other and I start laughing.
Noah shakes his head. "I knew it would happen."
"The can thingâamazing," I breathe out, holding the table. When I sober up, something catches my eyes and I scowl.
"What's wrong?" he asks and looks in the direction of my sight.
"You see that creepy guy's game stall? The one where a lot of people are there? Yeah, that creepy guyâBobâhe never lets me win in his games and I know for once, that he is cheating people for money. I must have tried almost sixty-seven times but never ever, ever I win it. Ugh," I say, getting up to move in the opposite direction.
"Wait, we are going there, first."
Turning towards Noah, I gape at him. "What? No. Once, he knows you are rich. He is going to rob you."
He gives me a look. "We will see about that, Bella."
"Ah, isn't it the one and only Cooper?" Bob, says, smiling in a sinister way, as we reach his stall and I scowl. The only person who hasn't tried his game in our family is Mom and, as far as I know, she would love to sue this guy.
"Ah, isn't it the one and only Bucket-head Bob?" I mock in his own style and I can hear some people snicker.
I look at the crowd; they are either curious or pissed off. It is the classic basketball free-throw game. Shoot the ball into the hoop with three balls. The more shots you make, the bigger the prize.
But that's the thing â no one can even make one single shot.
After sixty-seven attempts, I have noticed the hoop's rims are not a perfect circle and it is placed higher than usual. The only fair thing of the game is the balls â they don't have a lot of air to make it bouncy.
Thank god for Alyssa to teach me basketball, though it is not helping me win the game.
"So, you are going to try for sixty-eighth time?" Bob says, leaning forward on his counter.
"So, what? You gonna rig the game..." I count my fingers and look up at him. "... for an infinite time now?"
Noah replies before Bob can call the security, "I am going to play."
"Aw, the boyfriend is going to win for his girlfriend," He coos in reply.
"I'm not her boyfriend," Noah says, the exact time I say, "I am not his girlfriend."
"Sure, like that's possible in a place where ninety percent of people are couples."
Putting up a blank face, Noah gives Bob the money as he holds out his hand and I scowl when Bob makes a smug face. He gives Noah the basketball, he was holding.
"So, Bella, what do you want?" Noah asks me, turning the ball in his hands. I lean on the counter, looking at all the prizes, and he asks, again, "The huge teddy?"
"Nope, too unoriginal," I say, shaking my head, and Noah chuckles. "I want that." I point to a rainbow-colored and bigger than the huge teddy, Monkey.
"What?" Noah looks at me, surprised, and I nod. "Well, then. How many shots for that?"
"15," Bob replies and I narrow my eyes.
"It is 10 written there," I say to him and, swiftly, he changes the tag.
"Now, it is 15," He says, smirking.
"You littleâ"
"Bella." Noah stops me from cussing the hell out to Bob. "It is okay."
"Are you an idiot? It is injustice. I am calling Mom. SHE IS A LAWYER!" I shout so that Bob can hear it.
"My son's a lawyer at the best firm," Bob says and I smirk.
"Name the firm."
"Harrington Law Enterprises," He says, narrowing his eyes a bit, and Noah coughs.
"Yeah, my Mom's name is Mia Harrington and she is the boss and owner of the firm."
I know it is wrong to boast about it but well, what Bob's doing is injustice and I am the daughter of a woman who stops it.
Bob pales and, frantically, changes the sign to 10. I smile tightly. "Aren't you an understanding person?"
I look at Noah and whisper, "Bob: zero, Iris: one."
He chuckles, shaking his head, and looks at Bob. "Should I start...?"
"Yeah, yeah. Sure." Bob glares at me for a bit, before giving Noah a smile.
"Wait." I pull on his shirt and whisper to him, "Do you even know basketball?"
Noah looks down at me, scrunching his eyebrows. "No?"
"Really? Oh no," I murmur to myself, closing my eyes so that I don't see the disaster.
"Why do people not get my sarcasm?" I hear Noah say. I open one eye to give him a look but he is looking at the baskets, in front of him.
Noah steadies the ball in his hand and throws it.
Ten minutes and five seconds later, Bob, grumpily, gives me the huge monkey and I take it, grinning at him. Noah didn't lose one throw â every throw was perfect and in an amazing trajectory.
"You're welcome," Noah says to me as we go away from Bubbling-with-anger Bob.
"Oops. Thank you." I say to him but my voice gets muffled up in Monkey's fur. He tries to take it away from me but I move away from his touch. "No holding my... I will decide the name later."
"Sure..." He laughs. "Bella, stop," He says, after sixteen seconds of walking.
I look at him, confused, but he is looking over me. I look in the direction and I whine. "No," I tell him.
"Are you stupid?" He says, giving me an incredulous look.
"No, pretty sure that's you." I snicker.
"We are going on that." He points to the giant wheel.
"It is almost seven now, Noah." I groan. "I am tired."
"I will pick you up." He leans down but I jump away from him, shocked.
He looks at me with that weird innocent face and I hide my face in Monkey's fur. I just know my face is very very red. I mumble, "Goodness, Noah, do not do that."
"Alright?" I can hear literally hear his amusement.
No. No. I am not alright, you devil 'doing it on purpose' Adonis with a lip ring.
"Iris?"
I look at him. "Fine. Fine. Let's goâjustâjust do not call me by my name like that."
"What?" He looks genuinely confused.
"You called me Iris like Aahâeeârish." I glare at him. "With that weirdâ" sexy? "âshh in the end."
He smirks. Irritated, I push the monkey onto his chest. I say to him, "Carry him, you imbecile."
"Him? Came up with a name now, did you?" He asks me, as we enter the long line.
"Yeah," I say, grinning. He raises his eyebrows at me. "Beast."
"Beast?"
"Yes."
"Beast?"
"Yup."
"Beast?" He says and I roll my eyes, nodding.
"Yes, Noah. Beast. You call me Bella â which is almost near to Belle and Belle loves Beast, doesn't she? I love him, too," I reply, poking into Beast's tummy.
He smiles, looking down at me. "Okay."
"Damn right, okay." I scoff.
When we reach the front of the line, Noah says to the conductor, "We are taking... him."
I glare at Noah but he ignores me as if he is enjoying a little joke.
"Well, thankfully, we have enough space," The conductor says, eyeing Beast, as he opens the door of the cubicle.
Rolling my eyes, I enter the cubicle, and only now, I realize this cubicle is... very shaky.
When the door shuts, and Noah sits across me, I say to him, "This is very shaky."
"No, it is not," He says, looking around the space.
"I feel we will fall and we will die," I say to him, just as the wheel starts to move.
"Bella, we won't."
"What if?"
"We won't. Do you want me to sit beside you and hold you?"
"No," I reply, too quickly and he smirks. "You have been a hero long enough now."
"I think all the points were going to your name, not my name," He states and I consider it.
"Well, you see... I was the one who made you enter into that." I defend myself and he nods.
"Sure, Bella," He says and starts to look around but I keep on looking at him. I think by now, without even looking at him, I can say out his features without any mistake.
"You are staring," Noah says and I can see his smirk, even though he is not looking at me.
"I didn't know you were such a romantic, Noah. Carnival and Giant Wheel, you know," I say to him, trying to function my brain normally.
"I'm not," He states, looking at me.
"You're not what?"
"A romantic."
Smiling, I look away from him and at the carnival. "Doesn't look like that to me."
Thirteen seconds later, I hear him say, "Yeah, well, maybe you know a side of me that no one else sees."
His words echo around my brain, making all the bells in my head go 'Caution!'.
I want to think he is wrong but he's right.
He is very different when he is with me, and I don't know if I am the only one who knows him very well... or if I am the one, he is hiding the bad from.
A sudden lurch and the ride stops.
"Oh god, no! This is cliché!" Someone yells from a cubicle below ours.
The stopping sound of all the rides makes me look around but the only sight that, actually, makes me stop to look around is Noah gripping the edge of the cubicle, very tightly.
"Sorry everyone, there are some technical difficulties. Wait for five minutes." An announcer says from the speakers and a second later, Noah raises his arm only to run his fingers through his hair.
"Noah..."
"Yeah?" His voice is strained but I am thankful that he, at least, replies.
"Are you afraid of heights?"
"No," He answers, and his nose twitches; he is lying. I roll my eyes and slowly, move across and sit beside him.
"It is okay if you are." I hold the hand he has kept on his seat.
When I rub my thumb on it, he looks at me with some undecipherable emotion and that makes me realize how close we are.
"Talk to me, please," He says, his minty breath fanning a bit on my face. Ignoring every whatsoever feeling, I think of what to talk about with him.
"The lip ring..." I whisper, looking back into his eyes, after tilting my face a bit.
He smiles at me as if he expected that question. He breathes out, looking away, "A self-identity."
"What do you mean?"
He looks back at me. "Sometimes, I don't want to be Ernest Radcliffe's sonâactually, I don't want to be a Radcliffe, really; I want to be just Noah Arthur. I think the football and this lip ring are the only things that give me any kind of identity, separating me from my family's riches or how famous they are."
"You are just Noah Arthur to me," I tell him, very honestly.
"I am always Noah Arthur to you."
We just look at each other until I say, "Are you sure you didn't get the lip ring after looking at Luke Hemmings'sâ?"
Noah chuckles and I smile.
I look down at the carnival, again. "It is so much like those romantic moviesâTypical couple up on the giant wheel and suddenly the whole ride stops, the announcer announcing how all lovesick couples have to wait but there is more like that announcer is a freaking romantic personâgiving a chance for..."
For the couple in the small cubicles to kiss.
"For?" I hear Noah ask but I shake off the thoughts from my mind, trying to stop every part of my brain to not make me imagine how kissing him will be.
"Nothing," I reply to Noah. "It's just weird." I wave it off.
"That reminds me of a quote." Now, I look at him. "We're all a little weird and life is a little weirdâ"
I smile, remembering Dr. Seuss's words, as I continue, after him, "âAnd when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them..."
We, both, look at each other and I know he knows the next lines.
...we join up with them and fall into mutually satisfying weirdness â and call it loveâtrue love.
I let out an awkward laugh, looking away from him. "I guess, we are up here."
"Yes, we are..." he says back.
Then, I don't know why I ask it but I do. I just ask.
"Do you like Danielle?"
Looking at him, I see he looks taken aback at my question as he looks back across my face, questioning me, "Why do you ask?"
"Just... like that," I say, shrugging like it is nothing. I, myself, don't know what prompts me to ask it but I am curious as to what he replies.
He uses his other hand to run his hand through his hair as he replies, "I don't like her."
"But youâ"
"It is past, Bella." He glances at me. "How are things with... Thomas Scott?"
"It doesn't matter." I pull away from him but he holds my hand, still looking at me.
"You are... a really good mate to me, Bella," He says and I nod.
"You are to me, too," I say back. But why do I feel sad about it?
I remind myself that he is Noah Radcliffe; the guy over whom, half of the girls in our school drool over and just happens to be my friend.
I don't like Noah.
I shouldn't like Noah. I shouldn't like him.
I should like to stay away.
"Bella."
Staying away, Iris? Me no understand, brain.
"Yeah?"
"When was your last birthday celebrationâ?"
"My birthday is almost two weeks away."
"So?"
I narrow my eyes but he genuinely looks curious asking me. So, I reply, "Eight years ago. I haven't done anything, you know, big celebration after that."
"If you ever want anythingâany solid thing, you know, what would you want?" He asks me and I laugh.
"Noah, I will accept your giftâbe that some soft toy or anything, though it will be good if you don't gift me anything. Anyway, don't people want to be surprised when they open their gifts?" I say, casually.
Noah doesn't reply anything to me, then, as the wheel starts to move again and I look towards the scene.
That's the thing; even though he doesn't say anything or does anything, I know his amber eyes are piercing into my head as I am looking away.
***
"Why are we still here?" Noah questions me, still holding Beast.
"Because I want to go to the photo booth," I say, stubbornly, as we are standing in a way longer line for the photo booth. "I want to save this memory."
This is the first time Noah and I are having a conversation â mostly turning out to be an argument â after the Giant Wheel ride.
"Why do you want to go to a photo booth?" Noah asks, moving forward. "We can tell someone to click some pictures."
I give him a look, matching pace with him. "No, I want to go to the photo booth."
"All they do is flash out eyes and you cannot see properly." He says, looking at me as if ready to argue. "Do you want that?"
"Well, my eyes, my rules," I say back to him, smiling tightly.
"I am just being careful, Bella," Noah says, blankly.
"Who are you to say anything, Noah?" I say, looking away from him. Three minutes and fifty-one seconds later, I breathe out. "Why are we even fightâNoah?"
When I turn, I find he has gone away, this time he doesn't even tell me that he has gone and it hits meâhe left me. And for real this time.
He had left Beast, leaning on the wall, beside me, and, somehow, I want to kick him but I don't.
Noah is moodyâway too moody for any person. And I am not some mind reader; I can't tell what he is feeling most of the time. He confuses the hell out of me and I really hate this thing about him.
I hate the fact, despite telling him so many times that my name's Iris, he calls me Bella â which I have already accepted â and whenever I ask him major questions, he ignores them or diverts my mind.
These are the exact reasons why I shouldn't like him.
When I reach inside the photo booth with Beast, the camera lady looks at me, wide-eyed, and goes through her purse.
"Uh, honey, would you like to apply some of my make-up?" She says and I give her a questioning look.
"What? No." I shake my head.
"You have some sad lines and look like you are about to cry," She says, looking at me, concerned.
"Oh, it is okay. Normal PMS day," I lie, waving it off. "So, can Iâ?"
"Bella?"
Noah looks around, restless, as I hear some complaints from outside. Finally, looking down at me, he moves forward, as if to hug me, but stops, making us stand in an awkward position. Then, I look at his hands and they are holding huge cotton candy.
He didn't leave me. He didn't leave.
Wait, stop being so happy about it, heart.
Get a life, brain.
"Young man, you have to wait for your turn," The camera lady says, sternly, at Noah.
Before Noah can say anything, I say to her, "He is with me."
She looks between me and Noah for two seconds and now, smiles. "Oh, I should've known," She says and turns to steady her camera.
"You went to get cotton candy?" I ask Noah, smiling. He gives me a crooked smile, passing me the cotton candy.
Suddenly, there is a flash.
Blinking, I look at the lady who smiles in return. "A perfect picture I had to capture. Now, this is free from me. So, how many do you want?"
"Um, just thrâ" Noah starts to say but I cut him off.
"As many as you can click in a minute..." I tell her, almost trying to please her from my eyes. She raises her eyebrows.
"Are you, both, sure?" Her eyes looking between Noah and me. Noah looks at me and I smile, pleading.
Sighing, Noah says, "Yeah, sure. I will pay whatever that costs."
"Okay," She says, going behind the camera.
"No, I will pay whatever that costs because you have already paid," I say to Noah and he rolls his eyes.
"I willâ"
"3... 2..."
"Shit," Noah and I say, turning to the camera, the exact moment it flashes.
As the camera goes on, a mere three seconds later, I feel Noah's one arm wrap around my waist and, before I know it, I step closer to his body.
I look at him, smiling, as he scowls a bit at the camera with holding Beast, properly in front of us. I am such a fool to think the guy, who I trust so much, would leave me.
Noah looks at me, as if sensing my eyes on him, and smiles at me, the way I like, making my heart lurches in every direction.
Like. Like. Like.
On cue, a flash goes in the room... and in my head as I realize that I have been lying to myself. Every moment I wanted to be with him. Every moment his smile made me smile. Every illogical reason I gave to myself throughout the day.
Because, now, it doesn't matter.
ââââââââââââââââââââââââ
- a u t h o r ' s n o t e -
hi, again!
to be very honest, i am really really scared for this chapter. i don't know why but i just am. so, guys, what do you think of this chapter? goodness, when i said this aloud, i felt like an overexcited teacher.
updates of my life: i am obsessed with corpse husband. i am just obsessed. also, also. i was reading this webtoon and literally, the main protagonist and his friend's friendship reminded me of noah and adi. ahhhhh!
stay calm and hydrated, ya'all.
until next chapter,
Inerys