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Noah
Music blasts through the house and some greetings come towards me as I make my way through the crowd of this party which is a lot more than Caleb's party. Probably the bouncer here just allowed anyone who wanted to come, but how the fuck will I know? I merely know the gang and the soccer teamâI don't think I need to know anyone else other than them.
Finally, pushing past the last crowd, I spot Bella. She is standing near the same place we were talking last time, but this time with Stacy. As I walk nearer to them, I notice Stacy telling Bella something.
Stacy spots me and lets out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, you are here."
I look at them. "What do youâ"
"Noah!" Bella takes a step forwardâI think to hug meâbut somehow, slips. Before she can hit the ground, I pull her into my arms.
"Woah, there, Bella." I hold her, wrapping an arm around her waist, as I look at her. She has tucked her face into my shirt, clutching onto me almost like her life depended on it.
"Bella, what's wrong?" I ask her, tucking her hair so that I can see her face. "Come on, just look at me."
"No," She whines.
"Please."
"Pretty please?"
I sigh and nod, saying, "Pretty please with cherries on top."
Her cheeks lift as she smiles, looking up at me. Whenever I look at her, I always see her eyes firstâthose mesmerizing brown eyes. But right now, when I see them, I find the evident red in the whites of her eyes.
I glare at Stacy. "Explain."
"I found her eating a whole plate of cupcakesâwhich now I assume were pot cupcakes."
I tense, glancing back at Bella, who turns towards Stacy with the little indent in between her brows.
She asks them, almost like a church-girl, "I ate marijuana?"
They reply, "Technically, you ate edibles... which now I realize are more dangerous."
I clamp down on my jaw, breathing out. I ask Stacy, "Who the fuck makes fucking pot cupcakes and leaves them unattended?"
"Hey!" They hold up their hands. "Don't burst out on me! I'm just in the dark as you are."
"How long has it been?"
"Around an hour so."
"Fuck." I inhale, sharply, looking around, before bringing my attention back to them. "I'm taking her out of here."
They exclaim, "Where? You can't take her home when she is like this!"
"Unfortunately, this isn't the place where she should be either," I retort. "Just tell anyone who asks that we went out. That's it. I don't want them to worry much about it."
Stacy looks like they want to say something back, but doesn't. They nod. "Okay."
"And don't tell Amelia."
They roll their eyes. "Fine."
Leaning down, I put my hands on her back and under her legs as I pick Bella up. Instinctively, she puts one of her arms around my neck and the other clutches my shirt.
"Am I high, Noah?" Bella murmurs, as I start walking out of the house, and nuzzles her face in my chest.
I glance at her, trying to breathe out in normal rhythm, but the whole situation right now isn't really letting me. But I do reply, "With the number of edibles you've eaten, yes. They've started to kick in. You want to go home?"
She shakes her head, denying. "Noooooo," She whines. "I can't go home!"
"Then my place?"
At that she pauses and I take a quick peek at her. She bites her lower lip and says, "No, your mom won't like that your girlfriend is high."
"Mum might understand your obsession with cupcakes."
Bella hums, sliding her hands on my neck, as we are nearing my car. I almost stop functioning at her touchâshe has never touched me like this before and it surely is affecting me. And don't get me started on my other parts. Dazed, she continues her tortureâdrawing lines, curves, circles, and sometimes some names.
Then, she writes her name just over my left pec and says, "There, I wrote my name over your heart."
I bite back my smile. "Yeah?"
"Mhmm." She draws a heart on my chest and looks up at me. "I've claimed your heart."
"It was yours, anyway." I sigh.
Shifting her on my arms a little, I open up the passenger door and put her on the seat. It takes a ludicrously longer time than I thought.
"Bella, baby, let go of me," I muse, trying to take her arms off my neck.
"Noooooo," She whines. "I don't want to! You're warm... and you smell nice. Can I lick you?"
"No," I say and then, I add, "Not now. Maybe later. Now, can you let go of me?"
Bella stops and tilts her head to look at me. "If I do, will you take me to the park?"
I lick my lips, confused. I want her to continue on why she wants to go, but of course, she won't. Right now, she has no filter to her words and is saying what she is thinking. It is scary and funny at the same time that the place she wants to go is a park.
"Fine," I admonish. "I'll take you to the park."
"The old one."
"Yes, the old one. I swear."
Satisfied with my answer, she sighs and loosens her grip. After putting her seat belt on, I close the door and, almost fast as I can, I rush to the driver's side and get in.
I look back at her just as she turns towards me, smiling. My mind is just trying to process it all, but she is just so goddamn beautiful. So much that it is hard to look at her, without getting burned.
But now that I've, I never want to look away.
***
High Iris, as I've found, is... touchy. There're no other words for it.
The whole car ride she was touching my hands, my shoulder, my chestâone time it was my leg too. I swear to fucking heaven, I had to stop the car and breatheâlike fucking breathe. I also had to think of all the repulsive thoughts as I could. And that was how I decided to walk her to parkâleaving the car a block behind or something.
The car is going to get towed for sure, but right nowâor like always, Bella is the first priority for me. But, just in case, I just message Chris the address of the car and tell him to pick it up, if he can.
"Just give me one!" She groans, bringing my attention to her.
It has been around half-hour or so we've been in the rec center. Specifically, in the children's park. Whenever we are here, we usually sit on the bench in front of the lilies but tonight, she decides not to.
She wants to sit on the monkey bars.
Bella holds out her hands towards me, as she looks at me, upside down. Her legs are on the rods, holding her, while her body curves down.
With my height, when I tilt my head upwards, her face is mere inches away from mine. Her hands try to hold my face but I lean away whenever they try to touch me. I know what this woman wants, but I'm not going to give it to her.
"One kiss! The spiderman style!"
"Bella," I say to her, "I am not going to kiss you when you are high."
"Well, I can come downâ"
"I meant drugged high, Bella." I sigh, rolling my eyes.
Bella pouts, giving me those doe eyes, but I don't budge. It doesn't matter that she is my girlfriend, I am not going to kiss when she isn't sober. Consent is something very important to me and for that, both of us need to be sober, not drunk or high out of our minds.
As if she realizes that, she pulls her body up and swings her feetâalmost kicking me on the face. I move before she actually can.
She turns towards me, properly sitting on that monkey bar. "At least sit next to me?"
I chuckle when she pats the space beside her. "That I can do."
I grab two of the bars and pull myself up, swinging my legs up, to the top. Bella looks at me with immense concentration when I sit next to her. She frowns when I keep some space between us, and scoots closer, wrapping her arm around mine.
And then, she does exactly what she wanted to do. She kisses me. On the cheeks, but she kisses me.
"Bella," I reprimand.
"What? You didn't say anything about cheek kisses." She puts her head on my shoulder.
"Yes, my mistake." I let out a laugh, pushing back my hair. Bella giggles to herself, swinging her legs in the air, as I look around the park.
Since it is quite late at night, there aren't many people here, so it is quiet. Peaceful compared to the chaos of the party. But it isn't just that; it is the stars over us. They are bright, tonight.
I say, "It is pretty."
Bella peeks at me with a smug smile and says, "It has got nothing on you."
I frown, but instead, a smile takes its place. "Are you trying to woo me, Iris Cooper?"
"Mayyyybe," She admits, shyly.
I kiss her on her head. "Well, it is working."
Working too much, in fact.
I think I get too preoccupied with staring at her because I don't realize when her grip on my arm loosens and she begins swinging on the bar.
"Cazzo, Bella," I hold her with one hand before she can slip. "You're going to hurt yourself."
But she is too busy holding out her hands up to grasp that. After I steady herâwhich takes a lot of my one-hand strengthâshe finally sits properly and just swings her legs, not herself.
She puts up only one hand this time and turns to me. "Noah, pick a star. Any star."
"Why?" I ask her. "You're going to get it for me?"
"Just pick, no?" She groans.
"Okay, okay." My gaze flickers across the sky, as my eyes latch on one star to another. I see the brightest star and point at it, looking back at Bella. "That."
"Polaris, the north star," Bella muses. "You can always find this starâday or night. It is famous for holding still in our sky while the entire universe moves around it. Just like you in my life."
Immediately, I face her, almost getting a fucking whiplash. "Me?"
She blinks. "Well, you... and Dad and Mom, and then, there's Colt, Caleb, Adi, Alyssa, Tom, Mike, Victoria, Nickâlike everyone who's family to me. They're all constants."
I close my eyes, letting out a breath. "Yes, of course."
I mean, what should I've expected? This is Iris Cooper and I know this woman cares about everyone who has crashed in her life. She loves everyone like a family.
I fucking swear I'm the one who's acting fucking high and not her. I need to get the fuck out of here.
"Come on, let's get down," I say to her.
Not recognizing the topic change, Bella listens to me. After getting down and helping her come down, we start walking towards the bus stand. She puts my arm around her shoulder and leans her head against me. I just smile and kiss her head.
"Hey, that's a kiss!" She tells me.
"Forehead kisses don't count."
"I hate you."
"Do you, really?" I ask her, turning her towards me.
"I mean, a little?" She puts up her thumb and index finger, giving minimal gap between them. "But I really really really really really really really like you," She says, counting the times she says 'really'.
"Yeah, me too."
But it is just a different four-lettered word.
And here we are, again, in the same posture with our faces just centimeters, millimetersâor whatever less thatâaway as we unconsciously begin to lean towards each other. But then, I remember my morals and how I wouldn't ever forgive myself if I kiss her when she's high.
So, in the end, I say, "Stay here. I'll get you ice cream."
Bella just blinks in confusion. "What? But we were justâ"
I interrupt her mid-groan. "Just stay here, okay?"
I don't want to leave her alone, but the ice cream shop is just on the other side of the road and won't take much time. It is just taking out a scoop and putting in a cup or whatever, a cone. But just my fucking luck, there is a whole crowd of children in the shop.
I clamp down on my jaw, pushing back my hair, as I wait in the queue. I like kids but right now, I am in no mood to enjoy with them, as they run around the shop while their caretaker buys ice cream for each one. I keep on looking back at Bella; she is still standing near the bus stopâwalking, dancing, or doing both at the same time.
Finally, I reach the front and ask for a vanilla double-scoop ice cream. One of the kids beside me hears this and turns to me.
"Vanilla?" The kid makes a face. "That's so weirdâit doesn't have any taste. Chocolate's the best."
Another kid pipes in, "No! It's strawberry!"
And then, another. "No! It's cookie dough!"
Now, this starts a whole new loud debate of which flavor is better and which one is the worst. The ice cream guy just laughs, hearing the answers, as he gives me the ice cream. And he looks like he's about to do small talk with me.
I huff a quick thank you and walk out of the ice cream shop before anything else can happen. I look up to find Bella walking towards me.
She waves over, walking towards me. She yells, "Noah!"
"Fuck, Bella, I told you toâ"
It happens too fast.
Out of nowhere, a car comes at full speed and slams into Bella's body.
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- a u t h o r ' s n o t e -
sooooooo that happened. is it bad if i say this is my favorite chapter? ð
four chapters left. stay hydrated and really really calm :)
inerys