t h r e e | You Could Talk

I was pleasantly surprised when Noah chose to stop when the path ended and we reached the outside of the woods. He turned to the right where a couple of large boulders sat next to the small sign that pointed out the directions to the dormitories, the main building and back at the field.

I watched the muscles in his arm flex as he effortlessly climbed the boulder, reaching the top with such careless ease.  So he had a good—okay, great body; he was pretty tall, had a great build and made it seem somewhat easy. But I knew from experience that it wasn't, so I just stood there awkwardly, wondering if I should just continue doing that or if I should try to climb the thing and fall on my butt like I always did.

But then Noah managed to surprise me once again when he reached down, holding his hand out for me.

It was absolutely ridiculous that my heart actually skipped a beat.

Wordlessly, I placed my hand in his warm one and his grip on mine tightened as he helped me up just as easily as he'd climbed it a second ago, without even breaking a sweat.

Man, this guy was good for a girl's ego.

He waited till I'd settled on the right before he seated himself next to me on the left. We both looked straight at the view up ahead. The sky was dark, the stars shining, and the light of the lamp was just a soft glow next to us. I could hear vague bits and pieces of a conversation a group of girls were having back near the trees, the music was still a low hum in the background, and in short, it was pretty perfect.

That was when I realized that he still hadn't let go of my hand.

And well... he was all good-looking and thoughtful and kind of sweet even though I still knew nothing of him—so yeah, I liked it, sue me.

But of course that was also the moment where I had to start sweating like a pig.

Well, okay, that didn't really happen, but it was totally about to and I was about to make a fool out of myself along with it. Not really down with that, I started fidgeting a bit the moment I felt my palm get a bit clammy. Noah looked down at our hands in vague surprise like even he wasn't aware he'd been holding it and dropped mine instantly, crossing his arms across his knees and turning away adamantly. Was that the slightest twinge of pink in his cheeks?

I bit my lip to keep from laughing. Noah Archer, the guy who kept girls waiting in line for just a minute of his time and left them begging for more when he actually did give it to them, was blushing because he'd held my hand a few seconds more than necessary.

He was so cute.

Tamping down the ridiculous smile on my face, I cleared my throat before beginning to break the silence between us, "So what're you doing at the bonfire?"

No answer.

Stupid question, Riley, I scolded myself. How is that much different from asking him why he showed up at college after the accident?

I decided to try again, "So... when's the next football game?" I cringed right as I said it. It was another stupid question to ask. Football was the thing at Redwood and all the games were practically public information. I'd have to be living under a rock to not know. I could take a guess and say it'd maybe be next week or something, but then again, I didn't know for sure because I wasn't a big fan of football. It was another stupid question, and this was confirmed by the lack of response I got.

I frowned to myself. Even though they were admittedly not very good questions, he'd been the one to ask me along, hadn't he? What was up with him being a brick wall?

"You know," I began softly, my lips slightly curving. "Communicating is kind of a two-way street. I say something, you say something and so on."

At that I got a reaction.

He turned to me with eyebrows raised, viewing me with mild surprise again. Like he was actually surprised that I wanted him to talk.

I narrowed my eyes. "Do you really expect me to babble your ears off or something?"

"What? No," his eyebrows knit together, as I registered his low, deep voice. God, did he have to have a good voice too? "It's not like that. I mean... you could talk."

Even though that had to be the most words I'd gotten out of him so far, I raised my eyebrows at him for an explanation.

"What I mean is, maybe you could talk, and I could listen," he said at my prompt, and his eyes wandered to the side as he added, "I'd like to listen."

I blinked. Was he serious?

I focused on his expression that showed no signs of insincerity or dishonesty—hell, he did want that. Maybe it had more to do with the fact that he maybe wasn't in the most talkative mood at the moment, but I could see he meant it.

And I'd wanted this. I'd wanted to try to get to know him. I'd wanted to join him out here.

And so I talked. I talked about everything and nothing. I talked about Ella, I talked about my classes, I talked about an old funny incident that happened back at the dorm. The subjects were as random as they were unimportant, but I talked about whatever popped into my head for the next two and a half hours that we were there, wanting to stay there forever.

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Of course, I got tired pretty quickly.

We both lay on our back, still on top of the boulder, staring up at the night sky. It was when I was telling Noah about the test that was supposed to be today—hence, explaining the book I was lugging around—that I'd nearly been offended when he'd adjusted to laying on his back. I thought he was regretting letting me talk already, and was copping some shut-eye, but I was proven wrong, because he was still awake and attentive, listening to me the whole time.

So I'd followed and relaxed back too. Turns out it was kind of better this way.

It was when I looked at my phone that I realized it was ten-thirty and I already had several missed calls and texts from Ella.

Oh, crap. I couldn't believe I'd forgotten to text her.

"I need to get back to the dorms," I squeaked, quickly getting up and hopping to my feet.

Noah frowned, slowly getting up too as he took in my frazzled state before nodding once.

"Let's get you back."

He hopped down, immediately reaching for me when he touched the ground. I could've jumped down too (because that's the easy part) but I absolutely loved the way he helped me down, keeping my hand steady in his.

Apparently chivalry was not dead.

And neither was his fondness of holding hands, I realized, because as we started walking, he didn't let go. I internally screamed at my left hand's cells to not screw this up for me and just keep it in for the time being, so I actually could enjoy the moment.

They must have listened to me because for the next ten minute walk to the where the dormitories were situated, I was sweaty-hand free.

I didn't even have to tell him that I was in Block B. I was shocked at first, because I hadn't exactly pointed it out to him during my spiel of everything and nothing—it'd been a throwaway comment amidst my bickering, a side note, and he'd remembered.

He'd been listening, and that was just proof of something I'd already known.

That warmed my heart instantly.

There weren't a lot of people around right then, and I guessed it was because of the bonfire. We stopped right outside the door of the Block B building and he spoke softly, "Go."

"Yeah," I murmured, before regrettably wriggling my hand and feeling a smile coming on. "I'm going to need this back, though."

This time there was no embarrassment as he let go and backed off a bit too, pushing his hands in his pockets of his jacket.

I still didn't want to go.

"Goodnight," I said almost longingly and I was immensely glad when he responded, "'Night."

"Okay then," I had to go now, because I was being a little too transparent about stalling here. "See you around?"

"Wait," he said and I turned back to face him, unsure about what he wanted but foolishly hopeful at the same time. "Yeah?"

He licked his lips slowly before beginning in that low voice of his, "What's your name?"

I just stared at him. Huh?

"You told me everything but your name," he went on. "So what's your name?"

Oh. "Riley," I grinned easily. "It's Riley Dawson."

Maybe it was the dark, but I thought there'd been the slightest crack in his exterior. I was almost sure I'd seen the slightest curve of his lips. "Alright, Riley Dawson. See you around."

Yes.

I kept the silly grin as I walked to the door, feeling somewhat giddy. I also noticed how he didn't leave until I was safely inside and the door was firmly closed behind me. I peeked through the window to see him as he turned and began to walk away, nearly bouncing on my toes in excitement. One would think I'd just gotten back from a date or something. Maybe it was the same feeling though. At least it felt just as good.

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To anyone reading, thanks a lot! Please do remember to vote and comment and drop an opinion!

-lexy