chapter 11

I mindlessly rubbed my dishcloth over the slightly dusty pint glass I was holding, surveying the situation in front of me. It was a quiet Monday afternoon, the day after Julie's party, and the pub was decently busy with people enjoying the close of another sunny day in Charleston.

"Are you trying to get a genie to appear from that glass or something?" Noah said, breaking me out of my thoughts. My head snapped up to the familiar sight of his lazy smirk. His face brought back my feelings from yesterday- the slap of rejection when I realised he didn't want his friends to know that we had spent time together. I quickly averted my eyes.

"Yep," I said, continuing my cleaning, "my first wish is for you to go away."

Before Noah could reply, the sound of someone clearing their throat caused both of our heads to turn. On the other side of the bar stood a woman wearing the largest sunglasses I had ever seen, along with a floppy straw hat. Upon seeing that she had our attention, removed her sunglasses with her perfectly manicured fingers, revealing her face. She was very tanned, and looked to be in her mid thirties.

"Good afternoon," said Noah, instantly turning on the charm that he reserved specifically for female customers. He had a way of talking that meant he often came away from shifts with double the tips that I managed to accumulate. "What can I do for you today?"

The woman rested her elbows on the bar. "A Sex on the Beach, please," she purred, fluttering her eyelashes.

"Anything for a pretty woman like you," Noah said with a wink, turning to gather the ingredients for the cocktail. The woman perched herself on one of the bar stools, eyes unashamedly following Noah's actions as he moved behind the bar.

Despite feeling deeply uncomfortable, I couldn't help but keep my eyes locked on the interaction in front of me. The woman, who was now sucking suggestively on the ends of her sunglasses, was ogling Noah as if he was a piece of meat. Noah was lapping up the attention, putting on quite the show as he prepared her drink. A strange feeling rose in my stomach as he slid her drink across the bar to her, sending her a wink.

"Do you want me to start you a tab?" Noah asked.

"No, I'll pay now, before you persuade me to spend all my money!" The woman said, with a giggle. "With a face like yours, you wouldn't have to try very hard."

I felt heat raise to my face, and my grip on the glass tightened.

"If you insist," Noah said, smirking. "That will be six pounds fifty five,"

The woman passed him a ten pound note, along with a napkin containing her phone number. "Keep the change," she said, looking up through her eyelashes. "And give me a ring."

As she left, I released the glass from my iron grip, leaving it on the side before quickly walking into the kitchen, not wanting Noah to see how much the situation had affected me. As it was a strange time in between lunch and dinner, there were very few kitchen staff in and the kitchen was quiet. Entering the room, I leant my elbows on a worktop, taking a couple of deep breaths and willing the redness in my face to subside.

The door swung open once again and Noah walked in, making a beeline towards me. "Guess who just got a three pound fifty tip!" he said, pumping a fist in the air.

"I saw," I replied, regaining my composure and standing up to look him in the eye. "You put on quite the show out there."

He raised an eyebrow. "Is someone jealous?"

"Of what?" I retorted quickly. "Resorting to flirting with a middle aged woman because no-one my own age will have me?"

"Trust me, there are lots of willing volunteers of all ages," Noah said cheekily, giving me a wink. My mind unwillingly flashed back to an image of the girl he was with at Miles' party, and the same funny feeling as before started to rise.

"Ew." I said, rolling my eyes. "Has anyone ever told you that you're a whore?"

Noah pouted, "that's not something a friend would say."

"Good thing we aren't friends then!"

Noah clutched his chest. "Ouch!" he said, "I take you out cliff jumping and you can't even call me a friend!"

"A real friend wouldn't try to pretend it never happened in front of his other friends." I said. As soon as it came out of my mouth, I knew it was a mistake. It had come out a lot more seriously than I had meant it to, and Noah had clearly realised I was no longer joking.

"I'm sorry about that, Lois." he said, shifting uncomfortably, looking at his feet.

I shook my head, "I just don't understand why you would take me if you were embarrassed for people to find out about it."

"You think I'm embarrassed?" He asked, blue eyes gazing into mine.

I shrugged, not wanting to give too much away. We were enveloped in a brief silence.

"Come to the pier with me after work." he blurted out, eyes trained on mine.

I felt slightly uncomfortable under his intense stare. "What-"

"You said you haven't been yet." Noah explained. "Let me take you."

"You don't need to prove anything." I said, looking up at him. "I couldn't care less if you don't want to spend time with me."

Noah rolled his eyes. "I'm not trying to prove anything to you. There's an arcade on the pier and I have a whole three pound fifty to blow." He stuck his bottom lip out in an adorable pout. "Please, please please come with me."

"Fine."

***

"Player 1 wins!" The loud voice came from the machine as my character slammed Noah's to the ground. I turned to Noah, who watched through narrowed eyes as I bounced up and down with glee.

"That's two pounds please." I said, holding my hand out for the money. As Noah rifiled around in his pocket for the change, I had a look around the room for the next game I could pick to win. The small arcade at the end of the pier, despite it's tired decor and outdated games, seemed extremely popular. It was busy with a wide range of people, from groups of teenagers to old couples with their grandchildren. Squeals and chatter mixed with songs from the various machines dotted around the room to create a melting pot of noise.

Noah handed me the money. "This isn't over, dimples," he said with a scowl, "I've been going easy on you. Pick anything in here, I'll win."

My eyes locked on the dance machine game in the corner of the room. My parents had put me in dance lessons from the age of five; I had only quit last year when my school workload took over. The image of Noah trying to dance popped into my head, and I had made my decision. "Perfect," I whispered. 

Following my glance, Noah started to shake his head. "Not that one, sweetheart. I don't dance."

"So you forfeit?" I asked, a grin spreading across my face.

"You wish," he said, barging across the arcade towards the game. I followed, watching as he rolled a coin into the machine. Instantly the screen burst into action, neon lights flashing and loud pop music playing out of the speakers, advertising the songs to select.

"Maybe we should do an easy one," I suggested as Noah scrolled through the list of songs.

Noah scoffed. "Do I look like a pussy?"

He kept scrolling, before eventually settling on Justin Bieber's 'Baby', which was rated 'very difficult'.

"Real manly song choice." I said, chuckling.

"Keep laughing now," he said, stretching his arms in preparation. "You won't find it so funny after I've beaten you."

"Just press play, Thompson." I said, rolling my eyes.

He pressed the button to start and before long, the opening bars of the song rang out of the speakers. Arrows started to appear on the screen and we both kept up, a stream of green 'perfect' icons popping up for both of us.

"This is so easy," Noah said with a laugh. It was as if the machine had heard him; as soon as the words came out of his mouth the arrows started coming faster and faster. My feet flew across the floor, only just managing to hit the right buttons. Glancing across at Noah, I saw that he was starting to struggle, and a quick look at his screen revealed a long stream of red crosses for all of the buttons he had failed to hit in time.

"Player 2 wins!" The machine said, signalling the end of the game. Letting out a squeal of joy, I leaped off of the machine and started to dance around. Noah drooped his head.

"I won, I won!" I chanted.

"It was rigged." Noah grumbled, opening his wallet to hand over the agreed money.

"Forget the money," I said, eyes catching something I wanted more than the two pounds. "Win me one of them."

I stretched out my arm to point to a large claw machine containing hundreds of teddy bears. The bears themselves were small, barely the size of my palm, and were dressed in little yellow t-shirts with 'I love Charleston' stitched across the front.

"Whatever you say, princess." Noah said, sulkily. 

"How does it feel to lose to a girl?" I asked playfully as we made our way over to the machine. The teddies were clearly popular; there was already someone attempting to garb one, so we waited in a queue.

"You aren't a girl. You're a machine." Noah hissed, crossing his arms defensively.

I laughed and rolled my eyes.

"I'm serious," he said, blue eyes looking intensely at mine. "you got into Oxford, you are good at arcade games and dancing. I mean, is there anything you're bad at?"

"I dunno." I said, conscious that the conversation had taken a serious turn. "Keeping brownies on a plate, I guess."

Noah cracked a smile, but I couldn't help but feel like he was disappointed with my response. The question felt very personal, and I had never been good at having deep conversations with people.

The people using the machine in front of us finally moved on, and Noah stepped up, inserting a coin. He cracked his knuckles and stretched out his arms dramatically, causing a giggle to escape my lips. He clutched the joystick.

"One teddy bear, coming right up."

It was safe to say Noah was as bad at the claw machine as he was at all of the rest of the games we had played- he actually appeared to be getting worse with each go. Just as the claw curled around thin air for the third time in a row, we were both startled by a voice from behind us.

"Look who it is!" Miles said, a dimpled smile stretched across his face as he playfully bumped his fist into Noah's chest.

"Hey," I said, smiling at both Miles and Tyler, who was standing beside him. "How are you two?"

"We're alright!" Said Tyler.

"So," said Miles, wagging his eyebrows. "Is it date night?"

"No," Noah said quickly.

I felt a small pinch in my chest when I realised what was happening. As much as Noah denied it, he was embarrassed to be seen out with me. "Julie forced him to take me here." I said quickly, trying to save him from the situation. "She found out I hadn't been yet."

"Oh, I see," said Miles, his large smile demonstrating that he was completely oblivious to the tension between Noah and I. "We're planning on setting up a bonfire tonight, if you want to join."

I shook my head. "Thanks, but I'm exhausted. I should probably head home."

"We're going to take the speedboat out tomorrow." Miles said, "you should come."

Noah probably wouldn't like that. "Thanks a lot," I said warmly, shooting Miles a smile. "But I'll have to see if I can get the day off." Tomorrow was my weekly day off, and both me and Noah knew it, but he didn't say a word.

"I'll walk Lois home then join you at the beach," Noah said. We all said our goodbyes, then Noah and I walked out of the arcade and onto the pier. The dark, starry sky was a huge contrast from the neon lights of the arcade games. We walked along the pier in near silence.

"You don't have to walk me home." I said, tucking my hands under my armpits. It was a lot colder than when we had arrived, and I was feeling a bit chilly.

"I want to." Noah said. "You didn't have to lie back there about Julie forcing me to come."

I shrugged. "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable in front of your friends."

Noah sighed and stopped walking. He grabbed me by the shoulders and turned me to face him.

"Listen to me, Lois." He said, leaning towards me. "I'm not embarrassed about spending time with you."

"Then why are you acting so weird?" I asked, crossing my arms.

Noah sighed and looked at the ground, sliding his hands into his pockets. A second later he looked up. The light of the limited lamps illuminating the pier reflected in his eyes, which were looking straight into mine.

"I don't do dates." He admitted. "I didn't want them thinking this was something it wasn't."

"I know these aren't dates." I said, looking at him. "So what does it matter what they think?"

"I guess it doesn't." Noah admitted. I honestly felt my heart skip a beat as he ran a hand through his hair, causing it to become the perfect level of messy. "You should come out on the speedboat with us tomorrow."

"I'm not sure-"

"I know your excuse back there was bullshit." He continued. "If you don't want to then that's okay, but we all want you there." My previous annoyance with him melted away as his wide eyes connected with mine, and I believed that he meant every word.

"Oh so you want me there, do you?" I asked lightheartedly, trying to change the tone of the conversation. It wasn't often that Noah spoke this seriously, and it kind of threw me off when he did.

Noah smiled and shook his head. "Your crush on me is relentless, dimples."

I laughed and gave him a light shove as we started walking back to the pub. 

AUTHOR'S NOTE

The next few chapters are actually my favourite I have ever written so get excited for them!

I upload Thursdays and Mondays!

Thanks for reading,

Kirsty xx