chapter 3

"Well I must say, sweetheart, you don't exactly have the voice of an angel," Noah drawled, tearing his eyes away from the bright light of his phone to look at me.

"You heard me singing?" I stuttered, mouth agape. I wasn't even sure you could call the ungodly noise that came from my mouth singing. I never sang in front of other people for this exact reason.

"I think everyone in a ten mile radius heard that noise, although I wouldn't exactly call it singing. The police will be round any second, enquiring about the cat strangulation that all the neighbors have reported hearing." He said, his stupid smirk playing across his lips.

I opened my mouth to retort, but then took another look at the situation at hand. Noah was in my bedroom unannounced. I was in a towel. The fact he didn't like my singing was rock bottom on my list of priorities.

"Why the fuck are you in my room!" I screamed, pulling my towel tighter around my body.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Julie wanted me to check on you."

"Why would Julie want you to check on me?" I hissed, his lax attitude winding me up even more.

He shrugged again, eyes drifting back to his phone.

"Get out, I need to get changed!" I said, gritting my teeth.

"Go on then, I have no issue with that," he said with a wink, eyes roaming down my body in a way that despite the tightly wrapped towel, made me feel butt naked.

"You're a pervert," I said, watching him pretend to look wounded. "Now get the fuck out of my room!"

"Spoilsport," he said, rolling his eyes as he got up off my bed. He left my room, shutting the door behind him, "I'll be waiting out here.".

"For what?" I yelled, but there was no reply.

It took me twenty minutes to dry my hair, put on some makeup and slip on a nice dinner-appropriate outfit. It took the same amount of time for my heart rate to slow down to a normal pace after the shock of seeing Noah in my room. When I was finished making myself look presentable I opened my bedroom door, with the intention of going downstairs to see if any more help was required. Striding out of my room, one second I was on my feet, the next....

"Ouch!" A loud grunt came from the large, warm object beneath me. I had tripped over Noah, who had been sitting on the floor outside of my bedroom. "Has no-one ever told you to watch where you're walking?"

I winced as I pulled my body off of him, sitting up on the floor, "has no-one ever told you not to sit in front of doorways!" I said, exasperated. "Why are you here?"

"I told you," he said, as if he was teaching a toddler that one plus one equals two. "Julie told me to be. Now can we go back into your room please, it's much more comfortable than out here."

"You can do whatever the hell you want," I said strongly, although the thought of Noah being left to his own devices in my room was not particularly comfortable. "I'm going downstairs to see if Julie needs any help clearing up."

I stood up, brushing myself off. In the blink of an eye, Noah stood up too and had his hands outstretched in the corridor in front of me, blocking off the way downstairs. "I don't think so, sweetheart."

"Don't call me that," I snapped. His blue eyes softened as he let out a chuckle; I had given him the exact reaction he wanted. "And let me through."

"Can't," he said, smirking.

Having had enough of this, I gave him a final glare and ducked under his arm, making it past him. I started to sprint along the corridor, towards the stairs. I heard loud footsteps and swearing behind me, and tried to pick up the pace. I had always been quite athletic, but I was no match for Noah, who had at least a foot of height and ten kilos of muscle more than me. In a matter of seconds, Noah had caught up to me and I felt myself being flung in the air and onto his shoulder.

"Nice try sweetheart," he said, turning around and walking back to my room. I would like to say that I put up a fight, but that would be untrue. This was for two reasons; the first being that Noah had to be well over six foot, and from his shoulder, the ground looked a long way down. The second was that, as much as I didn't want to admit it, I was quite enjoying the feeling of his muscular arm wrapped around me, and my vantage point over his shoulder, didn't give a bad view of his behind either.

"Put me down!" I said weakly, hitting his arm with my fists. He laughed.

"No can do,"

All thoughts about his body snapped out of my mind the second he placed me down in my bedroom and locked the door.

"Okay now I draw the line! You're actually going to kill me!" I said, only slightly joking.

He rolled his eyes, "if I was going to kill you, don't you think I would do it somewhere a bit more subtle than above the pub, where at least four people would hear."

"I don't know," I said, sitting down on the armchair, "you don't exactly look like the sharpest tool in the shed.".

"Not all of us are Cambridge material, sweetheart" he said, strolling over and taking a seat on my bed.

"Oxford" I weakly corrected. The fact that I was starting a medicine degree there in the Autumn wasn;t something I told many people. "How did you know?"

"Julie said." He reached into the pocket of his jeans and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. I watched him, mouth agape, as he placed one into his mouth. It was only when he got a lighter out that I reacted.

"Noah!" I yelled. He stopped and looked at me, surprised. "What the fuck are you doing?"

He looked puzzled. "Having a cigarette.".

"Not in my room you're not!" I said. My head was spinning -one thing I could not stand was smoking. I had never smoked in my life, and never planned to. It made absolutely no sense to me why someone would willingly cause harm to both themselves and others around them all for a little nicotine high.

He laughed coldly, sensing that I had become much more serious. "Your room? I've slept here about a hundred more times than you have."

I was taken aback. As he moved the lighter up to his lips I felt a force of anger come over me and I stood up and knocked the cigarette out of his hands. A look of surprise flashed across his face.

"What the fuck was the about?" His voice took on a dangerous tone and he stood up, towering over me.

I pushed my shoulders back, standing to face him despite the fear that he was twice my height and looked like he could squish me with his pinkie finger.

"I said," I stepped closer to him. "You aren't smoking in my room.".

Our eyes met. For a second, I thought neither of us would back down. But after taking a long look at me, Noah let out a small laugh and reached across my bed to where the cigarette had landed.

"Whatever you say, sweetheart," he said, putting the cigarette back in his pocket. He checked the large watch on his wrist.

"My job here is done. Come downstairs whenever. Nice seeing you, Louise."

Not bothering to correct the pronunciation of my name this time, I watched as he stalked out of my room, slamming the door on the way. I took a couple of minutes to compose myself- calming down my racing heart and flushed face. Pushing the thoughts of Noah out of my mind, I started to make my way down the stairs.

I know my Auntie Julie well and I know that she is not one to do things by halves. From Noah's weird mission to keep me upstairs and her eagerness for me to leave them to clear on their own, I had a gut feeling about what I was going to walk in on.

My suspicions were confirmed when I reached the restaurant.

"WELCOME TO CHARLESTON!" A cry came out. The lights flashed, revealing a large crowd of people standing in the pub.

Julie had thrown me a surprise party.

Don't get me wrong, I liked a good party as much as the next person. However, I hated being the centre of attention, and found meeting new people very overwhelming. Looking at the crowd of sixty or so strangers that Auntie Julie had assembled for me, I came to the conclusion that she had found my absolute worst nightmare.

I scanned the room to see her standing in the corner of the room, grinning at me with her thumbs up, mouthing "surprise!". I shot her a smile back, turning my attention to the large crowd of people who were standing in silence, clearly expecting me to say something.

"Thank you for having me!" I managed to choke out before making my way through the crowd towards Julie. Thankfully, people began to chatter and before long the awkward silence transitioned to a loud but friendly atmosphere.

"Do you like it?" Julie asked, grinning from ear to ear.

"Wow!" I smiled, carefully avoiding the question, "you shouldn't have!"

Yeah, you really really shouldn't have..

"Oh honey," she said softly, her smile widening. "I'm sorry about sending Noah up but I really couldn't think of any other way to stop you from coming down..."

"Oh don't worry about it Julie, I really didn't suspect anything,"

"Good, I'm glad." She placed her hand on my back. "Now let's get you a drink and introduce you to some people!"

As Julie led me to the bar, I scanned the area to see the general demographic of the crowd. It seemed as though the party was more for Julie than it was for me, as only a quarter of the people looked around 18, my age. As Julie went behind the bar to pour me a vodka lemonade, I was approached by two girls. One was blonde, and built like a model with a tall and slender frame. The other was shorter, with curly brown hair and caramel brown eyes.

"Hi, I'm Kate!" said the blonde one, pulling me in for a hug. She was clutching a glass of wine in one hand- not her first by the looks of it- which was threatening to spill any second.

I smiled warmly, glad for some company in Julie's absence. "I'm Lois.".

"Course you are," said the brown haired girl, also pulling me in for a hug. "We've heard all about you from Julie! I'm Beverly, by the way."

"Oh," I said, surprised, "you know Julie."

The two girls looked at each other and giggled.

"Julie is basically our second mum," said Beverly.

"Yeah," chimed in Kate, "she's been serving us alcohol since we were 15!"

"Now, now girls, let's not go spreading that around!" Julie interrupted hasily, handing me my drink. Kate and Beverly giggled as Julie crossed her arms, pretending to be angry.

"My lips are sealed," said Kate, miming locking her lips and throwing away the key. Julie gave them both a wink.

"Right Lois, I'll let Kate and Beverly introduce you to the rest," Julie said, turning to face me. "And you two, behave yourselves." Julie said, shooting one last dirty look at the pair, which reduced them to giggles once again.

I quickly downed my drink and grabbed another as the girls composed themselves, thinking I might need some liquid courage to get me through the evening.

"Liam!" Kate said, grabbing a boy on his way past, "Meet Lois, Julie's niece".

Liam raised his hand in a wave. "Hi Lois,". He looked down at Kate and rolled his eyes. "Unlucky for you to have met these two first. Once they have you they won't let you go." He motioned to his arm, which Kate was still firmly clutching. She quickly removed her hand and stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh!" I said, reading the body language between the pair, "are you two dating?".

The reaction was as if I had said the Earth was flat; Kate choked on the sip of wine she had just had, and Liam started laughing, eyes wide.

"No!" They said in unison.

Beverly shot me a knowing look and mouthed "yes".

"Right," Kate said, leading us to a table once she'd recovered from her coughing fit, "there's no-one else here worth being introduced to."

Beverly rolled her eyes, "stop being so dramatic.".

"It's true!" Kate said defensively, crossing her arms. "All of the interesting people have gone on holiday!"

"I agree," piped in Liam. "All my friends went to Bali, but I was too broke to join which is why I'm stuck here with these two."

Kate hit his arm playfully. "You love it really."

Beverly scanned the room. "It's strange Noah and his friends aren't here,".

I felt the anger start to course again at the sound of his name, and quickly took a sip of my drink.

"Yeah," agreed Kate, furrowing her eyebrow, "but Lois will have met him already, haven't you?"

I nodded and took another sip of my drink, trying my hardest to keep my expression neutral.

"Ugh," Beverly sighed, "he's gorgeous."

"He's a dick," I snapped. All three of them turned, surprised at my sudden outburst. I felt my cheeks flush.

"So, do you have a boyfriend back home?" Kate asked, turning towards me.

"No."

"So there's potential for a summer fling?" She pressed, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Not really," I shrugged. "I'm not really the fling type."

"Why not?" Kate questioned eagerly.

"Don't mind her," said Beverly before I had the chance to reply. She sent Kate a pointed look. "She's too nosy for her own good."

Kate held her hands up in surrender. "I'm just saying because I could set you up with someone! You're so gorgeous, you'd have the pick of the town!"

"So, do you like it here?" Beverly asked, blatantly ignoring Kate's comment as she changed the topic. I sent her a grateful look.

"I've only been here a day so I've not really looked around much." I admitted. "But the town is gorgeous."

"You should come to the beach with us tomorrow morning, if you're not working." Kate offered.

I shot her a smile. "I've got the morning off, I'd love to!"

As the conversation carried on, a small feeling of warmth spread in my stomach. The past few years had been rough; friendships were never top on my list of priorities. But sitting there with Kate, Beverly and Liam, I felt something I hadn't felt in a long time.

Happy.