Lei's POV

"Are you kidding me? I absolutely love the book A Cold Trail! I didn't know you were into mystery, I thought you were more like a romance gal," Noah exclaims and takes a long sip of water while I burn a hole through his head with my stare.

"Don't do that," I lean back in my chair and cross my arms. There's no way I'll let him pretend to not know what the hell I'm talking about even though he clearly knows. All I want is to yell at him asking for real answers. But I'll have to wait to do that.

"Do what?" His green eyes are filled with innocence and I scoff. 

He's not that dumb.

"Pretend to not know what the fuck I'm talking about!" My tone of voice rises by the passing second and I know that I sound like a chipmunk. He jumps slightly at my rising voice and he leans across the table.

"Lei, I don't fucking know what you're talking about, can you please stop attracting attention to us?" He glances around at the people close to our table that have paused their chatter. Of course they want to know what's going on,  people always want to stick their noses in other peoples business.

"Yeah, sure you don't fucking know what I'm talk about," I scoff. Noah leans back and we stare at each other. My fingers tap against my arm and the waitress comes back with waters for us. Noah nods his head in thanks and I ignore her.

I fume silently as Noah sips on his water and imagine the different ways I could strangle him right now.  Unfortunately all of my ideas end up needing to have strength.. and I can't remember the last time I did a push up. We sit in silence as we wait for the food. Noah looks happy as a clam and I mutter incoherent insults at whatever irritates me. For example: Noah's face, Noah's hands and Noah.

The waitress returns with our food in hand. She sets down the food and asks us if we need anything else to which I respond with a harsh "no". It was on accident but blame Noah for my rudeness.

I stare at my chicken and I feel nauseous. The smell of the chicken makes me want to puke. The smell of the cigars is getting to my head. A headache pounds at the beat of my heart and I don't want to be here anymore.

Sitting next to a man I honestly don't know, who may or may not steal from innocent people. It's not enjoyable and I can't take it anymore.

"I'm going home," I stand up, my chair screeching against the marble floor. I grab my purse and throw down a $20. "See you at home."

"You're not serious," Noah's incredulous look makes me more agitated than before. I don't say a word. I spin on my heel and walk towards the front. I head Noah's chair screech as he gets up.

"Wait, Lei!"

I don't look back. I walk until I get to the concrete sidewalk outside. I start walking down the sidewalk towards home. I pull out my phone to call Adrian to ask for a ride.

"Lei, what the hell are you doing?" Noah covers the distance I've walked in about 5 long steps. He grabs my wrist to turn me around to face him.

"Let me go."

He glances at his hold on my wrist and immediately drops my wrist. I turn around and start walking again. "Wait."

"Let me drive you home."

"I'm going to call Adrian to give me a ride home." I stomp away from him and he continues to follow me.

"Lei, don't you think you're being ridiculous? Jumping to conclusions?" He offers as he easily matches my pace.

I press the call button on Adrian's contact. "Can you please shut up? I'm on the phone."

Noah rolls his eyes at me and I resist from throwing my phone at him. The phone rings in my ear and finally goes to voicemail. I hang up the phone and call the next person, Alexandria.

"Are you sure you don't want me to drive you home? We live at the same apartment, if you get someone else to drive you it will be a waste of money and gas."

"I don't need a common sense lesson. Please just go home, unless you want to come clean." I suggest to him. Noah shakes his head as I pull my phone up to hear the voicemail beep.

I stop walking and Noah stops beside me. Maybe I should just go home with Noah. I don't want to waste someone else's time. Fine, if Spencer doesn't answer then I'll go home with Noah.

I press the call button for Spencer and glare at Noah who looks like he's already won with his stupid face. I want to slap the smirk off of his face and I want answers, but I guess we don't always get what we want.

"Hey, babes."

I smirk at Noah as I respond to Spencer, "Hey, Spence, Can you pick me up?"

"What happened to the date with Noah?"

"How do you know- never mind. Can you just pick me up?"

"Sure, just send me your location. Be there soon."

"Bye, I love you."

"I love you, too, Lei."

With that I end the call and look triumphantly at Noah. He runs a hand down his face and shakes his head.

"Okay. You can leave, I have a ride." I look down at my phone to send my location to Spencer. Noah sighs but turns to leave. With his shoulders hunched over and his slow walk I feel guilty. But I shouldn't, he's lying to me. When he feels like telling me the truth, then he can talk to me.

"Come talk to me when you want to tell me the truth." I shout at his receding back.

"I am telling the truth!" He shouts back without turning around.

Bullshit.

...

Spencer's yellow minivan shows up 10 minutes later and I sigh in relief. The evening air was beginning to get to me because I didn't bring a jacket, like the smart college student I am. I slide into the passenger seat and give Noah a hug.

"Hey," Spencer gives me a winning smile and puts the car into drive.

"So clearly the date didn't go well."

I laugh at his immediate concern about the date. He lifts his eyebrows at me, "No, it didn't go well. Can I sleep at your place tonight?"

"Of course you can! Sleepover time!" He pumps his fist in the air and an easy smile slips onto my face.

"Just so you know, later you are going to spill. Obviously Noah did something wrong and if he hurt you then I'm going to have to get violent. Even though I don't want to, Noah can probably beat me in a fight. But for you, I'll sacrifice myself for one punch at his nose."

"Thanks Spencer. You're the best friend a girl could ask for." He pats my head as he pulls into a parking space next to his apartment.

"I know." He replies cheekily and gets out of the car and I follow suit. We walk to the door of his apartment and he unlocks the door. I enter the cozy apartment, he decorated his apartment with beige, light yellow and cream. I love it so much.

"You have the best decorated apartment ever." I tell him as I walk to his couch and jump on it.

"Thank you, I take pride in the aesthetic," He sits down on the couch next to me. I stare at the dark TV screen.

Am I jumping to conclusions? Maybe I should have gone home with Noah? Am I wrong? Is Noah telling me the truth?

"Lei!" Spencer shakes me out of my deep thinking and I smack his arm.

"What?!" He rolls his eyes at my impatience and I roll mine right back.

"Do you want to have a Harry Potter marathon or not? God you are so grouchy, when is the last time you got some?" Spencer lifts one eyebrow and I smack his arm again.

"Let's not talk about that and instead we can watch Emma Watson kiss Rupert Grint. You can even imagine you're Rupert Grint," I smile at him and he stands up to grab the DVD's from his room.

Buzz Buzz Buzz

Spencer's phone buzzes with a facetime call and I lean over to read the name.

"SPENCER! WHY IS EMMA WATSON FACETIMING YOU!?" I dash to his room and he looks at me with a look of a deer caught in headlights.

"Well remember when I interrupted you and Noah? Yeah, that's what I was going to tell you about," He gives me a small smile.

"WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN? HOW ARE YOU NOT FREAKING OUT? HOW DID IT HAPPEN," I shout and jump up and down on his clean bed. It's okay I'll clean it for him later.

"You're not mad that I didn't tell you before?" He asks hesitant and I shake my head vigorously. A smile breaks across his face and he joins me jumping on the bed.

"Okay so like a month ago- "

"A MONTH AGO?" I interrupt him and he glares at me while jumping.

"Do you want to know the story or not?"

"Sorry." I apologize for my behavior and he begins his story again.

"I got a dm-"

"FROM EMMA WATSON!?"

Spencer glares at me again and I smile sheepishly. I can't help but feel giddy for my best friend. I can't believe he could keep this from me for this long.

Thank goodness for the distractions

I didn't have another thought about Noah for the rest of the night.

...
i suck, ik, i'm sorry. but here's an update:) the good stuff will b happening soon.

pls tell me if anything is spelt wrong anything like dat etc :)

I WANNA THANK EVERYONE WHO READS, VOTES AND COMMENTS! YALL ARE THE BEST! n dats on period .

i wanna tell y'all again I won 3rd Place in the Paper Awards and i'm so honored, it's an amazing feeling. hopefully i'll be winning more awards soon 😤🙌🏻🤝
anyways
til next time, haylizzle