Noah's POV

I knew I had seen her somewhere before. Her blonde hair and her curious forest green eyes. She was familiar to me but I couldn't piece it together. At least I didn't until I found her that night with her cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk. It hit me hard and I felt incredibly stupid for not realizing it before. She's the girl from Fremont Street.

It made me worry. If I could remember her maybe she has remembered me? Would she be suspicious of me if she knew I was there the same night as her? Is she looking for the person who stole her money? Or was she too drunk to remember anything? All of these questions and many more run through my brain. I don't want her to recognize me and to keep her from recognizing me I'll avoid her. Like the plague.

...

It was stupid of me to think I could avoid Lei Ballard because it seems like she is everywhere I go. Not that she pays attention to me, she ignores me like I don't live across the hall from her and like I can't hear her sing in the shower each morning. It has been a week since I was introduced to her. We haven't had a single conversation since then. But every single day I see her and every single day I become more interested in her.

I'm walking to the apartment after work, my hands in my pockets and my eyes on the cement. I'm dazing in my thoughts until I realize that a car has been driving next to me. I tense up and my hands clench into fists and I duck down to look at the driver.

Oh

It's Adrian. He waves at me and he gestures for me to get into the car, I open the door and slide into the passenger seat.

"Hello, roommate!" He grins brightly and playfully punches my shoulder.

"Hey."

He looks at me weirdly, knowing there's something wrong. He waits to see if I'll tell him what's going on and when I don't-

"Is everything alright?" he asks me quizzically.

"Yes, everything is absolutely perfect." I over exaggerate and lean my chair back to enjoy my ride home. I thought this would finish our conversation but no. Because Adrian is Adrian and Adrian is nosy.

"You know, I thought you and Lei would hit it off but I haven't seen you guys have a conversation since you drank her milk," he glances over at me, "Is it because she called you a stalker? You know she probably didn't mean it." He pauses waiting for my answer and when I don't, he continues talking.

"Actually she definitely meant it. You should've told her who you were. Instead of being a dumbass and making me do it." He glares at me.

"Wow, you are really boring today. I don't like it." He hits my head and I glare at him.

"I'm sorry, I'm being a jerk. I couldn't stop thinking about my parents today." The lie came out easy and his face immediately softened.

Adrian has always been there for me, especially when I lost my parents. His family took me in and he helped me out. We became brothers and my life was pretty good for a while. So he knows and understands how I feel and why I'm down sometimes.

"I'm sorry man, I'm the jerk. Sometimes I just need to shut up when you don't want to talk." He says solemnly.

"Yeah, you do." He cracks a smile and I grin.

"What do you want to listen to?" I turn on the radio as we both become more relaxed.

"How about some Dan&Shay?" he suggests.

"You're such a girl."

"Am not."

...

We barely finished listening to "Speechless" which is apparently Adrian's favorite song today and now we have arrived at the apartment. I step out of the car and I turn around to see Adrian is still in the car.

"Are you coming?" I ask through the open window.

"No, man, I have plans." He doesn't look at me as he vaguely comes up with a lie. I know Adrian and I know when he's lying and this is a lie. I could tell by him not making eye contact and the twitch of his fingers against his leg.

"Alright, I'll see you later." I wave and turn around when he has left. I trudge up the stairs to the door and as I grab my keys from my pocket, I can hear music through the door. The song is "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" - Jet. I twist my key and open the door. I walk casually into the living room and stop when I see a dance concert going on in my living room. Well, my shared living room.

Lei is dancing like there's nobody watching. Her hips move side to side and she air guitars in circles with so much energy it's like she was electrocuted. Her blonde hair is wild and she bangs her head along with the beat of the song. The song changes to "Promiscuous" - Nelly Furtado ft. Timbaland and her dancing changes drastically. I feel like I'm committing a sin just watching her. Her booty shorts are not helping either. I feel the urge to touch her and the urge to leave.

I'm surprised she hasn't noticed me yet, I could leave the room right now and she would never know that I sat here watching her.

Like a stalker.

That sounds bad.

But the thought of her thinking I'm a stalker doesn't make me leave. My curiosity of how this conversation will go grows as the seconds pass. Plus maybe I want her to know I was watching her and I don't want her to ignore me. I don't want to ignore her. Especially while she's wearing those shorts.

The song changes again and this one is slow "Talking To The Moon" - Bruno Mars. She relaxes and drops down on the couch, singing the song now and waving her arms to the beat of the song. And I wonder who she thinks about while she's singing.

I surprise myself with what happens next. I walk over to her, she looks up in alarm and scrambles to turn off the music but before she can, I grab her hand. I kiss the back of her hand and she looks up at me with surprise.

"Can I have this dance?" I murmur into her reddening ear. She nods, speechless and she looks at me with wonder, what am I doing? I don't know. I don't know how to slow dance. I never have before. It can't be that hard.

Her arms wrap around my shoulders and my arms rest on her hips. She stares at me and I stare back, we're waiting for the other to do something. The song changes and we're slow dancing to "Halo" - Beyonce. I don't even understand how these songs are on the same playlist.

It's like I'm in a daze and I can't get out of it. This is not supposed to be happening right now. I should not be this close to her, staring into her eyes and with my hands on her waist. I have doomed myself. I should have gone to my room when I could have. I need to go. As much as I would like to stay like this for a couple more hours, I stop swaying side to side.

I step back from her quickly. She frowns at the sudden distance between us but doesn't move towards me. She crosses her hands over her chest like she's suddenly cold and watches me.

"I-" She begins to say something.

"I have to go." I cut her off.

I walk briskly into my room and let the door slam shut behind me before stripping and taking a cold shower.

What the fuck was that, Noah?

...

I couldn't sleep very well that night. My thoughts racing inside of my head never stopped and they never shut up. Everything was very confusing but one thing was clear.

I could not avoid or ignore Lei Ballard.

Since my first plan of action didn't work it's time for a new one. I will act like a normal human being around Lei if I get laid. Easy peasy. There was no other explanation for why I couldn't be normal around her. It's not like she's stunning she's just sort of cute, maybe pretty. I've been with hotter girls. She's not special.

...

good morning it's 1:14 am and i didn't even realize it past 12.

so ima go to sleep now, gn and comment and all that plz and ty. tell me your thoughts, this wasn't a super "action"y chapter and writing Noah's POV is kinda hard. yea goodnight

'til next time, haylizzle