As soon as Noah dropped me off, I collapsed onto my bed.

It had been two hours since the whole teach me what love is debacle and no matter what I'd tried to get the whole thing brushed off as a joke, it was unsuccessful. Honestly, I blamed myself, really. The moment I made that TED talk joke, I should have known the universe would make sure that it, in some way, backfired on me.

I also blamed the fact that I was physically incapable of backing down from a challenge, and Noah Archer was proving himself to be the biggest challenge of my life.

Groaning loudly into my pillow for several extra-long seconds, it took all of my strength to get off the bed and put my very-dead phone to charge, grabbing my laptop. As soon as I flipped open the screen, there were constant beeping sounds as the influx of messages and notifications filled the screen.

185 new messages.

Of course. It's not like I could be that surprised, really. While I'd been getting myself into even deeper trouble with Noah, our BFF messenger group had been taken over by Melissa and Lily.

I scrolled through the messages, attempting to catch up, rolling my eyes every few seconds.

Mel

They sure be taking their sweet sweet time

Mel

Wonder what other sweet sweet things they be doin👀

Lily

MEL OMG u know Sky would never

Mel

i mean technically she would

Mel

idk why tho

Mel

dicks are so uncomfortably weird

Mel

don't even get me started on balls

Mel

like why are they just dangling there

Lily

HAHAHAH MEL

Mel

what you know it's true

Mel

why anyone would choose that over gorgeous gorgeous girls is beyond me

Lily

because pretty pretty boys!!!

Mel

🙄

Lily

speaking of gorgeous gorgeous girls tho

Lily

our gorgeous girl went offline on the friend finder app 🤔

Mel

hmmmmm

Mel

wait

Mel

what if

Mel

she was murdered and dumped in the desert

Lily

omg lol

Lily

someone's been binging bailey's videos again

Mel

can you blame me

Mel

my queen ❤️

Mel

srsly tho you think we should be worried

Lily

nah knowing Noah i'm sure he'll take good care of her 🤭

Mel

oh

Mel

right

Mel

forgot you dated him too

Lily

ohhhhhh yessss for the most amazing two weeks

Lily

im sure she's having the best time

Lily

Mel? you here?

Mel

yeah sorry just busy

Mel

i'm sure you're right

Lily

okay...

And then crickets.

Not literally, but the chat suddenly going quiet sure made the sound of crickets easy to visualize. I ran my palm across my face, mentally apologizing to Melissa for Lily's total obliviousness. It also seemed that Melissa wasn't completely over Lily, even though I thought the distance might help. Maybe I should make it my mission to be her wingwoman this year, after this whole dating Noah fiasco was over.

My stomach tied itself into knots against my will, memories from today resurfacing for a moment before I pushed them all the way down. Nope. Not thinking about that.

I typed out a message to the girls to rid my mind of unnecessary thoughts.

Sky

yes i was murdered

Sky

this is Sky's ghost speaking

Mel

omg sky go back to 2005 with that joke

Sky

uhhh I was like 1 year old then

Mel

exactly my point 🤡

Lily

Skyyyy how was it?

Lily

where did u go?

Lily

did u have fun?

Sky

yeah it was pretty cool

Sky

took me to his family's botanical garden

Lily

wtf they have a botanical garden???????

Mel

ohhhh

Mel

so he RICH rich 🤑

Mel

geeeeeet it girl

Rolling my eyes, I ignored what Melissa wrote, but Lily's words put a frown on my face. I'd assumed he'd taken her there too. The garden seemed like a prime location for dating. 

Sky

wait he didn't take you there Lil?

Sky

i thought that was his prime date spot

Lily

I mean idk maybe it is

Lily

but he didn't take me there

Sky

well you didn't miss out on much

Oh, the lies I tell. Then again, knowing Lily genuinely liked Noah before dating him made me feel almost guilty that he took me to such a personal site instead of her. Honestly, I was already starting to feel enough guilt about this whole bad decision of mine. Despite that though, there was a part of me that was quietly elated knowing he didn't just take everyone there.

Mel

idk you were out preeeeetty late👀

Sky

yeah thanks mom

Mel

😘😘😘

Lily

cheesus sky, just let yourself have fun

Lily

you hate the guy for no reason

Mel

PREACH

Sky

is this an intervention

Lily

come on sky

Lily

ur always like

Lily

'omg he took me to a perfect stargazing date.... ew!!! how dare he, so cliche!!'

Lily

it's like ur forcing urself to hate him

Lily

like am I wrong???

Sky

you're... not wrong

Lily

yeah see

Lily

it's ur senior year

Lily

why not just let go and enjoy urself

Sky

idk i'm afraid its too late for that

Mel

i'd just like it to be noted

Mel

that I've been against this from the start

Lily

not helping mel

Mel

ik it just needed to be said 💁‍♀️

Sky

i think i should just sleep on this

Sky

thanks for worrying about me tho

Sky

and being here for me

Sky

love you both, gnight!

I quickly typed out the last few messages and exhaled as I left the chat. They were right, I was already aware of that. The uncomfortable feeling when thinking of what I was doing wasn't going anywhere, in fact, the more time I spent with him the worse it got. Even reminding myself why I was doing this didn't exactly work anymore. It was hard to convince myself this was justified when he kept being the perfect boyfriend. Or at least, he was acting like one in a very convincing way.

Letting out a sigh, I unlocked my phone and scrolled through Noah's messages. If someone just superficially looked at how we communicated to each other, without context, I would definitely be seen as a witch with a capital B. Groaning I was about to just ditch my phone and go to sleep when a new text message popped up in the conversation.

One he had just sent.

Okay, that was it. There was no way this guy wasn't psychic or something. Despite everything so far, a strong part of me still struggled to believe he was just an ordinary human. A tiny part inside of me echoed that he was far from ordinary and made that clear from the start.

Jerkface

Thanks for coming with me today.

Jerkface

I had a lot of fun with you, Skyler.

I swallowed hard and stared at the text as if it had wronged me for existing. Because I knew I couldn't be rude when he was this nice.

Sky

Me too, I had fun today

After writing back I paused, and bit down on my lip. Since I now knew he didn't bring Lily on a date to the garden it made me wonder if this was another one of the firsts. And if it was, it felt wrong to just leave it at that.

Sky

I loved the garden, it's beautiful

Sky

and thank you for trusting me with stuff about your family with me

Jerkface

yeah...

Jerkface

for some reason you make me want to tell you everything

Jerkface

wonder why that is

Sky

it's just my irresistable charm

Jerkface

or maybe it's your weird mind mojo

Sky

hey now!!

Sky

that's you, not me

Jerkface

😂😂😂

Jerkface

not from where i'm standing

Sky

then stand somewhere else 😒

Jerkface

hmmm

Jerkface

only if I can stand next to you 😉

When did my room get this hot?

Warmth spread through my whole body, a knot in my throat that was hard to swallow. Was he flirting with me? This was definitely flirting. My mouth felt dry. I had no idea what to say to that. So, naturally, I said something dumb.

Sky

didn't you stand next to me enough today already

Jerkface

no

Jerkface

not nearly enough

Jerkface

not even close

Oh my gosh, I needed to stop texting him now before my face ended up combusting into flames. It sure felt hot enough for that already.

Sky

i'll take that under consideration

Jerkface

damn I feel like I just won something

Sky

what does that mean

Jerkface

usually you;d tell me to stand as far away from you as possible

Jerkface

preferably on the moon

Jerkface

so that's some serious progress right there

Sky

Shut up just go to sleep already

Jerkface

sweet dreams to you too babe ❤️

This was trouble. Noah was trouble. And I was definitely in trouble.

I knew I was in trouble without a shadow of a doubt, because seeing his name saved as Jerkface on my phone suddenly bothered me. It felt wrong.

Before I could actually think things through, my fingers went into the contacts of my phone and erased what I'd saved him as.

The change was instant, the text message thread on my phone showing a different name.

Noah.

Staring at it made me annoyingly happy. Shit.

In frustration, I basically slammed my phone onto my bedside table and rolled onto my stomach. Burying my overly warm face onto some cold pillows felt nice and within minutes I was lost in sweet dreams.

Of a boy with ocean eyes. 

Hi lovelies! ❤️

FINALLY a new TWTFIL chapter has arriveeeeed! I'm so so so sorry for the wait!

This chapter had a lot of text exchanges, and finally a three way convo (sort of) between the three besties. When I finish the book I might do an extra of the three of them because they're such a fun group in my head.

HOW DID YOU LIKE THE CHAPTER?

I hope it was an enjoyable read especially since you waited so long. 😔 (so sorry, again)

My last few months have been difficult difficult lemon difficult on absolutely all fronts and my work has been through the roof, but things are getting better now! I'm doing my best to write as much as possible each week and hope to be able to fulfill my goal of finishing Two Weeks to Fall in Love by my birthday (which is 10th of March).

ANYHOOT. I HOPE YOUR 2022 HAS BEEN GOOD???

Love you all, stay stong, stay safe!