I wasn't going to reply. I promised myself that I wasn't. No siree. Made a solemn oath that I was going to leave that man on seen today.

And yet, when I woke up and saw three text messages from Noah, I fumbled with my phone and had it land directly on my face.

"Ouch," I whined, rubbing my nose as I sat up, finally unlocking the screen.

The first message he sent was from last night, after I'd already fallen asleep, and the remaining two were from this morning.

My heart did an uncomfortable little squeeze and without even thinking I started typing out a response.

And then, deleted it before I could press send.

Nope. I wasn't going to reply. Yesterday was my wake up call. The moment I realized that I had played to his tune way too much the past few days. It was time I changed up the melody.

Jumping out of bed with renewed energy, I hummed to myself as I picked out my comfy outfit of the day. Turns out, I didn't even need coffee. Being the Petty Queen and leaving Noah on read gave me enough energy to start the day on the right note.

I sat down at my desk and flipped open a notebook I used to write out some ideas and thoughts. It wasn't exactly a journal, more like a random collection of whatever I felt like writing down. Today, that random something was going to be Noah.

For starters, I had to figure out where it all went wrong. So, I started simple. I wrote down two columns, one titled Goals and the other Execution.

And then everything came pouring out.

Goal: Exposing Noah as a cruel heartbreaker that plays with girls emotions

Execution: Lacking evidence that he actually set out to hurt anyone

Goal: Finding our what kind of alien witchcraft mind mojo he uses on girls

Execution: No proof of any supernatural activity, girls just like him for him

Goal: Make him fall in love with me and break his heart so he gets a taste of his medicine

Execution: Failed big time. Changed my mind as soon as I came up with this villain scenario

Goal: Learn what makes him so damn irresistible to every girl in school

Execution: Increasingly afraid figuring that out will end with me being one of those girls

Goal: Teach him what love is (?)

Execution: Would be nice if you actually had the answer to that yourself

The more down the list I went, the more my nice mood from the morning started doing a deep dive. I smacked my head down on the desk and groaned.

No wonder things were a mess right now.

All of my goals sounded more like what a 10 year old would write next to yucky boys are yuck. It was slowly dawning on me that I went into this without any particular goal. I was just angry and sad that I'd lost my best friend and Noah with his dating game seemed like the perfect outlet for my anger.

He'd always annoyed me, like an annoying mosquito that kept showing up in my orbit. He was carefree and so true to himself and even though he dated so many girls, I never saw a single one trash talk him, at least publicly. It was weird. But that was it. A weird, annoying dude everyone wanted to date for some mysterious reason.

Until Lily. Until she told me he broke up with her the same day that she told me she was leaving. And then everything changed. Annoyance became more than that. I was singularly focused on finding a flaw in this guy and exposing him, when I had no proof there even was anything to expose.

And now I was in this mess. Lost. And confused. And unsure of what I was even doing anymore. With both of my best friends telling me to just let go of my anger and enjoy my time with him, as limited as it is.

But, how do I do that? How do people just let go?

Knocking coming from my door made me raise my head and turn, just in time to see my Mom walk in, her lips forming a surprised O when she was me sitting at the desk.

"Oh, I thought you were still asleep." She said, seeming almost disappointed that she couldn't scold me.

"Nope, I'm up, very up."

Mom raised a suspicious eyebrow and chuckled. "Alright Ms. Very-Up. You didn't want any breakfast?"

"Wasn't that hungry." I lied. I'd just gotten carried away and forgot about my stomach until she'd asked the question. Now that I was thinking about it, I was practically starving. "I'll come get some cereal."

"Okay darling, but don't eat too much. Lunch is in two hours."

I nodded and smiled back at her, before she turned around and left. Leaving the door of my room open. A clear sign that she wanted me to get the cereal now.

Sighing, I stood up and was about to leave when my phone chimed.

My fingers twitched again. The desire to just reply flaring up to the surface again. Good thing I was going to give my fingers something else to do - shuffle cereal into my mouth.

I left my phone face down on the desk and went downstairs.

Somehow, I managed to avoid checking my phone for the next few hours. Determined to finish my romance book today, I sprawled down on the couch after lunch. My Mom said she had some errands to run and would be back in time to make dinner.

I was almost toward the end of the book when my Mom came back and stared at me in surprise.

"Sky, you haven't moved since I left?"

"Uh, no?" I answered, confused as to why that was a problem.

"It's 5.20 PM, sweetie. Maybe you should check on your homework." Mom raised an eyebrow at me, tapping on her Apple watch.

My eyes widened. Shit. I had no idea it was that late already.

"Uh, I did finish it already, but I'll go check."

Making my way up the stairs my heart started pounding a little harder in excitement. I'd done it. I managed to make it basically the whole day without replying to Noah. Honestly, I wasn't sure I was going to make it for a while there.

I burst through my door and grabbed my phone and sat on my bed. Four new messages.

Chuckling, I unlocked my phone and started reading, my smile slightly fading at the last message, set an hour and 35 minutes ago.

I snorted. There was no way he'd do that. It was just an empty threat to get me to reply to him. As much as I hate to admit it, he already knew how to get a reaction out of me.

He was bluffing. Right? There was absolutely no way. Yeah. I sighed, nodding to myself. I was going to wait another hour and reply to him and tell him he should never play poker because his bluffing needed some serious wor–

The doorbell rang.

I jumped up instantly.

There was no way that was him. Probably just another Jehova's Witness' or a door to door sales man.

There. Was. No. Way.

Or was there? This was Noah Archer after all. The guy that never did what others expected he would.

Shit, if it was him, I needed to get to the door before my Mom and I was wasting precious time.

Stumbling over my own feet, I almost ran into the door with my face. Oh my God, I heard my Mom's footsteps as soon as I left the room. She was close. Too close.

I wasn't going to make it.

Almost tumbling down the stairs, I grabbed hold of the handrail to achieve some sort of balance.

It was too late. My mom's hand was on the door. I didn't even have time to utter a desperate No, before it swung open to reveal a tall mass of brown shaggy hair and blue eyes.

"Hi, Mrs. Fox. Is Skyler home?" An overly familiar voice made my heart drop.

My Mom hearing me breathing heavily behind her turned around, an amused smile on her face. I quickly made my way to the door and stood just a few inches in front of her so that I could glare at him without her seeing.

"Yes, Skyler is here. Why are you here?" I said through gritted teeth, my eyes spelling murder at him.

"Oh, I was in the neighborhood and thought I'd stop by and see if you wanted to hang out," he said with the most charming smile I had ever seen on his face.

"That is what phones are for."

"Oh, mine turned off. I was hoping I could charge it, too," he replied, waving a black screen in my face.

"So," My Mom interrupted. "Won't you introduce us, Sky?"

While I was trying to figure out how I was going to explain this, my brain going into slight meltdown mode, Noah had already extended his hand.

"My apologies, that was rude of me. I'm Noah Archer, I'm Skyler's boyfriend."

Wait... what? No. No. No. No! God, please, no. Tell me he did not just say that. Maybe I just imagined that. There was no way.

"Her boyfriend?"

My mom's words made it so painfully clear that I did not, in fact, imagine this that I couldn't hold back a loud gasp.

Heart hammering so hard I felt it pounding in my head, I looked between Noah and my mom a few times, before frantically nodding.

"Yup, that is correct, he is a boy that is my friend." I stammered robotically, trying to find a way out of this nightmare.

"Um, that''s not exactly what I meant-ouch," he started until I stepped on his foot to shut him up.

"Well it's nice to meet your boy friend." Oh God, the look she gave me made it crystal clear that we were going to be having a long talk once he left. "Would you like to stay for dinner, Noah?"

"No," I said.

"Yes," Noah said at the same time.

I glared at him. He grinned.

"I'd love to stay for dinner, Mrs Fox."

"Oh I'm not that old, please call me Serena." Mom smiled and opened the door wider for him. "Come in dear."

"Thank you so much, Serena," he said, and walked into the house, throwing me a wink as he passed by me.

This was happening.

This was actually happening.

Noah Archer was in my house. Noah Archer was going to have dinner with me and my mom.

And Noah Archer was, most definitely, going to give me a damn heart attack by the end of today. 

Hiiii you lovely person, you! ❤️

So the new chapter is here - at long last. DID YOU LIKE THIS CHAPTER?

Are you excited for future chapters? 

I certainly am, because pheeeew, there's a lot coming. I think we're at the mid-book mark now, so stuff is definitely going to be interesting moving forward. 

Also, hopefully I can get to the point where I can post at least a chapter a week now. That's kind of my promise/hope for myself. Now that I started my new job, I'm trying to absorb everything information wise (which, there is a lot cause I've never worked as a technical writer) BUT now that I'm starting to be a more settled in, hopefully that means more writing time for yours truly. ❤️ 

All, in all, my hope is to finish this by end of April now. Which, while ambitious, is doable if I stick to my promise to myself to write at least 2-3 chapters per week. Send me some positive vibes, loves. 😂

Thank you so much for your support and your patience, I literally cannot thank you all enough for being so absolutely wonderful and taking time out of your day to read my lil' book. Recently I struggle getting back to all comments, but I promise if I didn't reply to your comments I WILL get back to everything eventually as it always makes me smile so much when I read your comments. ❤️

I promise to try and be a better writer and update waaaay more regularly. Pls don't hate me.

I love you! Stay strong, stay safe! ❤️